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Proverbs Devotional 2.6.20

By February 6, 2020Daily Devotional

I. Prayer to enter the Lord’s presence:

Be still for a moment. “Lord, I give the day that is now past to you.  It is yours.  I give the day that is to come to you; help me to see where you are working and to join you there.  Speak to me during these moments.  I commit them and myself to you.”

 II. Prayer of Confession:

“Lord, you are faithful to forgive me and cleanse me of my sin when I confess it to you.  I confess my sin(s) of ______________.  Thank you for forgiveness.” (1 John 1:9)

III. Prayer of Thanksgiving:

Choose to be thankful, speak out loud of what God has done.
“Thank you, Father, for _________________.  Fill my heart and my mouth with gratitude throughout this day.”

IV. Scripture Reflection

Read: Proverbs Chapter 6

Reflect:

Proverbs 6:12-15

12 A troublemaker and a villain,
who goes about with a corrupt mouth,
13 who winks maliciously with his eye,
signals with his feet
and motions with his fingers,
14 who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
he always stirs up conflict.
15 Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;
he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy. 

A worthless and wicked man goes around, talking out of both sides of his mouth! “Talking out of both sides of your mouth” is an idiom. Basically, it means saying one thing but meaning a different thing. It’s a form of deception. Sometimes it’s done because a person doesn’t know what to say and doesn’t want to make waves, so they waffle back and forth on a particular issue. Sometimes it’s done out of a desire to self-protect, we don’t want to look bad, and so we say something that doesn’t really communicate what we’re feeling. And other times, it’s done with the explicit purpose of lying and deceiving a person. The latter would be the idea in this passage. What makes it even worse is that the lying is done in a collaborative way, stirring up conflict. We’re warned to stay away from people like this. 

So how do we do that? How do we identify people like this? One way is to look at what comes out of their mouths. Do they constantly stir up trouble, are they a troublemaker, a grumbler, and griper? I’m sure you know someone like this. Every time you are around them, they start to talk about someone, how that person had wronged them, or how they just can’t stand that person. They want to suck you in on their side! But the good news for us is that we don’t have to get sucked in. 

Truth be told, you can learn a lot about the character of a person by paying attention to what comes out of their mouth. Scripture tells us there is a direct connection with our mouth and our heart. “A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.” James even tells us that no one can tame the tongue, and if we’re not careful, it can set a forest to blaze with just a spark. The tongue—our mouth—can corrupt the whole body! 

Respond:

Consider the words you use. What is coming out of your mouth in the course of a day? How do the people around you affect the words that come out of your mouth? What does it show about your character? What is your character teaching about the Gospel? It would behoove us to find out! Ask God to give you the real picture of the real you today. If you don’t like that picture, then stop, repent and determine to change course. 

V. Prayer for others:

Pray specifically for the concerns of your life and the lives of others. 

VI. Prayer of commitment:

Lord God, I commit to love you with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength and with all my mind and to love my neighbor as myself.  Empower me today to love you and others with everything that I am.”  (Luke 10:27)

This Week’s Scripture Memory:

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

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