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Proverbs Devotional 2.14.20

By February 14, 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 14

Reflect:

Proverbs 14:2

Whoever lives with integrity fears the Lord,
but the one who is devious in his ways despises him. 

Living with integrity is compared to living as a devious person. When one puts it that way, it seems pretty black and white. One road leads to the fear of the Lord, the other way leads to despising Him. 

Integrity means the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. It has this sense of living or behaving in a specific manner. And here the teacher is telling us what he has been saying all along—Wisdom begins and ends with God. He’s saying God is in charge of the universe, we’re not. The sooner we realize this, the better. 

This is where the problem comes into place. See, the word integrity was used a lot in the 1800s and then lost some of its favor, and only recently has it begun to be used more in the English language. Many industries have started to use the word integrity to describe what they want their employees to embody. For example, the Air Force uses integrity as one of its core values—they say, “Integrity first!” Meaning, doing what’s right when no one is looking. All this is good, but without a firm and rock-solid foundation, integrity can be kind of nebulous, and I’m afraid that when this happens, people will just reject the idea of moral uprightness. To avoid this slippage, we have to understand that the starting point for blessing and wisdom is to recognize that God is God and treat Him with awe and respect He deserves. 

So how do we do this, how do we walk with integrity? It starts with our attitudes. There is an intimate connection between our relationship with God and the way we live and walk in wisdom. By acting in an upright manner, we demonstrate a heart that fears the Lord. To act in a devious way only shows that we think very little of God, and we actually pit our will against His. 

Respond: 

How are you walking – as a person of integrity or a person who is devious? Do you need an attitude adjustment? You can make the necessary adjustments by determining to walk in the fear of the Lord.

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 30:5
Every word of God is flawless;
He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

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