Proverbs Devotional 10.1.20

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 1

Reflect:

October brings us to the last month of our time in the book of Proverbs. Ten months! Let me congratulate you on this achievement. Well done!

For October, I’d like you to simply read slowly through the entire proverb each day. Think about the verses that have stood out to you over this year, the things God has spoken to you about, and the wisdom that was revealed to you. Use this time as a summary review of our time together over the last nine months.

As you read the Proverbs, you’ll notice that they are comprised of different translations. My hope is that doing this will help you to read Proverbs afresh. Following the reading is a short prayer that sums up the proverb. God Bless!

Proverbs 1 (NLT)
¹ These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Is­rael.
² Their pur­pose is to teach peo­ple wis­dom and dis­ci­pline,
to help them un­der­stand the in­sights of the wise.
³ Their pur­pose is to teach peo­ple to live dis­ci­plined and suc­cess­ful lives,
to help them do what is right, just, and fair.
⁴ These proverbs will give in­sight to the sim­ple,
knowl­edge and dis­cern­ment to the young.
⁵ Let the wise lis­ten to these proverbs and be­come even wiser.
Let those with un­der­stand­ing re­ceive guid­ance
⁶ by ex­plor­ing the mean­ing in these proverbs and para­bles,
the words of the wise and their rid­dles.
⁷ Fear of the Lord is the foun­da­tion of true knowl­edge,
but fools de­spise wis­dom and dis­ci­pline.

⁸ My child, a lis­ten when your fa­ther cor­rects you.
Don’t ne­glect your mother’s in­struc­tion.
⁹ What you learn from them will crown you with grace
and be a chain of honor around your neck.

¹⁰ My child, if sin­ners en­tice you,
turn your back on them!
¹¹ They may say, “Come and join us.
Let’s hide and kill some­one!
Just for fun, let’s am­bush the in­no­cent!
¹² Let’s swal­low them alive, like the grave;
let’s swal­low them whole, like those who godown to the pit of death.
¹³ Think of the great things we’ll get!
We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take.
¹⁴ Come, throw in your lot with us;
we’ll all share the loot.”

¹⁵ My child, don’t go along with them!
Stay far away from their paths.
¹⁶ They rush to com­mit evil deeds.
They hurry to com­mit mur­der.
¹⁷ If a bird sees a trap being set,
it knows to stay away.
¹⁸ But these peo­ple set an am­bush for them­selves;
they are try­ing to get them­selves killed.
¹⁹ Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money;
it robs them of life.

²⁰ Wis­dom shouts in the streets.
She cries out in the pub­lic square.
²¹ She calls to the crowds along the main street,
to those gath­ered in front of the city gate:
²² “How long, you sim­ple­tons,
will you in­sist on being sim­ple­minded?
How long will you mock­ers rel­ish your mock­ing?
How long will you fools hate knowl­edge?
²³ Come and lis­ten to my coun­sel.
I’ll share my heart with you
and make you wise.

²⁴ “I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come.
I reached out to you, but you paid no at­ten­tion.
²⁵ You ig­nored my ad­vice
and re­jected the cor­rec­tion I of­fered.
²⁶ So I will laugh when you are in trou­ble!
I will mock you when dis­as­ter over­takes you—
²⁷ when calamity over­takes you like a storm,
when dis­as­ter en­gulfs you like a cy­clone,
and an­guish and dis­tress over­whelm you.

²⁸ “When they cry for help, I will not an­swer.
Though they anx­iously search for me, they will not find me.
²⁹ For they hated knowl­edge
and chose not to fear the Lord.
³⁰ They re­jected my ad­vice
and paid no at­ten­tion when I cor­rected them.
³¹ There­fore, they must eat the bit­ter fruit of liv­ing their own way,
chok­ing on their own schemes.
³² For sim­ple­tons turn away from me—to death.
Fools are de­stroyed by their own com­pla­cency.
³³ But all who lis­ten to me will live in peace,
un­trou­bled by fear of harm.” (NLT)

Respond:

“Father, help us realize that wisdom is a by-product of our relationship with You, and that it is a heart issue, not a head issue. Your wisdom often takes us 180 degrees in the opposite direction of our natural inclinations. Help us to keep our hearts close to You so our minds might be rooted in wisdom and our actions might bring honor to You. Amen.” (Max Anders)

 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 16:18