Proverbs Devotional 10.5.20

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 5

Reflect:

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 5 (The Voice)
My son, stay fo­cused; lis­ten to the wis­dom I have gained;
give at­ten­tion to what I have learned about life
² So you may be able to make sen­si­ble judg­ments
and speak with knowl­edge.
³ You see, the lips of a se­duc­tive woman speak honey-sweet words;
they are smooth like oil and en­tic­ing.
⁴ But in the end, she is bit­ter,
turn­ing the stom­ach and rot­ting the soul;
she cuts as deep as a dou­ble-edged sword.
⁵ She leads you down a path that can only end in death;
her steps lead even­tu­ally to the grave.
⁶ She does not travel the road to life and truth.
She fol­lows a wan­der­ing path—
a rocky, pit-filled road that twists and turns—and she doesn’t even know it.
⁷ So, my chil­dren, lis­ten to me.
Do not stray from my ad­vice.
⁸ Stay away from her, far away from her path;
don’t even go near her door
⁹ Un­less you are ready to hand over your rep­u­ta­tion to some­one else,
un­less you want to spend the rest of your years at the mercy of some cruel per­son.
¹⁰ If you do, strangers will help them­selves to your wealth,
and every­thing you have worked hard to ac­quire will end up in some­one else’s hands.
¹¹ Your life will end with groan­ings of re­morse, of op­por­tu­ni­ties missed,
and your flesh and bones will be eaten up with sor­row, re­gret for worth­less ef­forts.
¹² Then you’ll say, “Why did I hate being taught?
Why did I turn my back on cor­rec­tion?
¹³ I dis­re­garded all that my teach­ers said to me;
I turned my ear away from my in­struc­tors!
¹⁴ Now I am on the edge of com­plete and utter ruin
in the midst of the com­mu­nity.”
¹⁵ Here’s what you should do to be sat­is­fied:
go home and drink in the plea­sures of your own cis­tern, your wife;
enjoy the sweet, fresh water that has been there all along, flow­ing from your own well.
¹⁶ Take care. Should your own springs, your body, be freely shared?
Should your streams of water sat­isfy any­one in the streets? Ab­solutely not!
¹⁷ They should be kept pure for you and you alone,
not for shar­ing with strangers.
¹⁸ May your foun­tain, your sex life, be blessed by God;
may you know true joy with the wife of your youth.
¹⁹ She who is lovely as a deer and grace­ful as a doe—
as you drink in her love,
may her breasts sat­isfy you at all times.
²⁰ My son, why get caught up in some other woman
and em­brace the breast of a stranger?
²¹ You see, the Eter­nal sees our ways be­fore Him.
He watches every move we make and knows where those paths lead.
²² The wicked will be snared by their own wrong­do­ing.
Their flaws will tie their own hands, and they will be dragged through life by the cords of their sins.
²³ Be­cause they have no dis­ci­pline, their spir­its die and their bod­ies will soon fol­low;
be­cause they are im­mensely fool­ish, they wan­der lost and con­fused.

Respond:

Father, please protect us from the temptation of short-term sexual pleasure. Help us to see the joy found in marriage. We pray that those who are married “drink from their own fountain” and find fulfillment in the love of their spouse. Please rush to our aid when our minds and hearts are filled with sexual temptation. Father, we resolve to live holy lives before you. Strengthen us to stand firm in You and be faithful in all that You’ve given us. Amen.

 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 24:10