Avoiding

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

AVOIDING

Prov 16:6

6 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil.

NIV

This might give thought, as some are persuaded, the by acts of love, mercy, compassion and being faithful to the faith a man would be able to atone for his sins. But if that is the case why did Jesus have to come incarnate? What was the whole purpose of all the prophets declaring the coming of the Messiah, the one who would atone for the sins of mankind? It is inexcusable for any denomination to imply that any person can by any acts of kindness or love atone for sin. It is without question this love and faithfulness is an act of God toward us. God is the only one who can atone for sin, as sin is an offense against him and without his atonement for it, sin brings death. But there is something we can do and that is fear or revere God and in doing so we can avoid evil. Because our hearts are continually inclined toward evil, toward sin of some nature, whether that be of an immoral bend, or toward greed or gossip, or some other self-serving pursuit, or even doubt, by fearing God we have that check within our spirits and find the strength to turn from our wicked ways and lean on God. Seeking his help is the only way we stand a chance to avoid any evil at all. If we think we can avoid it on our own, we have been deceived by the evil one himself. It is only though God can we avoid those traps which entangle us in evil thoughts, words, and deeds. If we say we do not sin in words, thoughts or deeds, we deceive ourselves and call God a liar. There is no righteousness in us because of our own account, but if we fear God, if we revere him, if we give him honor we have taken the steps necessary away from those evil intents. Does that mean we will never sin again? Doubtful, but we are not always bent toward sin by fearing God, we are bent toward him, and thus his atonement covers us, and evil no longer can bring us death, thus we have avoided the effects of evil, we have avoided evil. 

Remain Humble

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

REMAIN HUMBLE

Prov 16:5

5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

NIV

I have done this, or I have done that is the beginning of trouble. It might be easy to fall into the trap of thinking more of ourselves then we ought to. It is especially difficult not thinking highly of ourselves if we are well educated, either making a great deal of money, or having a powerful position, even in the ministry. Whenever we begin any statement with “I have” we are certainly bordering on the edge of having a proud heart. We might be far better off if we were to start our sentences with, “The Lord has allowed me to…” or “The Lord has given me….” Or “By the grace of God, I”. We need to be continually aware that all we have all we do and all we are is because of the power of God at work in our lives. We need to always give him credit for everything we do and have. We need to always give praise to him for every aspect of our lives, for without him we would be left with nothing but our puny self. Yes we are a creation of God, and some would go around professing they are a child of the king and therefore should have the best of everything in this world and they make it the goal of their lives to pursue those things, but could still be prideful. We need to understand the root cause of pride and avoid it at all costs; otherwise there could be punishment in some form or another from the hand of God. That might answer the question, “Does God punish?” It would appear he will punish those who are proud of heart, so we must remain humble. 

His Will

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

HIS WILL

Prov 16:4

4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends — even the wicked for a day of disaster.

NIV

First before there was anything there was God and we need to know and understand that he is the sovereign of all. He is more powerful and any other being the one who created all things, including man. Some would say that God created evil, but that is not case. He did, however, create man with the power to choose to rebel against him, to fight against him, to in fact do evil. We can see that God was extremely saddened when mankind had turned from him, rebelled against him and their hearts were inclined to evil, so he decided to destroy all of them save Noah and his family. But even the those who rebel against him, who do evil, who refuse to have God rule over them, will be used for his glory in the end. He did not predestined them to be evil, but he will still be glorified when he judges their deeds, as he will be the one who decides they will see disaster for their evil deeds. They may not glorify him in their lives, but at the end they will bring glory upon him. He is the Lord God, who will always and forever have all the glory and honor because of everything, all the good deeds by those who love him, worship him, honor, him, serve him and proclaim him as their lord and master, as well as by all those who rebel against him. In the end, there will still be God and his will shall be done. 

Success

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

SUCCESS

Prov 16:3

3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

NIV

At first sight this might seem to imply that if we commit our plans to God he will make sure they are successful. This of course might give the impression that he is there waiting as a genie in the bottle to make our plans successful. The key to the truth in this saying lies in the word commit. The original language implies to roll over, so then we would have to roll over our plans to the Lord, which is to transfer them from us to him. When we give God all our burdens and cares, when we spend that time with him transferring all our doings, our work, our life to him, then we hear from him and understand the way we should go, thus we will be successful in our journey, our life. We surely must understand this successful journey has nothing to do with the gathering of material wealth, but the gathering of spiritual worth. It might be that in his divine will we gain much material wealth as well, but its benefit might better service the kingdom then be spent of self-gratification. It is clear that before we begin, while we are doing, and even at the end of any endeavor we should look to the divine influence upon our hearts to have success. If we plan and do anything in the human will alone, without the divine influence of God, surely our life will have been a miserable failure. If we commit everything to God, the journey of our life will be a great success. 

Checkup From The Neck Up

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

CHECKUP FROM THE NECK UP

Prov 16:2

2 All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.

NIV

We might think we are doing the right next thing, but it may not be with the right motive. We make all sorts of plans for our life, and those of us who profess our faith in Jesus Christ are supposed to make our plans based on his will for our lives. Many of us might even say that is exactly what we are doing. We might even say that the Lord has laid this action on our heart and this way we are traveling in life has been directed by him. But if our motives have the slightly degree of self, perhaps we should rethink and spend more time with God to find the true right next thing. That is not to say all of us believers have wrong motives. Many of us are doing what God desires us to do solely with a motive to please him, bringing honor and glory to his name and doing whatever benefits the his kingdom.  The point here in this saying is that we need to acknowledge we might well think our motives are innocent enough, but it is God who truly knows why we do what we do, so we should be very sure we make sure we check with him, allowing the Holy Spirit to search our hearts to see if there is any wrong motives within. We need to allow God to give us a checkup from the neck up. 

Plans

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

PLANS

Prov 16:1

To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.

NIV

To us is given the free will to desire anything we can think of. Within each of us is the capacity to plan for all sorts of things. Many of our plans might well be for, what we think to be for our good, but in actuality those plans may not be for our good, nor will they bring glory to God. The Psalmist tells us that if we delight in the Lord he will give us the desires of our heart, and also tells us that God will fulfill the desires of those who fear him. In Addition we are told if we live by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. It is up to us what we plan, whether it is to gratify our sinful nature or to delight in the Lord and have him fulfill our desires. We might even come to him with our plans that we have schemed to benefit ourselves, but the answer to our petition is absolutely his. If we Love God with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength then we are extremely content to have his answer no matter what it is, yes or no. If our plans are not for our good, it is far better to accept his answer then reject it. If our plans do not bring glory to God then our plans are useless and have no value and bringing them to God should result in his rejecting them. However, if our plans are for our good, as he sees it, and they will bring honor and glory to him, we should be assured his answer will be yes. The whole point here is that all our plans have to be brought to God. We cannot go about our lives, making plans, buying and selling as if we are living alone. We are told quite plainly through James, “Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” All our plans need to be brought to God and all our plans need his answer before we do anything. 

Fear, Learn, Be Humble

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

FEAR, LEARN, BE HUMBLE

Prov 15:33

33 The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

NIV

It is really possible the fear of the Lord teaches us wisdom or that wisdom teaches us the fear of the Lord as the original language could be read both ways. Yet it is right to say that the fear of the Lord does teach a man to be wise, and this is most likely the meaning here. It would surely make sense that if a person does not fear, or reverence the Lord that person would not be wise, but instead would be extremely foolish. We already know that Solomon said that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and one of the Psalms says exactly the same words. When we fear or revere the Lord we spend energies learning his precepts and thus we gain the wisdom of God. When we spend our energy learning the precepts of man, we are only left with the precepts of man, which has no wisdom at all, but when we learn the precepts of God we are enhanced with divine wisdom, which is so far above any man’s attempts at wisdom that it cannot even be compared. Who in their right mind would refuse such wisdom? Yet is appears many are not in their right mind, thus they are in their wrong or own mind and apparently fools, living only in what they think is the wisdom of man. We also must blend this wisdom from God with humility. If we go around claiming to have the wisdom of God, prideful and boasting about how much Godly wisdom we have, then we have lost all the truth here. The person who does learn the wisdom of God will also accept it humbly knowing it is not of self, but from God. There is no honor at all in pride, not an ounce of honor would be given to one who boasts and brags about his own accomplishments, and learning wisdom from God isn't even an accomplishment as  it is a gift. So let us fear God, learn his wisdom in humility.