Overview of: ProverbsToday's Reading:
Proverbs 1 – 3
Focus Verses: Proverbs 3:3-7
3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.
Insight:
Attaining wisdom requires a reverence for God, a humble attitude, a readiness to listen, a desire to learn, an urgency to seek, and a faith in God. Those who want to find the best path for their lives--the path that is stable, straight, and true--must acknowledge God. They must recognize and lean on God's knowledge and understanding rather than trusting in their own.
Response and Action:
I recognize that the world is too complex for me to figure out on my own. I know that I need more than my own knowledge and understanding to navigate my way through life. In every area of life--in all my ways--I will acknowledge my need for direction and insight from God. I will pray. I will read the Bible. I will give careful consideration to the choices, directions, and actions I take, and hold them up to the counsel of Scripture. Because I desire to be wise and discerning, I will cultivate my reverence for God, I will humble myself, I will make every effort to seek wisdom and truth, and I will live in community with others who love God and seek wisdom.
O God, fill me with the knowledge of your will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding in order that I might live a life worthy of Jesus and please him in every way. Help me to bear fruit in every good work, to grow in the knowledge of the Christ, and to be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. By his power and glory, give me great endurance and patience. And help me to joyfully give thanks to you, O Father, as you have qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. You have rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of the Son you love--the Son in whom I have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. It's in his name that I pray. Amen.
(Based on Colossians 1:9-14)
New Testament for Today: James 3:17-18
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
In Context: James 3:13-18
Recommended Reading:
The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God
Dallas Willard
