Sunday Reading: Proverbs 16:1-3
Key Verse: Proverbs 16:1
1 The ordering of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from The LORD.
Devotion:
Not is this just a new day, a new week and a new year, but it is also a chance for us to have a new start. Each new day that God gives us is a chance to get things right once again – we are not bound by our sin nature so why should we give in to it and allow that sin nature to rule our lives? Why not let us try to break the mould that we have made for ourselves and start afresh once again!
The New King James bible translates the first verse as “The intentions of the heart belong to a man, but the answer of the tongue comes from the Lord”. It is one of those statements that does get a bit lost in the translation so needs us to look at it and to meditate on it as well. I have spent a while trying to come up with the right words to say so that we can unravel this together, but the more that I try to come up with the more of a hash I seem to make of the words... and I feel that that is exactly what God is trying to reveal to us here.
We may think that we are able to come up with great philosophical debates and hugely important statements, but if truth be told we do tend to say one thing and mean another; quite often getting ourselves into a right pickle when we try to come up with something intelligent! So being able to take a step back and allow God to guide us in what we do and say is a tremendously important step for each of us to take – to be able to take that one step away from life and from our own imaginations and allow God to take those next few steps for us as we strive to say something important!
When we start to talk we quite often hear a string of words come out that we cannot explain or worse still a string of words that make us cringe and shy away in shame! I have really put my foot in things at times by trying to say things before I have asked for guidance and I have learned the hard way that what I say is not often the right thing! So how am I able to give you these daily devotions? Simply by giving them over to God and allowing Him to give me the words to say to you. Long have I trusted God to do this because I know my English is not as good as it should be – I failed English a couple of times! But when we stop our mouths from opening before our brains are in gear, then turn to God and ask for His guidance, we then find that He is able to guide our mouths just as He did to Moses and many that have gone before us! Trust God and He will give you the right things to say at the right time – it is the only way! He is the only way!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think of yourself as a public speaker?
How often do you give God control before speaking?