Monday 21 Aug 2017

August 21: Proverbs 11:9-11

Key Verse: Proverbs 11:9
With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbours, but through knowledge the righteous escape.

Devotion:
We all like the judge people by whatever comes out of their mouths but we cannot always get it right. If a person wants to deceive you, they will go about it in such a manner as to conceal the truth from you and convince you of the lie. It will only be when the truth comes out that we find out the deceit and the lies; by then it may well be too late as we have already launched into retaliation or broken down friendships before waiting for the truth!

God has been warning us for a long time that we will sin, we will lie, we will do bad things and we have to try and work against this. He knows who is behind this all and has warned us against siding with Satan too – but still we get caught up in the emotive side of things and don’t always think about our words or actions.

The wrong words and actions are going to hurt the people around us, quite often the people we least want to hurt too. We don’t think things through and we race ahead blurting out anything we think sounds good at the time… but when things backfire and we hurt the people we care about it is all too late! Does this mean we are Godless because we cannot hold our mouths? Certainly not – but the evil one is the one who has taught us those ways and encourages the breakdown whereas God is trying to build up the church and the community!

When people all gather together and start sharing the truth, start sharing the love and respect for each other, the whole area begins to thrive as people enjoy working together. The few then who continue to try and spread gossip or lies will find themselves being separated because of their gossip; they lose themselves in their own deceit! But the more we work together with God, the more we find we have in common and enjoy our lives together in a way Jesus tries to teach us!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you gossip?

Have you ever heard God gossip about you?