November 15: Proverbs 22 29
Key Verse: Proverbs 22 29
Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before unknown men.
Devotion:
Being diligent in business means being careful and making sure what you are doing is right and being applied in the right manner. If you want to be able to succeed in business, you should always try to make sure what you are doing is right; it all seems to make sense. But if you bend the rules and start to try and take short cuts, those short cuts will soon catch up with you and lay a trap for you to fall back into.
Then you take a step back and you think about how this applies in your own life, in your personal business... If you are not going to be diligent in your own personal life, then how are you going to be sure that you are not laying traps for yourself? If we are not going to be careful and make sure we make the right choices in our lives, then we very quickly lose hope of being able to stand before The King, before God! If we are not going to be diligent enough to ask Jesus into our lives to guide our every step, then we are not doing what is best for our own personal business. We are not doing what is best for us.
When a business starts to get into trouble, some professionals may turn round to the nearest loan shark to try and support them for a short span, thinking that all will be well in a few weeks’ time. But after those weeks, they begin to find what they have is a “bag of spanners” and it all goes down the tubes.
To avoid ourselves going down the tubes, we have to avoid those quick fixes in our personal lives and ask God to help and support us as only He can. Then we have to listen to that advice and act on it.
Points to Ponder:
Would you go down a dark alley to read a map?
Are you listening to God’s advice?
November 14: Colossians 3 8-11
Key Verse: Colossians 3 8
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
Devotion:
When you get tied up in a action packed film, or in a heated conversation, you often let you guard down and allow you mind to wander so you can become more involved in the action. When this happens, feelings you have kept down for a while start to surface... anger, wrath, malice... which allow you to get more and more involved in the action until you suddenly let rip and out some of them come! All because we let our guard down in the beginning.
When we accept God into our lives, we say we are being born again. We are starting out in a new life. We are starting our Christian walk. In doing this we should be trying to put aside all these thoughts and feelings. Now I don't mean that we should sweep them under the carpet, because the more that you sweep under the carpet, the more dirt you are going to find when you try to do the cleaning properly in the end!
If we continue to try to walk alone, we will continue to build up the burdens on our own shoulders, and eventually we are going to buckle and fall to our knees. God wants us to give all those troubles to Him, because He is strong enough to carry all of them. By doing that, we should no longer be burdened by them because we have someone to either carry them for us or to share the load with... and they will no longer be able to drag us down to the depths that they exist within.
It may start by us telling a “white lie” to help someone else out – but that will slowly bring the avalanche down on top of us unless we turn round and give it to the Lord. Only then can we release our pent up emotions and stumbling blocks.
Points to Ponder:
What do you carry round with you?
Is it time to give it to The Lord?
November 13: Psalms 37 7-11
Key Verse: Psalms 37 11
But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Devotion:
So many times in our lives we are witnesses to people who live wicked lives but seem to thrive in those lives as well. Sometimes we see them fall from their position of power and be humbled in some way, but all too often we see them continue to thrive. When we see that, we often have feelings inside of resentment.
Take heed to the words in this passage today. The Lord knows these people exist, and He knows they are not walking with Him, and He knows they seem to look good on the outside. But without those people, how would we be able to see the difference between what good and evil can do. How are we going to see the damage evil can do to the inside of a person rather than just the outside? The more you dig into the lives of these people, the more you will see the evil they have based their world upon!
The Lord's advice is simple. Be patient, and trust in Him. Do not think evil against them. The more you do, the more evil will work inside your heart and the more you will be taken by those evil thoughts.
We see violent and evil films that hit the box office each year. Each one you see can affect you. Your brain takes in the images and keeps them deep inside of you. Those thoughts may yet surface when you least expect them to, when you are under pressure to do something, when you least want them to surface. Our strength must be in Him, in Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Without Him we will not find eternal life. Without Him we are destined to the same death as the evil people of this world, for they will not be around eternally!
Points to Ponder:
Would you build your life on the word of a liar?
Will you build your life on Christ?
November 12: Proverbs 15 1-3
Key Verse: Proverbs 15 3
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Devotion:
At this time when much of the world is trying to uphold the law and stop terrorists, it is hard to think of times when the people out there fighting will not want to use harsh words and brutal force against the enemy. And in our lives we often find it all too hard to resist when people wind us up by teasing us or by saying bad things against us. The first thing we want to do is to retaliate and harm them back in some way.
Have you ever tried taking the other approach and using quiet words to make your side of an argument? Sometimes the best way to diffuse an argument is to put in a few kind words, or just to keep quiet! I can remember back in my school days when our basketball team would win many matches over other teams that were regarded as being very good teams. Yes, the team could play well, but they always kept their cool (hard when the temperature is 30+) and allowed the other team to become angry and upset – hence ruining their own game.
If you were to “engage brain before mouth” each time you got into a situation, I am sure you would find the quickest way out of the situation time after time, and the more you did that, the more it would become second nature to do the right thing before engaging your mouth and spewing out a string of angry words!
“But it's only me against them, nobody else is around!”... Wrong! Read verse 3 again! The Lord is watching over us all the time, waiting patiently for us to acknowledge Him as our Saviour. Waiting patiently for us to open up our hearts to Him. Waiting patiently for us to engage our minds before letting the words of wrath flow out of our mouths. The more you talk down or badly the someone else, the more likely they are to get wound up about what you are saying and the more likely they are to blow a fuse and get back at you.
Points to Ponder:
Are you quick to retaliate with words?
Do you ask God to help you keep your heart in it?
November 11: Proverbs 1 7-10
Key Verse: Proverbs 1 7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Devotion:
So now we start to understand the evil that is on this planet, and we start to see we need to know the truth, and we start to see through the evil people do, and we start to understand we do not know the answers – how do we go about finding them out?
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge”.
We are often taught if we were to go into the bush in Africa that we would immediately be eaten by lions! But the truth is lions have grown up to fear man because of the horrible things man can do. That is a fear which will make the bravest of lions go weak at the knees and run the other way when they can. But this is not the same fear as in this passage. A lion, on the other hand, will not stroll into a city because they know by doing so they are opening themselves up to all sorts of things which will not be good. This is not the same fear as in this passage either.
A man, on the other hand, will not normally go into a police station and tell them he is about to go and commit a crime. But now we are getting closer! The fear of the Lord is the acknowledgement He is our Saviour, He is our creator, He is all powerful, and He is to be respected above all else! The fear of the Lord is the admission of utter respect. The fear of the Lord is the submission to His power. The fear of the Lord is the accepting God is the one and only God and His commandments still stand and we are His servants even though He loves us more than we can imagine! The fear of the Lord is the all-encompassing respect for God as Lord, King, Saviour, everything!
Points to Ponder:
Have you ever been so scared you cried?
Do you really know what God is capable of?