Pastor Derek’s

Devotional Journal 

 

Day 6 – Staying on the right path

Scripture: Proverbs 2:10-22 NLT

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.  ¹¹ Wise choices will watch over you.  Understanding will keep you safe.

 ¹² Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted.  ¹³These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths.
 ¹⁴They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.
 ¹⁵Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong.

 ¹⁶ Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.  ¹⁷She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God.  ¹⁸Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to the grave.  ¹⁹The man who visits her is doomed.  He will never reach the paths of life.

 ²⁰ Follow the steps of good men instead, and stay on the paths of the righteous.  ²¹For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.  ²²But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted.

 

What is the writer saying?

When we seek after wisdom, when we gain understanding that enables us to skillfully apply knowledge to every day life situations, we are able then to make wise choices.  Our understanding will keep us from calamitous choices and will keep us safe.

This wisdom will also keep us from the schemes of those who manipulate and mislead others with words of enticement.  These kinds of people deliberately choose the wrong over the right.  They brag about their evil deeds and really enjoy doing wrong things.  They are wicked to the core.

Wisdom will also protect you from the tempting words of the promiscuous, and from their seduction.  These people have abandoned their husband or wife and have deliberately ignored their marriage covenant made before God.  Choosing to give in to this kind of seduction leads to destroyed lives and an early grave.  Those who live this way seal their fate and will never achieve the abundant life God desires us to have.

Rather, we are to model our lives after those who choose to life clean (righteous) and godly lives.  In the end, only those who are godly and who value integrity will succeed.  The wicked will ultimately lose out.

How does this apply to my life?

As I consider my life and the years that have seemingly passed in the blink of an eye, I realize that the times of greatest joy were times when I acted wisely and made good choices that were centered in my understanding of God’s will for me.  On the other hand, the times of greatest pain and discouragement were those times when I acted foolishly and chose to do my own thing, regardless of the consequences.  Today, with more years now in the past than in the future, I must be all the more diligent to behave wisely, to draw from the understanding God has given through the years, so that I might make the right choices.  May God fill me with wisdom and find me faithful this day!

 

My prayer:

Dear God,

I have lived more years already than I will live in the future.  Yet I am reminded that my time on earth is but a moment, a fleeting vapor, compared to the eternity you have planned for all who believe.  Remind me with each choice I make that eternal consequence is infinitely more important than temporary pleasure.  Remind me, I pray, that your will for me is perfect and leads to happiness and true joy.  And this day, would you help me apply understanding to every circumstance and situation.  Grant me wisdom today so that my words, my thoughts, and my actions might be pleasing to you.