Tag: God’s Word

The Way of Wisdom – Prov. 1-5


Good morning everyone! First I want to start off today, by saying that I am so glad you decided to read along with us this week, and I hope you have gained something from it. Today, I am going to give you a quick summary of the week, and a challenge for you, as you go forward. 

Monday, we read through Proverbs chapter 1, and I talked about where wisdom comes from and why we NEED wisdom. Wisdom comes from knowledge, and knowledge comes from the fear of the LORD. We are also given wisdom by our parents and our elders, those that have lived before us. 

On Tuesday we read through Proverbs 2, and I again talked about where wisdom comes from, and why it is beneficial to us. Wisdom is a two way street, and requires work on our part. God will give wisdom to those who ask for it, but they have to ask for insight. If you hold wisdom in the highest regard, like hidden treasure, and ask for it, crying aloud for God, he will give it to you, that you may live. The benefits of having wisdom in our lives and in our hearts, is that are guarded and protected, and we listen to those who have gone before us. 

Wednesday we read through Proverbs 3, and I talked about quite a few different pieces of advice written in this chapter. My favorite verse from this chapter is verse 3, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”. We are called to love, love the LORD, love our neighbors, love our enemies, love. Besides the memory verse this week, which also comes from this chapter, (Proverbs 3:5-6) I encourage you to remember; let love and faithfulness be your guide, and your comfort. Keep them close to you, and wear them proudly.

Thursday we read through Proverbs 4 and I talked about a few specific pieces of advice that Chapter 3 gives us. There were quite a few, but in this summary I want to remind you of that last verses in Chapter 4, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” We need to be careful of what we say, and we need to guard our hearts, because everything that we are comes from it.

Finally, on Friday we read Proverbs 5, which was a warning about adultery, but I want you all to realize that this chapter applies to all temptations. We need not focus on what other people have, because we need to be open to seeing and noticing the great things that God has already given to us, or that he is in the process of blessing us with. Our God is amazing, and he knows all that we need and want, and he will take care of us in whatever way follows his will. 

Today I want to leave you with a challenge. Memorize Proverbs 3:5-6, but also ask your grandparent, or great-aunt/great-uncle for some advice this week, about almost anything. Try to recognize the wisdom they are trying to give you. I am certain that you will make their day a little brighter, and you just might learn something new and important. 

Thank you for reading with me this week. Have a great weekend, and God Bless 

~Jana

What can wisdom do for you? – Prov. 2

Proverbs 2-6

Good Morning Everyone!

Today, we will again be delving into wisdom and what Proverbs has to say about it. Today’s reading comes from Proverbs 2.

The biggest point I hope you take away from this chapter is what wisdom can do for you. Yesterday we learned about where wisdom comes from, and why it is beneficial.Today we will see more about how important wisdom is in our Christian lives.

Wisdom is not something gained without work on our part. Proverbs 2:2-5 “turning your ear to wisdom and applying to your heart to understanding- indeed if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD.” We have to choose to listen to God’s word, and we have to choose to listen to the knowledge our parents pass to us. We need to apply our hearts, in order to reap the rewards that wisdom can provide to us.

Now, what happens once we have asked for wisdom, and we have listened to God’s word, gained knowledge and respected our parent’s teachings? Further in Proverbs 2, the word tells us. Verses 7-11 (paraphrased, and I encourage to read the full verses in your bible.) He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield….. he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones…. Then you will understand what is right and just… for wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.

Wisdom and knowledge are given to us in order to protect us, guard us, give us success and to keep us on a path of righteousness. Having wisdom will help us to walk in the good ways and keep to the paths of the righteous.

The last few verses talk about upright and blameless being able to live in the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from the land.

The way to gain wisdom is to yearn for it and ask for it. Respect your parents, and understand the fear of the LORD. Be aware, and apply your heart to understanding. Once you have been given an understanding and wisdom, and you have accepted it, you will have discernment which will help you to stay on the paths of righteousness, and it will protect you, and guard you.

Thank you for reading today, and hopefully, you will check back in tomorrow. Have a great day and God Bless

~Jana Swanson

 

Pursuing Wisdom – Prov. 1

If you have not yet seen the video for the beginning of this week’s readings, I encourage you to go ahead and watch it. As a reminder, this week’s memory verse is Proverbs 3:5-6.
This week I am going to be talking mostly about wisdom.
Today I will be specifically talking about what wisdom is, where it comes from, and why we need it and need to respect it. Proverbs 1 tells us that wisdom comes from knowledge, and knowledge begins with the fear of the LORD. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” This chapter also says that we need to listen to our father’s and mother’s because their teachings have knowledge and wisdom in them. Verse 9 says, “They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.” Where are most tiaras or crowns held? A box, or a glass case- this means that those physical items are taken care of very well, and protected. We should treat teachings from our parents the same way, as they are just as valuable as tangible objects that we hide away, or protect fiercely.
The rest of the chapter talks about why we NEED to have wisdom. The Bible says that there will be people who are stuck in their wicked ways and will try to entice you into going along with them. They will say things like, “we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; cast lots with us; we will all share the loot” (verses 13-14) Now obviously in this passage, these people sound like they are up to no good, but there are people in our daily lives that will try to lead us astray, and they will be better at covering up their true intentions. Have you ever had a friend say, “Oh they changed their mind, they don’t want to play with us today.” but deep down you know that your other friend was really excited to spend time with you? Have you ever heard someone say, “One little sip can’t hurt anyone?” even though you know that your parents don’t allow you to drink pop, or you aren’t old enough to have wine. These are the exact same as what Proverbs is warning us against. When these things are said to you, you probably have a weird feeling in your stomach, and this is wisdom. Wisdom helps you to discern when someone is trying to lead you away from the path you are called to. This passage tells us that those who ignore what wisdom is telling us will kill them. “For the waywardness of the simple will kill them and the complacency of fools will destroy them” (verse 32).
However, the very end of Proverbs 1 gives hope to those who gain knowledge, and work to learn and understand wisdom. Proverbs 1:33, “but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm.” If we trust in the knowledge and the wisdom taught to us by our parents, and ultimately from fear of the LORD, we will have safety and should not be afraid of harm.

 

Wisdom is an important tool that every Christian should practice, and learn. Wisdom will help us find our way on our path with God, wisdom will help us to trust in the plans he has for us, and wisdom will protect us, in many ways.
Thank you for reading today. Tomorrow, we will delve even more into where wisdom comes from, and what it can do, and why it is important for us in our daily lives. May you have a wonderful day, and God Bless.
~Jana

Trust in God! – Prov. 3:5-6

Thanks so much to Jana Swanson for writing this upcoming week’s devotions. Check out the video below to learn more about our next devotional writer:

 

I hope you join us throughout the week as we learn more about what godly wisdom is. Like we talked about last week, memorization is so important! Let’s tuck this week’s memory verse in our hearts:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.     

~Proverbs 3:5-6

Feeling Hungry Yet? – Psalm 119:1-56

Bread of Life

I am just about the opposite of a foodie. Though my boyfriend has gone to culinary school and makes just about the best food I’ve ever had, when I cook for myself, normally my meals are limited to eggs or maybe pasta. This being said, I have a love-hate relationship with food. Though I can’t detect hints of cinnamon or nutmeg in my food, man, when it comes time for lunch or dinner (or breakfast), I’m ready to eat. I tried to fast once (yep! Just once.) and I remember getting halfway through the day and calling it quits. My stomach was starting to grumble and hurt. When I tried to run, I remember feeling a little faint. I felt like I needed that food, right then.

Yesterday, we talked about wisdom and how important it is to follow God’s wisdom and trust in God. Today, we are going to talk about what it means to desire that wisdom. If we look at Matthew 4:4, Jesus likens the word of God to bread, to our daily food. We need this spiritual food to live, just as we need actual food.

What is your relationship to God’s word? Stop and think now about how you think about God’s word. Do you long for it as you get up in the morning and as you go throughout the day? Do you pant for it like someone panting for water in the hot summer Sun? If you go without it, do you start to feel those spiritual pains of grumpiness, anger, and hunger? Do you get hangry? The daily nourishment of God is even more important than the daily nourishment of our bodies with food. This sounds like a cliché. But, let me remind you, if you go without eating for long enough, you will die! This is serious and important stuff!

Growing up, I did not long for God’s word. I would read it every now and then, but it wasn’t something that I read in order to survive, to make it through the day. I had a friend recently whose relationship with God and his word has completely changed. She mentioned how after she had made a point to daily meet God in his scriptures, she had begun to desire it. She needed it. And now, she can’t imagine life without it!

Our verses today come from the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119. This psalm focuses on what the Bible does for us and how we should desire it. If we seek God with all our heart, we will learn to keep his commands. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.” Do we believe that God’s word is such a gift that we treasure it in our hearts? Though discipline and commitment are incredibly important in every stage of our relationship with God, if we desire him and his word, our relationship with him will grow so much deeper!

To follow down the right path of life that we talked about yesterday, we have to make it a point to pursue God through his word. Psalm 119:2 says, “Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek them with all their heart.” Do you seek God and His Word with all your heart?

What path will you choose? – Jer. 17:5-10

trust in God

Breaking News::

Humans have been found to have an uncontrollable and incurable disease. As of yet, there have been no tests by humans that have been created to test for the disease. Worse yet, this disease can’t be seen; it’s almost undetectable. The only thing that can test for it is God. What is this disease? The conditions of our heart.

 

Though physical heart disease is an important and often fatal problem, we have an even more deadly disease in our spiritual hearts. If we look at Jeremiah 17:5-10, we see a portrayal of opposites that centers around the heart, and more specifically, on who the heart trusts in.

The first person is someone who trusts in mankind. They trust in themselves or in others. In doing this, this person has turned their heart from God. They are like a dead bush, a tumbleweed, in the middle of a desert.

The other person is a beautiful picture of someone who trusts and has confidence in God. They are like a tree planted beside water that stands firm even in hot weather because they are deeply enrooted by the life-giving stream.

jeremiah-17_7

Like our memory verse for this week states, in our lives, we have a choice. We choose who we will trust in. That choice affects everything in our life. It affects our thoughts, actions, and feelings. In our lives, we tend to rely on our feelings and thoughts, the things that make up what the Bible calls the heart, to determine our choices. This shouldn’t be!

The prophet Jeremiah says that the heart is more deceitful than anything else. It’s incurable and unknowable on our own power. Only God can examine the mind and test the heart to know what is in it.

Thankfully, God doesn’t leave us in this place. God can transform our hearts! In Romans 8:29, it says that God has predestined us so that we would be “conformed to the image of His Son.” Through God’s Spirit, we are being made into the perfect image of Jesus! On our own power, we cannot change the heart. It will guide us down wrong paths that seem correct according to worldly wisdom. But, through God’s help, our hearts can be revived and transformed to become a man or woman after God’s own heart.

 

God’s Spirit works in us in many ways, one of which is through the wisdom that it gives. We learn what true wisdom is from God’s word (Prov. 1:2). James 1:5-8 says, “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.” If we come to God and ask for wisdom through prayer, he will give it to us through his word and wise counsel.

This week, we will be talking more about the importance of gaining wisdom through God’s word for choosing the right paths of God. Remember: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.”

Preach!

Picture1

2 Timothy 1-4

When you live in the Midwest it is possible that you can encounter just about every form of weather imaginable in a weeks’ time.  Monday could be a blizzard, Tuesday could be the perfect day to fly a kite and by Thursday you may find yourself baking in the sun at the beach. I realize it usually isn’t that extreme but you get the idea. The point is that you have to be prepared for anything.

Chapter 4 verse 2 reminds us that we must be ready to spread God’s word in any and every season. When life seems easy and things are going your way, preach the word!  When you are being made fun of for what you believe, preach the word!  When TV and everyone on social media preaches against God, preach the word!

It seems that we live in a time such as described in chapter 4 verse 3. The message being preached from the world is “tolerance” and “happiness” on the surface.  But deep down the world has been developing a war against God’s laws and His people.  They have no desire to “endure sound doctrine” but instead will only listen to those who tell them what they want to hear.

My prayer for you is that you would not turn from the truth but rather share the truth with others. Study the word and spend time with your Creator so that you will be able to teach God’s word with confidence.

-Lacey Dunn

We Will Rise

1 Thess. 4-6

IMG_6135

I am by no means an art expert but I love walking around an art museum and observing all the different colors and variations an artist can use to awaken our senses and bring ordinary things to life. Some artists tell stories about the past or present with their works and yet others imagine the future. The future is the image that Paul details as he paints a picture of what the return of Christ will look like.
Imagine suddenly seeing the sky open up and watching as the Son of God comes down with the trumpet of God. He shouts and calls to your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who have died to rise. You feel the earth tremble and see the dead rise from their graves and return to life. You watch them wake to see their hopes come to fruition and meet their Savior in the air. After all the dead have risen you stand in awe because you are finally seeing your Savior when you feel yourself begin to rise into the clouds. Here is the most beautiful piece of this image, it says in the last part of 1 Thess 4:17 that “we shall always be with the Lord.”
For us to be a part of this magnificent image we must encourage each other to stand firm in God’s word and to be alert to the difficult trials that we may face. The last half of chapter 5 gives us some ways we can do that. We are to “live in peace” with each other and to “be patient with everyone.” We are to “rejoice always” and “pray without ceasing.” Take time to consider how you can be an encouragement to others as we together await the day we meet our Savior face to face.

 

– Lacey Dunn

Make Our Days Count

Psalms 38-42: Making all of our days count by living for God.

makecount

The New Year is just around the corner, and I have to say that I love each January 1st for all the possibility that it brings. When I was younger, I would pull out my journal or notebook and brainstorm the different New Year’s resolutions that I could pursue in the upcoming year. 365 days, 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes, or 31,536,000 seconds seemed like so much time waiting to be filled up with the sky only being the limit of what could be accomplished.

But, flash forward to the middle of the year (about the time of Fuel to be exact) and all the possibility seems a little less grand. The things that could fill up the New Year shrink a little more and a little more as the calendar days get a big slash through until wham, the calendar says December 31st.

Every year, as I begin to assemble my next planner and everything I want to accomplish, I always stop and think about the ways that God might use me in the upcoming year. It’s interesting that nestled between all of the psalms that we’ve been reading, we find psalm 39. In this psalm, David is struggling with sin for which he is seeking forgiveness. In the middle of his laments and prayers, we see this line in verse 4-5:

“LORD, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of my days. Let me know how short-lived I am. You, indeed, have made my days short in length and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor.”

Wow, what humility to pen these verses. Mortality has always been hard to come to grasp with, and death is one of, if not the, final enemy that is defeated at the end of time. That being said, what would you give if you could know how ‘short-lived’ you would be? Would you want to know? I would be hesitant to ask for knowledge, but I understand why David would want to know. If you can learn to make the most of the time you have left.

God may never reveal to us when the end of our life will be, but Moses in psalm 90:12 says a similar phrase when he asks God to “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.”

When we are able to number our days and see how fleeting they are, we can recognize the importance of making each one count (so think about that the next time you binge watch your favorite show on Netflix). We all make choices of what we are going to pursue, so I encourage you to think about what choice you are making this year.

Each year, between the week of Christmas and New Year’s Day, we can always stop and reflect. We started this week by looking to the cross, we can begin each year recognizing that the cross and all the many gifts, blessings, and guidelines it brings with it is at the center of our life. Then, as the New Year comes to pass, we can rely on God to accomplish the work He has in store for us. By centering our lives around God, we can truly make our days count.

-Cayce Ballard

 

The Path

Psalms 35-37: The Path of Wisdom leads to faithfulness.

path

Through this week’s reading, we’ve seen how God is our creator, provider, and refuge. We’ve seen how through Jesus’ death on the cross, we’ve received a beautiful inheritance in pleasant boundary lines, and how we can come to know God better through our communication with Him, in our prayers and praises. These truths point us to the great love that God has for us, love which David wrote about in some of my favorite verses in the Bible:

“LORD, Your faithful love reaches to heaven, Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, Your judgments like the deepest sea. LORD, You preserve man and beast. God, Your faithful love is so valuable that people take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They are filled from the abundance of Your house; You let them drink from Your refreshing stream, for with You is life’s fountain. In Your light we will see light.” – Ps. 36:5-10

These verses sum up all the topics we’ve dwelled on over the last few days and show the true character of our God. In Psalm 36, David talks about the way that God shows love to the faithful. But, what does it mean to be faithful?

The whole Bible is written to answer this question, and it is a question we spend our whole lives trying to discern and live out. Psalm 37 answers this question in part by showing us what is means to be wise. In this psalm, David shows the dichotomy, the difference between, the evildoer and the wise man, and that difference is how the person lives out the law of God. This psalm is like a mini-sermon, in which David tells the listener not to follow or be annoyed with evildoers, but instead to trust in God, take delight in him, commit your way to him, and wait expectantly for him. David, the Psalmist shows us how to live the faithful life.

When my nieces were learning how to walk, I remember the way their steps were so hesitant, preferring to either be on their knees crawling or sitting. But, when I would take their tiny hands in mine to help them, their steps would become faster and more deliberant. When we live outside of God’s helping hand, we are forever like my nieces who waddle and fall as they attempt to walk by themselves. But, through the wisdom and instruction of God, he can lead us down a good path, and when we fall, God will hold us up. (Ps. 37:23-24)

When we live inside of God’s wisdom, we can pursue the good path, for the path of the faithful is full of light. David says it best when he says, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.” – Psalm 37:5-6

-Cayce Ballard