Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Proverbs 6:12-15
Prov 6:12-15
A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore, calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.
Gal 5:16-18
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Gal 5:13-15
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Every one of us makes a choice about our lives. We either are selfish and live for ourselves or we give our lives to God and live for him. That sounds like an over-simplification but when we boil it all down, it comes down to this choice. We can deny it, we can rationalize it, or we can just ignore it, but it does not change the reality of what we are doing, of who we are inside. Live by the flesh or the Spirit.
The sad thing about serving the flesh is that when we ignore God, our lives and our behavior will go from bad to worse. Little by little we will find ourselves falling into a pit from which we cannot escape on our own. Even when we realize where we are, we cannot scale the walls of disaster without the help of Jesus.
The wonderful news is that no matter how deep we may have fallen, no matter what is controlling us, no matter what we have done, we can turn to Jesus, and he can lift us up and set us on solid ground. But the first step is to admit that we need his help and that we must change our lives. This is true even if we put on a front of Christianity but have not really given our lives to Jesus. Some of the most wicked and crooked people I have known were religious people seeking their own agenda and following. But, after all, it was the religious leaders who killed Jesus.
O Lord my God, fill me with your Spirit so that I will know how to love others, even as you love me. Like you have extended your love and your grace to all mankind, help me extend my love and grace to everyone around me. Give me wisdom to honor you and your holy name in all I do and all that I say. Forgive me when I fail to do this. Keep me from being selfish but make me your servant. Give your peace to those who are troubled, hurting or lonely. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
