Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Proverbs 30:20-23
Prov 30:20-23
20 This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I have done no wrong.” 21 Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up: 22 a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with food; 23 an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.
Luke 5:35-39
He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
It is interesting to me that this parable is recorded in three of the four gospels. It must have an important message, yet it is almost never discussed. Jesus is saying that some things are done a certain way because it makes sense to do so. It is often more appropriate to do things in a particular way. To understand this, we must think, reason, and use common sense.
One of the great travesties of life is that far too many people do not think before they speak or act. They follow what they have always done or what they are told to do, even without any good reason to do it this way. In many facets of life this has little or no consequences but in the area of serving God, it is vital for each of us to learn to reason from the scriptures and to think for ourselves. This is the only way that we can have true faith, our own faith, not that of another.
We have people in whom we have confidence. We trust their knowledge and their judgment. It may be a parent, a friend, a preacher, or someone else, but almost all of us have this confidant. This is good and we all need it. However, we must always realize that this person can be wrong. Just because a passage has been interpreted a certain way by the “church” or other people does not make it right. Question everything anyone says but use the Bible as the standard.
O Lord God, give me a stronger desire to know your will, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and to understand truth. Give me wisdom from above as I study your word. Help me to be able to think and to reason for myself, but to always keep you and your word as the absolute standard of truth. Lord, I know that knowledge in itself can be dangerous or useless, so help me apply what I know so that I can be more like Jesus in the way I live every day. Give me a servant attitude toward you and those around me. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
