Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Proverbs 13:11-15
Prov 13:11-15
Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death. Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.
Rom 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
What is hope? It is more than wishful thinking. It is more than just wanting something to be true or to come about. Hope is joyful expectation, based on credible evidence. (From Robert’s definition of Bible words) When we hope for something, we have good reason to believe that it will come to pass. When we get on an airplane, we expect to have a pilot that knows how to safely fly the plane and knows where to fly it so that we arrive at the planned destination.
We live our lives in hope. It may be that we hope to arrive at the store to buy whatever it is we have gone to buy. We hope that when we break an egg it will have some white stuff in it and at least one yolk. When we get married, we hope that our spouse will love us and remain loyal to us until one of us leaves this life. When our wife becomes pregnant, we hope for a healthy baby to be born. We hope for eternal salvation because we are in Christ and have our sins forgiven.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, we live in hope that God is with us each day and that he will empower us to become what he wants us to be. By his providence we hope that opportunities to do good will come our way, so we look for them and take advantage of them when they do. Hope gives us joy and peace.
But hope deferred makes the heart sick. We are counting on ______ to happen and then it does not. The evidence said that it would. We believed that it would, but it did not, so we are just sick inside. But God’s hope is sure. His word and his promises will always come to pass, exactly as he said they would. In his hope we find comfort and peace and strength to endure our daily trials.
O Lord God, thank you for giving me reason to have hope. Thank you for Jesus who died for my sin, giving me hope of eternal life. Thank you for the resurrection of Jesus which is the basis of all my hope of a better life in a better place. Thank you for your Holy Spirit living in me, giving me hope and strength to know that I can overcome the temptations I face each day. Use me and my life, along with my possessions to your glory. I humbly pray in the name of Jesus my Lord.
Robert
