June 4, 2024

Proverbs 4.23 (NIV)

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Out of a heart well kept will flow . . . good products, to the glory of God and the edification of others.*

The word translated here as “heart” is not referring to the seat of emotion but the center of personality, decision, and understanding. It is often translated “judgment.” Solomon is advising us to guard the part of us that makes us who we are. In Matthew 12.34, Jesus said, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” The moral conduct of our lives – actions, attitude, and purpose – is determined by what we think and believe.

      

In Philippians 4.8, Paul lists some practical suggestions for protecting the heart/mind. (I hope you will read and apply them.) To paraphrase another writer: Protect your mind from vanity; your understanding from error; your will from perverseness. Keep your conscience clear of guilt and your affections from being captivated by evil. Train your mind to think heavenly thoughts. Do not let your heart fall into the hands of the enemy.*

It’s not enough to keep the bad stuff out. We’ve got to let the good stuff in.*

June 3, 2024

Proverbs 3.5, 6 (NIV)

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

Having forfeited our confidence in God, we believe that in order to have the life we want, we must take matters into our own hands.*

Trust in the Lord: Taking that first step of trust is hard. “Give me a reason to trust,” you might say. Once you have trusted and you see that your confidence was not in vain, you find it much easier to trust again. Keep trusting and you will be able to graduate from baby steps to leaps of faith!

Lean not on your own understanding: Solomon is not telling us that our own understanding is worthless; it’s just not 100% reliable. The literal translation of this phrase is “do not prop yourself up.” If I prop myself up against a rickety wall that is about to fall down, it might hold me up as long as the conditions are right – no wind, no one else comes along to lean beside me. But if I lean against the solid rock – Jesus – I won’t fall down.

In all your ways acknowledge him: Literally, “in all your ways know him.” We must actively seek a personal awareness of God in every move we make. We should be conscious of the fact that we take him with us everywhere we go. Our godliness is a full-time occupation, not just something we do when we’re in church or during a crisis.

He will make your paths straight: As a reward for our faithfulness, Solomon says that God will make our paths straight. Does this mean that God will remove obstacles, flatten the hills, and straighten out the curves? Whatever he meant, we can be confident that God will walk with us and help us to stay on the path that leads to righteousness.

You must know him by living closely with him, relating to him personally in every aspect of your life.*

June 2, 2024

Psalm 150.6 (NIV)
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

If we could see how much you’re worth; your power, your might, your endless love, then surely we would never cease to praise you.*

The writers of Bible commentaries like to debate about whom/what the psalmist was speaking. Did he really mean everything that has breath? Animals and bugs? Could we not keep in mind that while the writer was inspired, he was also a poet? In spite of the sweet little stories about the farm animals kneeling at the manger in Bethlehem, I’m pretty sure that the psalmist is talking about humans. But . . .

Romans 1.19 says that what may be known about God is plain for us to see. Everything in creation is a testimony to God’s power. Beauty. Intricacy. Precision. Function. Even if the creature has no voice to say, “Praise the Lord,” God is praised by its existence. 

As for those of us who can speak, our voices “fulfill [their] highest function by praising [their] Creator.”* Let’s be like Peter and John in Acts 4.20 when they said, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

When the Pharisees asked him to rebuke his disciples for their exuberance, Jesus replied, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19.40)  Was Jesus being facetious or poetic? Or was he speaking literally? If the Creator wills it, even things without breath will praise the Lord!

The God of nature is not subject to the laws of nature.*

June 1, 2024

Psalm 147.3 (NIV)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

No profound healing can come apart from God.*

I’ve had my heart broken a few times. My childhood best friend decided she didn’t want to be friends anymore; my fiancé changed his mind about wanting to marry me; my first marriage failed; after 25 years, I lost the job I loved; my dad died. I don’t mean to down-play the gravity of my experiences - each one was painful for me, but, seriously, I have only read about real suffering.  

In this moment, in these words, the psalmist has validated my pain by reminding me that God hurts when I hurt. Even if I am crushed by something as inconsequential as being stood up by friends, God cares. The voice in my head that says, “You don’t have any right to be hurt over that!” is not God’s voice.

I am not making a case for shallow, petty pouting. When I am hurt by the thoughtlessness of others, I know that God will comfort me and help me to rise above it rather than wallow in my self-pity. When real heartbreak comes, I can count on my heavenly Father to let me cry on his shoulder and provide me with supernatural consolation. When God heals our broken hearts and binds up our wounds, he doesn’t leave us scarred. He makes us stronger.

Jesus knows how you feel.*

May 31, 2024

Psalm 141.3 (NIV)

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.*

David is concerned about being surprised into sin. He could have allowed himself to express resentment toward his enemies, but instead he prays for the right attitude. David knew that our mouths are capable of spewing out damaging words we don’t even know we are thinking. In the “thoughtlessness of conversation,”* we often get caught up in the moment and say things we shouldn’t. It would be helpful if God would just lock the door of our lips and throw away the key, but there are times when you can’t not say anything. 

In court, we swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In life, we must be careful to say nothing that could convey other than the truth. Someone has said that it would be a pity for a mouth that has been used in prayer to be defiled with lies or pride or anger.* It reminds me of what people say to shame someone who is using foul language: “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

Pray, like David, that God would put a guard over your mouth!

 An abundance of words is seldom heard.*

May 30, 2024

Psalm 139.23, 24 (NIV)
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

It is only by invitation that he comes in and cleanses us.*

Psalm 139 began with David proclaiming that God has searched him and knows him; so now why is he asking God to search him? Perhaps the previous search was for the sake of God’s information; now David wants to know for himself what God has found.

David is fully aware that he can’t fool God and so he is willing to surrender his disguises and let God reveal his hidden sins to himself. But knowing isn’t enough. Once his offensive ways have been exposed, he pleads for God’s direction.

When my first marriage was crumbling, I talked my husband into going with me to a Christian counselor. To friends and family, I had confided some of what we were going through but I feared they weren’t being objective in their advice – of course they would take my side! I believed that a counselor would be fair and unbiased. I wanted him to search me; to tell me what I was doing wrong in my marriage and to tell me what I needed to do to fix it. I was willing to do whatever he recommended that I do. Good practise for opening myself up to God!

Can we allow God to show us our offensive ways? He wouldn’t have to search long or hard as our sins are surely not few or small or unobtrusive. And those anxious thoughts – is it possible that he wants us to let go of them as well?  

Until we know how sinful we are in God’s eyes, we will never be able to be as good as God wants us to be.*

May 29, 2024

Psalm 139.13, 14 (NIV)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

The very fact of something's having been made is certain proof of there having been a maker.*

The human body was purposefully made. It was not accidentally formed or gradually produced. God designed it and breathed life into it. He created the prototype out of nothing but his power. He is the God of biology. I may be the result of a genetic combination made up of parts of my mother and my father but I am not just a random product of my parents’ combined DNA. I am the person God meant for me to be. He chose the ingredients that would make me me.

We join David in exclaiming over the intricacies of the human body and marvel that this physical shell can contain our soul. What keeps the eternal part of us from breaking free from the body?  In Colossians 1.17, we get a clue: “In him all things hold together.”

How incomprehensible is God’s creation!

What a value hath God set upon the soul! He made it after his image, he redeemed it with Christ's blood.*