Daily Devotional
               Betty Miller shares her daily devotionals which are based on the book of Proverbs in the Bible.   

  The Wisdom of God

Verses for the Day:

Proverbs 18:19(KJV):
19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.

Proverbs 18:19(Amp):
19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, and their contentions separate them like the bars of a castle.

Thoughts for the Day:

The book of Proverbs continues its discourse in regard to relationship problems.  This verse deals with two words that we, as Christians, must strive to avoid. Those words are "offended" and "contentions."   This scripture tells us that when a brother is offended with another, it is harder to regain his trust back, than to take a strong city.  Contention have separates them like iron bars in a castle. As Christians, we are commanded to love our brothers and sisters and not allow contention to separate us.   In fact, the Bible tells us that we can only get into contention with someone if we allow pride to rule in our lives.

Proverbs 13:10: "Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom."

If we have a problem with a brother or sister in the Lord, we are to humbly go to the one and try to work it out. We must not get in an attitude of being prideful, thinking our way is right. If we will consider the other person in love, the Lord will give us grace and wisdom to work out our problems.  Contention comes when we refuse to humble our hearts and attempt to deal with the conflicting issues in our flesh.

Once we yield to anger and get into contention, then offense follows.   Once we are become offended with someone, we cease to love them.  The Lord spoke to us not to be offended with one another. How do we do this?  We give our grievances to the Lord and allow Him to deal with the person with whom we are having the problems. We are to pray for them and love them and find the Lord's solution to the problem.

We are not only told to avoid offences between us, but we are also warned not to become offended with God about anything. We read this account regarding John the Baptist in  Matthew 11:2-6:

2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see:
5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

Here we see that while John was in prison, he began to doubt that Jesus was who He said He was.  John sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, in essence, "Are you really the Messiah?" Jesus told John's disciples to report back to John the miracles that they had seen, which were the things that were prophesied the Messiah would accomplish. And then Jesus added this message in verse 6, "And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."  Jesus knew that because John was in prison he began to doubt the promises of God. I'm sure John began to think thoughts such as this: "If Jesus was really the Christ, why has He not done a miracle to get me out of this prison.  I was preaching the gospel of repentance and paving the way for His ministry, so why has he abandoned me now?   Jesus told John's disciples to tell John that he would be blessed if he did not become offended with Him.  Did John hear or did he allow offense to come into his heart?

We have another story about two more of Jesus' disciples.  These two were also thrown in prison for preaching the gospel.  This story turned out different than John's story.  When Paul and Silas were put in chains and thrown in prison, instead of allowing doubt and unbelief to come over them, they took a different approach.  They began to pray and  sing and praise God in their prison.   They began to reach out to others and share about Jesus and we find the prison could not hold them as an earthquake came and they were released from their prison.  They did not become offended in Jesus and complain of their chains and pains; instead they resorted to praise and testimony of God's love. 

Acts 16:20-26:
20 And brought them (Paul and Silas) to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

We can learn from this story today.  When we are tempted to complain of our circumstances and blame God and become offended with Him, we block the way out of our prison.  John had his head cut off.  Paul and Silas were released.  All were God's disciples and Jesus loved them all; however, the secret to being released from our prisons (financial, mental, emotional, physical, etc.) is not to become offended with Jesus, but rather to pray and praise and rejoice in Him, especially in our "midnight hours."  We are not to praise Him for the problems we are in, but we are to praise Him in the midst of our trials. We are to praise Him for Who He is. He will bring us through them and we will come our victorious!

Prayer for the Day:

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for the many blessings you have given us.  Lord, we never want to become offended with You.  Help us to realize that it is the devil who is bringing us the problems in our lives and it is You Who will make a way for us to overcome him.  Help us to remain in a joyful attitude even in our trials and tribulations, knowing that You will bring us through victoriously!  Lord, we also ask that we will be able to resist all contention with any brother or sister in the Lord.  Let us love them with your love.   Lord, we humble ourselves to You knowing You will take care of all our troubles when we honestly give them to You and yield to Your ways.  I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.