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 19:3(KJV):
3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.

Proverbs 19:3(Amp):
3 The foolishness of man subverts his way (ruins his affairs); then his heart is resentful and frets against the Lord.

Thoughts for the Day:

The book of Proverbs not only deals with relationships between men; here is a statement about man's relationship with God.  Because man does not understand the ways of God, nor know His Word, he does many things in this world that are foolish and sinful. When he begins to suffer for those things, his tendency is to blame God for His lot in life. We are taught in the Bible that a man reaps what he sows; and therefore, when we break the commandments of God we suffer the consequences of our our sins.

Galatians 6:7: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Not all men break them willfully, some men break the laws of God ignorantly.  God's laws are given to us for our good so we may live a good life in this earth. When we break them, we are the ones that are hurt and sometimes, even destroyed.  This applies not only to people who do not know God, but to God's own children as well.

Hosea 4:6: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee..."

One of the main tactics of the devil is to try to blame things on God that are not His fault.  If the devil can accomplish this, he then proceeds to try and destroy our relationship with God.  When bad things happen to us, we must remember, it is never the Lord putting these things on us, it is the devil.  Jesus came to redeem us, not destroy us.  He came to save us and help us to become overcomers in this life.   God does not put bad things on us to teach us.  We were given the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to teach us.  Certainly, we can learn things by going through adverse circumstances, but these same things could be avoided if we knew the Word of God.   If we are good students and committed totally to God we can escape many snares of the devil which are designed to destroy us. There are many scriptures that support this.  

Jeremiah 2:19 "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts."

Hosea 7:2 "And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face."

Job 37:23 "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict."

God does not afflict us. Most of the time these things come as a result of our own sins. If not our sins, then the sins of others can cause us problems.   This is the reason Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins.  When we repent and receive Him into our hearts, then we can overcome the results of our sins and those of others.  He told us to overcome evil with good and gave us the power to do it through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  We must remember that Jesus is on our side and never blame Him for the ills in our lives.  We should put the blame where it belongs -- on the devil and men who listen to the devil. God is for us, not against us.  

Romans 8:31-39:
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Prayer for the Day:

Dear Father, I am most grateful for Your abundant love for me.  Lord, when I am going through trials, help me never to blame You for what the devil is trying to do.  Give me discernment to not only see what the devil is trying to do, but give me the power and courage to rise up against him and overcome him.  Lord, I want to always submit unto You and resist the devil as You tell us in Your Word to do in James 4:7.  You said if we would do this, the devil would flee from us.  Help me to overcome evil with good and not resort to my own ways in dealing with difficult situations. I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.