WFC Daily Devotional for June 11, 2009
Sermon Series: Uncertain
This Week’s Theme: Rest
Today’s Theme: The Results of a Trusting Heart
Key Verses
Proverbs 3:5-10 “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. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
Mediation
Proverbs 3:5-6 are two of the most often quoted verses in the Bible and for good reason. Solomon’s exhortation rings as true today as the day he wrote them. As God’s good stewards, let’s look at these verses and a few more.
First, the faith we put in God must be complete: it must be completely in Him, and it must completely define our character (our heart). God gave us a mind to reason and to understand. It reasons and understands best when it is saturated with God’s precepts. We all rely on some construct or frame of reference to understand life. It could be the American dream, secular humanism, or the gospel according to Bill O’Reilly. There are lots of competing values and ideas subtly weaving themselves into our pop culture and calling us to follow them. God calls us to saturate our thinking, character, and behavior with His precepts. The great 19th century Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, wrote, “We must refer ourselves to him as one from whom our judgment proceeds, and patiently, and with a holy indifference, wait his award.” Since God created our hearts and minds, we ought to fill the hard drive with His programming and hit the ‘delete key’ to all of the rest. When we truly rely on Him, the Holy Spirit acts like an anti-virus program exposing ungodly thoughts and temptations so we can avoid them. There is a lot of corruptible ‘spam,’ and God’s Word written on our hearts is the ultimate ‘spam-buster.’
Second, by prayer and testimony we give God credit and glory. One sure-fire way to step away from godly stewardship is to stop knowing and admitting that God is the source of every good gift. To acknowledge is to know something as fact and to state unequivocally. When we are busy thanking God and telling others of His grace, there is little time and ego left to be wise in our own eyes. A good steward shuns evil by acknowledging God continuously.
According to Solomon, God is into recycling. When we do our part – trust Him alone, acknowledge His blessing and shun evil, God blesses us. A mind relying on God does not let worry creep in, and that is both mentally and physically healthy. God also blesses us by providing our every need. Having received a great blessing, Solomon reminds us what to do with it. Give Him what He has given. Give Him the first benefit of what He has given. And, He will give you even more. What a great cycle! He gives because we trust, we acknowledge and return our first fruits to Him, and He gives us even more!
Thoughts to Ponder
What should I be acknowledging today to remind myself and others of God’s grace and mercy? Am I letting God recycle His blessings through me?
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