The One Year Wisdom for Women Devotional: 365 Devotions through the Proverbs (54 page)

July 22

Don’t Learn the Hard Way

     
If you punish a mocker, the simpleminded will learn a lesson;

          
if you correct the wise, they will be all the wiser.

Have you ever noticed that a foolish person has to always learn the hard way? They’re mockers. Mockers think they are above the rules. They think that the warnings and principles of God’s Word don’t apply to them.

Ladies, is there an area of disobedience you just don’t think you have to give up?

Maybe it’s the way you treat your mother. You resent needing to help her, you resent some things in the past, you’re always on edge with her. Your sour attitude will come back to haunt you, because it doesn’t just hurt your mother; it dishonors God. Maybe there is a secret sin in your life that you keep hanging on to. The Holy Spirit keeps sending pangs of conviction; you know it’s wrong. Do you realize you aren’t just neglecting his influence; you are mocking his authority in your life? This is a foolish decision. Do you have to wait until the consequences of that sin come crashing in on you before you get it?

On the other hand, the wise are tender to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. So let me ask you a question. When you read your Bible, or listen to a message from God’s Word, are you hungry to learn and change and grow? Do you take his lessons and promptings to heart? Are you tired of learning the hard way? I am! Let’s then be quick to hear the Lord’s correction—because a word to the wise is sufficient.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Has it been a while since you sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit? That’s not necessarily a good sign. I find that some of the most mature and deeply godly people I know are increasingly sensitive to sin in their lives. They don’t live in condemnation, but they have a passion for purity—not just in others, but in themselves. Remember what God said to the Laodicean church: “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference” (Revelation 3:19).

One Year Bible Reading

2 Chronicles 6:12–8:10; Romans 7:14–8:8; Psalm 18:1-15; Proverbs 19:24-25

July 23

Mom and Dad

     
Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother

          
are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.

To “mistreat a father.” As I say that term, I think of daughters whose fathers are undeserving of respect or love or forgiveness. Truthfully, they deserve to be mistreated because they mistreated their daughters. Once again, all I can say is, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Fatherhood is both a position and a role. If you have a father who is still alive, even if he was a bad dad, you, as a child of God, are assigned to him. There is a strong possibility that no one else on the face of the earth prays for him or shows true agape love to that man. If he doesn’t deserve it—and many don’t—then it is even more a work of the Spirit of God’s grace within you to enable you to love the unlovable. Jesus told us, “If you just love those who love you, well big deal!”

Let me tell you the real key here. Let God the Father play the role of father to you. Let him father you, fill your cup, affirm you, and encourage you. Then your heart will not be so needy. You will be free and full to love as you were created to love.

Secondly, it is a shameful thing to chase away your mother. Don’t do that either. For some women, their mothers just yank their chains. They can’t stand to be around them. Again, if you are a child of God, that is not an option. You are assigned by God himself to love her. “Love is patient, love is kind . . . love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4, 8,
NIV
).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Now let’s turn the tables here and be blunt. If you are a mother, don’t make it hard for your kids to love you. Do you micromanage? Do you nag? Are you hard to please? Do you fail to listen to your kids? If they are married, do you criticize their spouses? Don’t nitpick; save your advice for the big issues. Enough said? In other words, be a woman who is easy to love and respect.

One Year Bible Reading

2 Chronicles 8:11–10:19; Romans 8:9-25; Psalm 18:16-36; Proverbs 19:26

July 24

Prone to Wander

     
Stop listening to instruction, my son,

          
and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

Two things are distinctly linked here; they present a warning and reality. If you stop listening to God’s Word, you will stray. There’s an old hymn with the words “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

I hope you know your human nature well enough to know that your heart is prone to wander too. Have you heard it said, “If there’s dust on your Bible, there’s dirt in your life”? Never underestimate the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil to subtly plant seeds of desire that will pull you away. But then never underestimate the power of God’s Word to keep you safe, and—if you stray—to pull you back, cleanse you, and restore you.

So if you do not read God’s Word every day as your anchor and food, you are vulnerable. Mere head knowledge is not enough either. Henry Blackaby says, “God’s people have head knowledge but little heart and life experience with God.” Blackaby recommends that you keep a journal as you read. “When you sense God speaking to your heart,” he says, “don’t let those thoughts get away from you. Write them down so you can review them.” He also is a great advocate of application. Each day ask the question, “God, what do you want me to do in response to today’s reading?”

     
O to grace how great a debtor

     
Daily I’m constrained to be!

     
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

     
Bind my wandering heart to thee.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

I have been walking with the Lord for many years. I have known many, many people who at one time were “on fire for the Lord.”It seemed they couldn’t get enough of the things of the Lord. They loved the Word and worship. They loved fellowship. But then they got distracted or just busy with life. They slipped away and now are far away. Is that you? Oh, please listen: come back. It’s not too late. Come home to God the Father; come back to fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Return to the joy of being filled again with the Holy Spirit.

One Year Bible Reading

2 Chronicles 11:1–13:22; Romans 8:26-39; Psalm 18:37-50; Proverbs 19:27-29

July 25

Sober and Safe

     
Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler;

          
whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

Augustine once said, “Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin; whoever has it, has not himself.”

First of all, I want to say I’m not a legalist regarding alcohol. I know many Christians drink a glass of wine with meals and never have even a small problem. But, on the other hand, 1 Corinthians 8:9 says, “Beware lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak” (
NKJV
).

So I’ll share just a couple of reasons that my husband and I have chosen not to include alcohol in our lives for the sake of others.

• Children. You never know if one of your children or their friends or your grandchildren will see your small liberty as a big endorsement. My parents had a well-stocked liquor cabinet. As a teen, one of my friends talked me into taking some out of each bottle and watering it down. It was easy, and I liked it. It wasn’t long before we were drinking away from home.
  
• Others are watching, needing a role model. I once sat in the bar area of a restaurant with my sister drinking a Coke. The entire time I wondered if some little gal from Bible study would see me, think I was drinking, and be disappointed because someone in her life had ruined her life by drinking, or that she would be weakened in her resolve to stay out of the bars herself. To me, some liberties are just not worth the risk.
  

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Is God spoiling your fun when he warns against drinking? Here are some sobering statistics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol abuse killed an average of some eighty thousand Americans each year from 2001 to 2005 (the most recent report available), shortening the lives of these people by an average of thirty years. An average of thirty-six thousand people died each year from cirrhosis of the liver and other alcohol-related conditions, while forty-three thousand died in accidents. Because of alcohol, children grow up in poverty and abuse, marriages are ruined, and lives left in shambles.

Are you a closet drinker? Has it created a loss or danger? Will you pray and ask the Lord to lead you to help and to freedom?

One Year Bible Reading

2 Chronicles 14:1–16:14; Romans 9:1-24; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 20:1