The One Year Wisdom for Women Devotional: 365 Devotions through the Proverbs (59 page)

August 10

Pleasing the Lord

     
The L
ORD
is more pleased when we do what is right and just

          
than when we offer him sacrifices.

The topic today is pleasing the Lord. There is hardly a topic that intrigues and excites me more. Can you imagine: God—who designed the beautiful intricacy of the snowflake, the majestic flight of the eagle, and the rocky heights of Mount Everest—can be pleased with ordinary people like you and me? Enoch was a man who lived at a time in history when men were dangerously wicked. But contrary to the trend and flow of others, Enoch walked with God. “He was known as a person who pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).

This stirs my heart. I want to please the Lord, don’t you? What then does that mean? What can we do? God owns the cattle on a thousand hills; he doesn’t need our money. His divine power can move mountains, but we are weak, merely human. Today’s proverb gives us an important clue: the Lord is pleased when we do right. When we read about Enoch, we’re not told of any big and mighty deeds that he accomplished. He didn’t pastor a big church or win any big wars. It appears he was just like us, living an anonymous little life, facing whatever came his way. But he wasn’t anonymous in heaven. This is the mystery and the wonder of the Christian life. There must be a secret element. The big and little battles in our souls regarding choices and surrender are seen and applauded and ultimately empowered by the same God who flung the stars into place.

Today, then, you and I choose. I choose the walk with God. May we sense his presence, honor his ways, and hear his sweet voice saying, “Well done, my child. Well done.”

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

“We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit . . . as you learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:9-11).

Let’s return to the sweet simplicity of lifting our hearts to our Father in heaven and simply living to please his heart.

One Year Bible Reading

Ezra 10:1-44; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20; Psalm 31:9-18; Proverbs 21:3

August 11

Haughty Is Not Holy

     
Haughty eyes, a proud heart,

          
and evil actions are all sin.

Once in a while we need to look up a word like
haughty
. It means “disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; full of contempt and arrogance.”

I once knew a woman who was very rich, and very tall, and very talented. I was poor and young. I am very short and often felt inadequate. I remember whenever I was in her presence I felt small and flawed. She had a way of looking down or even looking past people. But she was a good example to me—of a bad example. I learned what it felt like to be looked at with scorn and disdain. More important, I learned that I never wanted others to feel such a look from me.

Haughty eyes show a proud heart. The eyes are said to be the window to the soul. Sometimes I look in someone’s eyes, and I see darkness. Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness” (Matthew 6:22-23,
NKJV
).

A haughty look can make you cringe; as they say, a look can kill. But just one sweet look of kindness sends a message more powerful than words. Picture with me a look of friendliness to someone who’s new in church, a look of compassion for a new widow, a look of understanding to a mother of a prodigal, and a look of forgiveness to someone who has made a mistake. Yes, child of God, that’s the way it should be.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

I’m sorry to say it, but sometimes churchy religious people can be very haughty. The Pharisees were haughty; they looked down on sinners like they were above them. Many people leave the church because they have felt contempt when they needed compassion. Listen, the church is not a showcase of shiny people. It’s a hospital, a safe haven; it’s a family. Even at best we are all just poor beggars telling other beggars where to get bread. I love the church because when we truly live what we are, God uses us to circle the wagons around the lonely and broken. Won’t you do that? If not now, when? If not you, who?

One Year Bible Reading

Nehemiah 1:1–3:14; 1 Corinthians 7:1-24; Psalm 31:19-24; Proverbs 21:4

August 12

Foolishness Has Consequences

In today’s Wisdom for Women we will read these three verses carefully. God is not only giving us information about the results of being wise in life, he is also showing us that foolishness will eventually ruin our lives. My husband often paraphases Galatians 6:7: “You reap what you sow.” Then he says, “You can’t plant potatoes and think you will pick tomatoes.”

     
The plans of the diligent lead to profit

          
as surely as haste leads to poverty.

     
A fortune made by a lying tongue

          
is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.

     
The violence of the wicked will drag them away,

          
for they refuse to do what is right.

The Proverbs used to be read in our public schools, and parents read them to their children. But many children are being educated about morality and integrity from watching TV, the Internet, and music videos. Maybe it would be more correct to say they are learning immorality and to be unethical. I know it’s easy to turn on the Disney Channel or cartoons to keep your kids occupied and entertained, but sometimes we need to sit down and watch what they’re watching. Stars of these shows become their heroes, but many of these stars are not heroes at all.

Maybe we can’t change what others are doing, but we can make a choice to seek to be wise in our own lives and in our own homes. Unless we, as godly mothers, as godly women, have a moral anchor, the strong currents of outright wickedness that are pulling people down all around us will pull us and our families into that same dark hole.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Let’s not go with the flow. Jesus said we, as God’s people, are to be bright shining lights. “No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:15-16). This is our mission and privilege. People all around us are lost; may it be our passion to shine God’s love like a lighthouse in the dark night.

One Year Bible Reading

Nehemiah 3:15–5:13; 1 Corinthians 7:25-40; Psalm 32:1-11; Proverbs 21:5-7

August 13

A Quarrelsome Woman

     
Better to live in the corner of a roof

          
than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

This description is a wake-up call for us as women. Oh, how easy it is to slip into the pattern of nagging and complaining. Somehow we, as women, almost feel it’s our duty. If we don’t point out everyone’s flaws and mistakes, who will?

I thought I would quote a man, Matthew Henry, on this subject. He says, “What a great affliction it is to a man to have a brawling, scolding woman for his wife, who upon every occasion, and often upon no occasion, breaks out into a passion, and chides either him or those about her. . . . It makes a man ashamed of his choice and his management.”

One of the habits a woman can get into is feeling she’s entitled to be in a bad mood. When we’re in a bad mood, we can be easily annoyed, critical, and harsh. We can bite someone’s head off because “we’re in a bad mood.” You know what? We are not entitled to do that, and no one else is entitled to be on the receiving end. So, girls, let’s just knock that off. Really.

There it is. This is not pretty. So then, how can we break this bad habit? I think the first step is to see that it’s not just annoying to others, it’s wrong.

Ask the Lord to forgive you. Ask others to forgive you. Then ask the Lord to fill you afresh with his loving, gentle, and kind Holy Spirit.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Have you been harsh, irritable, and quick to anger, but you don’t know how to change? The first step is desire. Do you want to change? If so, good. The next step is to look at the source. Have you let resentment from your past or present pile up? We do that, you know. Will you take it to the Cross and ask the Lord to set your heart free to forgive? The next step is to kneel and ask the Lord to fill you completely and freshly with his Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, . . . patience, kindness, . . . gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

One Year Bible Reading

Nehemiah 5:14–7:73a; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Psalm 33:1-11; Proverbs 21:8-10