Today’s passage: Proverbs 11

Helpful thoughts:

• Dishonest scales would be used in business or trade.  The scales would be unbalanced in a way that made it look like things were fair when they weren’t.  It was a way to scam people and take advantage.
  • The lie is that if I make more money my life will be better, but “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath.”
• No one is entirely blameless.  These terms should be held as that which characterizes a person.
• Verse 14 is a great bit of wisdom for any church.
  • There needs to be a direction, a vision that is rooted in biblical wisdom and God’s will.
  • There needs to be more than one person who is responsible for that counsel.

Questions to consider:

1. How does verse 9 compare/contrast with the second greatest command to “love your neighbor as yourself?”  How should we use our mouths when we disagree with people?  Is there a difference between debating and berating?  Where do we see this happening around us (And maybe even within the church) today?
2. Knowing that Solomon was a very wealthy man, what does he seem to value more than riches?  What does he see as the greater reward in life?  Even better than Solomon, what does the Lord Himself even delight in (Verse 20)?
3. Which proverb(s) stuck out the most to you and why?  How can you put it into practice today?

Prayer:

Father, as we see in this chapter of Proverbs today, we can either be a ring in a pig’s snout or a tree of life that wins souls through our conduct and our words.  God please work in our hearts and life to be trees of life to all those around us.  We thank you that we can be a delight to you!  To know that you watch us and are delighted when we walk with you and heed wisdom is such a great encouragement.  Please continue to renew our minds in these truths so that we will increasingly value the riches of righteousness more than the empty temporary riches of this world.

Today’s passage: Proverbs 10

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 10 starts a compilation of individual proverbs.  There won’t be themes to each chapter…
  • Chapters 10-15 contain proverbs that primarily use contrasts.
  • Chapters 16-22 contain proverbs that primarily use comparisons.
• Another reminder, these proverbs are poetry.  For example, when we read 10:1, we should see that a wise child makes both his/her parents glad and a foolish child grieves both his/her parents.
• In verse 15, both the rich and the poor are trusting in the wrong thing.
  • The rich man cannot be protected by his wealth.
  • The poor man is not destroyed due to his lack of wealth.
    • Both are trusting in money.  Both need to repent and trust in God alone.

Questions to consider:

1. Why and how does love cover all sins?  Does this mean we should try to ignore sin?  What does it mean to cover?  How is our sin covered? Who is the true everlasting foundation of the “righteous” (Verse 25)?  If you truly loved others and someone told you that you were hurting them, what would you want to do?  As sinners ourselves, what will we desire for others who are actively being hurt and hurting others in their sin?
2. What is the contrast of verse 14?  What direction does information go primarily for the wise?  What direction does information go primarily for fools?  (In or Out)  How do you know when it’s time to speak?  What would your motivation need to be? (For whose benefit?)
3. Which proverb stuck out the most to you?  Why?  How can you put it into practice today?

Prayer:

Father, please give us wisdom, that we would receive your instruction and heed them and be blessed.  Thank you for covering our sin in love through the blood of Jesus.  I pray that we Christians would look at others through the lens of your gospel love, be listeners, and then in the strength you provide, be lovers of people and seek their true good for your glory.

Today’s passage: Proverbs 9

Helpful thoughts:

• The seven pillars are a picture of the completeness, the sufficiency of what wisdom calls us to.  The life wisdom offers is not lacking in any way.  Whatever the world offers that is contrary to wisdom is outside of wisdom’s sufficient complete offering.
• There are two perspectives we must look to in verses 7-9:
  • Once you realize you are talking to a scoffer, dial it back.  There is only losing down that road for everyone involved.
  • When someone is loving you by speaking the truth in love, be very quick to listen and slow to speak.  Be the wise person who will still be wiser when others build into you through constructive criticism.
• Both wisdom and folly cry out from the high places.  There are many voices fighting for our ears and hearts.  This truth has been repeated often so far in the Proverbs.

Questions to consider:

1. If what wisdom offers is everything that is good, then what is left outside of wisdom for the world to offer?  Why is it so foolish to reject the Lord and rush after the desires of the flesh and the world?  What will a person ultimately find in that pursuit?
2. Compare and contrast verses 3-6 and 14-18.  What are the similarities and differences?  What are the consequences of heeding their differing advice?  How does the foolish obtain his bread and water?  How does the one who listens to wisdom obtain his bread and flavorful wine?  How does this point to the gospel?
3. How often do we talk with others in a way that would encourage growth and change?  How often do we offer or hear constructive criticism?  What attitude would foster and encourage this in the church?  What attitude would prevent it?

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your grace to us in offering wisdom and life.  Thank you for the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ!  We thank you for giving us bread to eat and wine to drink when folly would tell us to go thieve an inferior alternative.  May we fear you and see the blessings in this life and the life to come that result from listening to and heeding your wisdom.  And may your church work together as a team, a family to encourage and exhort one another in wisdom, speaking the truth in love, listening to one another in patience and thanksgiving, growing together in Christ-likeness.

 

Today’s passage: Proverbs 8

Helpful thoughts:

• Wisdom and understanding are not the only voices crying out, but they are the voices we need to recognize and heed.
• The Lord and evil cannot share our affections and attention.  To love one is to choose against the other.
• When we reject wisdom and righteousness and choose to sin, we are not simply being selfish or momentarily indulgent, we are rejecting God, loving death and wronging our own soul.  Sin is rebellion and self-harm.

Questions to consider:

1. Why does wisdom exist?  Where did it come from?  To whom must we look to attain it?  Is wisdom a response to evil or is evil a depravation of wisdom?
2. What does it mean to search for wisdom “diligently?”  What will we be prone to see before our eyes?  If we passively take in the world around us, what voices will we hear first and loudest?  What must we do to seek for wisdom diligently?
3. Consider taking inventory of your day.  Write down what you did and what time it took.  How much time did you spend doing the things you do?  What “voices” had your ears and eyes?  Praise God for the good!  Ask for grace where we need to grow.

Prayer:

Lord, we live in a time where it seems like everyone has a voice.  If we were to hear everyone that has something to say, there would be no time left in the day to even eat or sleep.  Please give us grace to desire and value your words more highly than gold or silver, more highly than the voices on the news, more highly than the voices on social media, more highly than the voices in the movies, etc.  Lord, please help us to redeem the time you’ve given!  May we pursue wisdom and understanding diligently, that we could then exercise that wisdom in our daily lives through our own words and actions.

Today’s passage: Proverbs 7

Helpful thoughts:

• Praise God for parents who lovingly put these words of wisdom into the hearts of their children
  • Then pray that they might be treasured.
• The easiest way to avoid sin is to steer clear of it.  The young man who was tempted and fell first had to walk down the seductress’ street.
• Contrast verses 10-11 with 1 Peter 3:4:
  • ³ Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— ⁴ but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

Questions to consider:

1. In discipling children, what part of the process is the responsibility of the parent?  What part is the responsibility of the child?  What do we do with things we treasure?  What does it look like to treasure God’s word?
2. What is the “street corner” of the seductress today?  Where is it?  How can you avoid it?  In what ways does the normalization of cohabitation and sex outside of marriage make this “street corner” almost everywhere in today’s society?  Young men, where should you go to find a woman who will bless your life (And whom you can bless and follow the Lord together with)?  Young women?
3. Does the ox know it is going to the slaughter on its way there?  What kind of humility do we need to hear from our loved ones who are trying to warn us of danger ahead?

Prayer:

Father, we pray for faithfulness to lead and point our children to you.  And we ask you to grant them grace and repentance.  May our children love you with their whole hearts!  We also pray for wisdom to go down the path you have made straight for us, to stay away from the street corners on our phone, televisions, or literal street corners that lead us to temptation.  Father, as we look to Christ in Scripture and see of your great love for us, may we be so encouraged to pursue you that we don’t have the time or interest to go where temptations call.

Today’s passage: Proverbs 6

Helpful thoughts:

• It is not wise to co-sign for another person’s loan.  God has called us to be stewards of all He has entrusted to us.  When we co-sign, we become ensnared to someone else’s poor stewardship.
  • The Bible doesn’t forbid generosity obviously, but we cannot sin in order to “help” others and our generosity should not aid or finance foolish living.  That is not love.
  • The severity of being in debt is pictured in verses 4 and 5.  If you’ve co-signed, if you are in debt, fight for your freedom like a gazelle running from a hungry predator!
• Saying six and then seven in verse 16 is a literary tool to get the reader’s attention.  Solomon wanted extra attention to be given to these seven abominations.
• There are always consequences for our sin, and the sinner does not get to choose what they will be.

Questions to consider:

1. What were the characteristics of the hard-working ant?  How would those characteristics translate to your life and responsibilities?
2. Who does the wicked man in verses 12-15 work to benefit?  Who is the wicked man willing to manipulate in order to get what he wants? (An extra hint: The winking, pointing and feet gestures were communication tools for a wing man who helped the wicked man to deceive his victim)
3. There are three main communicators in this chapter (Especially verses 12-29), the wicked man, our parents, and the evil woman.  What is characteristic of their speaking, where does listening to their words lead?  Whose words will lead you to victory when tempted with the words of the others?  Parents, how can you make sure the words you give your children will be a light to them in those times of need?

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for the clarity of your word.  Thank you for the wisdom we can gain if we will only read, humbly listen and desire to put into action.  I pray specifically today for the parents in our church!  May we love your word and love you supremely so that we are ready and eager to give our children instruction that will be a light to them in the midst of this darkened world.  May your words grip and fill our hearts so that when we speak to our children, your words are what they hear.

Today’s passage: Proverbs 5

Helpful thoughts:

• Our lips can guard knowledge (Speaking wisely) only after we have first listened and learned truth.
• A person can sound wonderful to listen to, be incredibly entertaining or make us feel great, and be entirely wrong.
  • We must place greater value on wisdom and understanding, though sometimes we’re more prone to value humor, glamor or other forms of entertainment.
• Verses 15-18 are figures of speech used to depict the loving faithful physical relationship of a husband and wife.  She is for him.  He is for her.  They are to procreate together and enjoy the blessing of parenthood together.
  • To be lured and lustful toward the forbidden woman (Anyone who is not your wife), is a massive step down.  The quality of love between a husband and wife can not even be compared to the cheap, wasteful, destructive lust between two people outside of marriage.  The world’s depictions of sexuality are lies.

Questions to consider:

1. What were the consequences of the one who chose not to listen to instruction in verses 9-14?  How would you describe those consequences in our day and culture?  What would that look like today?
2. What words are used to describe what becomes of the man in sexual sin (Verse 22)?  What words of wisdom do we need to hear if we would ever think we could pursue sin and not see consequences?  What has been laid before us?  Who is watching?  How do we escape and walk in freedom?
3. Who all could rightly apply this warning against sinning with the “forbidden woman?”  If the only person who we are to delight in physically is our spouse, then how many other people should we see as forbidden?  Is this true before someone gets married too?

Prayer:

Father, thank you for the picture of Christ and the church…Christ the groom and the church the bride.  Thank you for Christ’s selfless loving sacrifice and for your promise to present us spotless and without blemish, even though that can only be true of us when you see us through His shed blood.  Please forgive us when we think the “pleasures” of this world could even compare with the pleasures of following and worshiping you!  And we thank you that after learning, “the wages of sin is death,” that we also then learn that your gift to us is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord…that we can receive forgiveness, a cleansed heart, a righteous record, and eternal love and freedom because of your great grace.  Lord, please protect the marriages in our church.  May our men love you first and therefore love their wives as Christ loved the church.  May our women love you first and therefore trust you and love and support their husbands.  May our children grow up seeing their moms and dads loving you together as a couple and grow up to do the same with their spouses…that you may be honored and that they would receive the blessing of living according to truth and wisdom.

Today’s passage: Proverbs 4

Helpful thoughts:

• Wisdom, understanding and good doctrine are all tied together.  You can’t have one without the others.
• We are to pursue and hold onto good instruction like our life depends on it, because it does (Verse 13).
• What is in our hearts comes out through our words and actions.
  • Matthew 5:10-20 – ¹⁰ And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: ¹¹ it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” ¹² Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” ¹³ He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. ¹⁴ Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” ¹⁵ But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” ¹⁶ And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷ Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? ¹⁸ But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰ These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Questions to consider:

1. Which actions did Solomon call on his hearers to do in the first 13 verses?  What ways do we get wisdom, understanding, instruction and good doctrine?
2. Why must the wicked do wicked things?  What does verse 17 compare their wicked acts with?  If they hunger and thirst for wickedness, and then are bewildered at how things could have gone wrong in life (Verse 19), what hope do they have of figuring out what’s wrong on their own?  What do they need?
3. When we do something wrong, sometimes people say, “That wasn’t me! I’m not like that!”  Is that a true statement?  Why do we do the things we do (Verse 23)?  How does this chapter in Proverbs answer the question, “How do I change my desires to be godly?”

Prayer:

Father, thank you for giving us your word through the Scriptures!  Please work in our hearts as we seek the truth, understanding, good doctrine and wisdom.  May the truths we read and hear from your word root out of our hearts sinful desires that they may be replaced by godly desires and love for you.  Purify our hearts that good fruit may come out of our mouths and be displayed in our actions.

Today’s passage: Proverbs 3

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus isn’t just the Lord of your destination, He’s also the Lord of your path.
• Binding God’s word around our neck and writing it our hearts conveys the idea of diligently working to put God’s word in our thoughts which results in seeing God’s word displayed in our lives.
  • A person who is wise in his own eyes does not look to anyone else for help and therefore will not seek and learn from the Lord.
• God’s glorious will for your life is to make you like Jesus (Romans 8:29).  Because He loves you, He’s giving what is best.  Because He delights in you, He corrects you.
  • What God gives us is better than wealth.
• Solomon even included God’s credentials in verses 19-20.  He is worthy and qualified for us to trust in Him!

Questions to consider:

1. How do verses 5-7 contrast with the ideas of “finding yourself” and “speaking your truth?”  When do we truly find ourselves?  When do we truly understand wisdom?
2. How much of our hearts does God require?  In how many of our ways should we acknowledge Him?  How many of our possessions are for His honor?
3. What kind of a person would God have us to be among our community according to verses 27-35?  What reasons should the community have reason to come to us?

Prayer:

Father, we praise you for Your wisdom!  Your knowledge exceeds our capacity to imagine!  And your perfect knowledge and wisdom is always translated perfectly to righteous and wise actions.  We fall short, and we often forget that we aren’t as wise and smart as we think we are.  Thank you for your amazing grace to us through Jesus Christ, who didn’t just die to make us wise, but died because we refused your wisdom and sinned.  As we walk in faith, in Christ, please guide us according to Your word.  May we learn to seek your wisdom in ALL our ways, in ALL our thoughts, with ALL the possessions You have given for our stewardship…even when that includes correction and discipline.  Thank you for being our loving Father!

Today’s passage: Proverbs 2

Helpful thoughts:

• If you treasure the word of God, you will incline your ear to it.  If you incline your ear to it, you will understand the fear of the Lord and grow in knowledge.
  • With greater knowledge and fear come greater delight in God’s word.  What a wonderful cycle.
  • When we are not delighting in God and His word, we are delighting in something.
• The immoral seductive woman of Proverbs 2:16-19 could be applied as a contrast to the woman “Wisdom” who cried out in 1:20-33.  The immoral woman seduces with her words and leads victims down paths toward death.
  • There is a battle being waged for your mind and heart.  Who you hear shapes how you think, act and feel.
• Understanding righteousness, justice and equity bring deliverance from evil.  This is a rescue mission!

Questions to consider:

1. Where are all the places you hear words, ideas, philosophies, etc. (Think people, television, radio, internet, family, and more)?  How do you think you are doing at looking at the world through the lens of Scripture as opposed to looking at the world and Scripture through a lens from the world?  How would you know you are rightly evaluating your progress in this?
2. Is pleasure only for evil things?  What role does pleasure and delight play in both evil desires and righteous desires?  What shapes or changes our desires so that we would take pleasure in God and in what is good?
3. We may think sometimes that the battle against sin starts when temptation comes.  What does this chapter have to say about that?  When does the battle against sin and for righteousness begin?  If we regularly wait to try to battle against sin after the temptation has already come, will we be ready to face it victoriously?

Prayer:

Father, thank you for your kindness in giving us your word!  In our sinful state we all choose sin, we all fall short of your glory.  So we also thank you for the grace you showed us in sending Christ to die in our place, for our sin.  Thank you for putting his righteousness to our account.  And thank you for giving us new life and freedom from our bondage to sin, so that we might read your word and truly delight in its truth.  Lord, please help us and guide us in the truth, that we would see its wonder and beauty, that it would draw us to praise and to delight in you more than we would delight in the seductive, prideful, and deathly pleasures of this world.  May we walk in victory as we eagerly pursue you in love, reverence, and adoration.