Bible Reading Plan | Devotion for the week of August 15, 2021

Weekly reading: Proverbs 15-21
Passages referenced: Proverbs 15:32, 16:2, 17:12, 18:9, 19:29, 20:23; 21:31; Matthew 7:21-23; Mark 7:6-23; Luke 6:43-45; John 3:16-17, 6:25-27; Romans 7:15-18; James 1:23-25

“Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.” – Proverbs 15:32

The word “disregard” here sticks out to me. To disregard means to ignore. To disregard is not just a thought but an action. The mere idea that discipline is a good thing can pass through my head, and I can even convince myself that I think discipline is good. Yet, if I live out the act of disregarding discipline, this says everything anyone needs to know of my stance on the goodness of discipline. Did you catch that? The ACT of disregarding discipline SAYS everything anyone needs to know of MY stance on the goodness of discipline. MY STANCE is personified, not in my thoughts of the good thing or even my conversations lifting up the good thing, but the action of DISREGARDING the good thing. Thus “the one who heeds correction gains understanding.”

“All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” – Proverbs 16:2

Even so, with the weight of our actions heavy on our mind, we can see in Proverbs 16:2 that our thoughts are just as important. The importance of motives are laid out almost incessantly by Jesus throughout the Gospels: the parable of the True and False Disciples in Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus’s declaration that what defiles a person comes from within in Mark 7:6-23, Jesus’s explanation of good and bad fruit in Luke 6:43-45, and Jesus’s rebuke of the crowd after he fed them in John 6:25-27. Clearly, our motives are important. 

“Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool BENT on folly.” – Proverbs 17:12

“One who IS SLACK in his work is brother to one who destroys.” – Proverbs 18:9

“Penalties are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.” – Proverbs 19:29

“The Lord detests different weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.” – Proverbs 20:23

Proverbs is telling us something. Our actions matter. Our thoughts matter. James 1:23-25 says that “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.” Yet, so often, I find myself allowing negative thoughts and a lack of action to persist in my life. Why is this still a struggle when we see clearly the call and advantage of following the Word? Paul addresses this in Romans 7:15-18: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

So, where do we go from here? We see there is a call to know and uphold the Word of God and, just as plainly, an acceptance that we can never live up to the calling.

*Insert Jesus*

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord.” – Proverbs 21:31

Poetically, the last verse of the final Proverb from this week’s reading points us straight to THE answer. This is why we have a savior. This is why the most famous passage in all the land – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son in the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17) – is so darn important to have seared on our hearts.

Yes, we are called to prepare. We are called to stand firm. We are called to risk. But when all else fails, Jesus saves. – Cole Baker

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