Daily Devotional
               Betty Miller shares her daily devotionals which are based on the book of Proverbs in the Bible.   

  The Wisdom of God

Verses for the Day:

Proverbs 7:1-3(KJV): "My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. 2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. 3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart."

Thoughts for the Day:

The book of Proverbs continues with its theme of keeping the Word of God and obeying the commandments of the Lord. Verse 1 tells us that we can "store up" the Word of God for a day when we will  need it. It tells us here to "lay up" His commandments. Just as squirrels lay up a store of nuts in the summer so that they will have food to get them through the winter, we need to "lay up" the Word of God for the winter seasons of our lives.

Jesus overcame the devil when He was tempted in the wilderness, by speaking the Word of God to him. If we do not know the Word of God, the devil can take advantage of us in a time of trouble and temptation. He can rob us of our rightful inheritance. In the New Testament, we find this scripture:

James 4:7: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

What makes the devil flee from us?  When we speak the Word of God in faith against Satan's attacks, he will flee.  Therefore, we must resist the devil by speaking the Word of God. We need to use the verses that pertain to the thing that the enemy is trying to do. If we do not know what God's Word says about our circumstances, then we can be defeated.

An example of this might be if the devil tempted us and we yielded to sin; however, we felt bad about it, and asked the Lord to forgive us for that sin.   Later, someone we loved might need a prayer said for their healing. The devil certainly does not want us to pray for people to be healed, so he might begin a dialogue such as this:  "You can not ask God to heal your loved one, as you have committed a terrible sin and God is punishing you for it by sending this sickness upon the one you love."

When we know the Word of God, we will recognize this as a lie. We will not hesitate to pray for our loved one to be healed, because the Lord desires all to be healed.  In fact, in the New Testament the Bible said Jesus went about healing all that were sick.

Acts 10:38: "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."

We will also know, that if we have asked God to forgive us for our sins, that He will not only forgive us, but will answer our prayers that are prayed according to His will. We will know that it  is not God punishing us, but rather the devil coming to rob, steal and kill, and we have authority over him in the name of Jesus.

1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

We can see how important that it is to know the Word of God, and why Proverbs 7:2-3 tells us that they will cause us to live, if we keep them as the apple of our eye and write them on the tables of our heart. That means we should desire to know the Word of God with our whole heart. The people in those days recorded things differently than we do today. Writing on tables means to write on a tablet, which at that time could of been the face of a stone, or a board or something similar. The meaning is for us to engrave or memorize God's Word so we know it by heart.  Bind them on thy fingers has the same kind of meaning.   We must keep the Word of God close at hand, so we can read it and know it, and most of all, live it!

Prayer for the Day:

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for giving me the Bible so I can understand Your ways. I also appreciate You giving me the understanding of the verses I read and study.  Help me to live my live in accordance with Your Word.  Please warn me Lord, when I am straying so that I can stay right on course with You.  Help me to be disciplined to read and study the Bible daily.  I need this discipline in my prayer life too.  Please guide me as I read and guide my prayers so that I might pray the things that are on Your heart.  I ask this in the name of Jesus.  Amen.