LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, February 5, 2025
What is the difference between a way and a path? Both words are used in Proverbs 3:6. We are told to acknowledge God in all our ways and then He will make our paths straight.
Very simply, a path is the place we walk, and our way is how we walk on the path.
Picture this. Two people walking side by side on the same smooth path surrounded on either side by thorn bushes. One walks consistently on the path and never deviates to the left or right. The other cannot seem to stay straight and wobbles from side to side being scratched by the thorns and even falls into them on occasion. The one who walks straight has remained sober-minded and focused on the goal ahead. The other has become drunk with the things of the world and has lost the ability to stand up straight.
This image depicts the lives of many Christians. God’s promise to us is this: when we trust Him completely, refuse to lean on our limited understanding of things, and let our relationship with Him take priority over all else, He will keep us on a straight path and keep us straight.
Unfortunately, many people are caught up in the thorns on the side of the path. At first they don’t look like thorns. The bushes are covered with sweet-smelling flowers. We intended to only pick a few to carry with us, but when we touched them we became addicted to their beauty and wanted more.
So enticing is their beauty that we overlook a few scratches. We are willing to shed a little blood to get the enjoyment the bushes offer, and soon we don’t even realize that we are no longer on the path. We are tangled in the thorns and don’t know how to get out.
We didn’t trust the One who put us on the path.
We turned to our own understanding of life and our own solutions to its problems.
We acknowledged that there was something more we desired.
So we turn to look at the path and see someone still walking on it with a joyful smile on their face. We cry out for help. The person stops. We ask them how we can get back on the path. Their answer is simple.
Start trusting God completely.
Ask for His wisdom and stop depending on your own.
Let your relationship with Jesus by the highest priority of how you live your life.
We agree, and suddenly we are standing next to the person on a straight path, and we can see the goal of glory ahead.
Today can be your day to get back on the path. And if you are already on it, today may be the day you help someone else walk with you.
When I got married almost 49 years ago, I gave my bride a ring, and she gave one to me. It was to be an acknowledgment of our lifelong love for each other and a testimony to others that we were in a committed relationship that didn’t allow for any distractions. But the ring itself does not acknowledge who my wife is, it simply bears witness to others that I have one. It is up to me to acknowledge who she is and introduce her to people.
What would you think of a man or woman who wears their wedding ring some of the time but takes it off in other situations? You would doubt that person’s commitment, right?
That’s the point I want us to see from Proverbs 3:6. “In all your ways acknowledge Him…”
Consider the similarity between wearing a wedding ring and wearing a cross. Both are supposed to signify a committed relationship. But does the wearer always represent the relationship in every part of their life? What do you think is the commitment level of a man wearing a wedding ring while sitting in a bar flirting with other women? How dedicated to the relationship is a woman wearing a wedding ring while she dreams of the life she could have in the romance novel she is reading? And how committed to Jesus Christ is the person who says they have taken up the cross of Christ yet dabbles in the addiction to self-gratification from the world?
The wisdom of God encourages us to acknowledge our relationship with Him in every aspect of our lives, and to reveal Him to others by our lifestyle choices. We may go to church, read our Bible, and even wear a cross, but those things only reveal that we are in a relationship. To acknowledge God means to reveal Him to others.
In my early days of marriage, I didn’t do that very well. When I entered a room my type A personality took over and I stood out in front of my wife to relate to people. She was there, but I did not acknowledge her. It was shameful.
Is that how you treat Jesus? Do your desires and preferences take priority over acknowledging Christ in every aspect of your life? Start changing that today. Don’t be satisfied to just know in your heart that you belong to Jesus. Let it show to everyone else.
As I age I find myself leaning on things more often. When I stand for an extended length of time I move towards walls or counters or chairs that can provide support. It’s not like I need a lot of support, but a little feels more comfortable for these old spindly legs. Having something to lean on adds to my endurance. It’s really hard to physically lean on myself. I usually fall over when I try.
The same thing happens when I try to lean on my own understanding of things. My perspective of things is short-sighted so I can’t see the big picture. My knowledge is limited to the realm of my experiences, so my list of possible solutions is short. If the outcome of any circumstance is dependent on only what I see and know, then I will experience lots of failure.
Not so if I choose not to lean on me. The second piece of wisdom found in Proverbs three verse five is this – “lean not on your own understanding.” In other words, “It doesn’t have to make sense to me.”
That is so hard. I want everything to make sense. I have always questioned how everything works because I want to understand it. Early on in my life it became an expression of my pride. If I could understand it and explain it, then I stood approved in my own eyes. But God has replaced that pride with a healthy desire to know more. What makes that desire healthy is that it’s not for my benefit, but for His service. And when He doesn’t reveal the understanding to me He’s building my trust in Him.
Being a Pastor takes a lot of understanding, and a constant recognition that I will never understand enough to do it on my own. In fact, even what I do know is insufficient to claim even a little success. I must lean on God’s understanding and trust Him to guide every decision and provide the wisdom necessary for every situation. Trust in Him and less leaning on me are inseparable.
Let’s go back to the story of my move into full-time ministry. I had been pastoring a small church part-time for about seven years when we moved, and we had even gone through a building program. But this new church had different challenges, and God had a different vision for its impact on the community. I could not lean on my own understanding. God gave me His vision for a youth ministry in the town that would require great faith to implement. I had no experience with the ministry, so outside resources were brought in to increase our understanding. We had to lean on them to make it work. And work it did. We started with thirteen children from our church and grew to over forty in the first two weeks. Within three months we were over one hundred and had to find a new space to hold the ministry.
When the idea was first introduced to the congregation of 35 people, it was overwhelming. But we knew God was doing it so we didn’t lean on our own understanding, but chose to trust Him. To this day I still get calls from children who were in that ministry and they thank me for what it did in their lives.
Your understanding will only get you so far as you can go by yourself. But when we lean on God and His infinite understanding, the possibilities are endless.
Over the next few devotionals, I want to share some personal stories of how God’s wisdom has been proven in my life. It all comes from two popular verses in Proverbs. I remember memorizing them in Sunday School as a child, and they have stuck with me. Here’s how I learned them.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.”
What does it look like to trust in the Lord with all your heart? They key is to understand the word “all”. It means all. Not some or most, but all. Is that even possible?
There are many Bible stories of men and women who trusted God with all their heart for a moment, but not permanently. I think permanent trust is hard to achieve while we live in these bodies of flesh. Abraham trusted God completely when asked to move to a new land, but his trust wavered when he got there. Moses trusted God in the wilderness until the second time they needed water and he didn’t follow God’s instructions. The Apostle Paul trusted God until he had a disagreement with John Mark and Barnabas.
We all have moments when we trust God completely, but like the people in Scripture we have too many moments of trusting ourselves.
Late in 1986 I was living a comfortable life in South Dakota. My wife and three children were being taken care of as I worked a full-time job, and I was also living out God’s call on my life to pastor a church. Then God called. He directed my wife and me to begin planning to enter ministry full time and leave behind the comforts of our home and possessions. We obeyed. In early 1987 we accepted the call to a church over 300 miles away. It would cut our salary by almost 40%. We sold our home, my classic 1964 Ford pickup, our boat, my guns, and planned for major budget reductions because we trusted what God was doing to fulfill His call on our lives. It was the most joyous and rewarding obedience in our lives.
Did I continue to trust God explicitly? No, and there are far to many stories to prove my trust in myself. But this I know. God is faithful, and will never stop welcoming us into a relationship of complete trust. So no matter what your trust level is right now, set a goal to make trust complete, and then strive for trust to become permanent. Imagine what God can do with a person who trusts Him in ALL things.
One morning as I scanned Facebook to stay connected friends around the world, I came across a post from one of my “adopted” daughters in the Philippines. It shared four truths to live by, and the first one caught my attention because it illustrated a wisdom principle I had just read in Proverbs 27:19.
“As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.”
Her are the four wisdom rules for today.
Rule #1 – Live without pretending – that’s integrity. Every part of our lives integrated together in perfect harmony with no contradictions. Nothing fake. Nothing done to impress others. Just a life lived as a reflection of the character of God in us.
Rule #2 – Love without depending – that’s identity. It’s knowing we have God’s approval rather than seeking the world’s approval. That’s accepting God’s definition of our being rather than seeking it from others. That’s giving to others out of security rather than seeking to receive affirmation. The world’s love depends on a response and looks for a return benefit. But when our identity is secure in Christ, sacrificial love that originates in the heart of God will overflow in us.
Rule #3 – Listen without defending – that’s humility. Be able to be corrected. Pride defends the value we think is being attacked. Humility listens to the possibility of improvement. Pride protects personal choice. Humility submits to anything or anyone as being God’s instrument of perfecting our lives. Pride convinces us we are right and that we have rights. Humility sees the right in others. Pride cannot see a reason to improve because that would require admitting a weakness or fault. Humility can admit faults because value is not found in performance but in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Rule #4 – Speak without offending – that’s grace. Speak the truth, but do it in love, with a pure and holy motivation to truly help the person to whom you are speaking. Do not speak to be heard. Do not speak to build up self. Speak to impart God’s wisdom so that it will be heard and applied. Speak to be an instrument of God’s grace to others.
Now those are four rules by which we all should live.
LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Proverbs 1:33 “…whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
He woke up early in the morning with a question burning in his heart. “Could I ever convince anyone that God is real” He thought back to the many experiences of his life, and was convinced that He had never heard God’s voice, and most certainly had never seen God’s face. Yet he believed.
As he got into his pickup that morning and drove away from the farm that was home to over a dozen horses, he began to talk out loud to his heavenly Father. He asked why God had never spoken audibly like he had read about in Scripture. He wondered what he would ever tell someone who wanted proof of the existence of God. He looked at the seat next to him currently occupied by a pack of necessities and accessories for his day and stated, “God, I know you are as real as this black bag, and that you occupy this seat with me. But I want to see you like I can see it.” As he related the story to me I thought to myself, “Be careful what you pray for.”
Later that night, after a hard day of work and an evening visit with a friend, he got back into the pickup and headed for home. He was in a hurry – too much of a hurry. Excessively exceeding the speed limit on a rural North Dakota road, he was within a half mile of home when he came over a small hill. As the truck leveled off at the bottom of the hill and the headlights illuminated the path ahead he saw a frightening sight. There on the side of the road was one of his horses – the same horse that had been returned to him the night before after escaping through a hole in the fence that he had planned to fix earlier that morning.
Instantly his mind went into high gear. Isn’t the brain that God created for us amazing? The speeds at which it can process information is incredible, even though it’s not until well after the event that we realize how much information was processed. Options came to his mind. Decisions had to be made. He thought, “I can maintain control and try to go around the horse, but he will likely be spooked and jump into me and end up coming through the windshield. Which way would he jump? Which side of the road do I choose? I’d better slow down.”
He slammed on the brakes. As the information processed he chose an option that was in his own words totally stupid – he jerked the steering wheel hard to the left and sent the truck into a spin and headed for the ditch. Later he would make this statement – “God’s grace covers stupid.” That was lesson number one, but not the most important lesson of the night.
As the truck skidded sideways and backwards down the highway, he began thinking of more options. He knew from years of experience that the outcome of this decision was going to be tragic. He knew that as soon as the truck went off the road and down into the ditch that the wheels would catch in the dirt and the truck would flip and roll uncontrollably. At that moment he felt a peace came over him that he cannot explain and that he had never felt before. When the truck impacted the ditch he knew from the depths of his heart and soul that he should let go of the steering wheel and sit back and relax. That’s exactly what he did – he totally let go.
As I stood where this happened, I saw the spot the truck hit the ditch backwards and the back bumper dug into the ground and carved out a mini ravine. That contact caused the truck to flip end to end and roll side to side. I stood on the glass-covered spot twenty feet away where the roof over the driver’s seat hit the ground and was crushed to within inches of the steering wheel. Anyone sitting in that position would have been killed. I walked up the hill where the truck had flipped again, clearing a barbed wire fence and rolled several more times up the hill.
Somewhere during the first flip, before the roof was crushed, the driver was extracted from the truck through the passenger door window and catapulted sixty feet through the air into the ditch, suffering multiple rib fractures, a punctured lung, hip and leg injuries which required surgery, and multiple bumps and bruises. When he regained consciousness, he tried to make a call to a friend for help. In a nightmarish moment his phone battery died. But the black bag in the truck contained an extra battery. It was his only hope for life.
As he pushed himself up to his feet he was amazed at the power of adrenaline. He felt no pain and was able to walk slowly to the barbed wire fence. Somehow with his debilitated legs he was able to hoist each leg high enough to get over the fence and make his way up the hill to the truck. In the dark as he circled the truck he saw the shadowy image of the black bag in the pasture grass. After replacing the phone battery he made seven calls before he finally got someone to answer. By now he barely had any breath left as a result of the punctured lung and the pain was beginning to overpower the adrenaline. Weakly he asked for help and was barely able to say, “I’m south of the farm.”
As he shared the story with me and took me to the place where it all happened, he declared several eternal truths:
I never fully experienced God because I had never totally let go.
Our control of our lives limits God’s presence and power.
God is revealed only in our weakness, not in our strength.
God became as real as the black bag and my only hope for life is in Him. I may only see shadows of His presence, but He is there, and in Him is found the rescue for human sin and for human stupid.
Be careful what you pray for – but be assured of this – God hears you and will reveal Himself to you according to the level of your surrender. Let go and know God!
Within each of us is a terrifying enemy of God. Not terrifying to God, but to us. Unfortunately, we have embraced this enemy and signed what we think is a lasting peace treaty with it. However, this treaty is a lie, and sooner or later we all discover that the enemy has deceived us and brought us to destruction.
The enemy I refer to is Pride. God hates pride.
“Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.” Psalm 101:5
“The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” Proverbs 8:13
“Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” Proverbs 16:5
Pride manifests itself in a variety of ways in our lives. But the single most prominent way pride reveals itself as both the enemy of God and the enemy of our life is this – when we reject correction. When confronted with a wrong and a challenge to change there is an immediate rise in our pride pressure, and just like an exaggerated rise in blood pressure, our heart is at risk when it happens.
Pride seeks to protect when in reality it is causing harm. We are deceived into believing that we are guarding our hearts – our value system and our image – when actually we are moving quickly towards the destruction of our spiritual hearts. Just as high blood pressure is an indicator of hardened or constricted arteries, so high pride pressure is an indicator of a hardened heart.
King Solomon states that pride is conquered only when we respond humbly to the reproof of God when He lovingly disciplines us for our sin. How we respond to God’s correction reveals the nature and extent of pride in our hearts.
Proverbs 1:23“If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.”
Those who embrace the perceived benefits of pride’s self-protective responses will find themselves alone, abandoned, and absorbed with awful consequences. In Proverbs 1:29-31 we read,“Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.”
But those who humbly seek the Lord and embrace His correction comes the abiding Presence of God in the Person of His Holy Spirit, and a constant understanding of God’s Word – His purpose for our lives and the power and provision to accomplish it.
What a contrast. The choice is ours. Pride resulting in only what we can do for ourselves, or Godly correction resulting in what God can and will do in us. Today, and every day from here forward, while we know we are weak and our pride is strong, we can choose to read God’s Word, not for knowledge, but for transformation, calling out for God’s reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
How about you? How do you respond when someone tries to correct you? What does that say about the enemy of God in you? What will you do about it?
In 1974 I worked at a small town grocery store in North Dakota. My boss had just bought the store from the previous owner. Inside the store was a huge safe that we were told had not been opened for years. We were told we could have whatever we found if we could get it open. The day came when I was assigned the task of opening the safe.
I was captivated by the possibilities of what was inside. What kind of treasure would I find if I could somehow get it open? I started by trying to figure out the combination. I put my ear to the door and slowly turned the dial as I listened for clicks, just like I had seen in the movies. It didn’t work. Then I tried drilling holes near the dial in hopes that I could find the tumblers and align them so the lock would release. That didn’t work either. The only other option was demolition, so I headed home to get a sledgehammer and pry bar.
After several hours of work, I succeeded in working my way under the corner seam to peel back a small section of the 1/8 inch thick metal casing of the safe, only to discover three inches of concrete. After a couple more hours of peeling back metal and chipping out concrete, I had to pry apart the metal protecting the inside of the safe.
Finally, I was in. I had removed one side of this five-foot tall safe to discover what treasure was inside. At first it looked like our efforts were wasted, as all we found were old business records. But then, in one small drawer at the top of the safe, was a small black bag. Inside were two twenty-dollar gold pieces from the 1800’s. They were incredibly valuable. I’m sure my eyes popped out of my head when I saw them. I immediately gave them to my boss, and he said I could have them for all the work I did. I rushed home after work to find a safe place to keep them.
My first real treasure hunt had yielded a huge bounty. But it was short-lived. Several days later the previous owner of the store stopped in and asked if we had gotten the safe opened. I showed him the opened safe, and he immediately looked in the little drawer and asked if we had found two gold pieces. I said yes, and he asked for them back, denying that he had ever said we could have the contents of the safe if we got it opened.
I immediately went home and returned the treasure to the previous owner. No thanks. No reward. Just the satisfaction in my heart that I had done the right thing. Honestly, it took a while for the reward of righteousness to overcome the disappointment, but it eventually did. It’s hard to look for treasure and never find it, but it’s harder still to find it and then have it taken away.
But there is a treasure that will never be taken away. It is worth all the effort you put into finding it. It is the treasure of wisdom.
Proverbs 2:1, 4 “My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands…Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.”
The rest of this passage through verse 11 tells us about the treasure. To those who seek wisdom the Lord will grant it. It will become the permanent shield of those who walk with integrity. With God’s wisdom comes understanding of righteousness, justice, and fairness. Those who walk in God’s wisdom find the right way to go and will be kept safe. There is eternal joy for the one who seeks wisdom like a treasure.
We spend literally hours every day digging for treasures that will never satisfy – success, recognition, financial security, and recreation. We invest hours in fulfilling our own dreams and the dreams of our children. We believe we are entitled to experience all that this life has to offer. We even sacrifice our service to the Lord for the sake of fulfilling our earthly dreams. We have chosen where to look for treasure, and unfortunately what we will find is no treasure at all.
I can’t help but think of the words of Jesus who said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Here’s my challenge for you – let wisdom begin in your life by choosing to hunt for treasure in the right place. May today be the day you begin your treasure hunt for God’s wisdom. May there be nothing in the world that requires more of your time or energy than the pursuit of the heart of God.
Do you remember the first conversation you ever had with your father? I don’t. Even if I eliminate the early years prior to the age of five, I still can’t remember a conversation of any real significance. I’m sure there were some because of the values and beliefs that are still foundational to my life, and for that I am so thankful: but I can’t remember them. We are both to blame for that. He felt his primary role was correction, and there was very little discipleship. I was an arrogant child who wanted to do everything my own way. The result was a lack of meaningful communication.
Communication with our children is critical. Unfortunately, our conversations with them are usually quite shallow, and when we do try to teach them something it is done as an emotional response to an undesirable action on their part. Very seldom do parents have a plan for the training of their children that is consistently implemented.
There are two general patterns that parents adopt for the training of their children. The first and least desirable is what I call the “reactionary” method. Other terms I could coin would be the “off-the-cuff wisdom” method or the “this is really inconvenient for me right now” method. In this format parents simply react to whatever the children do and hope they have the wisdom and skill to handle the consequences when it happens. There is no need for planning or preparation, and there is certainly no defined long-term purpose to what they are doing. Teaching of the child is confined to the limited time immediately surrounding each event that required parental intervention and is usually done with emotional outbursts.
The second and preferred pattern is the “disciplinary” method. Parents using this method have established goals for the character development of their children and have defined a specific plan of how to accomplish those goals and it’s unique to each individual child based on their natural abilities and tendencies. They know that a child’s life is a treasure that needs to be fully discovered but that without proper polishing the treasure could be lost forever. They recognize their highest priority is to “disciple” their children through teaching, correction, admonition, training, and application. They have developed a “scope and sequence” for each child. There is a syllabus for every year of their lives based on their emotional, educational, and spiritual maturity. They don’t react to events that happen but train their children to be prepared for when they do happen.
The disciplinary method is the Biblical pattern for parenting. In fact, it is God’s pattern as our Heavenly Father for all of us as His children. God’s scope and sequence had a beginning for us – the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7). That is the same place we are to begin in the training of our children.
It is extremely significant that with all the wisdom he was granted by God that Solomon chose to begin the instruction of his son with these words in Proverbs 1:10. “if sinners entice you, do not give in to them. He then goes on to explain the consequences of sin. To balance that, he also teaches his son the value of wisdom and its benefits for life.
I encourage you to read Proverbs chapter 1 starting in verse 10. Pay special attention to how Solomon prepares his son for the potential traps of sin and the consequences of that sin, and then to how he presents the positive alternative by following the path of God.
If the training of our children is not first and foremost founded on faith in Jesus Christ which includes the recognition and rejection of sin, then we have built for our children the wrong foundation. As parents we must have a plan with a purpose. Our teaching must be intentional and consistent. It will be the temptation right now to think that this is too hard and will be inconvenient. If so, then you have already made your choice of methods. But just look into the eyes of your child and see if that choice is really the product of the love that lies deep in your heart.
We all had them. Many of us were them. Some of you are planning to be one.
The first recorded words of God to Adam and Eve were His blessing and command to become parents. God had spoken in Creation and to Adam prior to the creation of Eve, but now he reveals His heart to the man and woman. He expects multiplication, and it is through the marriage of one man and one woman that His will is to be accomplished.
As parents and grandparents, our role is significant before the Lord. In his opening statements of wisdom, Solomon addresses his son and challenges him with the importance of listening to his father and mother.
Proverbs 1:8 “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”
His wisdom reveals that a parent’s instruction and teaching must be worthy of hearing and applying to a child’s life.
What are we teaching our kids? Or what are we not teaching them by what other sources of instruction do we allow into their lives? Those questions must burn deeply in our minds every day as we consider the awesome and eternal responsibility God has given us to instruct, teach, and train the next generation of Christ-followers.
A quick study of the two Hebrew words used in this verse is valuable for us. Dad is responsible for instruction and Mom brings teaching. Now I must say that this is not the only verse about parents in Proverbs, and it certainly cannot be taken as the whole counsel of God concerning the unique roles of mom and dad. But in this first reference to a parent’s responsibility, the literal meaning of the Hebrew words tells us that Dad is the enforcer of God’s law that mom has taught.
The word translated “instruction” means “chastisement”, and is translated as discipline, correction, and instruction. Dad, your role with your kids is to correct them when they are outside the boundaries of God’s will and to do so with the intent of training them to stay inside those boundaries.
Mom’s, your word “teach” is the Hebrew word for “law”. You will recognize it because it is the word “torah”. To moms God has given the responsibility of teaching the law of God to her children. That is not to say that dad doesn’t also have that responsibility. What it says is that between mom and dad there is a mutual understanding of and agreement with the law of God and they work together to train their children to know and serve the Almighty.
It is our privilege as parents to represent the Lord Jesus Christ to our children. It is our responsibility to teach them and train them through instruction and discipline to recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ over their lives. We will fail at that if He is not Lord of our lives. Verbal instruction and teaching must be validated with visible activity.
Our kids are being taught whether we are saying anything to them or not. They learn mainly by observing.
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