DAY 1 – June 27
TITLE: “MOTIVES”
WEEKLY SCRIPTURE
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Key Verse: “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the
Lord.” Proverbs 16:2
Knute Rockne called George Gipp the greatest football player Notre Dame ever produced.
At the height of his college career, however, Gipp
was struck with a serious infection that took his life. On his deathbed, he
told his coach, "Rock, someday when things look real tough for Notre Dame,
ask the boys to go out there and win one for the Gipper."
Eight years later, Knute recounted the deathbed
story for a lackluster team about to face the powerful Army football team of
1928. The Fighting Irish played beyond themselves that day. In the second half,
Notre Dame half-back, Jack Chevigny, took the ball
near the goal line and, having nowhere to go, catapulted over the Army line
into the end zone. Jack then leaped to his feet shouting, "That one was
for the Gipper!" Notre Dame went on to beat Army,
12-6.
The coach
found a way to motivate his team to victory. Motives can move us to action. Our
motives are often at the heart of why we do what we do. In this verse, we are
reminded that we cannot fool God. As commentator, Stephen Lennon said, “He weighs
our motives on the scales of His perfect knowledge and discerns exactly why we
do what we do.” Everything we do is seen by God. This Proverb opens our minds
to the truth that God is so great the He not only sees our behavior and actions
but He sees the why of what we do. Man has no secrets from God.
God cares
about our motives. “Therefore judge
nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to
light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.
At that time each will receive his praise from God.” I Corinthians 4:5. James writes about the importance of having
the right motives in his letter, calling people to submit themselves
to God. He wrote, “When you ask, you do
not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you
get on your pleasures.” James 4:3. God cares about your motives.
The Apostle
Paul testified to the purity of his motives when he reported on his ministry in
Thessalonica. He wrote, “For the appeal
we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to
trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted
with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our
hearts.” I Thessalonians 2:3-4. Take some time to prayerfully reflect upon
your motives. Is God pleased with them?
DAY 2 – JUNE 28
TITLE: “COMMIT TO THE LORD”
WEEKLY SCRIPTURE
DAILY SCRIPTURE READING: Proverbs 16:3
Key Verse: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3
Commitment is
one of those big words. Commitment requires a cost. To commit to the Lord all
that we do requires that we do only that we can commit to Him. To commit to the
Lord is to surrender totally to Him all that we do. To commit to the Lord
whatever you do is to take your hands off of everything you do and place it in
His hands. Proverbs 3:5-6 calls us to
trust in the Lord with all of our heart. It says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths
straight.”
Dr. Bob
Moorhead was Senior Pastor of Overlake Christian Church for 30 years. He wrote
an inspirational essay on commitment that speaks to my heart every time I read
it. The essay titled, “Fellowship of the Unashamed” has often mistakenly been
attributed to an African martyr. The truth is that an African man had a copy of
it on him when he was executed for his faith. Would you take a few moments and
think about your own commitment to Christ as you reflect upon it?
“I am a part
of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been
cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus, and I won’t look
back, go back, hold back, let up, slow down, back away, hesitate or be
still! My past is redeemed. My present remade and my future re-aimed. I
am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth
knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving,
dwarfed goals, deficient faith, and cheap grace. I no longer need preeminence,
prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, prestige, or popularity. I don’t
have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, lean by faith, love
by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is
heaven, my gift is grace, and my God is good.
My road is narrow, my way is rough, my
companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear, and my power
sufficient. I cannot be bought,
compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back,
diluted, distracted, deterred, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of
sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of
the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, wilt in the heat of the battle, or
meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or burn up
until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, worked up, and stayed up
for the cause of Christ. I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I walk in good company; I am a disciple of
Jesus. I must go until He comes, give until I drop, preach until all know, stay
until all go, and work until He stops.
And when He comes to get His own, He’ll have no trouble recognizing
me. My colors will be clear!”
DAY 3 – JUNE 29
TITLE: “PRIDE”
WEEKLY SCRIPTURE
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Key Verse: “The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will
not go unpunished.” Proverbs 16:5
In 1457, King James II of
As I drive by the golf
courses in our community, I am reminded that golf is no longer banned but is
now a thriving sport that many in our church enjoy. Arnold Palmer is among the
professional golfers that come to mind when I think of the game of golf.
Benjamin Franklin wrote, “There is perhaps no
one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle
it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could
conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my
humility.”
As we have discovered, the
book of Proverbs has a lot to say about pride and humility. Pride is not God’s
plan for our lives. The choice of pride carries costly consequences. The Lord
detests all the proud of heart.
History
records, a U.S. Air Force transport plane with its captain and 5 crew members
was flying over Alaska in the mid-50’s when they
entered an unusually fierce snowstorm. The navigator contacted an air base,
only to be told that he had veered several hundred miles off course. Correct
coordinates were given to the navigator, who continued to insist that his own
calculations could not be that far off. Soon, the plane ran low on fuel. The
six men decided to abandon the plane and parachute to safety, but because of
the -70 degree Fahrenheit temperature and winds that gusted to 50 mph, they
were all frozen within minutes of hitting the ground. As a result of the navigator's pride, 5 other
people went to their deaths. Pride is costly.
I Peter 5:6 instructs, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand…”
DAY 4 – JUNE 30
TITLE: “SIN”
WEEKLY SCRIPTURE
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Key Verse: “Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of
the Lord a man avoids evil.” Proverbs 16:6
Sin comes in a variety of
flavors, but they are all contrary to God’s plan and desire for our lives. This
was how Susannah Wesley defined "sin" to her young son, John Wesley:
"If you would judge of the lawfulness or the unlawfulness of pleasure,
then take this simple rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the
tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, and takes off the
relish of spiritual things--that to you is sin."
God’s word has much to say on
sin. Paul wrote to the Church of Rome, “Therefore,
just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in
this way death came to all men, because all sinned – ” Romans 5:12. One
passage of scripture I memorized early as a child was Romans 6:23. It says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Another verse that I
memorized about sin as a child was I John 1:9. It states, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
I heard a story about a man who
purchased a white mouse to use as food for his pet snake. He dropped the
unsuspecting mouse into the snake's glass cage where the snake was sleeping in
a bed of sawdust. The tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands. At any
moment, he could be swallowed alive. Obviously, the mouse needed to come up
with a brilliant plan.
What did the terrified
creature do? He quickly set up work covering the snake with sawdust chips until
it was completely buried. With that, the mouse apparently thought he had solved
his problem. The reality was that this mouse could not solve his own problem.
However, there was a solution. The solution came from outside. The man took
pity on the silly little mouse and removed him from the cage.
Through His
love and faithfulness, God provides the solution for sin in Jesus Christ. Our
sin is atoned for in Christ Jesus. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for
us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” II
Corinthians 5:21. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul once again gives us
these words of hope and promise. “In him
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance
with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7. Take some time to give God
thanks for His atoning love and faithfulness today.
DAY 5 – JULY 1
TITLE: “THE
WEEKLY SCRIPTURE
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Key Verse: “Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.”
Proverbs 16:8
I have always
loved the story of Mary and Martha, as recorded in Luke 10:38-42. In my office,
I have a painting of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. Take a few moments to
read this story.
“As Jesus and his disciples were on
their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to
him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what
he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to
do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord
answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is
needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will
not be taken away from her.’”
Luke 10:38-42.
In this
story, Jesus said that Mary chose what was better. In Proverbs 16, there are
several verses that speak about what is better. Proverbs 16:32 says, “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man
who controls his temper than one who takes a city.” Proverbs 16:19 says, “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the
oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” The verse we are looking
at today says, “Better a little with
righteousness than much gain with
injustice.” Proverbs 16:8.
Righteousness
is the better way. Hope for happiness is vain for the person who seeks to gain
much with injustice. Righteousness is the better choice. A few possessions with
righteousness is better than much gain with
dishonesty. The contrast in this passage is between righteousness and
injustice. Righteousness describes the behavior that comes from fearing God and
being in a right relationship with Him. This relationship is possible through
Christ. The Apostle Paul made righteousness his choice. He wrote, “What is more, I consider everything a loss
compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose
sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from
God and is by faith.” Philippians 3:8-9. Choose righteousness, for
righteousness is always the better way.
“My hope is built on nothing less Than
Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
“On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.” (Edward Mote)