God Knows How to Encourage…

I am just like everyone else, there are times when I get discouraged. People, places, and things do not always render positive feelings in my heart; what a comfort it is to open the Bible to your daily reading and find encouraging words:

We can make our own plans,
    but the Lord gives the right answer.

² People may be pure in their own eyes,
    but the Lord examines their motives…

⁴ The Lord has made everything for his own purposes,
    even the wicked for a day of disaster.

⁵ The Lord detests the proud;
    they will surely be punished…

⁹ We can make our plans,
    but the Lord determines our steps.

¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction,
    and haughtiness before a fall.

²⁵ There is a path before each person that seems right,
    but it ends in death. Proverbs 16: 1,2,4,5,9,18,25 (NLT)

I took these select verses from Proverbs 16 because these are the ones that spoke to me this morning. For like David and Solomon, sometimes I wonder how wicked people seem to be able to thrive, while those who seek to be righteous seem to have so much trouble.

In essence I saw that no matter what I think about what is going on, God is “on it” – He knows every one of us and what we are doing. I was particularly stirred by vs 4: “The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster”. Bottom line, none of us get away with anything!

There is a day of reckoning when we will all have to answer for the deeds that are done in our body. Just like I have to answer for me, every other person will have to answer as well. I heard the words of an old song that says:

You know there are too many people trying to take care of
others peoples business and they can’t even take care of their own.
What you need to do is take six months to mind your own business
and six months to leave other folks business alone. All I’m trying to say is:

[Chorus]
Sweep around your own front door before you try to sweep around mine
Sweep around your own front door before you try to sweep around mine...

Album: \\”The Williams Brothers – The Greatest Hits, Vol. 1\\”

Good advice, wouldn’t you say?

Maria