Dave's Diary

Prayer

Eternal and Ever-Present God – all glory and honour be to You alone. Teach me how my life may be pleasing to You today, whether in the things I do and say in public, or in what happens behind closed doors. Amen.

Reading

Read Proverbs 22 slowly and prayerfully. Notice which verse particularly jumps out at you. Re-read that verse a few times, slowly. Write it down in your journal. Try to memorise it so that you can reflect on it without having to read from the page.

Prayerful Reflection

Now take that Proverb and think about your life at the moment. Is there a situation in your life to which that Proverb applies. Ask the Lord how this verse from His Word is telling you to live out His wisdom in that situation. Make notes in your journal.

A Devotional Thought

Proverbs 22: 
²⁸ Do not move an ancient boundary stone
    set up by your ancestors. (NIVUK)

Boundaries between fields were sacred to God’s people in Israel because God Himself had determined the allocation of land to each tribe and family. Everyone had the means to provide for their families because each had been granted land to farm, and such land was held in sacred trust by the family for future generations. In fact, even if land should be “sold” God had determined that it would always return to the original owner in the Jubilee year (every 50 years). This is how important it was to God that everyone had land. God had even warned His people that they would bring a curse upon themselves if they moved a boundary marker (Deuteronomy 27:17). To move a marker was to sin against your neighbour but, far more importantly, it was to sin against God.

What does this have to do with us today? Well, consider how physically easy it was to move a boundary marker out in a field. A few day labourers could very quickly have moved the piles of stones that marked the boundaries between two fields, enlarging one and shrinking the other. If done shrewdly, no one would notice. Oh, how tempting!

This Proverb warns us never to do what is wrong, even when no one will know what we have done. Why? Because God always knows. God sees what is done in secret, and God is the One who matters most. Remember that our mission as believers is to please the Lord in all things. What we do in secret is the best test of whether this mission is truly our priority or not. The next time we are tempted to do something to benefit ourselves because, “No one will know”, may we be protected by this proverb echoing in our hearts, and may we see it as an opportunity to bring the Lord pleasure by making the right choice.

Prayer

Lord, forgive me for the times I have done “in secret” what is not pleasing to You. Please help me to live with a true desire to please You in all things, and to see temptations to sin in secret as opportunities to bring You even greater pleasure. Amen.