Reading your Bible for today January 10

January 10: Proverbs 12:4-7

KJV Key Verse: Proverbs 12:5
5 The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.

Devotion:
Once again these few verses highlight different aspects between good and evil. The words do not pick on women, but rather use a lady as an example of how good things can be; a good person, one who is always striving for virtue or even strong enough to keep their virtue (as opposed to just chastity) is a joy to others around them. We can easily relate to things such as a crown which normally symbolises kingly power, riches or great joy.

We can normally tell what others are like by the language they use and the words which come out of their mouths. We can normally tell what sort of home they are from. We can normally tell what sort of people they mix with. This all comes out through their mouths. But if they were to be silent, we would find it a lot more difficult to identify where they are from unless we had a long time to study their movements. Even if a person does not speak, they will eventually show the same sort of detail through the actions they do.

Christ, on the other hand, looks deep inside each one of our hearts to find out the truth. He knows that our thoughts are where things start. He knows that if we are going to do something wrong, we will first start thinking about it! Those thoughts then start to show in our actions. If we are to keep up with ourselves in the same way as we can with others, then we must start to think about the things we allow into our heads; after all, this is the starting point of our future actions.

We need to be observers of our thoughts and intentions. We need to study and judge ourselves at the first point of any action, not to wait until the action has been done, not to wait until it is too late, but to change things when they are in their infancy. We may see people doing things that are very wrong, and even getting praise and glory from those actions, but that praise and glory will end very abruptly at some stage in their life, or even at their death. But righteousness will continue to live on through eternity!

Points to Ponder:
Do you judge others by the way they talk and act?

Would you stop before following them?