Reading your Bible for today May 2

May 2: Proverbs 13:19-20

Key Verse: Proverbs 13:19
A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.

Devotion:
How would you rate your happiness on a scale of 1 (not happy) to 10 (ecstatic)? Of that happiness, how much do you attribute to the physical things you have or use? What was your first response to that question? Was it related to the physical world (i.e. what you have done, what you have and what others do for you?) If we were honest, our first reaction to that question is normally what we have physically.

But what God desires for each of us is not the physical happiness first, but the spiritual happiness. Once we have that spiritual happiness, we will find out how He continues to give us the physical pleasures in our life as well. He wants us to be happy in Him and in this world. What we have to be wary of is that we do allow physical pleasures to guide our lives rather than seeking out the spiritual pleasures first. Many around us who do not know Christ will continue to bury themselves in the physical pleasures they think will make them happy. They do this because that is all that they can see as the path to happiness. The last thing they want to do is to turn away from pleasures and physical happiness to try and seek anything else. Unfortunately, their path will not lead to eternal peace.

I like to equate our choices to a town which is full of one way roads. Taking a wrong turning will very quickly lead you away from your destination because you cannot make any U-turns or go back the way you came. Your eyes become focused on the road ahead instead of your final goal. Then you are distracted by all the shop windows as you go past. It is only when you reach the end of the town you realise you were on the wrong path – by then it may well be too late to go back into town and find what you were looking for in the beginning. At the very least you have to try and find one of those one-way streets which lead back into town.

God wants us to listen to our “satellite navigation system” to guide us directly to where He wants us. That guide is our Bible. His Word.

Points to Ponder:
What physical things would make you happy?

Would they help you to get closer to God?