Reading your Bible for today August 20

August 20: Proverbs 25:8-10

KJV Key Verse: Proverbs 25:9
9 Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to another:

Devotion:
How many times have you been caught up in something and blundered in to try and fix things or sort things out, only to find you get caught out by someone else who actually knows what they are doing? Maybe you have had the right idea and tried to do what you thought was right, but because the other party had sat down and prepared, they ran circles round you and made you look like the fool in the wrong. Or maybe you jumped in being sure you were right, only to find out you did not see things clearly and were in the wrong all along.

Humans can be very emotional and far too often we allow our emotions to get the better of us. We allow ourselves to get caught up emotionally before we have had any time to think about the circumstances surrounding us and the situations. When we see something we jump in and immediately try and put the blame on someone else, not knowing all the details or reasons behind what we have seen. If we see a friend doing something which we do not immediately agree with, we should be trying to find out exactly what is happening before spreading the blame.

But again, we tend to get carried away with our emotions and allow ourselves to get caught up in arguments we should not be in. When we do, we quite often will let slip things which we should not be talking about. Maybe we heard through the grape-vine something about an associate and in the heat of the argument we let slip what we heard only to find out it was given to us in the strictest confidence and we may as well have destroyed that person’s life. Gossip is spread through emotive times. In the heat of the moment we all let slip details we should not – all because we allowed our emotions to rule the moment instead of trusting in God to help us through our rough times.

Points to Ponder:
How many times have you blown up at your parents and said the wrong things?

How many times could you have asked God for guidance?