Day 6: The path to success
...If you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord...holds success in store for the upright... (Proverbs 2:1-5, 7)
Heavenly Father, You give wisdom, from Your mouth come knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6). So often, as we face the perplexities of life—the baffling mazes, the unexpected twists and turns, the grueling climbs—we yearn for wisdom, for assurance, for help in the darkness and the unknown.
But we remember Your words of promise to Your ancient people, I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them (Isaiah 42:16).
Thank You, O Lord, that when we ask, You give wisdom liberally and without reproach (James 1:5 - NKJV). You only require that we ask without doubting (James 1:6), and that we accept Your words, and store up Your commands within us (Proverbs 2:1). The psalmist reminds us, Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path (Psalm 119:105).
Give us Your wisdom, Father, so we do not forfeit relationships for things (Luke 12:13), peace for acquisitions (Ecclesiastes 2:18, 22-23), honor for status (Proverbs 22:1), rest for enslavement (Psalm 127:2), the deceitfulness of wealth for lasting value (Matthew 13:22), our soul for the whole world (Matthew 16:26).
You, O Lord, define the path to success. We call out to You for insight, and cry aloud for understanding. Train our misguided hearts to look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure. Teach us the priceless, all-fulfilling knowledge of God and the reverent fear of the Lord (Proverbs 2: 3-5).
You hold success in store for the upright. You guard the paths of the just and protect those who are faithful to You (Proverbs 2:7-8 - NIV, NLT).
May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord, is in You (Psalm 25:21).
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