In today’s Seedbed.com Wake Up Call devotional, as we explore the book of Proverbs together, JD Walt directs us to
Proverbs 5:21–23 (NIV)
For your ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all your paths.
The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
the cords of their sins hold them fast.
For lack of discipline they will die,
led astray by their own great folly.
He observes, “What if we read this text not as an ominous warning or as bad news, but as good news?
Someone watching over us can help us, and encourage us, and pick us up when we fall, and carry us when we can’t go any further, and be there for us, and I could go on. God doesn’t watch over us in order to smite us, but so he can support us. Yes, he watches over us so he can instruct us, and warn us, and correct us, and guide us in right paths, and train us in right ways, and discipline us to make us better, and all the other things someone who really loves and cares for a person does..”
| JD continues, “We get this particular verse in the midst of a major warning about adultery. Is this the case because God wants to punish people who commit adultery? No. It’s there because God wants us to understand that, next to murder, adultery is the most dangerous, destructive, and devastating thing a person can do. This is a “Danger, Will Robinson!” Moment. (An allusion to a TV show from my childhood, Lost In Space) To be wise is to recognize the close presence of the Lord and to live life in a way that honors him. For your ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all your paths. To grow wise means to increasingly live life in the awareness and attentiveness to this fact: “Our ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all of our paths.” Thank God. |
| PRAYER |
| Father, awaken me to the gracious awareness that all of my ways are in your full view. Lord Jesus, train me in the ways of your wisdom—to grasp that long before sin shows up in my actions, it seizes my heart. Holy Spirit, would you guard my heart and keep me in your overseeing care. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen. |
| JOURNAL PROMPTS |
| What is your level of awareness that all of your ways are in full view of God? Does this make you more peaceful or more anxious? |
My response to today’s devotional and its question: 10
There was a time early in my personal awakening to the reality of God’s omni-character traits when I felt shame and anger at this reality. I eventually understood the steadfast love of God and the difference between the loving conviction of God through the Holy Spirit and the condemnation of the enemy of my soul. The former leads to knowledge of myself and of God, to understanding, to obedience and to joy.
God does not convict to shame or humiliate but to guide and grow us into the likeness of Christ. Loving Christ makes me welcome the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, even when it requires me to face difficult truths about myself and about life. I have recognized His merciful and kind gentleness, as well as the redemption extended on my behalf when I have humbled myself in times when the correction came swiftly and painfully.
My own encounter with this scripture’s reality, its truth, and its cautionary warning is one that was at the heart of my recognition that I didn’t really know God. Had I truly known God and taken His Word to heart as I had learned it growing up, I would not have done some of the things I did. I lacked understanding. I lacked wisdom. I allowed pain and anger to drive my emotions and did not seek solace in God when I felt hurt by others’ actions.
I was engaging in idolatry before I even understood what idolatry was. I have come to understand it as the human condition by which we all are brought to our knees. It led me down some paths deep in my soul that were very dark indeed. But God was there, watching, waiting, providing people and circumstances that awakened me to His Presence, even in the dark.
I recall one such person, a pastor God used greatly, who in the midst of one of those dark passages said, “It is better to be in the dark with God than in the light without Him.” It seemed strange to me at the time considering my understanding of God as light and darkness as absence of light.
It was not simply my own lack of personal discipline that was to bring about my demise, but my ignorance of and my refusal to accept God’s discipline. I had cut my spiritual baby teeth on Jesus’ love and mercy. I had not seen the sacrifice of obedience to the Father’s will that was at the heart of His suffering…… and His joy. I have come to learn that God will allow us to go as far on the prodigal path as necessary to get to the place of readiness to obey. Then, He smashed my idols. My secrets and deception were exposed I was left on my knees, like the woman caught in adultery facing the raised hands full of stones. But His gentle hand rewrote the script, and I lived to see redemption in areas I thought had been swept away in the torrent of sin’s consequences.
I had come to a place in life, in my misery, of resenting and rebelling against obedience to everything and everyone. I went a step too far and awoke to face the truth that either there was no God or I didn’t really know God. That is the moment God was waiting for……to begin demonstrating His love, not just in spite of my rebellion, but even in the midst of it. And He began the long journey of leading me out of the darkness.
That “beginning of the end of life as it was” occurred 34 years ago. Desire for obedience to God has become my life. I believe God still has a lot for me yet to do. I believe my life has been lengthened because of His mercy and love. I believe I will live a long life because there is still so much He has to do in me to accomplish all He intends. But regardless of how many years are left, I know that I am secure in His arms and can face every day with joy for whatever comes.
CBB 1/5/26