During my devotion time today, I read from Psalm 142 and Proverbs 2. In Proverbs 2, as is true throughout Proverbs, great emphasis is placed upon choosing and remaining on the right path.
Years ago, God’s grace and mercy led me to follow His path, the path of life. For me the path started while gazing at the starlit sky of Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. I was just a young guy, from 10-14 years old.
About 25 years ago, my sons, my brother, and his son, took the path up the side of the Grand Teton mountain range to camp in the “way up”. Today, I will make the same trek with my sons and two grandsons.
My prayer is that my God will make Himself known to them just like He did to me all those years ago. That they will learn to trust You as I have–to follow the path leading to life.
Proverbs Chapter 2
The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security
1 My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
3 For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 Guarding the paths of justice,
And He preserves the way of His godly ones.
9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice
And equity and every good course.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart
And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 Discretion will guard you,
Understanding will watch over you,
12 To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things;
13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Who delight in doing evil
And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
15 Whose paths are crooked,
And who are devious in their ways;
16 To deliver you from the strange woman,
From the adulteress who flatters with her words;
17 That leaves the companion of her youth
And forgets the covenant of her God;
18 For her house sinks down to death
And her tracks lead to the dead;
19 None who go to her return again,
Nor do they reach the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of good men
And keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will live in the land
And the blameless will remain in it;
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land
And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.