- Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Proverbs 16:24 – One day when I worked at the zoo, we had a zookeeper bring in fresh honeycomb harvested from the beehive at the zoo for us to eat. It was the freshest honey I’ve ever tasted and the sweetness of it was addicting. Any level of exhaustion we were dealing with after working that day was set aside for that moment completely because of the honeycomb’s sweetness in our mouth. Scripture says such are gracious words to those who speak them. When we speak words with gentleness and kindness, when we seek to encourage and build one another up, and when we demonstrate love with our words, we are taught in scripture this refreshes the soul and brings health to the body. While it is a blessing to have that said in scripture, we’ve experienced the truth of this in our own life when someone has spoken gracious and loving words to us. We felt seen, loved, and wanted…it was sweetness to our soul and health to our body. Let us have our words be like sweet honeycomb to those who hear our words. We won’t be about tearing people down or being bitter to their soul, but we’ll be grace-givers. Examining then how we spoke this past week at all our Thanksgivings gatherings, would you say your words added to the sweetness of the gathering or added to the bitterness? If bitterness, begin today by reaching out to those you hurt and begin speaking gracious words to them. Scripture says it will bring healing, let us trust God’s word won’t fail. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2924
- The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Proverbs 16:4 – Hear today from this verse a message you may have needed spoken to you…you have a purpose. God made you and made you for your purpose. You were not given breath in your lungs and woken up today for no reason. You have a purpose. What is it? To love God and love people. Today your purpose is to grow deeper in your relationship with your Heavenly Father and to love those around you by sharing God’s love with them. Your freedom today is how you choose to do both of those things. Just don’t ever wake up thinking your life is without purpose. That’s just the enemy trying to stop you from fulfilling what God created you to do. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 687
- There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Proverbs 16:25 – We can be wrong. As much as we study, as much as we plan, as much as we are sure that a direction for our life is right, we can be wrong. What’s worse is the consequence of our being wrong is death. We must then seek direction from someone greater than us. Greater than any human leader, greater than anyone around us. That’s where Jesus comes in. His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are higher than ours. The path He leads us on leads to life; the path we walk without Him leads to death. If then the path we choose on our own has the not just the risk of failure but the promise of death, why take even another step down that path? God is offering a new path that leads to life, joy, and peace. Turn to Him today and seek out a life with Him. – Mac – Daily DEVO 1698
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