JMD Devotional 216 Proverbs 6:23,24 Desperate for Light

For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life, To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a loose woman.

One day when I was feeling down I Googled “life sucks” just to see what came up. There were thousands of hits; and may sites venerating those two words. One site in particular stuck in my mind, it was dedicated to posting short personal stories of misery. As I scrolled through the entries, it was obvious that everyone from young teens to middle-aged adults had posted tales of woe. Most of them had elements of bad choices people made that created their own misery. One man lamented how much an affair had cost him, how his divorce left him bankrupt, how much trouble he has seeing his daughter, how his estranged in-laws hate him. I was also struck by a 19 year old girl who was contemplating her 5th abortion. She said she was attracted to older men even though they always used her and abandoned her. Both of these people ended their posting by stating their contemplation of suicide. Their situations were dark and they were desperate for light. God’s light shines unerringly; but it requires something from us:

Psalm 119:105,106 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn [an oath] and have confirmed it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].

Dear God,
May I not let sin, lust or pride shut my eyes to Your eternal light and truth—to do so is certain ruin! Help me to commit fully to obeying Your word even before I know what it says and without weighing all of the worldly options that oppose it. Help me to be fully transformed as a child of light. May I share that hopeful illumination with others in Jesus’ name.
Amen

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