September 29, 2016 - TOMORROW?

Day 273 - Proverbs Thursday (chapters 26-27)

“Don’t boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” (Proverbs 27:1 ESV)

It’s football season again, and the familiar chant is back: “We’re number one.” But what about tomorrow? Your quarterback goes down, or the other team gets much better than your team, and such boasting is shown to be empty and baseless. Paul gives us some practical advice about such boasting:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  (James 4:13-15 ESV)

Instead of bragging about what we plan to do tomorrow, we get to brag about the Lord:

“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 10:17 ESV) 

The hymn writer amplified Paul’s words in this manner:

Ashamed of Jesus! yes, I may
When I’ve no guilt to wash away;
No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save.

Till then - nor is my boasting vain - 
Till then I’ll boast a Savior slain,
And O may this my glory be,
That Christ is not ashamed of me!
(TLH 346, LW 393)

Lord, help me to not boast about myself. Instead, use me to boast about You. Amen.

Pastor David Paape 

The following link is to the 52 Week Reading Plan Bible upon which these devotions are based. http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf