January 13, 2023 - Proverbs‬ ‭13‬:‭9‬, ‭21

“The life of the godly is full of light and joy, but the light of the wicked will be snuffed out. Trouble chases sinners, while blessings reward the righteous.” Proverbs 13:9, 21 NLT

Lord, following you is the best decision that we have ever made. A life with you might not be easy, but we are never alone in anything we face. We have the God-over-all facing life with us. You will fill us with everything we need for each day - love, joy, strength, wisdom, patience, compassion, etc. - whatever we need, you freely give. We thank you that this verse says that we are filled with light and joy. It is a light that can’t be snuffed out, and it pushes back the darkness everywhere we go. Thank you for filling us with a joy that isn’t based on our circumstances. It will flow out of us and carry us through even in the hardest times. Lord, your light and joy are available to us all the time, but we need to be “plugged in” to you for them to freely flow through us. Help us to remember that when life gets busy or hard and our instinct is to pull away from you. Instead remind us of the importance of pressing into you. We don’t want to drift away and allow them to be snuffed out in us.

We want to always be in pursuit of you and your righteousness. We praise you that this verse promises that if we do that, blessings will be rewarded to us. We want to see an abundance of your blessings in our lives. If we are not seeing them, show us what we need to change to align ourselves with this promise. If we find ourselves being chased by trouble, open our eyes to any sin that we have allowed in and are harboring. Help us quickly uproot it. We don’t want to give any place to sin but pursue righteousness in all we do. We want to see your blessings freely flowing into our lives. You are such an amazing Father and it’s an honor to serve you and call you our God.

In Jesus name, amen.