Daily Bible Reading and Prayer 3 Jun 6, '19-Jan 17, '20 Proverbs n Ecclesiastes

Aug 18, Prov 31

1 The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him:
Listen to your mother. She has lots of good wisdom to pass on to you.

2 What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows?
I mean, he had a good lecture that his mom gave.

3 Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.
Stop being a woman chaser? Kinda confused from this verse.
Maybe it means that a not good woman can take your strength till you do whatever she says and kings get destroyed by this? Idk

4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink,
I agree. Being healthy and sober is part of great leadership. Many terrible and incompetent Kings have often had alcohol as the one common denominator

5 lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
Don't let drink affect important decision making.

6 Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress;

7 let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.
Drink, like many things, does have its uses. But like all things, just don't miss use it, too many people miss use alcohol.
6-7 Alcohol can provide some escape and calmness to this who are under stress. However, they should be reserved to those people, not for wealthy or intelligent leaders.
But what if wealthy or intelligent leaders need some escape and stress relief? You think about that Will?

8 Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak for those who don't have a voice.

9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Defend those who can't defend themselves.
Be a fighter for the impoverished. The weak. The ones who can't fight.

10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
Ain't that the truth
The following verses are really good, girls should try to be like this woman, and guys can learn from this too, they can try to find a woman like this and be a good husband to her if he finds her. It would be a waste of something more precious than jewels if she didn't have a husband who also loves God and tries his best to live in a way pleasing to Him.

11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.

12 She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
Do your husband good, not harm, but not just your husband, do good and not harm to everyone around you. Or at least try, it's not easy 😂.
11-12
Literally wife material 😂

13 She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.

14 She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar.

15 She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.

16 She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She shows wisdom by considering first, not just buying a field on impulse.

17 She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.

18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.

19 She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

20 She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.
Be kind and generous to those in need, especially when you have plenty from working hard.

21 She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.

22 She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.

25 Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
I'm a tad confused as too why exactly she laughs. I just looked this verse up in a different version, and it said rejoices instead of laughs, I think that makes more sense.

26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
Wisdom and kindness are very good to have and teach.

27 She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
So many verses talk about how hard she works and how she isn't idle and things like that and that makes me feel a little bad because I don't do as much useful things as I would like and I feel like I'm just idle so often.

28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
Women, especially the hard working and attentive, deserved to be praised.

29 "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all."

30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Althlught this is the most truthful and accurate verse here.....Hmmm, i swear we went over this...

31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.  - Proverbs 31
Let your works speak for you.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Your many blessings, thank you especially for the time I could spend with Will today, worshiping You by going to church. Thank you for putting Will in my life, thank especially that he is such a great support even through all my problems. Thank you for others who are also so supportive. Thank you for all the missionaries Your churches support, please continue to bless and use them. Thank you for this study of Your word, thank you for all this Wisdom, please help us use it in our day to day lives to honour You. Please guide and keep everyone in my prayer journal, in Jesus's name, Amen

Dear Lord,
I come to you tonight to thank you again for another wonderful Sabbath with Jessica and her family. I pray that you keep close Liam and others that are not in a good place, and to help them from their troubles. Lord, I ask that you please bless those around me, family and friends, who have been blessings to be. I thank you for a great woman like Jessica to be part of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.