Day 337 Bible Readings – I John 4: 1 (ESV)

Daniel 9 & 10, 1 John 4: 1-6, Proverbs 22: 7-16

I John 4: 1 (ESV)

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Verse 1 from 1 John 4 is good advice that we cannot believe or assume that every spiritual experience or demonstration of spiritual power is from God. This scenario is one of the few times we can test the Holy Spirit to ascertain whether the spirit is from God.

I love listening to prophetic voices. I find the phenomenon of prophecy so interesting, but I don’t think we can assume that all prophecies are from God. We need to observe and question whether the prophecies are in line with Biblical teachings. If the prophecy is not in line in what is being said in the Bible, we need to step back and pray for discernment. I think it also helps if we cultivate a relationship with the Holy Spirit daily, so we can ask the Holy Spirit what they think of the prophecy and the prophetic voice who is speaking it. I think if the prophecy feels just a little bit off, we need to step away and pray for discernment. God is the only one who can judge, so we need to pray and ask God to help us determine if the prophecy is even worth paying attention to and acted upon.

Day 336 Bible Readings – Proverbs 22: 6 (ESV)

Daniel 8, 1 John 3: 11-24, Proverbs 21: 27-31, Proverbs 22: 1-6

Proverbs 22: 6 (ESV)

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Verse 6 from Proverbs 22 reminds me to be grateful to my mom. She loved Christ and tried to instill in me a love of Christ from a very young age. I grew up going to church and watching her pray and trying to be a good person of faith. She didn’t always succeed, but she tried. That early teaching to love God came back to me as I grew older. I don’t think that feeling of loving God ever left me fully, but it took a back seat for many years of my life. And when the timing was right, those early memories of loving God came back and reminded me that God was always there for me in m life.

I thank my mom and all moms for never hiding their love of Christ from their children. Your love of God will influence your children for the rest of their lives.

Day 335 Bible Readings – Proverbs 21: 17 (ESV)

Daniel 7, 1 John 3: 1-10, Proverbs 21: 17-26

Proverbs 21: 17 (ESV)

“Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.”

Verse 17 from Proverbs 21 is another simple piece of advice that needs to be repeated often. Solomon tells us that if you love pleasure too much, you will be a poor man. Similarly, if you love oil and wine too much you will not have wealth. To be successful in life and have wealth requires self-discipline and self-denial. You cannot always be in the pursuit of pleasure. Many would consider wine and oil to be items of luxury. It’s not that you can’t have luxury in life, but you can’t love them so much that you spend all of your money on them.

Verse 17 can also be applied to food. If you find too much pleasure in food, you will gain weight and not be a healthy and thin person. If you spend all your time drinking too much wine and eating luxurious foods, you will gain weight and not be healthy.

Day 334 Bible Readings – 1 John 2: 15-17 (ESV)

Daniel 5: 17-31, Daniel 6: 1-28, 1 John 1-2, Proverbs 21: 1-16

1 John 2: 15-17 (ESV)

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

In verses 15 through 17 from 1 John 2, John writes to people of faith to not love the things of the world. John tells us that whatever is in the world is from the world and does not last. The only thing that does last is God and the love he has for us, and the promise that we will be with him at the end of our days.

John’s advice seems so simple, but it can be hard to remember in our daily life because we live in the world and are influenced by it on a constant basis. I think that the times we live in make it especially hard for people of faith to live in the world. There are many things that are shown in movies and television shows that are not in keeping with the God’s laws in the Bible. We also see these things in print, in commercials, on the radio, on billboards, etc. It seems at times the whole world is against God or as some would say “anti-God”.

In my life the only thing that brings me peace of mind and contentment is the love of God and the reading of his words and promises in the Bible. The world has changed so much since the Bible, but the Bible has not changed. It has withstood the changes that go on in the world. The same is true for the love of God. God has not changed and there are centuries of stories proving that God always keeps his promises to his people. The world changes but God never does.