Wisdom, honesty, charity, discretion, and hard work keep me in the center of God’s will Ceilon Aspensen, January 14, 2024February 4, 2024 Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is Wisdom, honesty, charity, discretion, and hard work keep me in the center of God’s will. My primary take-away from each of the passages was this: Genesis 27 & 28 – If I seek to deceive I will pay for it, dearly. Maybe not today; maybe not tomorrow; but that karma eventually comes around and always hits hard. Mathew 14 – If I have faith, God will provide me with all I need, even when I don’t see a way. If I falter, all I must do is cry out to him and he will save me. Psalms 14 – If I am upright in my dealings, God is on my side. Even if I am not, God waits patiently for me to see the error of my ways and cry out to him so he can rescue me. God always honors his promises, even if I do not honor mine. Still, the best of all possible worlds is for me to always honor my promises, even to my own hurt. Proverbs 14 – Wisdom, honesty, charity, discretion, and hard work keep me in the center of God’s will. Yes, Esau made a bad choice a few chapters back, and sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. He stepped outside the destiny that God and Isaac had planned for him to satisfy a moment’s impulsive craving. However, Jacob took advantage of him, and he did it on purpose. Yes, his mother put him up to it. Yes, he protested (a little bit). But no matter what claims Rachel made that any curse or bad fortune resulting from their deception would fall on her, in the presence of God we are all accountable for our own actions. Jacob could have said, “no.” He could have schooled his mom on the right way to handle the situation (he was certainly old enough). He could have done the right thing and refused to participate. But he didn’t. He participated in the ruse, stole his brother’s birthright, and while he may have fooled Isaac he surely didn’t fool God. He destroyed his relationship with his brother, and had to live a life on the run. Even though Jacob’s mother sent him to her relatives for safe harbor, God put about twenty years of getting a taste of his own medicine in front of him. Jacob ended up being on the receiving end of multiple deceptions, by his uncle, and by his own favorite wife. In every situation he was the one who suffered the consequences. It may be extremely tempting to take advantage of someone who is easy to deceive for your own personal gain; but if you do it you must remember that God knows every heart and sees all that is happening. You can’t hide from God. Don’t take the chance. Be wise, honest, charitable, and discreet. If you do, God will bless you for your faithfulness to him and your commitment to following his natural laws. Something way more wonderful than what you attempt to steal by deception will be waiting for you down the road if you “just say no” to what looks like a shortcut but is really a trap that you are setting for yourself. That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts. Please follow and like us: Read the Bible in a Year Spiritual Practice charitychristianchristianitydiscretionhard workhonestyread the biblespiritualwisdom