Daily Devotions · May 26
Reading for May 26
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Proverbs 1–3 · Romans 7
Proverbs 1–3 · Romans 7, Berean Standard Bible
Proverbs 1
These are the proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel, 2 for gaining wisdom and discipline, for comprehending words of insight, 3 and for receiving instruction in wise living and in righteousness, justice, and equity. 4 To impart prudence to the simple and knowledge and discretion to the young, 5 let the wise listen and gain instruction, and the discerning acquire wise counsel 6 by understanding the proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. 8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother. 9 For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them. 11 If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause, 12 let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit. 13 We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder. 14 Throw in your lot with us; let us all share one purse”— 15 my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path. 16 For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood. 17 How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it! 18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives. 19 Such is the fate of all who are greedy, whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors. 20 Wisdom calls out in the street, she lifts her voice in the square; 21 in the main concourse she cries aloud, at the city gates she makes her speech: 22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge? 23 If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you. 24 Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand, 25 because you neglected all my counsel, and wanted none of my correction, 26 in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you, 27 when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you. 28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me. 29 For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. 30 They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. 31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32 For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. 33 But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety, secure from the fear of evil.”
Proverbs 2
My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you, 2 if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding, 3 if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure, 5 then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity, 8 to guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His saints. 9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path. 10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul. 11 Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, 12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity, 13 from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness, 14 from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil, 15 whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious. 16 It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words 17 who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. 18 For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits. 19 None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life. 20 So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it; 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.
Proverbs 3
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; 2 for they will add length to your days, years and peace to your life. 3 Never let loving devotion or faithfulness leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. 8 This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. 9 Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. 11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD, and do not loathe His rebuke; 12 for the LORD disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the son in whom he delights. 13 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who acquires understanding, 14 for she is more profitable than silver, and her gain is better than fine gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire compares with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. 17 All her ways are pleasant, and all her paths are peaceful. 18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed. 19 The LORD founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding. 20 By His knowledge the watery depths were broken open, and the clouds dripped with dew. 21 My son, do not lose sight of this: Preserve sound judgment and discernment. 22 They will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck. 23 Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble. 24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you rest, your sleep will be sweet. 25 Do not fear sudden danger or the ruin that overtakes the wicked, 26 for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from the snare. 27 Do not withhold good from the deserving when it is within your power to act. 28 Do not tell your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I will provide”—when you already have the means. 29 Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he trustfully dwells beside you. 30 Do not accuse a man without cause, when he has done you no harm. 31 Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways; 32 for the LORD detests the perverse, but He is a friend to the upright. 33 The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous. 34 He mocks the mockers, but gives grace to the humble. 35 The wise will inherit honor, but fools are held up to shame.
Romans 7
Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. 4 Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. 6 But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. 7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. 17 In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. 20 And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. 23 But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain.
How to SOAP
Grab a journal and a pen. Read the chapters above and watch for the verse that stops you. Then take it through four steps.
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Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
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Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
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Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
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Prayer
Talk to God about it. Ask Him to help you live it.
Your SOAP journal
Write your SOAP here. Tap any verse in the reading to add it to Scripture. Your journal saves on this device only, so no one else sees it.
Added to your journal. Go to journal
Why daily devotions?
Devotions are time set aside each day to read God's Word and let Him speak. The point isn't checking off chapters. It's meeting with Him.
Ten or fifteen minutes is enough to start. Pick a time and a place and keep the appointment. Mornings work well for a lot of us, before the phone and the day start talking.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.