Daily Devotions · May 27
Reading for May 27
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Proverbs 4–6 · Romans 8
Proverbs 4–6 · Romans 8, Berean Standard Bible
Proverbs 4
Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. 2 For I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my directive. 3 When I was a son to my father, tender and the only child of my mother, 4 he taught me and said, “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you will live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them. 6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding. 8 Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you. 9 She will set a garland of grace on your head; she will present you with a crown of beauty.” 10 Listen, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many. 11 I will guide you in the way of wisdom; I will lead you on straight paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble. 13 Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life. 14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. 15 Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by. 16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall. 17 For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. 18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday. 19 But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble. 20 My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body. 23 Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life. 24 Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech. 25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. 26 Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.
Proverbs 5
My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight, 2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. 3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. 6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. 7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, 9 lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; 10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. 11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, 12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! 13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors. 14 I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.” 15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. 16 Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? 17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. 18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: 19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever. 20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger? 21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths. 22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him. 23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
Proverbs 6
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger, 2 if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth, 3 then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor. 4 Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids. 5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. 6 Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise. 7 Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler, 8 it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, O slacker? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, 11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit. 12 A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth, 13 winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers. 14 With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord. 15 Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery. 16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil, 19 a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers. 20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. 23 For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life, 24 to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 25 Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. 26 For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. 27 Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? 28 Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet? 29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. 30 Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger. 31 Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house. 32 He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. 33 Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away. 34 For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance. 35 He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.
Romans 8
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. 27 And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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.