Daily Bible Reading “Guard Your Heart” (Proverbs 4:20-27)

Posted on July 25, 2017 by Deborah H. Bateman

Guard Your Heart

Today’s Daily Bible Reading is from Proverbs 4:20-27. Solomon says to his son, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the middle of your heart.”

These words are life to those who find them, and healing to their body. Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it is the source of life.

Put a deceitful mouth, and perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look right on, and your eyelids look straight in front of you.

Consider the pathway that your feet trod, and be sure all your ways are reputable. Don’t turn to the right or to the left: keep your feet from evil.

The heart is an organ in the center of the circulation system in our bodies and is regarded as the center of all physical and spiritual life.

Solomon warns his son to guard his heart. We have to be careful what we allow into our bodies through our eyes and our ears. These are gateways to our heart. What goes in our bodies will come out of our bodies eventually in one form or another.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 tells us, “ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

Have you ever noticed what comes out of your mouth when you stump your toe? How about when someone pulls out in front of you in traffic? Are they blessings or cursing? Usually the worst will come out of us when we least expect it or put our guard down.

In Matthew 15:18-20a Jesus says, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man.”

Guard your heart. Be careful what you watch on TV or read in books. Be careful what you listen to. Be careful who you hang around with. You may think these things don’t affect you, but what we let into our lives, both the good and bad resides in our heart, the center or our being.

Solomon not only says to guard your heart he also says to guard your mouth. Be careful about the language you use when speaking to yourself, about yourself, to others, or about others. Speak the truth in love. Don’t let perverse words flow from your mouth.

Solomon says to guard your steps, as well. Don’t turn to the right or left but keep on the straight and narrow path that leads to life everlasting. Stay away from evil or the appearance of evil.

By guarding our hearts, our mouths, and our steps we can keep our bodies pure and away from evil.

Daily Bible Reading:

Proverbs 4:20-27

20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

Things to think about:

What is the importance of guarding our hearts?
Why should we guard our mouth?
In what ways should we guard our steps?

Prayer of the Day:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this Scripture in the book of Proverbs. Solomon warns his son to guard his heart, his mouth, and his steps. Help us to guard our hearts, our mouth, and our steps as well. Help us to stay away from evil and keep our hearts, mouth and the path of our lives pure. Keep us on the straight and narrow path to righteousness. Protect us from evil. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Bible Verse for Journaling and Memorization:

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. – Proverbs 4:23

Christian Music Videos: “Guard your Heart” – Steve Green

PS. Thank you for coming to DeborahHBateman.com to study the Bible with us. Come back again tomorrow. Please invite your friends and family to join us for Bible Study.

Featured Book: Have you read:

The Book of Haggai: Consider Your Ways
by Deborah H. Bateman

About the book:

The Book of Haggai: Consider Your Ways is a Daily Bible Reading Study of the book of Haggai by Deborah H. Bateman. It is the twenty-fifth book in the Daily Bible Reading Series by the author. Haggai was one of the prophets from the Old Testament of the Bible.

In the book of Haggai, the LORD reveals a message to Haggai for the people asking them to consider your ways. The LORD also reminded the people through Haggai that He was with them, among other things. These are lessons that we can still use today in our lives.

The Book of Haggai: Consider Your Ways contains four Daily Bible Reading lessons consisting of a brief commentary by the author, the Daily Bible Reading Scriptures, a few questions to consider called, “Things to think about,” and a prayer of the day. It is a great Bible study for individual or group study.

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Have a blessed day,

Deborah

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Daily Bible Reading “Let Your Light Shine in the Darkness” (Proverbs 4:14-19)

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Deborah H. Bateman

Let Your Light Shine in the Darkness

Today’s Daily Bible Reading is from Proverbs 4:14-19. Solomon warns his son saying, “Don’t enter into the path of the wicked, and don’t go in the way of evil men. Avoid it, don’t pass by it, turn from it, and pass away.”

The wicked don’t sleep, until they have gotten into some kind of mischief; and their sleep is taken away, and they cause someone to fall. They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. It’s as if they live and breathe to get into trouble.

The path of the righteous is like a shining light that shines brighter every day.

The way of the wicked is like someone stumbling around in the night: they have no idea what will cause them to stumble.

Solomon warns his son not to walk in the way of the wicked. He tells him to do whatever he has to do to keep from going down that path. He explains to him how those who are wicked act and think.

We must be on guard at every turn so that the enemy doesn’t cause us to stray. The enemy will try to tempt us to turn away from God and to go down the path of the wicked.

As believers, we are to let our light shine in the darkness of this world. We are to share the light of God’s Word with those who haven’t heard it. By doing so we may be able to help some of those who have trodden down the path of the wicked and lead them to see the light of the LORD.

Daily Bible Reading:

Proverbs 4:14-19

14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
15 Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

Things to think about:

What does Solomon say about the wicked?
What does he say about the path of the righteous?
What are some things we can do as believers to help shed the light of the LORD in this dark world?

Prayer of the Day:

Dear Heavenly Father,

As we read this Scripture in the book of Proverbs we see Solomon’s warning about walking in the path of the wicked. Help us not to walk in the ways of the wicked, but to let our light shine in this dark world. Guard us from all iniquity and help us to walk on the path of righteousness. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Christian Music Video: “Let Your Light Shine in the Darkness”

PS. Thank you for coming to DeborahHBateman.com to study the Bible with us. Come back again tomorrow. Please invite your friends and family to join us for Bible Study.

Featured Book:

The Book of Haggai: Consider Your Ways
by Deborah H. Bateman

About the book:

Go to: Amazon
Get your copy now!

Click here to subscribe to Deborah H. Bateman author site and receive Daily Bible Reading Lessons in your inbox.

Have a blessed day,

Deborah

Christian Daily Resources

Bible Verse Tweet

Recipe for Life

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FREE Book Marketing Webinar

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Deborah H. Bateman

I’m hosting a very special webinar by my friend and colleague Kathleen Gage. Kathleen has been a mentor of mine for years and has become not only my mentor, but also my friend.

In the webinar Kathleen will show you how to get your book to the top of the charts on Amazon AND a super social media hack that shows you how to sell tons of books in record time!

It’s called…

“How to Get Your Book To #1 on Amazon”

I’m excited to host Kathleen on this webinar. I have learned much from her over the years and I am sure you will also learn a lot from attending this LIVE webinar.

Kathleen is a published author and a book marketing specialist. In fact you might say she is the queen of book marketing. She has been #1 on Amazon many times over and has taught hundreds of authors around the globe to do the same.

So if you are interested in becoming an author or are already an author this webinar is for you. If you want to know how to make great money as an author and generate more business without missing lots of sales opportunities or competing with all the other experts in your field, then you need to attend this breakthrough webinar event!

We look forward to sharing with you on the webinar and helping you move forward in your life as a best-selling author.

Go to: http://www.powerupforprofits.com/deborah

To register for the webinar.

Have a blessed day,

Deborah

Birthday Bash for The Book of Ephesians

We are celebrating the first birthday of:

The Book of Ephesians: Paul’s Letter to the Church at Ephesus

by Deborah H. Bateman

In honor of the celebration we are giving away FREE copies of the book Wednesday January 21st – Friday January 23rd, 2015.

The book was published on January 27, 2014.

Go to: http://amazon.com/dp/B00I3Q2RFY

Download your FREE copy now!

Please tell all your friends and family about our special event and invite them to download a free copy as well.

Thanks for helping us celebrate. If you enjoy the book please consider doing a review of it on Amazon and check out our other books.

Enjoy the book,

Deborah

It Is Time to Realign

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Deborah H. Bateman

Have you ever felt like it was time to realign your priorities? I am writing this post to share from my heart with my family, friends, followers and fans to let you know that I am making some changes. Over the past three years I have put my heart, soul and life into the ministry that God has called me to do. I will continue to do that, but I feel like I need to make some changes in order to be able to sustain the ministry and serve you better.

My husband has wanted me to not work on the weekends for quite some time, but I didn’t feel the freedom to do that until now. There have been some changes in our lives recently in that he got a new job and because of that I have the opportunity to travel with him.

Because most of my work is online at this point I can work from anywhere. I have decided to take the opportunity so that I can spend more time with my husband. Life is short and we aren’t promised tomorrow.

I feel that by changing my focus and working Monday through Friday during business hours I will allow myself some freedom as well. I will be able to spend more time with my husband during the week and on the weekends. I will be able to spend time with my children and grandchildren on the weekends as well. I will also be able to schedule time for writer’s meetings, writer’s conferences, church activities and women’s ministry.

I guess you are asking what does this have to do with you. I have been posting seven days a week for the past three years on Daily-Bible-Reading.com and BibleVerseTweet.com. Starting today I will be posting Monday through Friday. There is plenty of content there that I have created in the past three years in the archives for those of you who want to view it on the weekends.

At times I have felt burned out and exhausted. I have felt over worked and under paid. I have also experienced some physical issues. Due to my own physical well-being and the need to realign my schedule I feel these changes are absolutely necessary. I feel I will be able to get some much needed rest and will be able to focus better when I am working.

I love serving you and am excited about what God has done in the past and what He has planned for the future. There will be more books. I plan on publishing one book a month in the Daily-Bible-Reading Series over the next year. I also am planning on publishing another book in the Simplified Series in the next year. I am working on a coaching program to go along with Self-Publishing Simplified: How to Publish a Book on Kindle that I hope to release soon where I will be teaching other writers how to publish their books.

God has been good to me. He has blessed me with a wonderful family that I dearly love. He has blessed me with a ministry where I can serve Him and share with you. He has blessed me with many wonderful friends, followers and fans and I am grateful for every one of you. Thank you for your continued prayers and support as I move forward for His glory.