Daily Devotional For Thursday, April 23, 2026
Good morning Southside! Thank you for joining us today for our devotional reading. Our passage for today is Proverbs 14:12:
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (NASB).
This same Proverbs is repeated again in Proverbs 16:25. Why is that? We do not get it nor do we really believe it. We can go all the way back to Genesis 3 and see this. Adam and Eve did not trust God nor His Word and their way led to the death of everyone. That is the point of Romans 6:23. We now live in a world where there are no longer any absolute moral truths – except those that are subjective. Since the 1960s where there were riots and rebellion across our college campuses, “free love” and the idea that every person is now their own god, this idea (“I am a god to myself") has infected each generation since.
We no longer see a moral order outside of ourselves. We determine what is right and wrong for ourselves. No longer do we see ourselves made in God’s image. We now make God in our own image. God says that His righteousness is the standard and we reject that over self-idolatry. Today we make moral choices on the fly seeing that every situation is different. No longer is God and His word that moral standard.
According to the Book of Proverbs, this pagan and demonic belief leads only to more death. And when it comes, we actually seem shocked that death came and in the end, we tend to blame God for not sanctioning our sinful immoral choices and decisions. The Bible says this in Romans 6:20-22:
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. (21) Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. (22) But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life” (NASB).
The New Living Translation puts Romans 6:20-22 this way:
“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. (21) And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. (22) But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life” (NLT).
The point that Proverbs 14:12 and the whole book makes is this: we will give ourselves to something. The further we move away from God, the deeper enslaved we are that leads to our death, not freedom. Everyone is a slave to something – everyone. The devil comes to us and whispers in our heart, “You want to be free, really free? You don’t need God for that because you are already your own god. You decide.” And sadly, many do and experience death physically, emotionally, psychologically, relationally and spiritually.
There are many paths to choose that seem right to us, but none of them are free of negative and deadly consequences. For example, for over 70 years the Surgeon General has warned people of the dangers of smoking and they think, “It is my life to do with as I please.” They smoke and then down the road they get lung cancer or heart disease and they blame God for it. Or a guy and girl move in with each other thinking, “You never buy a car until you try it out first,” only to lose the closeness and power of God in their lives.
Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (NASB). Notice the word “will” is emphatic – you will reap the consequences of whatever sinful choices you make. God will forgive you but He will force you to live with the horrible consequences. Today, we are more in love with ourselves than we are with the Lord. Old Testament scholars Kent Hughes and Raymond Ortlund write this (Source: Kent Hughes & Raymond Ortlund, Preaching The Word, “Proverbs—Wisdom that Works”):
“Frank Laubach was a missionary to the Philippines. He created a way of teaching literacy that helped about 60,000,000 people around the world learn to read. He is the only missionary to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 1984 our Postal Service put out a 30¢ stamp with Frank Laubach’s picture on it. He helped a lot of people. But more deeply, Frank Laubach longed for God. So one year he tried an experiment. He spent the year 1930 on a daily journey going deeper with God. He was a busy man. But he wanted to live his busy life with God. Here is what he wrote to a friend on January 26, 1930: `Do not try this, unless you feel dissatisfied with your own relationship with God, but at least allow me to realize all the leadership of God I can. I am disgusted with the pettiness and futility of my unled self. If the way out is not more perfect slavery to God, then what is the way out?’” (Source: Frank Lauback, Letters By A Modern Mystic, pp. 11-12).
Reflection Assignment: What is it that you give yourself to that is now making you a slave to it? If you are living with negative consequences of your past sin or disobedient decisions, what have you learned from this that is shaping your life to be different? When you look in the mirror, what is reflected back to you? A person enslaved to God and His truth or a person who is enslaved to themselves? Explain.
Scripture To Meditate On: Proverbs 19:16, “He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, but he who is careless of conduct will die” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me be disgusted with the pettiness and futility of my self-centered, subjective life. I do not want to be a slave to sin. I want to be free through Your Truth. Lord, convict me not to become cynical and bitter against You when my own decisions were reaped in painful consequences. Help me to live out Luke 9:23 and Matthew 6:33. You are God and I am not. I am removing myself from the throne of God and ask You to sit on it. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly