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Today I want to talk to you about words, deeds, and destiny and how they affect our life.

There's some gems in Proverbs chapter 12 that we want to look at today. Our words dictate some of the direction of our life. The deeds that we do, of course, as well, they both affect our destiny. So let's look at a few things today. Proverbs 12.1 says, whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. Now, we don't really like it when people criticize our intelligence. That's an offensive thing. But God very clearly here says that if you hate correction, you're dumb. So why is that? Because you can get a lot farther in life if you take advice based on other people's sound wise counsel. So this is always the strongest course of action as we look in the scriptures.

God's saying, hey, I want you to listen and follow me to the best of your ability in your life. So we want to make sure that we're listening for instruction, that we're loving knowledge. We want to make sure that God isn't telling us that we're stupid because we're not listening. So Proverbs 12.2 says, a good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions he will condemn.

So there's an interesting verse in 2 Chronicles 7. It says that the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the earth, looking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are completely his.

And so God is looking for good people, people that aren't perfect, but their heart's pure and their heart is for the Lord and he wants to give you favor. Quickest way to God's will in your life is to get your heart right. Even right now you might want to say, God, would you purify my heart and purify my motives? And then God says, absolutely. In fact, you're going to get my favor to accomplish my will.

So Proverbs 12.3 says, a man is not established by wickedness, but the fruit of the righteous cannot be moved. So when our heart is pure, when our heart's for God, our roots, they go down deep. And then when the difficulties of life come, the trials of life come, the suffering of life comes. You're like a tree that isn't moved. You stand strong through the storm and through the trial.

Okay, Proverbs 12.4 says, an excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones. It would be nice if we all followed the Lord all of the time. But as the great theologian Justin Speier told me on the phone recently, "free will is a mother."

What does that mean? Well, we have free will and the wisest use of free will is always to choose humility and always to choose servanthood. And that will enable God to be for you. But the reality is we live in a broken world and people don't always choose that. So you want to make sure that you're always choosing God all the time.

And lastly, Proverbs 12.5, the thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. Now why is that? It's because it goes back to heart. It goes back to scheming. You can scheme for good. You can scheme for God actually. And the Bible wants us to do this. You can sort of daydream for the Lord. Take some time to dream and think, man, what would I do if I knew I couldn't fail? How could God use my life?

My friend, that is time well spent. God wants us to dream for him, daydream for him, meditate on the things that we could accomplish for him in his name and write some of them down, some of the things that I have written down that I hope how God uses my life. I have them written down, I pray for them every single day. And I feel God with me as I try to do them.

I'm so glad that you can join me each and every day when you do. There's so many truths and nuggets of wisdom that we can find in God's word that can help us get through our life and each day as we serve Jesus.

Thanks so much for being with me today. Until next time, I hope you have a beautiful day.