Morning Devotion - Prov. 19

Read Proverbs 19

This chapter begins with an observation about a person living in poverty, and contains many verses that explicitly refer to the poor man. Other verses contain truths that apply more broadly to everyone, but many of these can easily be considered as they relate to poverty.

1. A life of poverty is a life of difficulty. This is not only because of the lack of necessary and desired things. The poor man is deserted by friends and relatives (4, 7).

2. To be poor is not the worst of afflictions. It is much worse to lack integrity (1, 22).

3. There are many causes of poverty. These include lack of discipline at a young age (18), ignoring or rejecting good instruction (20, 27), anger (11, 19), rash behavior (2), a foolish spouse (14), laziness (15, 24), and stubborn cynicism (25, 29). Beyond all of these important considerations, it is worth considering the importance of the fear of the Lord (23), since it is the purpose of the Lord which will stand (21).

4. In light of this, consider verse 17 and think of the One who became poor, that we might be rich.