Reading
Proverbs 1:10-19

10My son, if sinners entice you,

don’t consent.

11If they say, “Come with us.

Let’s lie in wait for blood.

Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

12Let’s swallow them up alive like Sheol,

and whole, like those who go down into the pit.

13We’ll find all valuable wealth.

We’ll fill our houses with plunder.

14You shall cast your lot among us.

We’ll all have one purse”—

15my son, don’t walk on the path with them.

Keep your foot from their path,

16for their feet run to evil.

They hurry to shed blood.

17For the net is spread in vain in the sight of any bird;

18but these lay in wait for their own blood.

They lurk secretly for their own lives.

19So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain.

It takes away the life of its owners.


Devotional

When we read the bible in the 21st Century we can think of it as outdated and irrelevant to our world today.  While it is important to understand the context of the situation that it was written in, it’s also good to know that it is still God’s inspired word for us today.  

As we read Solomon’s words to his children they ring true of circumstances today.  In these verses Solomon talks about peer pressure to do what is wrong, as people strive to fill their lives with stuff that won’t make them happy and how greed just leads to emptiness.  

Today we face the same issues it is easier to run with the crowd to try and fit in than to do what is right.  We think peer pressure only affects young people yet we as adults often feel the pressure to blend in. It’s hard to speak out against injustice it’s difficult to go against the culture of the day.  

We live in a world that seeks a certain type of beauty, it honours monetary success and measures worth in possessions and talent.   God does not measure in any of these terms, he simply loves us. Yet we often struggle because we see ourselves and others as successful or unsuccessful in the world’s measurement system.  

God calls for a people who will live by his values not the worlds, not just in how we love others but also in knowing that we are loved and valued by our father God. 
In knowledge we understand that the world creates a pressure to be a certain way, in wisdom we know that God loves us just the way we are.