The Point - Billy Minshall

"for he is like one who is inwardly reckoning.
    “Eat and drink!” he says to you;
    but his heart is not with you."-Proverbs 23:7

I planned to use Proverbs 23:7 as the jumping off point for this week’s devotional. What I found instead were multiple translations of the same verse—and none of them made the point I wanted to make. 

Really, the jumping off point that I considered was the phrase, “as a man thinketh” which is from the King James Version. And The point I intended to make was about my own thought patterns and how I create my own problems, etc. 

But the text pointed me somewhere else. Instead, I understood the verse differently: to be on the lookout for someone who claims to be an ally, but in their heart they are not. Point well taken. My grandmother used to tell me “not everyone will wish you well in life.” I know this to be true.

This is how God shows up in my life. I’ll think I know something, but oftentimes I am gently taken by the shoulders and redirected. I usually find that my understanding is incomplete, like it was with this particular Bible verse. Then, I can recognize that even when I think I know where I am going, only God knows for sure. And though this is not what I had planned to say, that’s okay. And that is the real point.