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Your Nightly Scripture - Trusting God When I Don’t Know What’s Next (Proverbs 16) · LifeAudio

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Speaker 1: Life Audio Thank you for listening to your nightly scripture.
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Speaker 1: A calming scripture-centered devotional podcast designed to help you end
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Speaker 1: each day with God's word in your mind and on
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Speaker 1: your heart. Right after the short word from our sponsors,
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Speaker 1: we will reflect on tonight's scripture, Proverbs chapter 16. Our
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Speaker 1: evening reflection is written by Amanda Adleman and read.
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Speaker 2: By Kyle Norman. Proverbs 16 To humans belong the plans
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Speaker 2: of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper
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Speaker 2: answer of the tongue.
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Speaker 1: All a person's ways seems pure to them, but motives
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Speaker 1: are weighed by the Lord. Commit to the Lord whatever
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Speaker 1: you do, and He will establish your plans. The Lord
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Speaker 1: works out everything to its proper end, even the wicked
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Speaker 1: for a day of disaster. The Lord detests all the
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Speaker 1: proud of heart. Be sure of this, they will not
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Speaker 1: go unpunished. Through love and faithfulness, sin is atoned for.
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Speaker 1: Through the fear of the Lord, evil is avoided. When
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Speaker 1: the Lord takes pleasure in anyone's way, he causes their
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Speaker 1: enemies to make peace with them. Better a little with
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Speaker 1: righteousness than much gain with injustice. In their hearts, humans
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Speaker 1: plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. The
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Speaker 1: lips of a king speaks as an oracle, and his
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Speaker 1: mouth does not betray justice. Honest scales and balances belong
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Speaker 1: to the Lord. All the weights in the bag are
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Speaker 1: of his making. Kings detest wrongdoing. for a throne is
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Speaker 1: established through righteousness. Kings take pleasure in honest lips. They
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Speaker 1: value the one who speaks what is right. King's wrath
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Speaker 1: is a measure of death, but the wise will appease it.
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Speaker 1: When a king's face brightens, it means life. His favor
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Speaker 1: is like a rain cloud in spring. How much better
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Speaker 1: to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver.
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Speaker 1: The highway of the upright avoids evil. Those who guard
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Speaker 1: their way preserve their lives. Pride goes before destruction, a
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Speaker 1: haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in
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Speaker 1: spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with
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Speaker 1: the proud. Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed
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Speaker 1: is the one who trusts in the Lord. The wise
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Speaker 1: and heart are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction.
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Speaker 1: Prudent is a fountain of life to the prudent, but
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Speaker 1: folly brings punishment to fools. The hearts of the wise
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Speaker 1: make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction. Gracious
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Speaker 1: words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing
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Speaker 1: to the bones. There is a way that appears to
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Speaker 1: be right but in the end it leads to death.
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Speaker 1: The appetite of laborers works for them. Their hunger drives
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Speaker 1: them on. A scoundrel plots evil, and on their lips
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Speaker 1: is like a scorching fire. A perverse person stirs up conflict,
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Speaker 1: and a gossip separates close friends. A violent person entices
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Speaker 1: their neighbor and leads them down a path that is
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Speaker 1: not good. Whoever winks with their eye is plotting perversity.
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Speaker 1: Whoever purses their lips is bent on evil. Gray hair
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Speaker 1: is a crown of splendor. It is attained in the
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Speaker 1: way of righteousness. Better a patient person than a warrior,
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Speaker 1: one with self-control than one who takes a city. The
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Speaker 1: lot is cast into the lap, but it is every
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Speaker 1: decision is from the Lord. Life often throws us curveballs.
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Speaker 1: Just when we think we've gotten something figured out, inevitably
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Speaker 1: things change. Our kids grow up, jobs change, our bodies shift,
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Speaker 1: our community evolves, or a need arises. These are the
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Speaker 1: exact moments that we are called to trust in the
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Speaker 1: Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our
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Speaker 1: own understanding, because we know that He will make our
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Speaker 1: paths straight. That's Proverbs 3, chapter 5 and 6. One
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Speaker 1: notable moment in which we all had to collectively cling
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Speaker 1: to God was in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic turned
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Speaker 1: our lives upside down and swept across the globe. I
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Speaker 1: remember walking miles around my neighborhood, praying and reciting verses
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Speaker 1: to myself as a way of reminding myself that God
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Speaker 1: would not leave us, even as the whole world began
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Speaker 1: to panic. I had to practice Proverbs 16.3 and commit
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Speaker 1: everything to the Lord, trusting Him to establish my plans.
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Speaker 1: Since that season, life has provided many more opportunities to
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Speaker 1: cling to the Lord when the future felt hazy and scary.
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Speaker 1: We have added three kids to our family through foster
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Speaker 1: care and adoption. As we walked through uncertainty and the
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Speaker 1: roller coaster that is foster care, I often had to
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Speaker 1: remind my soul to lean on the Lord when I
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Speaker 1: wanted to freak out. When my body was struggling with illness,
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Speaker 1: I had to rely on God's Spirit for peace. Even
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Speaker 1: when pain was my constant companion. In the seasons of
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Speaker 1: conflict and strife with my husband, I had to ask
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Speaker 1: God to show me how to change, how to forgive,
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Speaker 1: and how to love him with God's love again. The
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Speaker 1: future often feels scary. But when we practice trusting God,
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Speaker 1: we know that we will be okay. It is our
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Speaker 1: reliance on Jesus that carries us from one season to
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Speaker 1: the next. Without Him, the future is bleak. But as believers,
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Speaker 1: we have access to eternal hope that changes everything. Remember
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Speaker 1: Proverbs 16.9 In their hearts, humans plan their course, but
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Speaker 1: the Lord establishes their steps. Our future is the Lord's.
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Speaker 1: He is the one establishing our steps, and we can
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Speaker 1: trust him. Father, I thank you that you are trustworthy.
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Speaker 1: I can rely on your word and promises when I
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Speaker 1: can't see the way forward. I can lean on the
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Speaker 1: power of your Holy Spirit when I am unsure how
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Speaker 1: to move ahead. I commit my ways to you. knowing
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Speaker 1: that you alone establish my steps. Go before me and
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Speaker 1: make a way. I need you, Jesus. You are my
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Speaker 1: firm foundation in a chaotic world.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: How did tonight's scripture speak to you? Share your thoughts
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Speaker 1: in the Your Nightly Scripture Forum discussion. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: listening to Your Nightly Scripture. Tonight's scripture was read from
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Speaker 1: sure to follow our sister show, Your Daily Bible Verse,
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Speaker 1: on Apple or Spotify. By following Your Daily Bible Verse
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Speaker 1: and Your Nightly Scripture, you can be sure that your
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Speaker 1: day begins and ends today.
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Speaker 2: Centered on the Word of God.