Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
May 31, 2026, 8:30 AM
Passage Read: Song of Solomon 7 - Isaiah 2
Meditation Verse: Isaiah 2:22
Thought
The pride of man will be humbled and abased. It will be overthrown, so that the Lord alone will be exalted. Man is of the earth, and his life is in his nostrils, given by the Lord. He did not make himself. And though he makes mighty things and turns millions to worship and adore him, yet he is nothing.
May 30, 2026, 7:51 AM
Passage Read: Song of Solomon 3-6
Meditation Verses: 6:8-10
Thought
This is an intense song of love, filled with longing and desire and delight, until I reach this point. This is still early in Solomon's pursuit of pleasure, his wisdom guiding him. He only has sixty queens and eighty concubines. This one whom the song and all the women praise for her beauty may indeed be the most beautiful of women, but she will not satisfy Solomon.
May 29, 2026, 8:56 AM
Passage Read: Ecclesiastes 11 - Song of Solomon 2
Meditation Verse: Ecclesiastes 11:8
Thought
"Everything that is to come will be futility." Oppression, prosperity, justice, injustice, world war, world peace, everything that is to come will be futility. None of it will last and none of it can I control. I can get caught up in it or I can mind my own business. I can be upset and angry and fight in whatever way I find, or I can leave it to God and find whatever joy there is to be had at hand.
May 28, 2026, 8:16 AM
Passage Read: Ecclesiastes 7-10
Meditation Verse: 7:9
Thought
There's a certain power to anger. It feels good because it feels strong. And it has the ability to intimidate and even attack those who stand in its way. For those who possess it, it can achieve their desires. So it is attractive in so many ways. Those who have it seem strong and get their way, so who wouldn't be tempted by it?
May 27, 2026, 6:44 AM
Passage Read: Ecclesiastes 3-6
Meditation Verses: 5:1-3
Thought
It is far better to draw near to God to listen and learn, but it seems more likely that when we come to God, we come with requests and wishes and wants and dreams. Solomon understands how easy it is to deceive ourselves into thinking we've received an answer from God when we do most of the talking, when we have fixed in our hearts the answer we desire.
May 26, 2026, 8:29 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 30 - Ecclesiastes 2
Meditation Verses: Ecclesiastes 2:17-21
Thought
If all I live to build and produce is tied to this world alone, and I must leave it all behind when I die, what is the point of laboring and building it all? It is the waste of a life. Men build great works that far outlast their lives, but few of their works endure forever, and who built them is not remembered with them.
May 25, 2026, 9:19 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 26-29
Meditation Verse: 29:15
Thought
A child who gets his own way, whether by temper tantrum or by parents who will not oppose him, end up bringing shame and disgrace to his mother and his father. The rod and reproof bring wisdom. Children need rebuke and discipline and training so they learn they are not the center of the universe, but need to submit to and respect authority, especially God's.
May 24, 2026, 8:07 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 22-25
Meditation Verses: 22:24-25
Thought
This is true of all kinds of people. We may not agree with the methods of the angry man, but he gets what he wants in so many cases, so we find ourselves secretly envious, and that envy gives way to unconscious emulation. But it's not just the angry man, it's anyone who gains their desire by unholy means.
May 23, 2026, 8:35 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 18-21
Meditation Verse: 21:30
Thought
Men argue and debate what is and what is not. They even argue and debate the meaning of God's Word and the intent of His heart. As wise as men think they are and as successful as they think they are in turning God's words against Him, they can never succeed against the Lord.
May 22, 2026, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 14-17
Meditation Verse: 14:6
Thought
A scoffer prides himself on his wisdom and his pursuit of truth and justice and righteousness, but because he is the measure of all wisdom, he can rarely find any outside himself. He is more than a doubter, he mocks any wisdom that does not align with his preconceived notions or that condemns his preferences. And since he is a scoffer, he hates sound, godly wisdom because it convicts him not only of his scoffing, but also of so many of the practices and beliefs he approves.