This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We are looking today at Proverbs chapter
4, and the verse that we have pulled out of Proverbs chapter 4 to look at
together today is verse 18. Proverbs 4, 18 says this, "The way of the righteous
is like the first gleam of the dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full
light of day.

" It's like the first gleam of the dawn. A number of years ago, our family went
to Philadelphia for the 4th of July, and I remember standing in the 4th of July
in Independence Hall and looking at the chair that George Washington sat in as
he presided over that convention, and I was reminded of this story from the time
of the American Revolution. On September 17, 1787, after 16 weeks of
deliberation, the finished United States Constitution was signed by unanimous
consent of the states in Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

And George Washington and the other delegates, they were impressed that this was
a very solemn moment, and they sat for a few moments in silence and grave
meditation. Ben Franklin, one of the signers of that, broke the tension with his
quick wit. He pointed to a half sun that was painted in brilliant gold in the
back of Washington's chair, and he said this.

He said, "I have often, and often in the course of this session, looked at that
behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or
setting, but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, not
a setting sun. " Now, that story reminds me, when I tie it to this verse, of a
question we all need to be asking in our lives. Is the sun rising or is it
setting in your life?

Proverbs 18 answers that question for every believer in Jesus Christ with
empowering clarity. For all of God's righteous, all who know Jesus Christ, the
sun is rising. Things are getting brighter and brighter.

Now, that certainly does not mean that every day is better than the last. That
does not mean that you're going to face some tough days in this life. It does
mean that no matter what you're facing right now, whether it's a health problem,
a business problem, a family problem, whether it's a problem due to age, whether
it's a problem due to youth, whether it's a problem due to anything, whatever
you're facing right now, your greatest hope lies ahead of you, not behind you,
guaranteed.

Now, that does not mean that our lives of growth and change are not going to be
lives of challenge sometimes. But as we look forward to the future, it does mean
that our greatest hope lies ahead of us, not behind us, guaranteed. And it does
mean that our lives are lives of growth and change as we depend on Him,
guaranteed.

It does mean that although our circumstances will always go through ups and
downs, our lives will grow stronger and stronger in faith and hope and love,
guaranteed by the love of God in Jesus Christ. Let's talk to Him and thank Him.
God, thank you for the new things that you do in our lives, that when we become
a believer in Christ, you make us a new creation.

And we look forward with a new love in you and for you to a new heaven and earth
where we're going to rejoice in you forever, for eternity, in new resurrected
bodies that you're going to give us. Sometimes the things that happen in this
world, things we go through, things we face, it might make us feel old or make
the things around us feel old. But the truth is, the sun is rising in our lives.

The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of the dawn. So I pray right
now that you would inject and fill our hearts with hope, the hope of who you
are, the hope of the new things that you want to do in our lives. And I pray
that we carry that hope into our lives today.

Help us to live with hope as people of hope today. We ask this, Jesus, in your
name, Amen.