Category: Faith

God Has a Purpose and a Plan. Trust Him. – Exodus 13 – 2025 Day 121

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Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 91, Exodus 13

Over my almost 30 years of motherhood, I’ve had countless opportunities to make decisions that my children don’t understand.

  • Sweetheart, put on your shoes and socks right now and go collect the chicken eggs.
  • Honey, grab your backpack and stick it in the car. We’re going to need it later.
  • Hey, sweetie, hurry and finish up your chores. We have to leave in five minutes.

Maybe I know something that we have planned for later that day which my children are unaware of or maybe I’m looking at a bigger, longer-term goal that my children just aren’t ready to understand. Whatever the reason may be, I want my children to obey “promptly, cheerfully, and completely.” I want them to trust my judgment. I want their first response to be obedience, rather than debate. I want their initial thought to be, “My mom’s pretty good at this mom-stuff, I ought to do what she says,” rather than, “Why is my mom always telling me what to do? Can’t she just leave me alone?”

I was thinking about this as I read about God leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

“When Pharaoh let the people go,
God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.
For God said, “Lest the people change their minds
when they see war and return to Egypt.”
But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.”

Exodus 13:17-18 ESV

God knows men’s hearts, and God knows the future. In His perfect wisdom, He always knows what is best. He always has purpose in the path that He choses for His children. Sometimes He wants us to walk through the darkest valleys, and sometimes He wants us to joyously dance over the mountains, but either way His purposes are good and He is worthy of our trust.

Let’s pray.

Oh Lord God, You are good and perfect in all Your ways. Help me to trust You. Help me to follow You promptly, cheerfully, and completely, even when I don’t understand, especially when I don’t understand. May I have unwavering faith because You are an unwavering God. You always keep Your promises. When the way looks dark and scary, help me reach out my hands to You and trust that You are there. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Good Shepherd, we pray, Amen.

All of our Tomorrows – Sovereign Grace

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Passover through Christian Eyes – Exodus 12 – 2025 Day 119

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 89, Exodus 12:1-28

I usually just pick one thing to focus on in a chapter, but today I couldn’t. There’s so much contained in this one chapter of Exodus 12. In fact, I only made it through about 2/3 of the chapter – come back tomorrow for more. ☺️ I sincerely hope you’ll get your Bible out and study it yourself.

“This month shall be for you the beginning of months.” (Exodus 12:2a) This reminded me that the birth of Christ also began a new era. B.C. and A.D. are split by the birth of the Lord. Likewise the Passover establishes the beginning of every new year. Also, the Lord’s Day, Sunday, is the beginning of every new week. Wow!

“Every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.” (Exodus 12:3b) There was to be a lamb for each household according to their fathers’ houses. God has always intended families to follow Him together with their whole households, led by a father. Fathers are designed to train and nurture and disciple their children.

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.” (Exodus 12:5a) The lamb is to be without blemish, a male, and one year old. God wants your first and your best. You can’t give Him your leftovers or rejects. And just as God created humans male and female, He also created animals male and female. He wants the offering to be a male, a one year old male. Not a newborn knock-kneed baby lamb, but also not an old worn-out one.

Jesus, the once for all Passover Lamb, was a sinless male in the prime of his life.

“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.” (Exodus 12:7) Each Hebrew father had to take that lamb’s blood and smear it onto the doorposts and the lintel of his home. Simply killing and eating the lamb wasn’t enough. Simply being of Hebrew descent wasn’t enough. God required each family to make an active choice of faith to be saved from this tenth plague. Like Hebrews 11:28 says, “By faith [Moses] kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.”

“You shall observe this rite as a statute
for you and for your sons forever.
And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.

And when your children say to you,
‘What do you mean by this service?’
you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover,
for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt,
when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'”

Exodus 12:24-27a

God wants this week-long Passover ritual to be a lasting rite for the Hebrew people, lasting even after they have entered the promised land, so that their children yet to be born will ask why it is celebrated … and the fathers can explain God’s awesome rescue … So they would be prepared for His Son, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Yahweh is the Great I Am – the God who was and is and is to come. He knows what is to come in the future, and He wants our children’s children’s children to know Him. And He allows us as parents the PRIVILEGE to have a part in that! Wow!

But don’t miss the words, “He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.” (Exodus 12:27)

Let those words sink in and humble you.

God didn’t pass over you because you were sinless. God didn’t pass over you because you had shed your own blood and painted it on your home’s doorframe. No, God passed over you because you choose by faith to obey Him and trust in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, Your mercy humbles me. Your grace humbles me. Your love humbles me. Why did You forgive me? Why? I don’t deserve it, Father.

Thank You for sending Your own Son to be that perfect Passover Lamb for me, that His blood would cover the sin in my heart and make me clean. Thank You that when You pass by me, You see the blood of Jesus and accept His sacrifice on my behalf. Thank You.

I pray that my life would make my children and my children’s children ask questions, “Grammy, why do you go to church? Why do you read the Bible? Why do you tell other people about Jesus? How can you be so patient when I’m naughty? Why, Grammy, why?”

And I pray that I would be faithful to tell my children and my children’s children about that first Passover and that perfect Lamb who took away the sin of the world by His death on the cross. It is in the Name of Jesus Christ that I can pray to You, knowing that You hear me and love me, Amen.

Before the Throne of God Above – Shane and Shane

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With Your Sons and Daughters – Exodus 10-11 – 2025 Day 118

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 88, Exodus 10-11

When I was a teenager I was afraid of  babies. No joke. I didn’t know how to handle them and I worried that I’d hurt them or something. I wanted to adopt all my children so I could get them when they were say about 2 or 3 years old, already potty trained and talking.

Now as a mom of four – including one who was adopted as a 6-month-old – I see the incredible value of the training that happens even in those first two years. Even the youngest child is learning how the world works. They are learning that their parents love them and take care of them – or not. They are learning that they are not the center of the world – or they are. They are learning to be patient, obedient, and humble – or not.

I am certain that God has a plan and purpose in having babies be born helpless and needy. God could’ve designed new lives to begin already grown and wise, but He didn’t. God intentionally places children into families for the good of the children … and the parents.

So, it’s no surprise that Pharaoh doesn’t want the Hebrew children to go worship with their parents, and it’s no surprise that Moses insists that they must.

So Moses and Aaron
were brought back to Pharaoh.
And he said to them,
“Go, serve the LORD your God.
But which ones are to go?”

Moses said, “We will go with
our young and our old.
We will go with our
sons and daughters
and with our flocks and herds,
for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”

Exodus 10:8-9 ESV

Don’t underestimate the importance of taking your children to church, of leading them in worship at home, and of including them in your family holiday celebrations. Your toddlers and preschoolers are learning more than you may realize.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we would be faithful stewards of the children that You have entrusted to us. I pray that we would train them up in the way that they should go and that when they are old they will not depart from it. Help us as parents to have obedient hearts, obeying You rather than the world. Lord, You love children and You have placed them into families on purpose. Help us to include them in our family’s worship at home and at church. Help us not to underestimate what our children are learning and the eternal impact that these young ones can have for Your kingdom. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

My children reciting Psalm 139 from memory

Psalm 148:12-13 ESV — Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.

Deuteronomy 31:10-13 ESV — And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Proverbs 22:6 ESV — Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV — And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Psalm 78:2-7 ESV — I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

All Creatures of our God and King – Getty

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Pharaoh and the Parable of the Four Soils – Exodus 9 – 2025 Day 117

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 87, Exodus 9

Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” … But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

Exodus 9:27-28, 34-35 ESV

When I read Pharaoh’s emotional reaction to the seventh plague, I was reminded of the parable of the four soils in Matthew 13 which we read last month.

In this parable, a sower scatters seed in a variety of soils. Some soil is so hard that the seed never even begins to take root, and the seeds are eaten by birds before they even sprout. Other soil is rocky, but there’s enough good soil there that the seed begins to grow but it can never put down solid roots and persecution and tribulation causes these seeds to die. Still other seeds are scattered among thorny ground where the seeds are able to put down roots and even begin to grow, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the plant’s growth so it never bears any fruit. And then there’s the fourth soil, the good soil, that allows the seed to put down strong roots and bear fertile fruit, yielding thirty, sixty, or even a hundred-fold multiplication. (Read it for yourself in Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23)

First, let’s remember that these seeds were all scattered by the same sower. It’s not about using better techniques – speaking more eloquent words or drawing better diagrams. Moses’s faltering speech is not to blame for Pharaoh’s lack of true repentance. Yes, get trained to share the gospel … But don’t blame yourself when the seeds don’t take root.

The words of the young man who shared the gospel with me took root and bore fruit – not because he spoke “just the right words” (he didn’t) – but because God had prepared the soil of my heart.

If you share the gospel with someone and they aren’t brought to repentance and salvation, don’t be discouraged. Keep sharing. Keep scattering seed. God might be using you to prepare the soil for the next sower who comes along.

Secondly, remember the importance of continued outreach and discipleship after the seeds are scattered. Unfortunately, it seems that many people have misunderstood the Great Commission as being simply a charge to “preach the good news” rather than “go and make disciples.” Preaching the good news is the first step in making disciples, but our job doesn’t end there. Matthew 28:19-20 goes on to say that disciple makers are to baptize and teach the new disciples.

A lack of ongoing discipleship is one reason why thorns grow up and choke out the growth of newly planted seeds. New believers need to be encouraged and taught so they can bear fruit and keep those thorny cares of the world from choking them.

Finally, remember that we are working together as fellow workers, fellow laborers, fellow gardeners in God’s fields. Like Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”

God is ultimately who gives the growth. Keep scattering. Keep watering. Keep going out into those fields with eyes open to the harvest, but remember that it is God who makes the soil, and the seed, and the sower and it’s up to Him to make it grow.

Please pray with me.

Heavenly Father, please grow us so we can send out a multitude of seeds and shoots and produce a plentiful harvest for Your glory. Make us like those bountiful mustard plants that take over whole fields. Make us faithful sowers and tenders and harvesters. Help us to be disciple-makers, laboring day after day in Your fields. Whether our labors bear ten-fold or hundred-fold, we know that it is You who bring the growth, so help us keep our eyes fixed on You and our minds set on the things that are above. We love You, and we trust You, for You are good and mighty, and Your Word is true and trustworthy. In the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.

Would you like to learn more about how to make disciples and be co-laborers in the harvest? Check out No Place Left for some great tools to help you!

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Keith and Kristyn Getty – By Faith

O Lord, Why Did You Ever Send Me? – Exodus 5-6 – 2025 Day 115

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Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 85, Exodus 5-6

People have often asked me my thoughts about sharing the gospel in places where there is a very real risk of persecution. My response has always been something along these lines, “This world is not our home. We are all just sojourners, passing through a foreign land on our way to our final destination: heaven or hell. We have to stop being so earthly minded. We have to fix our eyes – and our minds – on eternity. We have to be faithful to share the gospel and make disciples of all nations like Jesus commanded in Matthew 28.”

I was thinking about that today when I read,

Then Moses turned to the LORD
and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Exodus 5:22-23 ESV

Do you believe that heaven and hell are real? Are they eternal? How is a person’s final destination determined?

The answers to those questions will determine the answers to these questions:

  • What if I study the Bible with someone and they end up losing their job because of their faith?
  • What if I tell someone about Jesus and their husband ends up leaving them as a result of their new faith?
  • What if I share the good news with someone and they end up in jail?

I’m not saying we should be reckless, cavalier, or foolish, but I am saying that if God is calling you to share the good news – which He is – you should be more concerned about the results of your disobedience to Him than the results of your obedience to Him.

It’s true that the Israelites faced greater  trials, albeit temporary ones, as a result of Moses’s confrontation with the Pharaoh, but it’s also true that much greater long-term joys of freedom were coming!

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, You have told us to go and make disciples of all nations. You have promised that You will be with us. Please strengthen those who are living in dangerous lands, and please strengthen us who are living lives of such comfort and ease. Help us to know You more intimately that we might be willing to suffer for the gospel and for our brothers and sisters who are in harm’s way. Please protect us all from the enemy’s schemes and help us to keep our eyes fixed on You. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Psalm 85 – Francesca LaRosa

Praying for BOTH Moms – Exodus 2 – 2025 Day 113

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Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 83; Exodus 2

As an adoptive mom, the story of Moses has always had particular interest for me. The idea of Moses’s first mom, the mom who gave birth to him, was willing to risk her own life by hiding him for three months, and then to place him among the reeds in hopes that he would be rescued by an Egyptian, reminds of my son’s first mom, the mom who gave birth to him.

I will be forever indebted to her. Though I don’t know the circumstances surrounding my son’s conception or what she went through to bring him to birth, I know it couldn’t have been easy.

So, I’d like to pray for all those “first moms” out there, the moms who gave birth to a child they’re not raising. But I’d also like to pray for all of us adoptive moms who are raising children they didn’t birth. Both moms face unique pains and joys, and both moms need our prayers.

Heavenly Father, I pray right now for the mom who has given birth to a child she isn’t raising, a child who is under someone else’s care. I pray that You will encourage her. Help her to trust in You and seek You with all her heart. I pray that she will someday see in Heaven that child she carried in her womb. I pray that she will know that You are the God of redemption and restoration. You are the God of second chances. I pray that she knows You are the God who hears and remembers and sees and knows. Truly, You are the God of all comfort.

And Heavenly Father, I also pray for the adoptive mom who is raising a child birthed by another, who deeply loves a child that You have entrusted into her care. I pray that You will heal the broken places in her heart with the healing balm of Your love. Help her to cast all her cares on you, knowing that You care for her and You care for that little boy or girl, too. I pray that she will remember that You are the God of redemption and restoration and second chances. May she know that You are the God who hears and remembers and sees and knows. Truly, You are the God of all comfort. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

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One Day I’ll See You Again – Emily Meikle
Welcome to the Family – Psalty

The Spreading Power of Persecution – Exodus 1 – 2025 Day 113

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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 82, Exodus 1

But the more they were oppressed,
the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad.

Exodus 1:12a

I recently read a quote that went something like, “When the authorities loosen their grip, the gospel spreads … and when the authorities tighten their grip, the church is trained and becomes more disciplined … but always we are in God’s hands.”

Today in reading the story of the persecution of the young Hebrew nation in Exodus 1, I saw the Lord’s hand in both spreading and training His people, but in this case, persecution is actually what caused the people to spread abroad.

Isn’t that what happened in the dispersion of the new disciples of Jesus Christ who were persecuted for their faith? And how about what happened when God confused the people’s languages at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11? God’s people were dispersed over the face of all the earth as a result of their suffering and hardship, but all the time they were in God’s hands.

I am reminded again and again as I read through the scriptures that my ways are not God’s ways. So often the very thing that seems straight from the pit of hell is exactly what God uses for His glory and my good – if I only keep my eyes open to it. No matter what, I can trust that I am in God’s hands.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, Help us to trust You no matter what. Help us to believe that You are in control even when life feels out of control. You are always on Your throne. You are working all things together for good. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe, both the Jew and the Gentile. Help us to want for the good even of those who persecute us and shame us and say all kinds of evil about us falsely on Your account. We love You and we trust You. Increase our faith, Father. In the matchless name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

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People of the Cross – Selah – Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Lord, I Want to See You – Matthew 27 – 2025 Day 111

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 80, Matthew 27

When my kids were little I loved taking them to the zoo. We could spend all day there wandering around, pushing whoever was the youngest in a stroller while the oldest ones walked. Inevitably the youngest would cry out, “Mom, pick me up! I can’t see,” so I’d lift them out of the stroller and hold them high, so they could peek into the enclosure and see the coveted lion or tiger or hippo. The concrete wall designed to keep the beasts inside and the humans safely out, also prevented my children from seeing what we’d come to see.

In God’s mercy, He had commanded that a thick curtain be hung to separate the congregation from the “Holy of Holies” – first in the tabernacle and later in the temple. This curtain, estimated to be nearly 60 feet long and 4 inches thick, three times as tall as the tallest giraffe, is the one referred to in Matthew 27.

“And Jesus cried out again with
a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”

Matthew 27:50-51a ESV

What is the significance of the temple curtain being torn in two? Why would God cause that to happen when Jesus died?

Click here to read how Got Questions answers the question, “What was the significance of the temple veil being torn in two when Jesus died?”

I hope you’ll continue on in the 2-year Bible reading plan! The next books we will be reading through are Exodus and Leviticus. In them you’ll learn so much more about the history of the tabernacle and the worship of Jehovah God. Then, we will turn to Hebrews where we will learn the purpose of these types and shadows of the Old Testament and how Christ fulfilled them.

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, You have made a way through the blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ, for us to come into Your presence. We have been washed clean through our faith in the finished work of Jesus who paid the price that was demanded. By His death, the veil has been torn. By His death, we have received eternal life. Now, Father, let us walk in gratitude and faith in Your Son in whose name we pray. Amen.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

Hebrews 10:19-23 ESV

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Holy of Holies – Karen Wheaton

Well done, Good and Faithful Servant – Matthew 25 – 2025 Day 109

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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 78, Matthew 25

The Lord blessed our family with four children over a span of eleven and a half years. I was a busy homeschooling mom trying my best to manage a very busy household. One way that I did this was with “chore charts” assigning various chores to each child in our household.

My oldest daughter was responsible for so many tasks around the home, from cooking and cleaning to helping with her younger siblings. My youngest son had much smaller jobs like feeding the dog or putting away the silverware.

Did I assign them the same jobs? Certainly not. Was it unjust? Absolutely not. They had different skill levels, so they were given correspondingly different jobs.

Yet, yhey were equally praised for a job well done and equally reprimanded for a job poorly done, regardless of whether they were supposed to clean the entire bathroom or merely empty the trash can.

Likewise, our perfectly wise Lord gives each of His children a different quantity of talents, but they are eligible for equal praise. To the ones who invested their talents well, whether apportioned two or five, the Lord says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:20, 22) The one who invested well his five talents did not receive greater praise, nor did the one who invested well his two talents receive lesser praise.

The Lord is angry with the worthless servant, not because he only had one talent, but because he did not invest his one talent well. The one who received only one talent chose to hide it in the ground, saying that he knew that the master was a hard man, “reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed,” (Matthew 25:24) Surely this man doesn’t truly know the character of his Master, for if he did he would never utter such words.

Good servants know their Master, that He is good and generous to give His servants talents with which to serve Him.

When I was an atheist, I lived my life serving no one but me. I recognized no Master of my destiny except me.

Now, as a follower of Jesus Christ, it is a  gift to serve my Lord and to know that I was created on purpose for a purpose. It is good news to be God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

What talents has the Lord entrusted to you?

Has He blessed you with children, a house, a skill, a passion, a testimony … all of the above?

How can you put them to good use for your master?

Heavenly Father, You are a good Father who delights in giving good gifts to Your children, and You are a good Master in giving us, Your servants, fruitful tasks to accomplish. It is a joy for our lives to have meaning and purpose. It is a joy to serve you here on earth, and it is a joy to look forward to that day we will enter into Your kingdom and hear the words we long to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” In the Name of our Gracious Master Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Seeing yourself as a steward of your time, talents, treasures, and testimony

Blessings and Woes – Matthew 23 – 2025 Day 107

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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 76, Matthew 23

“”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:3-12 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.…

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.…

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.…

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,”

– Matthew 23:23, 25, 27, 29 ESV

I’m afraid that all too often we’re mixing up our blessings and our woes. It seems that we’re working for those things that Jesus says “woe to you,” focusing our energies on making our outsides look good – posting the perfect pictures and enrolling our kids in the perfect classes, being careful to be seen at church and PTA meetings – while neglecting the weightier matters of justice and mercy and faithfulness.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 ESV) While the Pharisees “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matthew 23:4 ESV)

Are we focused more on what people think or what God thinks?

Are we loving our neighbors or hurting them?

Do we look more like Christ or more like a Pharisee?

Oh, Heavenly Father, help us to love what You love and hate what You hate. Help us to listen carefully to these words Jesus spoke to these hypocritical leaders as well as the words of the prophet, Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21)

Give us the strength and wisdom to examine our own hearts and to be diligent to pluck the log out of our own eyes. Help us to remember that our words and actions are the overflow of what’s inside our hearts, so please help us to care more about what’s inside the cup of our heart than what others can see on the outside.

We pray this for Your glory and in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory – Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir