Read through the Bible in 2 Years: 1 Samuel 13-15.
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
1 Samuel 15:22 ESV
Am I as faithful to obey God in the little things as I am to obey Him in the “big ones”?
I go to church every week without fail, but am I as faithful in reaching out to a hurting neighbor or stranger in need?
I read my Bible every single day, but am I as diligent in being patient and kind to my husband and children day after day?
I answer each and every question in my Bible study workbook, but am I as conscientious in sharing the gospel and making disciples of the lost.
I try to take every opportunity I have to teach others the goodness of God, but am I as careful on praying without ceasing and seeking the Lord’s guidance in my own daily life.
There are some areas of my life that I find easier to obey than others. How about you? What is easier for you to obey and where do you struggle?
I think some of the things that are easier for me to obey are because they are more enjoyable for me. I simply enjoy reading and singing and studying more than I enjoy serving and listening and being kind. But I’m afraid that some of the things are easier for me because they are more visible. Other people see me at church. Other people hear me teaching or participating in Bible study.
Oh, Father, help me to live for Your “well done.” Protect me from seeking man’s praise rather than Your praise. I want to live for an audience of One. You are my perfect judge. Your opinion is what matters. Help me to trust and obey. Day by day. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Galatians 1:10 ESV — For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Colossians 3:22 ESV — Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
I have recently begun reading A.W. Tozer’s “The Knowledge of the Holy” for the fifth time. Other than the Bible and C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series, I’ve never read the same book again and again. The first chapter of “The Knowledge of the Holy” is entitled, “Why We Must Think Rightly About God.” I’d love to just quote the whole chapter for you, but instead I’ll share a few sentences and urge you to get the book for yourself.
“We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.”
“Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence.”
“All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as mortal beings must do about Him.”
I was thinking about these ideas while reading 1 Samuel 12, especially this verse:
For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.
1 Samuel 12:22 ESV
Questions like, “Does God exist for my pleasure or do I exist for His? Does God see me, know me, and care about me? Is He in charge or am I? Will God keep His promises? Why?” run through my mind. The answers to these questions are found – must be found – in God’s Word rather than our emotions, logical conclusions, or Google searches.
Pray with me.
Heavenly Father, I know that You are all-powerful and all-knowing and holy and righteous and good because Your Word and Your Creation confirm it. You have created me and redeemed me for Your pleasure, for Your Name’s sake. I want to live for Your glory. I want to glorify and magnify Your Name. Help me. Strengthen me. Enlighten me. Draw all men to Yourself that there might be a great cloud of witnesses praising You for all eternity. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Heavenly Father, You are the Lord, the only Lord, Supreme ruler over heaven and earth. I am Your servant. You created me. You redeemed me out of sin and out of the kingdom of the evil one. You bought me with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the unblemished, perfect Lamb of God. You own me. I am Yours.
Speak to me, Lord. Speak truth into my soul. Speak peace into my mind. Speak life into my weary heart. Speak to me.
You have said that Your sheep hear Your voice and they follow You. Make me an obedient, submissive, gentle sheep.
Help me to hear, to listen, to understand, to trust, and to obey. Keep my mind from distractions and confusion. Help me to be attentive to Your voice, especially when it is not much louder than a whisper. Give me discernment to clearly recognize Your voice in the midst of the cacophony of distractions that the enemy has buried like land mines all around me.
Thank You for the pure milk, the pure light, the pure water of Your Word. Fill me. Wash me. Guide me. For the glory of Your Name and the edification of Your body.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord, I pray. Amen.
In April 1994, I was having another discussion about religion with a young man I was interested in. For the dozenth time I was arguing with him about my inability to believe in a God that I couldn’t see with my eyes or touch with my hands. Suddenly, in a brief moment of humility, I asked a simple question, “What do you mean when you say, ‘saved’?” To me, “save” was a word associated with money and stray puppies, not college valedictorians. And for the first time I heard clearly explained the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Reading through the book of Ruth, I noticed the words redeem and redeemer used over and over again, but do we as 21st-century adults understand what ‘redeemed’ means?
Do we see our own abject lostness and our need for a counselor and guide to show us where to go and lead us by the hand to get there?
Or do we think we’ve already arrived, already know all the answers, and we don’t need anything beyond what hard work, Google, and the government can provide.
Do we see ourselves as hopeless, helpless beggars all searching for a morsel of bread?
Or do we see ourselves as wealthy, capable, able-bodied people in need of no one and no thing to help us?
Do we see our sinful nature and recognize our need for forgiveness and rebirth?
Or do we think we’re really pretty good, decent people who’ve never killed anybody or done anything all that bad, especially compared to all the good things we’ve done?
Naomi, a Jew, and Ruth, a Moabite, both needed to be redeemed and so do you and I. Naomi and Ruth’s earthly lives were redeemed by their kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, but their eternal souls were redeemed by looking forward to that sinless Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who paid the price for their sins with His own sins blood, something much more precious than all the gold and silver all the world over.
Have you been redeemed? Have you been washed in the blood of that Lamb? Were your sins been fully paid for when Jesus, that spotless Lamb, was nailed to the cross 2,000 years ago?
It seems that Micah is about using God rather than serving Him. He wants a priest and an ephod and carved images, not so he can rightly know and love God but so that he can get them to do what he wants.
God isn’t a genie in a lamp that we can rub when we want our wishes granted. God doesn’t live to do our bidding. We need to know God rightly so we can worship Him rightly. Wrong beliefs lead to wrong actions. Every. Time.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your immense mercy and grace. You didn’t have to love me. You didn’t have to save me. But You did. Thank You. I want to serve You for You are worthy. Give me discernment to recognize what is good and what is evil and give me the power to choose good. For the Glory of Your Name and Your Kingdom. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
Judges 7:2 ESV
This passage has had a special place in my heart since one night about twenty years ago when the Holy Spirit convicted me about how often I used manipulation to get my husband to do what I wanted. That night, the Lord opened my eyes to the importance of trusting Him to fight my battles, rather than trusting my own skills of argumentation to get my way. That night, I decided to quit fighting against my husband and to start praying for him. That night, I finally recognized that I might be winning these marital battles, but I was losing the war for my marriage.
Can any of you relate?
Ask yourself what weapons you’re using to fight your own battles: Nagging and complaining? Threatening and yelling? Silence and the cold shoulder? Put those weapons away, friends. They’re not the Lord’s weapons; they’re the enemy’s.
If the Lord can cause the entire Middianite army to kill one another, giving the Israelites success by merely blowing their trumpets, then surely He conquer the heart of your stubborn loved one.
Put on the whole armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. And take up your weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and start praying in the Spirit, asking Him to fight for you. (Ephesians 6:12-17)
Join forces with the Lord. Remember who your real enemy is. Quit fighting your spiritual brothers and sisters and start fighting the spiritual forces of evil.
Heavenly Father, we need You to fight our battles for us. Open our eyes to see the spiritual battle that we are in. Make us soldiers in Your army, wielding that Sword of the Spirit, your Word, with excellence and accuracy, praying without ceasing, and seeking Your face for direction day after day. Let us not grow weary of well-doing. Give us clean hands and pure hearts. Help us to root up those spirits of bitterness and selfishness. Protect us from pride and manipulation. Make us more like You. In the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Brother, we pray. Amen.
From the beginning of time, God knew that people would need signs to strengthen their faith in Him. When God created the sun, moon, and stars, He said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be forsigns and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14 ESV). A rainbow, a staff turned to a snake, and here in Judges 6, a wet fleece on a dry ground followed by a dry fleece on a wet fleece, have all been signs given by a good God to prove the truth of His promises, His Word, and even His existence.
I remember a time when I asked God for a sign that He was real, that He was out there somewhere. I was 15 or 16 years old, sitting in an empty grassy field on a college campus in Vermont where I was attending a summer debate camp. The vast blue sky, gentle breeze, and towering swaying trees were making me think.
When I wasn’t struck by lightning (or a Bible falling from the sky), I concluded that God must not be real. But, I was wrong. So wrong. In fact, God had given me signs of His existence in those very things – the sky, wind, and trees, the sun, moon, and stars – they were all pointing me straight to Him. ☝️ (Read Romans 1 and Psalm 19 for more on this.)
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 ESV
God has also given us so many signs to point mankind to the Messiah, the Savior of the World, Jesus, the One who came into the world to save sinners like you and me. He took on human flesh, born as a human baby to a virgin mother, yet He was Immanuel, God with us. He was crucified without cause, the sinless for the sinful, the innocent for the guilty. Do you know Him?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14 ESV
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:10-12 ESV
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:38-40 ESV
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
John 2:18-22 ESV
God gave us all these signs so we would recognize the Messiah when He came the first time 2,000 years ago, but I believe He’s coming again … and soon! I hope you’re keeping your eyes wide open, being faithful to attend to your Father’s business while you’re eagerly watching for Him. Don’t be caught unaware like a thief in the night. Read Matthew 24 for more!
Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Jesus in just the right way to just the right place at just the right time. Your Word is true and trustworthy. I pray that we would be found eagerly watching for You with our hands to the plow, bring about our Father’s business. I pray that we would be faithful to You and faithful to pursue the salvation of the lost. I pray for anyone who is reading this and has not yet bowed the knee to Jesus. I pray that today would be the day of their salvation, that they would wait for a sign no longer. In the name of Jesus Christ, our savior and our Lord, we pray. Amen.
As we enter this advent season, I hope you’ll order a paperback copy or ebook of my family Christmas devotional and trace the line of the Savior from Creation to Christ.
God has often asked me to do things that, frankly, I don’t want to do. I didn’t want to homeschool. I didn’t want to start a ministry to women who were continuing their pregnancy after finding out something was wrong with their unborn baby. And every time the Lord has told me to go talk to someone I’m having conflict with, I’ve tried to come up with excuses for why I’m not the right person for the job.
Why did God call Deborah to judge Israel? Why didn’t He choose Deborah’s husband, Lappidoth, or that mighty warrior, Barak?
Why did God choose Jael to put a tent stake through King Sisera’s skull? Wouldn’t her father or her husband or her brother or her son have been a better choice?
The answer to these questions is this: I have no idea. 🤷♀️
But I do know that God’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-8), and God uses the weak to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). I do know that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5) I know that it is the Lord who gives both life and death (Deuteronomy 32:39, 1 Samuel 2:6), and He can use whoever He pleases to accomplish His purposes.
Is God calling you to do something hard, something impossible, something you don’t want to do?
Listen carefully to His voice.Fix your eyes on Him and allow Him to guide you by the truth of His Word and His Holy Spirit.
Fix your eyes on Him and allow Him to guide you by the truth of His Word and His Holy Spirit.
Walk by faith and not by sight.
Do the next thing – by faith in His power and might.
Heavenly Father, what a blessing and gift to know You, to be clay in Your hands. Use us for whatever You’ve called us to. Make us Your vessels, Your instruments, Your servants and ambassadors and ministers, that the lost would find hope and rest and peace at the feet of Jesus Christ, our deliverer and judge. In His Name we pray. Amen.
Earlier this month, my youngest son was baptized. Watching him commit his life to Christ is a joy like no other.
I have found such peace, comfort, and hope in knowing the Lord. I believe His Word that eternal life is only available to those who trust in Christ and that eternal damnation awaits those who reject Him. It absolutely breaks my heart into a million pieces to think that any of my children or grandchildren might abandon the Lord and wander away after other gods.
I believe that I have done my best through many ups and downs to be faithful to the Lord in shepherding and discipling my children, but ultimately their faith must be their own. I can’t force anyone to believe. God has to open their eyes, and they have to receive Him by faith.
Heavenly Father, I pray that my children and grandchildren and the generations not yet born will come to You by faith. Let us not want away after other gods and turn our backs on You, the One True God. I pray especially for Daniel as he walks day by day in his new life in Christ. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: 2 Corinthians 12
There are so many things that I used to be anxious about, especially the fear of death. I worried about fires, robbers, car accidents, and plane crashes. I am so thankful for God’s grace in freeing me from this fear. When I flew home from visiting my daughter, I was able to lay my hand on the shoulder of the woman sitting next to me, praying silently for her as she coped with her fear of flying by zoning out watching videos on her phone.
Yet, I still struggle with fears of physical illness, infirmity, or pain. Death is no longer the enemy, but … Pain … 🥹 Nope. Don’t want it.
But that is exactly what God knows I need to keep me humble. A broken foot, a hurting elbow, a sore back, a horrendous allergic reaction to poison ivy, these things keep me dependent on the Lord. They push me to pray and to ask others to pray, too.
Is there a thorn that the Lord has graciously given you to keep you humble? Rather than being angry with Him, thank Him.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for all of Your grace. I see Your grace in the thorns and Your grace in the roses. Help me to give thanks in all circumstances. Help me to fix my eyes – and my mind – on You. Help me to walk by faith and not by fear. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Teach What is Good 
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