The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?”
Obadiah 1:3 ESV
Heavenly Father, I lift my family, my church, and my nation before Your throne of grace. Help us to remember that every good gift comes from You, that everything we have is a gift from Your habds. It’s not by our own strength or wisdom, but by Your Spirit and power. Keep us on our knees for Your glory and good. Amen.
For more information about the book of Obadiah, I recommend David Guzik’s commentary. It’s available here.
Do you ever just feel like you’re just a random cog in the vast machine of life, nothing more than an inconsequential human being among billions of others?
Reading today about when King Ahab who had intentionally disguised himself as a common soldier in an attempt to protect his life during battle was struck down by an arrow launched by a random soldier that just so happened to pierce him precisely between his armor and breastplate, I was reminded again that God is in charge over all our lives. God had ordained the number of King Ahab’s days. He couldn’t hide from God, and neither can we.
God knows precisely where you are, and He knows precisely what you’re thinking.
He knows what you did yesterday, He knows what you will do today, and He is in control of what your day holds. Does this thought scare you? Or comfort you?
Your answer will depend on two things: (1) the character of God and (2) your relationship with Him. Do you think God is harsh, cruel, distant, impotent, or uncaring? Or do you think He is loving, kind, patient, forgiving, and faithful? Do you see God more like a vengeful policeman eagerly waiting to give you a ticket or a concerned father eagerly waiting for you to come home?
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your watchful care over Your creation. You see me. You know me. You know my thoughts and my ways. I cannot escape from Your watchful care. Thank You for Your faithfulness to me. I know that You are good, and that everything You allow into my life is ultimately for my good and Your glory. Increase my faith, Father, that I might be able to give thanks in all circumstances and walk by faith all the days of my life. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Savior, Lord, and Friend, I pray. Amen.
What do you do when you find yourself in a pickle? Do you cry out to God for help? Do you beg Him for mercy? Do you plead for Him to save you?
I think many Americans run their lives on their own terms 95% of the year and then suddenly remember God when they find themselves in a jam, much like Jeroboam in 1 Kings 14.
As we read earlier in 1 Kings, Jeroboam had set up his own houses of worship complete with altars and golden calves in the Israelite cities of Bethel and Dan. And yet, when his own son, Abijah, became sick, where did Jeroboam turn? Did he send his wife to Bethel or Dan to inquire of those golden calves that he had erected? No, he didn’t. He sent her to Shiloh to inquire of the Lord’s prophet, Ahijah.
Is this genuine faith? No, it isn’t. Jeroboam’s faith is the faith of demons, not the faith of born-again believers.
Counterfeit faith says, “I know God is real, but I won’t submit my life to Him.”
Friends, genuine faith will result in obedience, daily obedience. Genuine faith says, “I know God is real, so I want to live my life for Him.”
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! …
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
James 2:19, 22-23 ESV
Do you have genuine faith? Or counterfeit faith?
Heavenly Father, You are the one true God. There are so many imposters, but You are the only One who is true. Search my heart and test me. Show me where I’ve fallen prey to the lies of the devil. Show me where I’m faking faith. Please don’t let me come to the day of judgment when my deeds will be laid bare and it will become clear that I was among those who never knew you. Do what You need to do to bring me into a right relationship with You. I want to know You more that I would love you more and walk in the daily obedience of faith. I pray this in the Name of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb who died in my place, Amen.
Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 52, 2 Chronicles 34-36
“Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 34:29-32 ESV
Love God? Love Others – 2 Chronicles 34-26 – FormerAtheist58
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us – JJ Heller
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 50-51, 2 Chronicles 33
The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
2 Chronicles 33:10-13 ESV
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12 ESV
Our Sins are MANY – His Mercy is MORE – 2 Chronicles 33 – FormerAtheist58
Create in me a Clean Heart – Keith Green
His Mercy is More – T4G Live
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: 2 Chronicles 26-28, Psalm 47
[King Uzziah] set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper. He went out and made war against the Philistines and broke through the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines…. In Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.
2 Chronicles 26:5-6, 14 ESV
Relying on God and Working by HIS STRENGTH 💪🏋️♂️⚜️ 2 Chronicles 26-28 – FormerAtheist58
Selah – “Twila Paris Medley” – (Official Lyric Video)
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: 2 Chronicles 25, Psalm 46
Please forgive the ridiculous AI graphic. Apparently, this is what AI thinks of as “people wasting their money,” but the point remains. God is able to ABUNDANTLY RESTORE more than you’ve squandered, even if it’s on $25 cups of coffee and $35 bags of truffle chips.
[King Amazia] hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for 100 talents of silver.
But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with all these Ephraimites. But go, act, be strong for the battle. Why should you suppose that God will cast you down before the enemy? For God has power to help or to cast down.”
And Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?”
The man of God answered, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this.”
2 Chronicles 25:6-9 ESV
The Lord is able to ABUNDANTLY RESTORE More Than you’ve Squandered – 2 Chronicles 25 – FormerAtheist58
If it had not been for the Lord – Keith & Kristyn Getty – video by Ridgeway Community Church
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: 2 Chronicles 23-24, Psalm 45
But Jehoiada grew old and full of days, and died. He was 130 years old at his death. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.
Now after the death of Jehoiada the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.
Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the LORD. These testified against them, but they would not pay attention.
Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.’”
But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD. Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, “May the LORD see and avenge!”
2 Chronicles 24:15-22 ESV
PRAY for your PASTORS! – FormerAtheist58
Speak O Lord – Keith & Kristyn Getty
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 44, 2 Chronicles 21-22
Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family of the house of Judah.
But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were about to be put to death, and she put him and his nurse in a bedroom.
Thus Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of Jehoiada the priest, because she was a sister of Ahaziah, hid him from Athaliah, so that she did not put him to death.
And he remained with them six years, hidden in the house of God, while Athaliah reigned over the land.
2 Chronicles 22:10-12 ESV
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Being a Godly Wife, Mother, & Sister – FormerAtheist58
Your Nature – Eli Gable
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