Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 83, 1 Samuel 2.
Let’s pray and worship the Lord together with Hannah and believers around the world.
My heart rejoices in You, Lord. You have raised me up from the ash heap and set my feet on the solid rock of salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
I rejoice in You, my God, for there is none holy like You. There is none besides You, Father. Indeed, there is no rock like our God.
Keep me humble, Father. Let me not become arrogant or proud. Help me to remember that You are a righteous judge, knowing and seeing all things, both visible and invisible. Help me to see the log in my own eye. Keep me on my knees in humility before Your throne of grace.
Increase my faith, Lord. You break the bows of the mighty, and You give strength to the weak. You make the full hungry and the hungry full. You give children to the barren, and You take children from those who have many. The number of every man’s days are held in Your hand.
You have given Your only Son, Jesus Christ, that we may be forgiven and redeemed and receive the gift of eternal life with You. Make us ambassadors for Your kingdom, sharing the good news to all four corners of the earth and making disciples of all the nations.
You, Father, are the giver of every good gift, of children and wealth and power and wisdom. Help us to be good stewards of these gifts. Make us instruments of Your peace, blessing the needy with all that You have blessed us, our time, talents, treasures, and testimonies.
The whole world is in Your hands, Father. We pray for the leaders of our nation and the nations around the world. Guide them. Grant them wisdom. Give them strength. Humble and exalt in Your perfect wisdom and timing, and help us to trust and worship You no matter the cost.
In the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we pray. Amen.
Instruments of Your Peace
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 66, Judges 13
An angel appeared to Hagar in the desert (Genesis 16) and to Mary, the mother of our Savior Jesus (Luke 1). The Lord answered the prayers of Hannah when she asked for a son (1 Samuel 1). Abigail’s discernment and quick actions spared David from having revenge on foolish Nabal (1 Samuel 25).
Here, in Judges 13, the Lord has chosen Manoah’s unnamed wife, a barren, childless woman, to be His messenger to her husband.
Sisters, God wants to use YOU as a blessing to your husband, your children, your church, and your community. He has a purpose for YOU. If you’re married, encourage your husband as your head by sincerely, genuinely sharing your life with him. Whether you’re married or not, whether you have a house full of kids or not, if God has chosen you as His child, then He has chosen you to be His ambassador, a messenger of the most high God.
Brothers, God wants to use YOU as a blessing to your wife, your children, your church, and your community. He has a purpose for YOU. If you’re married, encourage your wife as your helper by sincerely, genuinely listening to her. If God has chosen YOU as His child, then He has chosen YOU to be His ambassador, a messenger of the most high God.
Heavenly Father, I pray that we would call out to You, seeking You, morning by morning and evening by evening and that we would hear Your voice as You answer me. Thank You for choosing me to be a vessel of Your grace. May that grace overflow to my husband and my children and their children. May that grace bring glory to Your Name. Give my husband and I discernment as we listen for Your voice. Help us to know when You are speaking and grant us unity in Your Holy Spirit. Help us both to be humble toward each other and to You. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Give Me Jesus – Fernando Ortega
Does God only speak to MEN? – FormerAtheist58
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 57, Judges 4-5
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 judge and our deliverer. In His Name we pray. Amen.
One Set of Footprints – Heartland Harmony Girls
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I grew up in the great state of Iowa, where the corn grows tall and people pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. My parents were hard workers, raised by hard workers. Maybe that’s why Matthew 11:28-30 is so special to me. I have labored ( to memorize this passage, treasuring it in my often weary heart. Indeed, I have labored, and indeed I am thankful for the rest Jesus promises me.
“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.”
This past week, as I’ve been studying this passage in more depth, I’m finally seeing the context in which Jesus is speaking.
These verses are sandwiched between Jesus denouncing the Jewish cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and Jesus telling the Pharisees that they don’t understand what “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” means. This paragraph begins in Matthew 11:25 with, “At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children.'”
Jesus is talking to the Jewish religious sect called the Pharisees. Despite being eyewitnesses to Jesus’s miracles and hearing His preaching first-hand, they did not recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. The Pharisees remained unrepentant. The Pharisees would have been considered the wise and understanding, but they missed the joy, peace, and freedom that faith in Jesus could bring.
Like Jesus explains in Matthew 23:4, 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.” (Read Matthew 23 for more on this)
These heavy burdens are not farmers’ chores, like plowing fields, slopping pigs, and shoveling out horse stalls, nor are they housewives’ chores, like cleaning your house until the floors shine, cooking three nutritious gourmet meals every day, and homeschooling a dozen children. Rather, the Pharisees’ heavy burdens are religious duties designed to earn salvation from God. Religious duties like strictly tithing, offering animal sacrifices, and keeping the Sabbath down to the minute detail.
In the modern American Christian homeschooling circle that I ran with, it may indeed include cleaning your house until the floors shine, cooking three nutritious gourmet meals daily, and homeschooling a dozen children, along with keeping your kids in church with you, teaching your children’s Sunday school class, volunteering at your church’s VBS ministry, knocking on your neighbors’ doors to share the gospel, and serving at your local food pantry.
Friends, these are all good things. Please serve your church and community. Take good care of your children and your home. Please serve the homeless and share the gospel with all your neighbors. Please work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, as Colossians 3:23 instructs. Please be workers at home, like Titus 2:5 says. Please do! But do these works, because you’re following Jesus.
Does your SOUL need rest? Are you tired of working to pay God back? Are you tired of trying to earn salvation? Are you tired of trying to atone for your own sins?
Let your life flow from a place of rest and abiding in the vine, a place of joy and blessing. Jesus loves you, and He wants to work through you to bring Him glory. Wow! What a privilege that this little girl from Iowa has been chosen to bring glory to the Lord of Heaven and Earth!
Jesus, the promised Messiah, took my sins upon Himself by his death on the cross. Jesus bore my griefs. Jesus carried my sorrows. I have been healed by His wounds. Isaiah 53:4-6
Jesus invites us to give Him our burdens, to come to Him with the trusting faith of little children. In Jesus, we can find rest, not only for our bodies, but for our SOULS.
Friend, you can never, ever be good enough. Never. You can never pay God back. You will never deserve being saved.
Jesus paid the price for you. He is inviting you to take His yoke upon you and learn from Him, that you can have soul-rest.
Heart-check:
How are you tying up heavy burdens for yourself to carry? For others?
Have you come to Jesus and taken His yoke? What stands in your way?
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for giving me work to do, and thank You for giving me the strength to do it. Help me to have joy in the journey, to follow Christ, to give grace to others as I have received it from You. Keep me humble and fill my heart with Your peace. In the Name of Jesus, my Savior and Master. Amen.
Come Unto Jesus – Laura Story, Jordan Kauflin, Keith & Kristyn Getty
All My Boast is in Jesus – Keith and Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 19; Joshua 18-19
So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?”
Joshua 18:3 ESV
Heavenly Father, You, are my chosen portion and cup; You hold the lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance, because You are the sovereign Lord over the drawing of my lot.
Let me not delay in whatever task You have called me to do. If you’re calling me to faith in Christ, I pray that TODAY would be the day of my salvation, that I would not put it off any more. If you’re calling me to share the good news of the gospel with a friend or neighbor or family member, I pray that TODAY would be the day that I open my mouth and speak the words of eternal life. If you’re calling me to cook and clean and wipe bottoms and noses, I pray that TODAY and EVERYDAY I would work heartily at the high and holy calling of motherhood, serving You, Lord, and not men. Whatever it is that you’re calling me to, I pray that the journey would start TODAY and that I would continue FAITHFULLY by Your strength and direction.
Help me, Father, to remember that You are the God of small beginnings, and that You are the God who leads and guides and calls. In the Name of Jesus Christ my Lord, I pray. Amen.
Softly and Tenderly – Fountainview Academy
DELAYED OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE podcast
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Proverbs 30, Deuteronomy 26
The Lord has brought the people out of their slavery in Egypt, and now He is bringing them into this blessed land flowing with milk and honey. The commanded response, as well as the logical response of gratitude, is to offer back to God some of the fruit of this land – and not just any of the fruit, but the first fruits. Giving first fruits demonstrates faith and dependence on the Lord.
But, if I’m honest with myself (and with you), I must confess how stingy I am with the gifts that the Lord has given me, whether my time, my talents, my treasures, or my testimony. I treat these things as though I have earned them, not recognizing that they are gifts from God, given to me to give back to Him and to share with others. The Lord has blessed me that I might be a blessing to others.
How about you? Is gratitude your normal response to life? Are you living in a place of surrender to the Lord? Will you pray with me?
Heavenly Father, I pray that I would have a heart overflowing with gratitude for all that You have given me. Truly, what do I have that I haven’t been given? Where would I be today if You hadn’t led me by the hand every step of the way? Now, today, I offer back to You the first fruits of my labor. My children, my home, my work, my mind and mouth and money, are Yours. I give them back to You as an offering of praise. They are Yours. They were given to me by You, and now I again give them back to You, laying them down, prying my fingers off of them, leaving them on the altar of Your Holy presence. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Proverbs 29, Deuteronomy 24-25
Again and again the Lord makes special provision for the sojourner , the fatherless, and the widow. Reading through my Bible today, and not getting much out of these chapters of “various laws,” my eyes fell upon a note in my Bible’s margin from the last time I read it cover to cover.
Sojourner – God is my resting place.
Fatherless – God is my father.
Widow – I am His bride.
Sisters, write notes in your Bible that you can find next year. Leave reminders to yourself of how the Lord turns your heart while you read His Word. Let these remind you – and those who come after you.
As members of God’s kingdom, we’re all sojourners, wanderers, aliens in this world. Our true citizenship is in heaven. God has called us to be His ambassadors.
As members of God’s family, we’re His children and He is our Father. We can come to Him with confidence, knowing that He loves us dearly and cares for us tenderly, as a Father loves and cares for his children.
As the bride of Christ, we are called to be shining lights for Him, His hands and feet on earth, humbly depending on Him for strength, comfort, and guidance.
I’m blessed. God is good.
Heavenly Father, You are my king, my Father, and the lover of my soul. You are worth every pain and every joy. Give me strength through the truth of Your Word. Remind me that this world is not my home, and help me to fix my eyes on the eternal hope I have in heaven. Use me as Your ambassador here on earth, faithfully declaring the praises of Him who called me out of darkness. (1 Peter 2:9) Remind me that I am Your child, and You are my Father. Help me to obey You promptly, cheerfully, and completely, and to faithfully come to You for forgiveness when I sin. Remind me that I am Your bride, and help me to depend on You for my every need. Send me out into this world as an instrument of peace and proclaimer of truth. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior, I pray. Amen.
Jesus, Strong and Kind – City Alight
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Proverbs 24, Deuteronomy 16
As I wrote about yesterday, I grew up the younger of two daughters to a hard-working mother and father. My mom went back to college to finish her degree when I started kindergarten, and then she started working full time. In spite of her long hours at work, she was still determined to serve a home-cooked meal for dinner every night. No McDonald’s drive thru or frozen pizza for us. Mom served us pork chops and potatoes or chicken breasts and stir fried vegetables, even after a long day’s work.
Likewise, my sister and I were expected to work hard, too. We had our own responsibilities around the home: washing our laundry, setting the table for dinner, unloading the dishwasher, taking care of our pets, and doing our schoolwork to the best of our ability. My parents didn’t tolerate laziness. We were capable of getting A’s at school, so A’s we should get. The thought of skipping an assignment or not studying for a test never even entered my mind.
Fast forward forty years to my life today.
There are so many conveniences – and so many entertainments – available, it’s become increasingly hard for me to really work hard.
Who needs to clean house and cook dinner? There are housekeepers and restaurants for that.
Who needs to plant and tend a garden? I can buy whatever I need at the store.
Who needs to go to the library or the grocery store? I’ve got the world wide web and grocery delivery at my fingertips.
Hence, I no longer feel the need for a time of rest, like the Lord gave to His people. The Lord knew how strenuous their days were, and He commanded them to set aside days for feasting and resting.
But, wait, I can just hear you saying, “Don’t you look forward to your annual vacation at the beach?”
Why, Yes. Yes, in fact, I do! I treasure those holidays spent watching the sun rise with my Bible open on my lap, meditating on the Lord’s words and listening to the waves’ quiet melody. But, to be honest with you, I don’t need a holiday like the Israelites did, and I’m afraid some of that is because almost every day for me is a holiday of sorts.
Ice cream and brownies aren’t only for birthdays.
Watching a movie isn’t only for that one special Saturday night in the summer when everyone piled into the station wagon and went to the drive-in.
Going out to dinner with my husband is a regular occurrence, not just a twice a year event reserved for Valentine’s Day and our anniversary.
In light of all this, I’m trying to be more conscious to fill my days with work. My work might be writing this blog or creating a YouTube video. My work might be studying and teaching a Bible study. My work might be embroidering a gift for my daughter or being a listening ear for a hurting friend, but I need to work. I need to make the most of the time God has given me.
I want to number my days that I may have a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
Maybe you can’t relate to this post at all. Maybe your days are “filled to the gills” with work – in the home and outside the home. Then, my words to you are these: Great! Good for you! God designed His people to work hard! God gave us the sun to light our days, and He gave us the soil to grow our food. God wants us to be diligent like the ant. But don’t forget to rest and feast. God also gave His people a weekly sabbath rest and annual times for dedicated resting and feasting. He designed us to need them, that we would have time to renew our minds and bodies, and that we would remember Him and be grateful for all we have.
Proverbs 6:6-11 ESV — Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
Ephesians 5:15-16 ESV — Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Psalm 39:4 ESV — O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
Heavenly Father, I’m your child, and I want to be about Your business. I’m thankful for all that You have given to me, and for all that You have given me to do. You have created me for a good purpose, and You have good works that You want me to accomplish. Help me to be faithful and diligent with the time that You have given to me. Help me to work hard and to rest well with a grateful heart. Make me a good steward of my time, talents, treasures, and testimony. For the glory of Your Name I pray. Amen.
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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 119:81-120; Leviticus 23
“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.”
Leviticus 23:3 ESV
When our children were little, my husband and I began to try to arrange our week such that Saturday became a day for house and yard work, while Sunday was set apart for fellowship and fun. Though it has been hard to be consistent, we saw the value of having a day for church and family and friends.
In the fall of 2021, after a prolonged interruption in regular in-person attendance (Thanks, COVID) our church started hosting a post-service meal and time for congregational sharing. I must admit that I initially complained about the extra work of preparing a dish to share, but this fellowship time has been such a huge blessing to our whole body.
In the spring of 2023, our pastor shared a three-part sermon series on the value of setting apart Sunday as a regular day for rest, renewal, and worship. He explained everything so much better than I can, so please listen for yourself. Here’s a link to the first sermon.
So, what a beautiful reminder here in Leviticus 23 of establishing a regular rhythm of both annual and weekly times for rest, worship, and fellowship.
Heavenly Father, Please help us to be faithful and diligent to work – and to rest – and to do it all in the name of Jesus Christ. We need them both. We need to work, and we need to rest. Help us to offer them both back to You. In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Teach What is Good 
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