Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 94, 1 Samuel 17
Goliath was big. God is bigger.
Goliath’s armor was strong. God’s armor is stronger.
Goliath’s spear was mighty. God’s sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is mightier.
Just like we shouldn’t judge little David by external appearances, we shouldn’t judge our circumstances by external appearances. Put on your armor, take up your sword, and get in the battle! Quit standing on the sidelines. Remember what David said to Goliath, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” 1 Samuel 17:45 ESV
Heavenly Father, help me to look at life through the lens of Scripture and truth, to remember that You are on my side. Thank you for that mighty sword that I hold in my heart and in my right hand. Remind me to use it. Thank you for that armor that is mine and fits me like a glove. Remind me to put it on. Hide me behind the cross. Shelter me under Your wings. You are my mighty fortress. I have nothing to fear.
A Mighty Fortress is our God – Desert Hills Bible Church
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 80, Ruth 3-4
My husband sent me this picture from his John MacArthur study Bible, saying that John MacArthur compares Ruth to the virtuous wife in Proverbs 31.
Ruth Baker, in her January 2, 2019 blog post at GoThereFor.com digs further into this idea. Read it here.
Heavenly Father, help me to be a virtuous woman, to take good care of my husband and children, and to work diligently day after day. May I do my husband good and not harm all the days of my life. May the teaching of kindness be on my tongue. May I open my mouth with wisdom. May I remember that charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting, but that a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. In the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and redeemer, I pray. Amen.
Proverbs 31:30 song
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 78, Ruth 1
[Naomi] said to [the women in Bethlehem], “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
Ruth 1:20-21 ESV
I wish I could tell Naomi not to lose hope, to trust that joy was just around the next bend.
I once heard God’s sovereignty compared to a stoplight which controls traffic in a construction zone. This light is provided to stop people from a head-on collision with oncoming traffic hidden by the bend in the road. Sometimes a person might be tempted to ignore this light, to just assume that no one is coming and give up waiting for the light to turn. As a loving God who knows the future, He asks us to wait on Him rather than barreling forward because of His great care for us.
The point was then made that God is good to not reveal the future to us for if we knew about the tragedy that lies just around the bend we would spend our lives fretting, rather than living each day in itself.
While I do wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, I can’t help but recognize our human propensity to dwell on the negative, on the coming trial, rather than the coming joy. Several years ago, the Holy Spirit convicted me that when I spend my time fretting about what the future might hold, I end up missing out on having HOPE, trusting in God’s sovereign goodness, waiting expectantly for what hidden joy might lie just around the bend.
Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:24-25) Remember, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) If we could see what was just around the bend, whether tomorrow or a hundred years from now, then we would have no need for HOPE, no need for FAITH. God grows our faith, our trust in Him, by having us wait upon Him.
So, the next time when things look bleak and hopeless and we’re tempted to despair that all hope is lost, let’s remember that God holds the future and that He is worthy of our trust. May we be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12)
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” Psalm 28:7
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” Psalm 37:5
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” Psalm 130:5-7
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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 76, Ruth 2
Ruth, a widowed Moabite woman, found safety in the providence of God and in the fields of Boaz, her Israelite kinsman redeemer.
Have you ever considered the fact that God called a man named Abram, who was living in Ur, to come to Canaan to be the great father of the Israelite nation? God could’ve chosen someone already living in the Promised Land, but He didn’t. God chose a foreigner named Abram to leave his people and his land, and go to a land that He would show him.
Likewise, God chose a foreign-born woman, Ruth, to be the great-grandmother of King David, the forefather of Jesus Christ Himself. God could’ve chosen Naomi, a Jew, but He didn’t. God chose a foreigner named Ruth to leave her people and her land, and accompany her mother-in-law to her land.
And now, three thousand years later, God chose me, a young woman running from God, blaspheming His name, scoffing at His followers, to carry His Word across the world wide web to a foreign nation on the other side of the globe. He could’ve chosen someone who grew up in church, but He didn’t. God chose me to wake up before dawn, turn on my computer, and teach, and I’m trying my best to obey. 😁
Jesus said in Acts 1:8 ESV, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Is God calling you to GO?
Heavenly Father, have Your way with me. Help me to trust You and walk humbly with You, my God. You are the God of Redemption and Power, the God of Holiness and Second Chances. You are the Tapestry-Weaving God of Life and Purpose. We worship You, Lord, and thank You for Your mercy. Help us to reach out to the foreigner dwelling among us for Your glory, never forgetting that You desire the worship of people all over the globe. We want to be faithful to make disciples of all nations. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Are you looking for a family friendly devotional to use this Christmas season? A few years ago, I put down in print what had been in my heart, head, and mouth for a decade with my own kids. I hope it blesses you. It’s available in paperback or ebook versions. Download a PDF of all 25 ornaments free here.
“From Creation to Christ: A Family Advent Devotional Tracing the Story of the Savior Through Scripture, Stories, Songs, and Pictures” by Kim Endraske
Day 11 of the Devotional shares the story of Ruth and Boaz.
12
Emmanuel (God with Us Forever) Bryan and Katie Torwalt
Great Is Thy Faithfulness – Maranatha Music
FORMERATHEIST58
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 75, Ruth 1
Did you know that the famous words from Ruth 1:16, “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” were spoken by Ruth to her mother-in-law, not her husband? Well, now you do. In fact, Ruth said this to her mother-in-law after her husband’s death.
My grandma made this for me as a wedding gift. Ruth 1:16.
Little did my Grandma know when she cross-stitched Ruth 1:16 for a wedding gift for me, what an enormous impact my mother-in-law would have on my life. To be honest, as a young bride, I struggled in my relationship with my mother-in-law, but God… God used my mother-in-law’s patience, kindness, and forgiveness to draw me to better understand God’s patience, kindness, and forgiveness.
How’s your relationship with your mother-in-law? Rather than dwelling on all the things she’s done wrong, try dwelling instead on all the things she’s done right. You married her son. She must’ve done something well. Next time you start thinking about all the ways you’d like her to change, try looking at what you could change to improve your relationship with her. Could you be more patient, kind, and forgiving toward her? Start there and see what God does. And if you need to make a call or have a face-to-face chat about something that happened days, months, or years ago, do it. Today. Don’t let bitterness take root and spoil the good fruit that God wants to bear through you.
Baby #1 – very tired parents, very happy grandparents At Baby #1’s wedding showerThe day I first became a Mother-in-law
Heavenly Father, Thank You, Lord, for the gift of a mother-in-law who loves You and who loves me. Help me to be grateful and to recognize that this truly is a gift. Thank you for blessing my son with a wife and my daughters with husbands. Give me the wisdom and strength I need to be a patient, kind, and forgiving mother-in-law myself. In the Name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
I Will Trust My Savior Jesus – City Alight
FORMERATHEIST58
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 69, Judges 16
Judges 16 has lessons for both men and women. I have been blessed with two sons as well as two daughters. I see lessons here for both of them.
Sons, guys, be careful who you fall for. The wrong woman will lead you in the wrong direction. Strong men can become weak men in a woman’s hands. Get to know who a woman really is before you give her your heart. If you see that she has a selfish, manipulative, deceitful spirit, RUN!
Daughters, ladies, be careful how you use your seductive powers. You can manipulate a man into doing things both you and he will regret. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Don’t manipulate men, making them your puppet. It will only lead you astray.
For all of my children, for all of you reading this, it’s not too late. God can work through you to accomplish HIS purposes. He is the God of second and third and fourth chances. He is the God of redemption. He is on His throne. He works even through SINFUL men and women like Samson and Delilah and Bill and Kim.
Heavenly Father, I pray for my sons and my daughters, my granddaughters and my grandsons, men and the women. May their hearts belong to You. May You be their greatest treasure. Protect them from the sins of deceit and manipulation. Teach them and strengthen them to guard their hearts. Fill their hearts with pure, holy desires, that they would love what You love and hate what You hate. And remind them that it’s never too late to return to You. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Come Thou Fount – Shane and Shane
GOD WORKS even through SINFUL MEN and WOMEN like SAMSON and ME 🙋🏻♂️🙋🏼♀️
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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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Teach What is Good 
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