Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 67, Matthew 14
… Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.”
So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
Matthew 14:27b-29 ESV
Did you notice that the storm didn’t stop when Peter got out of the boat? Sometimes we’re expecting Jesus to stop the storm, when actually He wants us to trust in the storm. The safest place we can be is with Jesus – whether that’s walking on the waves or sitting in the boat, whether that’s on a hillside on a calm, sunny day or in a boat in the middle of a tumultuous storm.
Jesus fed thousands with a few loaves and fish by His miracle-working power, and Jesus made Peter walk on water. Don’t doubt, only believe. Truly, He is the Son of God. Is there a situation in your life today where God is calling you to get out of the boat and come to Him?
Heavenly Father, please encourage our hearts today. Help us to take heart, to be strong and courageous, to get out of the safety of the boat and to walk on the water into Your waiting arms. There is so much rampant wickedness all around us. The world and the weather seem out of control. Father, remind us that You are in control. You are still on Your throne. Your eye is still on the sparrow and You are still watching over us. May our eyes be fixed on Jesus, so that we are not terrified by the winds and the storms. By Your grace and by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 66, Matthew 13
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 13:47-50
From beginning to end of Matthew 13, Jesus was faithful to tell the whole truth, not just half the truth, for half the truth isn’t really the truth. If you only say, “When you die the angels will come and take you to heaven,” but you don’t also explain that all the evil people (that’s you and me apart from faith in Christ!) will be thrown into the fiery furnace, you are not really telling the truth.
Friends, please know that I’m writing these words to myself, because I need to hear them, but I hope they will encourage you as well. I want so desperately for people to be saved, that sometimes I only want to tell them the “Happy News about Eternal Life” … but the truth is that no one can fully appreciate the good news of the gospel until they’ve understood that every single one of us are sinners who deserve hell apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ.
So long as you think that you are a good person, that you are going to heaven by your own merit, then, who needs Jesus?
May the words of Christ fall on fertile soil and bear much fruit! Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace in telling us the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thank You for explaining to us that every one of us is a sinner deserving of hell. Thank You for the best news I’ve ever heard – that Jesus Christ paid the price for my sin by His death on the cross, and that by believing in Him I have been saved from the fiery furnace of hell and will live with You in heaven for all eternity. This is truly the most awesome, wonderful, fantastic, marvelous news I could ever hear! May we share this truth every day of the year, but especially this weekend as we remember the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus, my Savior, I pray, Amen.
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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 65, Matthew 12
But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Matthew 12:48-50 ESV
Yesterday’s post about Jesus carrying your burdens versus carrying your own burdens got me really thinking about the earthly importance of living in close community with other Christian sisters. I am so blessed to be a part of a vibrant, living body of believers! We have retreats together twice a year — with another one coming up next weekend. I can’t wait!
If you haven’t found some ladies to “do life with,” to plow the field with, let me encourage you – YOU NEED TO! All good things take work, including having rich relationships with women.
Here are some tips that might help you in this:
1. Don’t wait for someone else to reach out to you. They may be doing the very same thing. Remember that Christ made the first move. He reached out to you. Make the effort today to reach out to someone else. Get a date on the calendar and keep it.
2. Don’t only reach out to people who look like you, think like you, and act like you. Some of the ladies who’ve had the greatest impact on my life have been the most different from me. I need their viewpoint in my life!
3. Don’t be surprised when the scheduled time to get together, comes and you don’t want to go. Resist the temptation to make an excuse to stay home. You’ll miss out on a blessing … and so will your friend!
4. Don’t think your relational needs can be adequately met through online friendships or scrolling through social media. No matter how great that blogger 😉 or influencer or Facebook group friend seems … You’re only seeing a tiny slice of their life. Real friends will be IRL friends. If you meet that perfect sister online (which does happen!), that relationship needs to go deeper than posting photos and exchanging text messages.
5. Don’t run when the going gets tough! Authentic relationships are messy … But sisters stand by each other through the storms of life. When a sister says something that hurts your feelings, you have only two choices: (1) overlook the offense or (2) sit down with them and talk about it. Abandoning your sister isn’t an option. Yes, there are seasons for every relationship, but “breaking up” over a pretty argument or silently creeping out the back door isn’t an option when you’re sisters.
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for giving me so many sisters in faith. Thank You for how they have spurned me on to love and good deeds. Thank You for the ways that they have shouldered my burdens and walked before me to help make my path easier. Thank You for the times that they have reproved me, corrected me, and taught me. Thank You for the examples that they have been for me in faith, love, and good deeds.
I pray that You would send someone to me today who needs a friend, someone that can bless me and who I can also bless. I pray, Father, that You would help me to be a good friend, to love others like You loved me. Help me to recognize how greatly I need community and to be willing to put in the work it demands! Help me to be humble and recognize the log in my own eye, rather than being so quick to see the speck in my sister’s eye.
It is in the matchless name of Jesus Christ, the Friend who sticks closer than any brother, we pray. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 64, Matthew 11
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.
Matthew 11:28-29 ESV
I often find myself laboring in my own strength. I often feel heavy laden. I often feel tired and worn out and exhausted and in need of rest. How about you?
Yet, if I were sitting across the table from you and said, “I’m so tired. I really need some rest.” And your answer to me was, “Oh, sister, I hear you! I’ve got an idea. How about you take my yoke upon your shoulders? That will make your life easier.”
After laughing aloud 😂 (and thinking you must have taken lessons from Job’s friends in giving bad advice), I hope I’d remember Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” and then I might give you a very sincere “thank you” and proceed to ask you for some help with a variety of household tasks, like say cooking dinner or vacuuming. It certainly is a blessing to have friends to plow alongside, to labor in the field with. Jesus sent out his disciples two by two for a reason. We need friends to help us along this road of life. But, unfortunately, none of you can truly relieve my burden, for you have your own burdens to bear.
Only Jesus can carry my yoke for me.
Only Jesus can give rest to my soul.
Only Jesus can make my burden truly light.
Here I am, Lord. I’ve come. Thank You for the invitation. I need you. I lay all of my burdens down at Your feet. I cast all my cares upon You. I know that all my striving is for nothing. I trust You. You are the only place my soul can find rest. Your yoke is easy, and Your burden is light because You are the Almighty God, the Ruler of the universe, who sees me and knows me by name. My soul finds rest in You and You alone. Amen.
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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 63, Matthew 10
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:34-39 ESV
What do I love more than Jesus? Sleep? Chocolate cake? My phone?
Who do I love more than Jesus? My mom and dad? My friends? My kids? My husband?
Who is on the throne of my heart? Who rules over my thoughts and my actions? Who am I living my life for?
It’s a lot to think about.
Lord, help me to love You more than any thing, more than any one. Make me willing to lose what I love for Your name. Show me today what that looks like. In the name of Jesus Christ, the only worthy One, Amen.
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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 62, Matthew 9
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
Matthew 9:9 ESV
When you read that verse, Matthew 9:9, did you consider its author? This is Matthew’s own testimony. Matthew is saying, “This is me. I am that man. I am the one who was sitting at the tax booth. I am the one who Jesus called.”
The very next verse, Matthew 9:10 says that “Jesus reclined at table in the house,” but Matthew doesn’t tell you whose house it is. You have to read Luke 5:29 to discover that it was Matthew’s own house. Matthew opened his own house and many tax collectors and sinners had come to eat and spend time with Jesus and his disciples.
How awesome is that! I wish that I had been so quick to introduce my friends to Jesus. If you have someone in your life that you are discipling, or if you yourself are a new believer, please don’t wait until you have all the answers to invite your friends to meet Jesus.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, didn’t like it. They thought you needed to clean yourself up before coming to a good teacher like Jesus, but I’m here to tell you: You don’t!
Jesus says, “Come as you are… and I will make you new. I will change you. I am the one who heals and saves. I am the great physician of the body and the soul. Come to me! Today! Don’t wait!”
Heavenly Father, I pray for each one reading this. May those who are new in their faith be emboldened to share their faith today! May those who have been Christians for years not to look down their nose at unbelievers and new believers who don’t know how to behave! May those who don’t yet know You yet come to You today, without delay, trusting that Your arms are open wide to receive them. Thank You for calling Matthew while he was working in that tax booth, and thank You for calling me while I was running the other way. In the name of my Savior and Lord, Jesus the Christ, I pray. Amen.
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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 61, Matthew 8
In Matthew 8 we read about Jesus healing the leper and the centurion’s servant and then Peter’s own mother-in-law, but when the disciples find themselves in about in the middle of a great storm, they struggle with fear and faith.
And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Matthew 8:25-27 ESV
On the one hand, the disciples showed faith because they did go to Jesus and ask Him to save them. Surely, if you and I were together in a sinking boat, you wouldn’t come to me and say, “Save me, Kim, I’m perishing!”
And yet Jesus scolds them because they are so afraid. Jesus knows their thoughts. He knows their hearts. He knows they lack the full breadth and width and depth of faith that they need to live lives free of fear. They still have much to learn about the greatness of His power!
How about you? What storms are you facing today? What do you need to learn this week about how great our God is?
Heavenly Father, help me not to be afraid about all the health stuff, weather stuff, and family stuff, the daily fears of my life. Help me to fully trust You to lead me, save me, and protect me. I know that You are able. I know that You have all authority in heaven and on earth.
If You bless me with every earthly blessing, filling my life with honor, wealth, fame, health, and wisdom, it is for Your glory and for my good that I may declare Your praises and majesty and honor.If You choose to end my life tomorrow, it’s for Your glory and for my good, because I get to be with You for all eternity. If you choose for me to endure great suffering, it’s for Your glory and for my good that I might know You more deeply and completely. Anything that You allow (or send) into my life, I trust is ultimately for Your glory, as well as for my good.
In the name of my Almighty King Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen
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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 60; Matthew 7
My oldest two children (ages 10 and 7) and I initially memorized all 29 verses of Matthew 7 almost 20 years ago. Thankfully, I’ve used the Bible Memory app since then to review the verses I memorized, otherwise I fear that I wouldn’t remember it anymore. I hope you’ll check it out! Here’s a link to learn more or download it. Here’s a link to a video I made about how to use it. And here’s a link to my Teach What Is Good Bible Memory group You can join for free for some encouragement and accountability — don’t we all need that!
There is so much wisdom in all of Matthew 7, but today what I was especially thinking about the connection between verses 21-23 and 24-27.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’'”
Matthew 7:21-23 ESV
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Matthew 7:24-27 ESV
Don’t miss that word “then” in verse 24.
This reminded me of some other passages I’ve hidden in my heart.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
James 1:22 ESV
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV
This is what differentiates students from disciples: Students listen, students study, students memorize, but disciples put into practice the words of their teacher, modeling their own lives after their master’s.
Let’s be faithful to store up God’s Word in our heart (like Psalm 119:11 says), but let’s be just as faithful to put it into practice!
Heavenly Father, we don’t want to merely listen to your Word, thus deceiving ourselves. We want to do what it says. Help us to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, modeling our lives after His, loving and serving others, doing good to them and forgiving them, as Jesus Christ perfectly modeled for us. And help us to be faithful disciple-makers, telling others the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, and teaching them all that You have commanded us, remembering that You are always with us even to the end of the age! In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 59, Matthew 6
Bear with me, please, as I silently ponder aloud some thoughts from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.
Is Jesus enough for me?
Can I be satisfied in Him? Or do I have to manipulate others with anger or bitterness or unforgiveness?
Can I be satisfied in Him? Or do I need to lust after that person or that thing or that circumstance, thinking that is the key to my joy?
Can I be satisfied in Him? Or do I need the praise and accolades of man? Do I need good health and good food, nice clothes and nice friends to be happy?
I can just hear the Father whispering to me, “O, Kim, you of little faith. I am enough for you. Trust Me. Look at those birds making their little nests and pulling worms from the ground. Look at those flowers poking out from the dirt. I am taking care of them and I’m taking care of you. Fear not for I am with you. I am enough. You, seek Me. You, trust Me. You, pursue Me. I’ll take care of the rest. I’ll take care of you.”
Heavenly Father, You are enough. You are more than enough. You are a good, good Father who always keeps His promises. Increase my faith, Lord. Help me to seek first YOUR kingdom, rather than my own. Help me to seek to store up treasures in heaven, rather than here on earth. Give me eternal vision and help me to trust You in the little and big things. In the all-powerful name of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
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Lord Jesus, I pray that we would humble ourselves before You, recognizing our utter poverty and need, and acknowledging Your perfect strength and goodness. It is indeed good to be afflicted, that we might know You and Your power in our suffering. Hard indeed is the path to blessing, but oh how good it is to know You! In the good and gracious name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
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