Tag: devotion

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All In

Daily Reading

Nehemiah 10-11

Daily Thought

“On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these are the priests. And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Bani, Beninu. The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, Malluch, Harim, Baanah” (Nehemiah 10:1-27).

How many names did you skip when you read this passage? Most? None? Some? All? It is just a list of names, right? But if you were Hacaliah, your name on this list is a big deal. That goes for Kadmiel and Azgad and Zadok and all the rest. Each signatory sealed the deal, each said I am all in, committed. It’s like signing the Declaration of Independence, only bigger because that was against the British and this is before God. 

“If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” ~Numbers 30:2

The signers say they will each “join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes” (Nehemiah 10:29).

It’s like marriage. The essence of marriage is “I Do,” and “I Do” changes everything. It means I’m all in. Each name on this list is the backbone of Jerusalem, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.

Daily Prayer

My God, You gave Your Son the Name above every name, that all would bow before Him. I bow. He is my Lord, my God, my Savior, the King of kings. There is no One better to put in charge of my life, and I willingly and eagerly serve Jesus Christ.  Thank You Jesus for leading me to life, the true life I seek, a life overflowing with peace and justice and purity and love. You have all authority, and when I walk in Your Name, I have the confidence of heaven.

I am so glad that You know my Name, that it is signed and sealed in Your Book of Life. I am a citizen of heaven, a bride of Christ, an ambassador of God, a saint. And all I did is sign under Your Name, You did all the rest. Thank You for salvation in Your Name.

Amen

Daily Question

When you became a Christian, what did you think you were signing up for?

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any god will do

Daily Reading

2Chronicles 28-31

Daily Thought

Ahaz was the next king who “did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2Chronicles 28:1). He crafted idols to the Baals and sacrificed his own sons in the Valley of the son of Hinnom. He borrowed indiscriminately the gods of the nations around him. Any god will do, “and he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree” (2Chronicles 28:4). He even adopted the gods of Damascus after losing a battle to Syria, reasoning, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me” (2Chronicles 28:23).

Any god will do, it seemed, except the one God, the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of David and Solomon, of his own father Jotham, the Lord, the God of Israel. Ahaz broke up the furniture in the Temple of the only and true God, using the wood to make altars to his new gods, “and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord” (2Chronicles 28:24).

Where any god will do, there is one God who won’t. Isaiah was prophet when Ahaz was king, and proclaimed the words of the one true God, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8). God does not play nicely with others. He does not share. “I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). These are not words of petty jealousy, but the deep passion of love, familiar to us in our own wedding vow, “forsaking all others, I keep only unto you.” No flirting with others.

This was the first of the commandments, “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3); the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5); and the cry of Israel, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). This is how truth works. It is pure, it is holy, it is one. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). God stands alone.

Daily Prayer

My God, Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, King of kings and Lord of lords, there is none like You. You and You alone are God, and You are my God, my first love. May my love be full and pure. All of life, a life abundantly full of love and good and justice and grace, is from You. I seek other ways at my own peril, and yet I do. The results are never good. Thank You for allowing me to run home to You again and again, and for greeting me with open arms again and again.

Each day will begin remembering it is Your day, a day You have created and sustained. I commit my life to You, to Your praise and pleasure. What a way to live!

Amen

Daily Question

What are the things that compete most strongly with God for your heart?

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The Wealth of Wisdom

Daily Reading

1Chronicles 28-2Chronicles 1

Daily Thought

When Solomon became king, God offered Solomon whatever he wanted, “In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, ‘Ask what I shall give you’” (2Chronicles 1:7). Solomon spurned riches and honor and asked for wisdom. Wealth and power would make him a mighty king, but wisdom would make him a good king, a godly king. God granted Solomon wisdom and knowledge, and then went ahead and gave him riches and possessions and honor on top of it. 

God made Solomon wise, but he also gave Solomon a challenge that would test and could strengthen his wisdom. “Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom” (2Chronicles 9:22). Would riches and possessions and honor serve God and God’s kingdom or would they serve only Solomon?

Solomon would be a great king, but not fully, not with his whole heart. Solomon was wise and could have ruled his kingdom with wisdom, but he did not rule himself. Rather, he drank the world’s riches of wealth and wine and women. At the end of his life, Solomon reflected, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt” (Ecclesiastes 5:10, 13). Solomon, at last, became truly wise, but too late. His kingdom would be divided, as was his heart.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” ~Matthew 6:24

Daily Prayer

My God, my Lord, my Savior, I will serve and follow You fully, keeping my eyes on You, focused on the prize, a glorious day to come when I might hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” You are what is good in life and I long to be godly. I will guard my heart against distractions. Strengthen my will and give me wisdom to choose well. 

God, You are the center of my life, and all else revolves around You. You are first in everything. I trust my life to You, knowing that a life can only be great when it is first good and godly. This is my resolve. I pray this will be my actions, as well. 

Amen

Daily Question

What stands between you and giving your heart whole and fully to God?

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United We Stand

Daily Reading

1Chronicles 7-8

Daily Thought

“Ner was the father of Kish, Kish of Saul, Saul of Jonathan” (1Chronicles 8:33). Saul, the first king of Israel, began well, and his faithfulness is revealed in the name he chose for his first son, Jonathan, “The Lord Gives.” Saul looked to God as the giver of good. This is what you want in a king. Signs of Saul’s decay show up, however, as the naming of sons continues, “Malchi-shua, Abinadab and then Eshbaal” (1Chronicles 8:33). Baal, a borrowed god from foreign nations, was a constant disruption to Israel’s devotion to the one true God. Saul named his son Eshbaal, “Man of Baal.” Little wonder God spoke to his prophet Samuel, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me (1Samuel 15:11).

“And the son of Jonathan,” the list continues, “was Merib-baal” (1Chronicles 8:34). Merib-baal, “One Who Contends with Baal,” declares Jonathan’s response to the idolatry of his father. It also explains Jonathan’s close friendship with David, a man after God’s heart. David would replace the failed king, Jonathan’s father, Saul.

Before a kingdom finds unity, it must answer the question, “What is it that unites us?” Joshua had warned Israel as they first entered God’s Promised Land, before the kings appeared, “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). But Israel said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1Samuel 8:19-20). A divided kingdom, a divided family, springs from a divided heart. Saul’s wandering devotion led his family and his kingdom into disarray.

Daily Prayer

My God, You are One, the Only God, there is no other, and You alone have my heart, undivided, fully devoted to You. Keep my heart pure and strong, so that my eyes will not follow temptation. Protect my household, that we may always keep You first.

Each day, may I rise up looking to You, remembering that the day before me is a gift from You, and I should delight in it. Offering myself to You each morning, the day before me will be a display of my devotion, and the world will see that You are my God, and that my God is good and full of grace.

Amen

Daily Question

What have you done to establish who is in charge of your family?

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First Things First

Daily Reading

2Kings 18-19

Daily Thought

God called his people to gather in his Temple for worship. The Temple was due for repair and “in the first year of Hezekiah’s reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He said to them, ‘Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord.’ They began to consecrate on the first day of the first month” (2Chronicles 29:3, 5, 17). 

Genesis 4:4, “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering.” Exodus 23:19, “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.” Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Romans 1:8, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 2Corinthians 8:5, “They gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Revelation 2:4-5, “You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

First Things First. Hezekiah got it right. 

“He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.” ~2Kings 18:5-7

Daily Prayer

My Lord and My God, I worship You and love You with all that I am. Which makes sense, since all that I am was created by You. You had an idea for me before I was born, and You formed me and watched me grow. I grow best, Father, when I remember from Whom I came and to Whom I am going.

You are the First and, also, the Last. The Beginning and the End, Alpha and Omega, A and Z. You are before all things, and in You all things hold together. There is no life without You. Why would I even think of living my life without You. You are my God. May I wake each morning and think first of You, beginning each day with anticipation. You are God, One and only, first in all things, first in my heart. 

Amen

Daily Question

What can you do in your home to make sure God is always first in everything?

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Under God

Daily Reading

2Kings 1-3

Daily Thought

Elijah, the classic prophet of God, was nearing the end of his mission. “Do you know,” Elijah said to Elisha, “that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” (2Kings 2:3). Elisha would be his successor.

Have fun keeping the names straight.

Three times Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay put,” to test him, and three times Elisha did not stay put, but followed. Elisha had set his mind, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you” (2Kings 2:2, 4, 6). At the very end, fifty sons of the prophets watched Elijah part the Jordan River, then walk across on dry land with Elisha. Some time later, the fifty watched Elisha, like Elijah, part the Jordan River and return alone. The same miracle. The mantle of the prophet had passed to the next generation. 

Two miracles followed. The first was simple and basic. The water of Jericho was bad, literally “evil.” Spend time in a third-world country and you know what evil water can do to you. It could not be drunk and it would not nourish crops. Symbolically, Elisha threw salt in the water, but what healed the evil was “the word that Elisha spoke” (2Kings 2:22). Elisha wore the mantle of the prophet Elijah.

The second miracle was of an odd sort. Elisha came out of Bethel, and “some small boys jeered at him, saying, ‘Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!’” (2Kings 2:23). Small boys may be better translated young men, and there was at least 42 of the them. “Go up, you baldhead!” would be an insult today, and it was meant to be then. “Go up” means “Keep on going,” and so this gang of youth was telling Elisha he was not welcome in Bethel. “Get out of town, Baldy!” They wanted nothing to do with a prophet. They wanted nothing to do with the word of the Lord.

You cast away God at your peril.

“Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God?” ~Thomas Jefferson, 1782

“God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” ~Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention of 1787

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor.” ~George Washington, October 3, 1789

“In God We Trust” ~still the National Motto of the United States of America–but it must be more than a motto.

Elisha cursed them and two female bears tore into the boys. His name is Elisha, heir of the prophet Elijah, and he speaks the word of God. Listen to him.

Daily Prayer

My Lord and Creator, I believe fully in You, loving You with all of my being. I will stand for You and confess You before men. You are King of kings and Lord of lords. I pray, God, that I will be a bright light, that my faith will not be hidden, but will shine in the darkness. That by all my actions people will know that You are God.

May I live the way all should live, under God, knowing and proclaiming that you are the source of all of life and all that is good. God, I pray that the land in which I live will acknowledge You and trust in You. I pray that we will be a good people under a great God.

Amen

Daily Question

What are some ways to keep the Word of God central to your family?

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Devoted or Divided

Daily Reading

1Kings 10-11

Daily Thought

The Queen of Sheba visited the kingdom of Solomon. When the Queen of Sheba says something like, “Behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard” (1Kings 10:7), you know you’re rich. You have all you need and more. It was not just the wealth, but the women. Many foreign women. God said, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods” (1Kings 11:1). He did and they did. Having everything you want is not always best.

Remember the nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the kings horses and all the kings men–“Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem (1Kings 10:26)–they couldn’t put Solomon together again. Solomon’s father, David, had been fully devoted. Solomon was fully divided. The kingdom would be divided as well, Israel to the north, Judah to the south, a united nation no more.

If Satan cannot ruin you with failure, he will try to ruin you with success. He is partial to neither.

Daily Prayer

God of Love, I only know what love is because of You. My kind of love leans toward selfishness. What is in it for me? But You, the God of all creation, considered me, the one You created, better than Yourself. Even while I had my back turned to You, You died for me. Your love is sacrificial. It is good. It is life.

God, I have one first love and that is You. Above all else and all others. What is amazing is I am able to love others better because I love You fully. Thank You for loving me first.

Amen

Daily Question

Does your walk with God get challenged more when you are prospering or when you are struggling?

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Who’s In Charge?

Daily Reading

1Samuel 18-20

Daily Thought

Jonathan and David had many reasons not to be friends. Jonathan’s loyalty to his father, King Saul, tops the list. As his oldest son, Jonathan was next in line, but David was a popular alternative. Sure, David had killed his ten thousands (1Samuel 18:7), but Jonathan was a fierce warrior in his own right, leader of a third of the army, and had his share of victories. Jonathan, who had claim to the throne, had a choice to make: Who would be king?

Saul had become king because he appealed to man. He looked the part of king, handsomely standing head and shoulders above all others. David appealed to God. He had God’s heart. Jonathan could take the throne and continue the reign of Saul, of man, of me-on-the-throne. Instead, “Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt” (1Samuel 18:4). Like Jesus, he “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). God was on the throne of Jonathan’s life, therefore, David, the man after God’s heart, would be king.

Daily Prayer

God, as I wake up this morning, the first question I will answer is “Who is in charge of my life today?” You are. You are my King of kings and Lord of lords. There are all sorts of competitors to the throne, but none bring the peace, purity, righteousness, justice, and love of the one true God of heaven and earth. Thank You for putting my life in order, providing peace and contentment in a world of chaos.

May I follow Your ways closely and confidently, knowing they lead to a life of overflowing joy. My decisions in life reflect the one choice I have to make: who will be king? I choose to follow You, to give you my allegiance, my devotion, my worship. Each morning, I awake to a day that You have made and set before me. I shall live this day displaying the banner of my King.

Amen

Daily Question

Who is on the throne of your life? How can you tell?

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Choose Wisely

Daily Reading

Joshua 22-24

Daily Thought

We all follow someone or something, each of us must choose, and there are only two choices: God and not-God. From the words of Jesus, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30), and, “For the one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). You cannot not choose. And you can’t straddle the fence.

Did you hear the one about the Civil War soldier who couldn’t decide who to fight for, North or South? He donned a Dixie gray shirt and Yankee blue pants and stood in the middle. Both sides shot him. “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16).

Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel for a his final words (he is about to die), “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.” You cannot not choose, so make a choice.

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). And choose wisely.

Daily Prayer

Father in Heaven, make Your love the foundation of my life. May my love for You express itself in eagerness to serve, to do good for others. May I learn humility from Your Son, sacrifice from the Cross, wisdom from Your Word.

You are God, most wonderful. Your wisdom confounds the world. May I think like You. May I listen to Your Spirit. Give me the desires of my heart; that is, may I delight in Your desires.

Amen

Daily Question

Would you say you live 100% for God?

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No Middle

Daily Reading

Luke 10-11

Daily Thought

These middle chapters of Luke’s Gospel describe the middle of Jesus’s crusade, but it is in the middle where no one is permitted to place themself. This is a crusade of the King of kings heralding, “the kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:11). Jesus sent his followers, two by two, into the towns ahead of him to announce the coming of the King. If they accept you, they accept me, he tells them, “the one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). There is no place in the middle, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). 

It is in or out and it is all or nothing. A lawyer asks Jesus how to receive eternal life, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). That is everything. Even his friend Martha is chastised for serving him as if he were merely an out-of-town guest, instead of worshipping him as the Lord of the heavens and the earth, as her sister does; “Mary has chosen the good” (Luke 10:42). 

It is time to choose, and choose you must. Some chose and sneered, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons” (Luke 11:15), and if they were not so terribly wrong, they would have been terribly right. 

Jesus is the King of kings, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, or he is a devil pretending. There is no middle.

Daily Prayer

My Lord and God, Beginning and the End, Alpha and Omega, First and Last, You are the Creator of all things, and in You, all things will be fulfilled and brought to completion. You, therefore, demand and deserve my all. I want to give it to You. Help me do it. Remind me when I hold part of myself back, or when I use You for my own benefit. Like Martha, don’t let me get away with treating You as less than You are; don’t let me get so busy doing religion that I forget to worship my Savior.

I choose to follow You fully, letting go of anything else which could steal my heart. 

Amen

Daily Question

Would you describe yourself as “all in” for Jesus Christ? Why or why not?