Day 9 Bible Reading

Genesis 19 & 20, Matthew 7: 24-29, Matthew 8: 1-22, Psalms 7: 1-9

Matthew 7: 24-25 (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.”

I love these verses from Matthew 7. When I feel my faith weakening, I think of all that Jesus has done in my life and I feel my strength coming back. Jesus is the bedrock of my faith. Through the love of Jesus, I feel the power of the Holy Spirit who guides me. I think I especially love these verses because they are part of one of my favorite Christian songs – Firm Foundation by Maverick City Music.

For your listening pleasure.

Day 8 Bible Reading

Genesis 16-18, Matthew 16-34, Matthew 7: 1-23, Proverbs 1: 18-19

Matthew 7: 7-11 (ESV)

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

I’ve read these verses from Matthew 7 many times, but today I took a different meaning from them. I used to think you could only ask God once for the things that you want. But my reading from these verses tells me that God wants to us continually ask him for what we want, to continually seek for what we want because like a good father. And furthermore, God is like a good father in that he will never give us bad things but only good things. It’s part of God’s nature as our father to want to give us good things. I’ve been hearing from the Holy Spirit to look at everything that happens to me as a good thing. I hate being sick, but I praise God for this cold because it has shown me that I have a medicine cabinet that is well prepared for a cold, that I have vitamins that will help my body recover from the cold, and that despite the cold God has given me the strength to do my daily bible readings and the 30 minutes I committed daily to spend time with God on gratitude and miracles in my life, and anything else that comes up that day.

Day 7 Bible Reading

Genesis 13-15, Matthew 6: 1-24, Psalm 6

Genesis 13: 3-4 (ESV)

“And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.”

These two verses from Abraham spoke to me today. In Genesis 5, God told Abraham to go the land that “he will show them.” Abraham dutifully followed God’s command, until a famine came along. Then Abraham acted like he forgot everything God had told him, and hent to Egypt and got in trouble. Abraham’s faith in God and his promises slipped for a time in the face of a hardship or adversity. I know for myself that I have often strayed from doing what God wants me to do because of hardship or adversity. When my trust in God’s promises began to waiver because I was having a hard time in life. But I love how Abraham after all that delay, went back to the beginning of where he was to start over and to once again pray to God. I think verse 3 and 4 is a reminder to us when we waiver in our trust in God because of hardship or adversity, that we can always go back to beginning, reset ourselves, get right with God, and start all over again. God’s mercy for our distrustful nature is a daily thing, so each morning we can start over, give ourselves a reset, and pray to God.

Picked up some sort of bug on Saturday. Thought I kicked it and then it came back on Monday and I was feeling too unwell to post. So I took night time cold medicine which knocked me out, and I woke up today feeling much better. 

Day 6 Bible Reading

Genesis 11 & 12, Matthew 5, Psalm 5

Genesis 11: 4 (ESV)

“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.””

I was struck by verse 4 from Genesis 11. In Genesis 5, God told Noah and his sons to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” But Noah’s descendants didn’t want to obey God’s advice, and instead they wanted to stay in one place and not be separated. We read of this continually in the Bible stories. God tells people what to do, some follow and some don’t. Good things comes to those people who follow God’s advice, and not so great things come to those who don’t follow God’s advice. So even after the great reset of the flood that killed everyone except Noah and his descendants our sinful nature remained, and we chose again to disobey God. But in God’s mercy, he didn’t punish his people. Instead, he made his people all spoke different languages and he made sure they moved around to full the earth.