Day 316 Bible Readings – Hebrews 11: 1-3 (ESV)

Ezekiel 22: 23-31, Ezekiel 23, Hebrews 11: 1-16, Proverbs 15: 1-10

Hebrews 11: 1-3 (ESV)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

Verses 1 through 3 from Hebrews 11 gives us a great definition of faith. When you have faith you assure yourself that even though you don’t have the physical experience of something you want, you know without a doubt that whatever you are praying for will manifest itself into the physical world. Then the writer of Hebrews 11 compared faith to how God created the world. God spoke the world into existence. God had the faith to just say something existed and it came to be. God didn’t have to see the world to create it.

I love this definition of faith; that you can just speak into existence something that doesn’t exist and you know without a doubt that it will happen. But I know faith hasn’t been this simple in my life. Sometimes I’ve had to wait for a very, very long time for my prayers to come true. And my prayers were often answered in ways I wasn’t expecting; sometimes it was better and sometimes it wasn’t. But I never gave up my faith, even though I was sorely tempted to at the time. I think having faith is often the easy part of the journey. It’s the waiting period that is the hard part. I have so much evidence in my life that God has almost always answered my prayers, but this knowledge doesn’t make the waiting time any easier. I sometimes think the waiting time is when God is testing me to find out, do I really want what I am praying for? And sometimes the waiting has made me change my mind on what I thought I wanted. But when God did answer my prayers, I was always so amazed because the experience was always better than I thought it would be. These are the true miracles in my life that I hold onto when I am in a waiting period, waiting for my prayers to be answered.

Day 315 Bible Readings – Hebrews 10: 23-25 (ESV)

Ezekiel 20: 45-49, Ezekiel 21, Ezekiel 22: 1-22, Hebrews 10: 19-39, Proverbs 14: 25-35

Hebrews 10: 23-25 (ESV)

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

In verses 23 through 25, the writer of Hebrews 10 tells us that because of the death of Christ, we need to hold fast to the new covenant given to us by Christ and the promise of his faithfulness. The writer of Hebrews 10 also tells us to seek the community of faith so we can encourage each other with love and to do good works. We must also remember to meet together as a community in worship. When we meet together in worship, we can encourage and love another as people who have the same faith. The writer also tells us that we need to always keep in the mind that we do not know when Christ will return to earth, so we need to always live our lives as if that day is near. I believe the writer might also mean that since we do not know when we will leave this earth, we need to treat every day as if it’s our last day and worship Christ because we might be seeing him sooner rather than later.

I think these verses are great advice for any person with faith in Christ on how to live in the world. If we live every day thinking we might meet God the next day, then we will live very different lives.

Day 314 Bible Readings – Proverbs 14: 23 (ESV)

Ezekiel 19, Ezekiel 20: 1-44, Hebrews 10: 1-18, Proverbs 14: 15-24

Proverbs 14: 23 (ESV)

“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”

Verse 23 from Proverbs 14 stood out to me today. It might not seem like it sometimes, but I do believe that in all hard work there is some kind of profit. Most of the time that profit is financial, but sometimes there are rewards as well. I’ve always liked jobs where I was so busy that the day just flew by, and by the you know it was time to go home. Some people have said that hard work also builds character because you can see just what you are made of if you are made to work hard. There is also at times a sense of satisfaction when you work hard, and you see your work come to life. Even if it’s just planning an event which takes a lot of hard work, to see all of your plans come out exactly as you wanted is such an amazing experience. By the same token if you just talk about doing something and never do it, then there will not be a financial reward or satisfaction. You never get to see the dream you had in your heard work out and take shape in real life. You never get to see your idea become a reality and think, wow I thought that up. Or  I built that thing or I planned this amazing event and it worked and made everyone happy.

Day 313 Bible Readings – Ezekiel 18: 21-22 (ESV)

Ezekiel 17-18, Hebrews 9: 16-28, Proverbs 14: 5-14

Ezekiel 18: 21-22 (ESV)

““But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.”

Verses 21 and 22 from Ezekiel 18 reminds us that if you repent for your sins and decide to follow all of God’s laws, God will forgive you and you will not die. God will forget all the wrong you did, and only remember what you did after you repented for your sins. Even though these verses were written in the Old Testament by the prophet Ezekiel, they are telling us how the new covenant of Jesus Christ will work. These verses also tell us we determine our own fates by our actions. Even if have committed wrong, we can always repent and ask God for forgiveness. We can also decide to change our life and behavior to follow all of God’s rules and do what God considers just and right. God loves us so much that he will forgive us for our past bad behavior. God will give us full restoration when we repent and ask him for forgiveness, and show him by our actions that we have changed.