Day 319 Bible Readings for November 16 – Hebrews 12: 28-29 (ESV)

Ezekiel 28 & 29, Hebrews 12: 14-29, Proverbs 15: 31-33, Proverbs 16: 1-7

Hebrews 12: 28-29 (ESV)

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

In verses 28 and 29 from Hebrews 12 the writer of Hebrews tells us that we need to be grateful that we have faith in the kingdom of God that is unshakeable. We live in an unstable world, but the kingdom of God is stable and will last forever. As people of faith we need to offer God gratitude and our reverence for his mercy. We also need to be in awe of all the things that God has done and will do in our world. We also need to be awe of God’s ability to consume sin like a fire in the world. God will burn the judgements of our sins because of our faith in his son Jesus Christ. But for those without faith, God will seem like a consuming fire when his judgement comes upon them.

What I like about these verses is I know my faith in Jesus Christ is like a rock in what can sometimes feel like a chaotic and unstable world. God's love for me is unchanging, and stable like his kingdom. When it sometimes feels like everything is crumbling around me, I know I can look back at how God has been faithful in my life. These memories and my faith give me a rock to cling to so I can feel stable in the churning waters of my life. 

Day 318 Bible Readings – Hebrews 12: 1-2 (ESV)

Ezekiel 26-27, Hebrews 12: 1-13, Proverbs 15: 21-30

Hebrews 12: 1-2 (ESV)

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Verses 1 and 2 from Hebrews 12 reminds us that we can endure because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We do not have to hold unto our sin because we are surrounded by people of faith who have gone before us. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we can endure the plan that God has laid before us, if we look to Jesus the founder of our faith. Christ endured death on the cross for us, and is now seated next to God his father.

I love this advice. I think sometimes to have faith in God is such a hard thing. If we look to Jesus Christ and all the suffering he endured to fulfill his father’s plan on earth, we can endure anything. Christ is example that we need to keep always before us. We will never have the purity of Christ in our actions, but he set the standard for obedience to God and what he was willing to go through to see his father’s plan fulfilled on earth. If Christ was willing to suffer death on the cross for us and to fulfill God’s plan on earth, how can we not try to everything we can to fulfill God’s plan for us and humanity

Day 317 Bible Readings – Proverbs 15: 15 (ESV)

Ezekiel 24-25, Hebrews 11: 17-40, Proverbs 15: 11-20

Proverbs 15: 15 (ESV)

“All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.”

Verse 15 from Proverbs 15 is great advice from the wisdom of Solomon. If you think your life is afflicted, you will feel that there is no joy in your life. But if you have a positive feeling in your heart and are cheerful, life will seem like a continual feast to you. The other way that this advice has been expressed is you either see the glass as half empty or half full.

I’ve heard some people of faith say that God wants us to always be cheerful and to always look on the bright side. This kind of attitude shows how much trust and faith that you have in God, and that you feel that whatever happens to you is a positive thing. But if you feel that your life is a mess, it may show that you have little faith in God because you don’t see how his plan is working in your life.

I think having a cheerful heart might have something to do with faith in God, because if you have total faith in God you will see everything that happens to you as part of God’s plan and will always see it in a positive way. If you have little to no faith in God, you will see everything that happens to you as bad sign or proof that God doesn’t love or care about you. But to have a positive attitude or cheerful heart is a choice based on your faith in God.

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.