Tag Archives: daily walk

May 9 – Making A Name For Ourselves

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2 Samuel 8&9, I Chronicles 18

Scripture tells us David made a name for himself. (2 Sam 8:13) He had soundly defeated his enemies, and news of that traveled far and wide. David was a warrior. David was a mighty king. David honored God and was blessed by God. Don’t mess with David.

My nephew’s high school senior class did the traditional, “Best Smile,” “Most likely to succeed,” “Best Athlete” thing this year. But, like many high schools, they threw in some “funny” ones, like “Goofiest Smile,” “Most likely to procrastinate,” “Biggest Ego.”

I hate this tradition! I mean, who wants to be remembered as the worst procrastinator or the person with the most annoying laugh? It’s not funny to most of them today, and it certainly won’t be funny twenty years from now.

The truth is, we are all making a name for ourselves. You may be identified on your job as a hard worker, or someone you never want to be stuck on a project with. Your friends might identify you as caring and honest, or a gossip and self-centered. Your family might identify you as loving and nurturing, or cold and way too busy.

God has me thinking about the name I am making for myself. Is it a name that honors Him? Is it a name I even want? What is it people really do see when they look at me?

May God be pleased with how I live my life, my reputation, and may people identify me first and foremost with my Savior. God and I have some work to do.

 

May 1 – Come Together

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2 Samuel 5:1-10, I Chronicles 11-12

The kingdom is being handed over to David. Thousands of mighty warriors are pledging their allegiance to their new king. Some believe so strongly that David is God’s chosen leader, they risk their lives to give David a drink of water.

I Chronicles 12:32 says the people “understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.”

That got my attention.

As Christians, do we understand our own times, or are we hiding our heads in the sand? We have so much information at our fingertips. Do we use it to find out what God is doing outside the four walls of our homes? Are we aware of how much control Satan is taking in our world? And, are we in God’s Word daily so that we have the knowledge of what the Church – you and I – should be doing?

Verses 38-30 of this chapter tell us the warriors came to David with “a perfect heart to make him king over all Israel.” Everyone was of one mind to make him king.

Wouldn’t that be incredible if that happened today, if all of us who call ourselves Christian would come together as one, with pure hearts, to make God our King – truly our King? If we put aside political agendas, denominational differences, music preferences, sin, control, and determined to follow God only?

The Bible tells us that these people, who came together to be with David, to fellowship with their king experienced joy. Oh, for the joy of corporate fellowship with the King of Kings!

Sure, these warriors were prepared for battle. So should we be. But that didn’t stop them from  coming together and enjoying the sweet fellowship with the king.

Let’s be warriors who, together with pure hearts, serve our own King as He deserves. There is joy for those who do.

April 29 – Excuses! Excuses!

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I Chronicles 7-10

I wonder what it would have been like to be Sheerah. In a male-dominant society, she is credited with building lower and upper Beth-horon, and Uzzen-sheerah. She is given one verse in I Chronicles (7:24), but her life must have been extraordinary.

I wonder what it was about her that she was able to have men listen to her, to follower her direction, to respect her. Because she certainly didn’t build those cities by herself.

I wonder what would have happened if Sheerah had sat back and not taken command of the situation. She could hardly be faulted if she had thought, “What can I do? I’m only a woman.” Or if the first time a man tried to overrule her if she had given up.

The thing is, God uses both men and women to accomplish great things. It just takes a willingness to step out in faith.

If God is calling you into some kind of ministry, stop making excuses. God used uneducated men who were willing to follow Jesus to lead the first century Church. If God can use them, He can use you, too.

God uses men and women, healthy and dying, introverts and extroverts, children and elderly people to do great things in Jesus’ name. When a heart is yielded to God, He can accomplish the extraordinary.

April 28 – All Glory To God

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Psalms 81, 88, 92-93

I was watching an NBA game the other night, and one of the players was being interviewed after helping his team with the win. He answered the question asked him, but before he did he said, “First I want to say thank you, Jesus. All glory to God.”

Now I don’t remember the player’s name, and know nothing about him personally. I pray his relationship with God is as real as it sounds. I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Then, reading these psalms today and remembering what this young basketball player had said, got me to thinking about how important it is to praise God, to recognize His hand in the events of life, and to purposefully acknowledge Him with a grateful heart.

God, through the psalmist, says that if we listened to Him, and walked in His ways, He would “feed us with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock (He) would satisfy (us).” (81:16)

And if we obey Him and are blessed by Him, people will want to be associated with us. In other words, we would be the cool people, the ones everyone else wants to be like.

God wants us to make Him an integral part of every day, a Presence in all we do or say. He really wants to hang out with us.

I want to praise God because He deserves to be praised. And especially when good things happen to me, I want to always give the glory back to God.

It’s what He deserves.

April 27 – My Territory

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I Chronicles 6

This chapter continues to list genealogies. And it tells about the territories that were given to the Levites, cities of refuge, and the pasturelands. It’s kind of repetitive. Not exactly an exciting read.

I’m sitting here watching my nephew play with his two pre-school children. They are snuggled together on my couch, each with a stuffed animal, and using silly voices to talk to each other. There are lots of giggles.

This is my territory. It’s not the condo we’re in here on this lovely island. It’s the people God has given me to love and care for. These are the precious ones I want to have in my life my whole life.

It occurs to me that when God gave cities and land in the Promised Land to the Israelites, he gave it to families. It was never about the land. It was all about the people. It was about the families.

I don’t ever want to get so caught up in “things,” a career, fame and fortune, that I neglect the dear ones God has blessed me with. It’s the people here in this condo complex where I live. It’s people in the workplace, in school, or wherever God has opened doors for me.

It’s never about my address.

It’s about the souls God allows me to share life with. May I protect my territory by praying for them, for introducing them to the Savior.

When I get to heaven I certainly won’t be wearing those designer jeans, or carrying the key to an ocean front property. No one will care if I’m CEO of a major company.

But I want to take my territory with me into eternity. I want the souls of those people I love to be with me forever.

Lord, help me to care for the territory You have given me. I pray for my sisters, their families, and the families of the next generation. I pray for my neighbors, my friends, co-workers. Give me the opportunity to introduce them to You. And may You find their hearts eager to accept Your grace. I want to be a good steward of the territory You’ve given me. May You find me faithful.

April 26- Pity-Party Free Zone

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Psalms 73, 77-78

Sometimes we might be tempted to throw a pity party for ourselves when we see the successful, easy lifestyle of wicked, ungodly people. Most days we know how blessed we are. We can even admit we know that what we see on the surface of anyone’s life often masks heartache and pain.

But seriously, it would be nice to experience wealth on the scale of some who seem to have everything going for them. At least for a day or so. Right?

The psalmists asks if he has kept his heart pure in vain. Have I? The psalmists also reminds us that thinking those thoughts are “senseless and ignorant.” (73:22)

Read verses 25-28 of the 73rd psalm for an attitude check. Instead of throwing that pity party, let these verses be your encouragement.

“But as for me, the nearness of God is my good…”

The nearness of God is really all I need, and it blesses me more than any dollar amount.

My heart is a pity-party free zone.

 

April 24 – The Church: A Laughingstock

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Psalms 43-45, 49, 84-84, 87

43:1 caught my attention right away this morning: Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

Genderless public bathrooms? That’s just the latest insanity running rampant in our ungodly nation.

I want every Christian in America to read this psalm and let it be our anthem. So much is happening these days to undermine decency and truth. (I just realized my spell-check doesn’t recognize the word “Christian.”  What’s up with that?) It’s tempting to throw up our hands in defeat.

Let this be our prayer: O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead (us). (verse 3, emphasis mine) It goes on to say our hope is in God.

44:13-16 describes where the Church is today. We’ve become a reproach to our neighbors, labeled as judgmental haters. The psalm continues to say we are a “scoffing and a derision to those around us,” a laughingstock.

Christians are not taken seriously. We are a joke to those who declare themselves to be “enlightened” or “progressive.”

Dear one, let’s allow God’s light and His truth lead us. Let’s hope in God alone. Let’s not cower because some have said what we know to be true according to Scripture is old fashioned or irrelevant or laughable.

Oh God, may You find us faithful in the face of an ungodly nation, in the hands of deceitful and unjust men. Lead us by Your Truth. And may Your will be done in the hearts of Your children, and through us in this great nation.

April 23 -Who Influences You?

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I Chronicles 1-2

Be honest. Did you read every name listed in the two chapters for today? It’s a list ancestry.com can’t even offer. Can God speak to us in passages such as these? I mean, what does Shallum becoming the father of Jekamiah have to do with me in the 21st century?

Whenever I read the genealogy sections of the Bible I try not to skip over any name. All Scripture is God-breathed, so evidently old Segub must be important. Did you know Segub’s dad was over 60 when Segub was born? Achar was described as “the troubler of Israel.” Ouch. Sheshan had only daughters.

I have a pretty strong German heritage. And I believe my sisters and I were raised, in part,  with the influence of that culture. But I don’t consider myself a German. I’m an American. Born and raised.

God seems to be asking me today where are my greatest influences? Is it the patriarchal make-up of my ancestors? Is it the influence of being raised during post-WWII? Would I say my teachers and/or professors have been my greatest influence? Literature? Friends? Movie or rock stars?

Or is my greatest influence my adopted Father? My spiritual family? God’s Word?

I have no say as to what family I was born into. But I have been influenced by them, by teachers and friends. I am who I am today largely because of them. And I can’t change that. I’m actually blessed because of them.

I can, however, choose to place God above anyone and anything. I can choose to be like Jesus from this day on. I can devour God’s Word, pay attention to sound teaching, love like Jesus loved. I can learn from older saints, and mentor younger ones.

Yes, these chapters in I Chronicles are important to me in 2016. It made me stop and think about who I am, and what is really important. I want my legacy to be that I was a godly woman, one who was influenced by God Himself, and lived her life to please Him.

 

April 22 – It’s A Great Day

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Psalms 6, 8-10, 14, 16, 19, 21

Reading these psalms this morning has my heart praising God for my salvation. Even when there is no good in me He loves me. He forgives even my secret sins. He has written His love letter to me, my owner’s manual, my guidebook.

He walks with me. He defeats my enemies, those things which would come between my God and me.

I rejoice in my salvation. How majestic is God in all the earth.

“Be exalted, O Lord, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.” (21:13)

“You will make known to me the path of life; in Your Presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (16:11)

It’s a great day to walk with my Savior!

April 20 – Ain’t No Mountain

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Psalms 121, 123-125, 128-130

Several of these psalms speak about mountains. For one thing, a mountain isn’t going anywhere. During the days these psalms were written, living close to a mountain provided protection from invading enemies. And if you lived surrounded by mountains you were extra safe.

Very often in Scripture mountains are used to represent problems, something to be conquered, or to get over. These psalms had me looking at mountains today in a different light.

God is asking me today where I go for protection from my enemy Satan. Do I turn on Dr. Phil, read a self-help book, talk to a friend, take a pill or have a drink? How is that working for me?

Psalm 121 reminds me God made heaven and earth, that He won’t let my foot slip, that He’ll protect me and keep my soul. Psalm 124: “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 125 tells me if I trust in the Lord I can be as immovable as Mt. Zion. It also says God surrounds me like the mountains around Jerusalem.

Today, I want to seek shelter in God who is more sturdy than any mountain He created. I want to live in the shadow of the mountain that is God Himself. He is my shield and safety. He is my protection and strength. None of my problems are too big for Him.

And He’s not going anywhere. He is as immovable as a mountain. And if I go to Him by reading His Word and praying, He is there.

You see, there “ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough” to keep God from me. That’s where I get my help. That’s where I get my strength. That’s where I want to be.