Living Life with Jesus

Nehemiah 2

Nehemiah (a Jewish man) was a cupbearer for King Artaxerxes (pagan king), which meant he brought him his food and drink and tasted it first to be sure it wasn’t poison. One day, news traveled to Nehemiah that Jerusalem was in ruin. This is after many Jewish people were released to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild and worship their God (this is after the time of Ezra). Nehemiah thought that the Jewish people were doing just that- enjoying their freedom and worshiping the Lord in Jerusalem. When he found out that Jerusalem was in ruin and the people were transgressing the Lord, he was torn apart and he fasted and prayed to the Lord.

Here is what he prayed:

“I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statues, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name. Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

THIS prayer is so incredibly applicable to our current situation with COVID-19 and the quarantine/lockdown. I lift up Nehemiah’s prayer and pray it again, O God, please hear us and save us once more. Amen.

Ezra 6

Ezra starts off with Cyrus, the king of Persia, letting the Jewish people go back home! Through the word of the Lord, he commanded them to rebuild the temple. And so, the people obeyed and started to build the temple.

In Ezra 5, Tattenai, the governor of Shethar-Boznai (across the river from Judah) tries to impede on the building of the temple but cannot do so until there is a report from King Darius. Tattenai thought that once King Darius knew what was going on, he would stop it immediately.

However, King Darius writes a decree not only allowing the temple to be built, but he offers to pay for it to be built! What’s really cool is that neither King Cyrus nor King Darius were children of the Lord- they practiced the pagan religion. However, God is in control over ALL things and He used Cyrus and Darius to fulfill His plan and His promises.

Another really great thing about this situation is that the Jewish people were already building the temple before they knew Darius would pay for it. They probably had no idea how the temple would be paid for, but they wanted to obey God and so they started building. THEN God provided the financing. Sometimes we have to obey FIRST and THEN God will provide. We have to take a step of faith…knowing that He WILL provide, but we may not know how right away. The Jewish people trusted in the Lord, obeyed His commands and in the end, the temple was paid for in full by King Darius.

Today I pray for a measure of faith. With all the quarantines, businesses shutting down, and lay-offs, many of us do not know how we are going to pay our bills. We are like the Jewish people in Ezra, we may not know how God is going to provide for our needs. But, I pray that we place our full trust in the Lord and have faith that He WILL provide. We are His children, and He has promised to take care of us. So, today I pray that we keep our faith in the Lord- let’s not worry or doubt, but simply pray and obey. In Jesus’ name I send this prayer up to our Heavenly Father. Amen.

God > Coronavirus

Dear fellow Christians,

During this time let us not be afraid. This is an opportunity for God to shine, if we let Him. Let people see the peace that the Lord provides. Let them see Christians everywhere who are calm, not freaking out, continuing to go to church, and continuing to praise the Lord. LET’S STAND OUT. Someday future historians may write about the Coronavirus and say, “The Christian people did not panic, they remained calm, they continued to gather, and they went out into the world and prayed.” God can shine through us, if we let him. If you were sent home from work and have unexpected time off, go out and pray for people. We do not have to be afraid, we have the Lord on our side. Over and over Jesus told us “do not be afraid.” Now is the time to listen and obey Him… do not be afraid. When you are asked why you are not afraid, tell people it’s because you believe in the Lord! We’ve all prayed for more opportunities to spread God’s love, peace, joy, and the good news. Well, this is that time! Pray for ways God can use you during this time to spread His love. There are countless opportunities to help right now, we need to pray and open our eyes and get out there to bless our communities.

While the world is freaking out and panicking, we won’t.

While the world is becoming selfish and hoarding supplies, we won’t.

While the world is staying in and isolating themselves, we won’t.

We have God, let’s be different. Let’s let God shine through us in the ways of peace, love, joy, and faith.

2 Chronicles 10

2 Chronicles 10:7 states, “If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.” Rehoboam (Solomon’s son) just took over as king because Solomon had passed away. Jeroboam was asking Rehoboam to lighten the load that Solomon had placed on the Israelites. Solomon’s advisors advised Rehoboam to be kind to Jeroboam and the Israelites and he would win them over.

Here, Rehoboam had the opportunity to keep the nation of Israel as ONE, rather than being split into two, but he rejected the advice of the elders and decided to be even harsher to Jeroboam than Solomon was. This caused a revolt and the people were split into the nations of “Israel” and “Judah.” Rehoboam kept the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and the other 10 tribes joined together under Jeroboam to be “Israel.”

The point of this, I think, is that if we want people on our side, the best thing to do is be kind. The harsher we are to people, the more they will rebel and revolt. In my line of work, I oversee many people and oftentimes my knee-jerk reaction is to be punitive and harsh when they get out of line. But, learning from this passage, I need to be EVEN KINDER when they mess up, and help correct them in love, just as the Father does for us.

So my prayer today is that the Holy Spirit fills me up and helps show kindness to people that I oversee. I pray the the Lord helps me correct them in love and that they might see the Lord through me. I pray that I can learn from Rehoboam’s mistake and keep the peace in my world by showing love and kindness to those around me. Amen.

2 Chronicles 6

2 Chronicles 6:28, “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; (29) whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: (30) then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hears of the sons of men)…

This is a prayer that Solomon spoke out loud in front of all the people of Israel after building the temple for the Lord. I found it interesting that Solomon said, “when there is famine…” Even though we have a good God, bad things still happen. Solomon knew this but he also knew where our hope and trust lies: in the Lord. The first thing Solomon asks God to do is hear our prayers and forgive (verse 30). It’s more important that we are forgiven than to have our struggles taken away from us. Jesus repeats this idea when he does his miracles in the New Testament because he always forgives sins before healing the physical body.

Anyway, the point is that bad things WILL happen, and Solomon knew that. So when people say, “If there is a God, why do bad things happen?” Well because not only is there a God who is perfect, there are humans who sin and so bad things happen. But, we can pray and put all our hope in the Lord and trust that God will bring us through whatever bad things happen.

I really like Solomon’s prayer because he doesn’t ask God to take away the plagues all-together and allow us to live in a utopia. He simply asks God to hear our prayers, forgive our sins, and get us through the hard times. So that’s what I’ll pray today. I know every one of us is going through our own struggles and we all have our own plagues so I pray that the Lord hears our prayers and forgives us. I pray that He brings us through the hard times. The Holy Spirit is our comforter and I pray that He comforts those of us who need it. In Jesus’ name I bring these prayers to the Lord, Amen.

1 Chronicles 11

The books of Chronicles summarize the whole old testament, starting with a long genealogy. So, we are back to the time when David was king. In Chapter 11 verse 17, David asks for a drink of water and three men risk their lives to go out into the camp of the enemy (The Philistines) and bring David a drink of water. They are successful but in verse 19 David refuses to drink it because the men put their lives at risk just for him and he felt that was wrong. This shows that David has some character traits like maybe humility and possibly integrity. David cares about his people and he cares where the water came from and how it was obtained. So he denied himself the water.

We can learn a lesson from this- if someone steals something and then offers it as a gift to us, we shouldn’t accept it. Or is someone is making a great deal of sacrifice to meet our needs, perhaps we should refuse. Like David, we should care about the gifts we receive, who is gifting? How did they obtain the item? Did they go through an unnecessary amount of pain and suffering in order to meet our needs?

The Bible says that Jesus was “like David” and that we should try to be like Jesus, so therefore we should try to be like David as well and that may mean increasing our humility and integrity.

Today I’m offering my worries up to the Lord. I am feeling stressed out and worried about quite a few personal problems but I know I can put my trust in God. So rather than be worried, I’m praying and trusting in God to take care of everything. He knows my needs and wants, and He promises to take care of them so I’m believing in Him to fulfill his promise. Amen.

2 Kings 21-23

Even though the bible tells us to raise our kids up right, they are still their own person with their own personalities. Parents can not always be to blame for their children’s behavior. Hezekiah, who was one of the best kings in Judah’s history because of his faith and loyalty to the Lord, ended up passing on the throne to his son Manasseh who was one of the worst kings in Judah’s history and completely ignored the ways of the Lord. The lesson here is that good character traits are not automatically passed on from parent to child, they have to be taught and nurtured and RECEIVED by the child. Good parents can have bad children.

Manasseh provoked the Lord to anger. This shows that God’s patience does run out. We can’t do evil and sin and provoke Him to anger forever without any consequences. He is a just God and will have justice and deliver consequences.

In 2 Kings 23, Manasseh’s son Josiah is king and he found the Word of the Lord. (side note- the Word of the Lord was lost? No wonder no one was being faithful to God and He was provoked to anger!) Anyway, as soon as Josiah found the Word, he made radical changes in his house and his country to align to the Word. When we are convicted, by the Holy Spirit, a friend, the bible, or a pastor, we have to actively align ourselves with God’s will. That’s what it means to be faithful and Josiah was a very faithful king.

My prayer today: God, please fill me with your spirit. Please allow my spirit to be aligned with your Holy Spirit so that I can walk in all your ways. I pray for patience and wisdom when faced with tough decisions. I pray you bless this day and that all those whom I come in contact with would feel your love and would see you shining through me. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

2 Kings 19

Fight your battles on your knees

Judah finally has a good king- Hezekiah. Israel was just taken over and enslaved by Assyria, and now the king of Assyria is trying to do the same thing to Judah. When Hezekiah found out he, “went into the House of the Lord…and [prayed] O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, You have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear, open Your eyes, O Lord, and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which has sent to reproach the Living God.”

This is such a great prayer, and one I prayed myself after reading it. God doesn’t dwell between the cherubim anymore, but dwells in our hearts and we can substitute “Sennacherib” for any enemy or hardship we are facing.

Sennacherib has not only threatened the livelihood of Hezekiah and the people of Judah, but he has completely attacked the name of the Lord. Hezekiah is praying for God to show Himself, and stand up for His name AND save the people of Judah. When someone is assaulting the Lord or our faith (we all know those friends and family) we don’t need to yell and scream and fight. We just need to pray. When our enemies are attacking us, or making life hard (co-workers, bosses, bureaucracy), we just need to pray. God will do what glorifies Him- He will do what is right. Our job is to pray and obey. Sennacherib is literally sending messengers to stand in the streets yelling and denouncing the Lord and Hezekiah doesn’t go to the streets to fight back, but instead he “went into the House of the Lord.”

God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and showed Himself in a mighty way to Sennacherib and was like, “who are you talking about? Who are you blaspheming? Me! And now you’ll pay for it and see how real I am.” (paraphrase). Hezekiah only had to pray and be faithful and the Lord did the rest. When we pray, God will act.

Sennacherib’s army ended up being all killed in one night by an angel of the Lord. Sennacherib was killed in his hometown by his own sons.

One last cool thing is that Jesus was prophesied in verses 30 and 31, “out of Jerusalem there shall go a remnant.”

The biggest takeaway from this chapter is to fight our battles on our knees (Charles Stanley). God wants us to bring all of our problems to Him and we should because when we are on the Lord’s side, we will win every time.

January 30th:2 Kings 4

In 2 Kings 4: 1-7, a widow came up to the prophet Elisha and was worried about paying her debts, and her two sons were about to be sold into slavery for it. So, Elisha told her to go fill up vessels with oil and he didn’t even tell her the rest of the plan, but she just went and did what he said. She was probably thinking, “how is this going to help me pay my debt?” and “how is my oil going to fill up even one vessel?” and “where am I going to get a bunch of vessels?” But the Lord knows what we need before we even need it. He made sure that her neighbors would have empty vessels, He made the oil last, and He made sure there was a demand for her supply. Sometimes, though, God will require work in order to receive His blessings. If the widow had been lazy and didn’t want to do the work Elisha told her to do, she wouldn’t have received the Lord’s blessings. Also, she had to do the work without having answers to any of her questions- she just obeyed the Lord.

This makes me think, is there something I am asking God for that I need to do some work in order to receive His blessings?

I pray that the Lord reveal any areas of disobedience in my life and that I respond to the Holy Spirit with a “yes and amen.” Just as Solomon prayed in 1 Kings 8:5-7, “May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us or forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statues and His judgements, which He commanded our fathers.” This is my prayer today, amen.

2 Kings, Chapter 3

Good morning,

Today I read 2 Kings, Chapter 3 and a few things stuck out at me.

In verse 7, King Jehoshaphat agreed to join forces with the king of Israel and the king of Judah in order to attack Moab. King Jehoshaphat was the most righteous king of the time, and the kings of Israel and Judah were wicked. The Lord had told King Jehoshaphat not to join up with wicked kings but to serve only God. This led me to think (most likely prompted by the Holy Spirit) that there is a difference between being “nice,” or a “good person” and actually being a Christian. King Jehoshaphat probably had really good intentions when he agreed to ally with the wicked kings. But good intentions are not the same thing as obeying God. Christians are called to obey God, no matter what the circumstance is and sometimes that might not feel like being a “good person.”
In verse 11, the 3 kings (mentioned above) are seeking a word from the Lord. During this time, the Lord could only give words through prophets (Hallelujah that we now live in a time when the Holy Spirit resides in us and we can have a direct relationship with the Lord) so they sent looking for a prophet. One of the soldiers said, “Elisha, the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” It’s notable the way Elisha was described to the kings because in Chapter 2, Elisha performed many miracles in the Lord’s name. He even split the Joran River in order to walk across it! But that’s not how the soldiers described him, they described him as “the one who pored water on the hands of Elijah.” This is referring to Elisha’s servanthood and loyalty to another prophet, Elijah. All of the glory of the miracles that Elisha performed goes to God. Elisha is known for his servanthood. God wants great servants, not great miracle workers. Because great servants can be used for great miracles, but it’s the servant part that matters. This is why it’s so important to be a good servant at work and in my personal life because that’s what God calls us to do.
In verse 15 Elisha says, “But now bring me a musician. Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.” This shows that God likes music, and he may arrive and speak to us when we are worshiping Him through song.

Today I am thankful for the relationship that I get to have with the Lord because of the sacrifice of Jesus. I’m thankful for the bible and the Holy Spirit so that I may know the heart of the Lord just a little better. I’m thankful for the strength, wisdom, and provision that the Lord provides. I pray that I can obey His will today, that I listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I’m trusting God to provide for my needs while I fast sugar for the second day today. I pray for all those in my family who have yet to believe in Jesus or who need to return to him. I pray for healing for those who need it because the true healer is God. May this day be blessed in His name. Amen.