Today's Readings: New Testament -
John 12:12-19
Philippians 2:19-30
Old Testament -
Psalms 119:145-152
2 Kings 12-13
Click on Text Links to Read Online
Focus Verses: Psalm 119:145-147
145 I call with all my heart; answer me, O LORD, and I will obey your decrees. 146 I call out to you; save me and I will keep your statutes. 147 I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.
Insight:
Calling for help and heeding God's Word go hand in hand. The psalmist called out to God for an answer, realizing that the answer would require obedience. He called out for salvation, understanding that he must keep God's statutes. He cried to God for help, and at the same time put his hope in the promise and direction of the Word.
Response & Action:
As a person who calls out to God for help, I must be ready to obey the direction of God's Word. As a person who looks to God for salvation, I must be ready to live out my salvation by keeping God's Word. In order to live according to God's Word, I will need to read it, delight in it, meditate up on it, know it, respond to it, follow it, and hope in it. The words of God are wonderful to me. Therefore, I obey them.
O God, the unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. Give me a heart that longs for your words and a mouth that is ready to speak them. Direct my footsteps according to your word that no sin may rule over me. Your words are forever right; give me understanding that I may live by them. Through Christ, I pray. Amen.
Spiritual Formation Verses: James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
Resources:
40 Days Living the Jesus Creed
by Scot McKnight
