Day 311: Every Battle

2 Peter 2; Jeremiah 43-44; Psalm 140

This chapter in 2 Peter talks about people living the wrong way. It says that there are false teachers that lead people astray with smooth talk; there are people that will live filthy lives, even after knowing of Jesus Christ. But then there is this line: "God doesn't sleep." I think this means that God doesn't miss anything. He isn't turning his back and ignoring them, he doesn't our lives. God sees each and every one of us and we will be judged according to our faith and the lives we live. These people who preach a false gospel and who live disgusting lives will be judged by God. If we are attempting to live righteous and holy lives, following in Jesus' footsteps, then we do not need to be afraid of that judgement, because "the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their sufferings and to punish evil people while they wait for the day of judgment." Follower of Jesus, may we hear, believe, and preach only the Truth and keep ourselves pure, as Jesus kept himself pure!

The people Jeremiah addresses have it all mixed up. They asked God for direction, then refused to obey. They continue to worship idols, thinking these idols made them prosperous. They are so misguided that they see the destruction of The Lord, just as he promised, and they refuse to acknowledge their wrong doing. And what is it that keeps them from turning from their evil? Pride. God tells them that he knows it is their pride that keeps them on the wrong path. And it is tough-- tough to admit that we are wrong, that we have been going down the wrong path. It takes a brave step, lots of humility, and brokenness of spirit, to accept that we messed up big time. But for these people, and for us, it is a matter of life and death: for them, it was physical life and death; for us, spiritual/eternal life and death.

"You have the power to save me and you keep me safe in every battle." What a powerful thought. What a promise! What is interesting is that it says that God will keep us safe in every battle. It doesn't promise that we will never see a fight, never have to face an enemy, never have to get messy in a war--in fact, it says "every battle" meaning we will experience more than one. We will have battles, fights, wars, struggles, in this life, but we can have peace that God will save us and keep us safe. I don't think this means that we won't get hurt from time to time, that the battle won't scar us or set us back, but that ultimately, we are safe, secure, saved.

Day 310: The Easy Road

2 Peter 1; Jeremiah 41-42; Psalm 139

The section is titled "Living as the Lord's Followers." It talks about how God made these great promises, "so that his nature would become part of us." Whoa. We could feel and think like God? The Lord wants us to be more like him: more loving, more just, more forgiving. He goes on to say that "then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world." This reminds me of the passage that says "come near to God and he will come near to you" in James 4. The more we can be like Jesus, our Lord and Savior, the less room we have in our hearts and lives for junk and sin.
Peter says to improve our faith and do so by adding "goodness, understanding, self control, patience, devotion to God, concern for others, and love. As believers we should want to be "useful and meaningful" in the eyes of God. How can we be useful unless we have or are growing in these things?

Crazy things happening in Jeremiah. This dude named Ishmael is totally ruthless and kills almost 100 people, cold-blooded. Those who survived in Judah ask Jeremiah to pray to God to give them guidance, and when God answers, he tells them what they don't want to hear, and already knows their hearts are bent on disobeying. When we ask God for direction (as I think many people do, and is great), we need to be prepared to follow his lead. Often times God does ask us to do things that we don't want to--they are more time-consuming, more sacrificial, more uncertain. We can't be followers of The Lord and expect to be able to take the easy road every time.

Psalm 139, the inspiration for the title of this blog. In this psalm it talks about God looking deep into our hearts, knowing who we are because he created us to be that way. He knows our thoughts and watches out for us. Since he is our Creator, we cannot understand his ways or his wisdom. All we can do is pray that this God that put us together will continue to be there for us and with us.

Day 309: Bossy

1 Peter 5; Jeremiah 39-40; Psalm 138

Peter talks about taking care of your flock, those who are under our care. He is primarily talking about church leaders, but I think this could also apply to people with family or young people under your care. In particular, he states: "Don't be bossy to those people who are in your care, but set an example for them." It's way easier to boss someone around than to demonstrate the kind of action you are looking for. As a teacher, it would be easy to holler at a kid for being disrespectful. It might shut them up for the time being. But what have I done? I've belittled them, and lost any respect they might have had for me. Instead, if I work to keep control of my words and actions and treat them with respect, when I have to reprimand, it may only take a look or a soft word to get them back on track. The same goes for children. I want to be the kind of mom that demonstrates the kinds of actions and attitudes that I want our child to emulate. Experienced moms would probably say that bossing kids around doesn't make for well-rounded, responsible, kind young people. So may we learn to do those things we expect others to do.

Judah is captured. The Babylonians leave behind a few people: the poorest. It is interesting what happens to them. They are given all the fields and vineyards to live off of and care for, thus providing them with income and ownership. They have more than they have probably ever had. They are given a ruler and know that they are safe from the Babylonians and therefore, can live in peace. They won't necessarily become wealthy, but after all of the disobedient and proud are dragged off, God provides for them, the humble. The scriptures also point out that the grape and fruit harvest was especially large that year. God didn't forget about them, in fact, he had promised that whoever was humble would not be carried off as prisoners, and he follows through on his promise. It is fascinating how God works and reveals his love.

This psalm is awesome! It begins by saying "With all my heart I praise you, Lord." Not with most, or some, or a portion. It is "with all" of our hearts that we should give God praise. Then David praises God for answering prayers: "When I asked for your help, you answered my prayer and gave me courage." Finally, just as was true in Jeremiah, he says that "Though you are above us all, you care for humble people." Our God is so good.

Day 308: Love Covers Whose Sins?

1 Peter 4; Jeremiah 37-38; Psalm 137

I like this chapter in Peter! It talks about suffering for Christ. How suffering shows that we have stopped sinning. It shows that we have turned from our evil ways. It shows that God is preparing us for happiness when Christ returns. It shows that the Holy Spirit is with us. It shows that we belong to God. It's an opportunity to honor God and make Jesus proud. That is not typically how we look at suffering. Trials in life elicit groans, whines, frustrations, and while those are natural, what if we looked at suffering a lot differently? Like Peter describes it?

One thing that he points out is that our former friends wonder why we stopped running around with them and they curse us for it. This implies a couple of things. First, that when Christ comes into your life, it changes you. Secondly, it changes who we want to be around. It changes what we want to spend our time doing. And it brings troubles from "outside." When I hear someone bashing Christians, it makes me want to live that much more awesomely, just to show them that while we aren't perfect, God has done an amazing thing in us.

The last thing that this chapter reveals to me is that "you must sincerely love each other, because love wipes away many sins." I always thought that this was talking about how love helps to remove the sins of others. And maybe that is what it really means. But this morning, it seems like something a little different. Love doesn't just wipe away others' sins, this scripture seems to be talking about our own. When we love one another sincerely, there isn't room for slander, gossip, selfishness, pride--our own sins don't have room to show up because love, deep and unconditional love, is so powerful.

Zedekiah seems to go back and forth; he's a little wishy washy. Jeremiah shares his message and people get angry, ignore him, throw him in prison. Zedekiah wants to know more from God, and when Jeremiah tells him, he is terrified, but lets Jeremiah live in a nicer prison and be fed. Then when the people get mad at Jeremiah, Zedekiah acts like he doesn't care, but later he orders them to rescue Jeremiah from the bottom of the well. Then in secret, he send for Jeremiah again and wants to hear what God has said, but is terrified when Jeremiah actually tells him. He warns him that he should tell no one of their meeting. He is back and forth in his concern for God's message and to me, that sets him up for failure.

Psalm 137 talks about how hard it is to sing about their homeland when they are somewhere else. It is sometimes true for us. It's hard to sing about heaven when we are facing hardships here on Earth. But that doesn't mean that we should quit trying, quit pursuing heaven, quit longing for that paradise. We just need to recognize it is going to be tough.

Day 307: Love Never Fails

1 Peter 3; Jeremiah 35-36; Psalm 136

As followers of The Lord Jesus, Peter gives us some instructions. As a wife, I am to put my husband first. Husbands are to honor their wives. We are to treat everyone with kindness, even those that insult us. And we need to be ready to give an answer about our hope and faith that is kind and respectful. We do this knowing that we may suffer or be persecuted anyway. Reading through some of these New Testament letters and all their commentary on living right and at peace and facing suffering through it all, it makes me realize that I had missed the message. We are to live sacrificially, not for ourselves, but for others, all for the sake of Jesus' message. I don't face much suffering--am I being bold enough in sharing the gospel? Am I treating everyone, even those that are tough to love, with unconditional love?

God talks through Jeremiah to the people about obedience. He points out that the clan of Rechabites had obeyed their ancestor for generations, never disobeying his command. But the Israelites and people of Judah had disobeyed God, the Living, Almighty God, over and over again. It's interesting because people do that even today. It doesn't seem to matter who the person is, but people will listen to them, their mottoes, their advice, and yet they don't pay any attention to the word of God. Obeying The Lord leads to life, wisdom, peace, and joy. What can human advice really do for us except give us temporary relief or success?

Over and over this psalm says "God's love never fails." The constant repetition of this scripture reminds me that through everything, The Lord's love is constant. Just because we face difficult times doesn't mean he has removed his love from us. Just because we don't hear from him like we want to doesn't mean he doesn't love us anymore. His love is constant, unending, eternal. That is awesome.