Today's readings are from the One Year Chronological Reading Plan are: 1 SAMUEL 26:1-27:7, 1 CHRONICLES 12:1-7, 1 SAMUEL 27:8-29:11, 1 CHRONICLES 12:19 & PSALM 56
Scripture: Psalm 56: 4-6
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?
5 All day long they twist my words;
they are always plotting to harm me.
6 They conspire, they lurk,
they watch my steps,
eager to take my life.
I also like "The Message" translation:
4-6 I'm proud to praise God;
fearless now, I trust in God.
What can mere mortals do?
They don't let up—
they smear my reputation
and huddle to plot my collapse.
They gang up,
sneak together through the alleys
To take me by surprise,
wait their chance to get me.
Application: Recently, my daughter came home from school and told me that someone at school had called her a loser. (Boy... did that ever make my momma claws come out!) She told me the story, which was that a new girl to the school has decided to adopt one of my daughter's close friends as her best friend. Not being of the sharing type, this girl proceeded to tell this friend (and anyone else who would listen) that my daughter is a loser and that no one should want to play with her. Thankfully, my daughter's friends have all decided to not listen to this girl and one of them even told my daughter that she didn't believe her anyway and told my daughter what was being said about her. This passage really made me think of this situation. I realize that Kezia is not fearing for her life as David was, but as The Message translation adds, it may not be her life, but Kezia's reputation is under attack. Feeling that everyone is against you, or that everyone thinks that you are a loser, can be hurtful. We can't control what others do, but we can control our response to their actions. In today's readings we learn that David had the motive and the opportunity to kill Saul and yet he chose not to. What a difficult decision that must have been. To be in that cave and within striking distance of someone intending to destroy you must have been a heart pounding moment. Yet David had full trust in God and he was not afraid. David had a choice to make. How would he react to Saul's actions? Kezia has a choice to make. How will she react to her peer's actions? We all have a choice to make. When someone wrongs us or hurts us... how will we react? Will we choose to seek revenge and take matters into our own hands and or will we show mercy as David did when he fully trusted God to end or extend Saul's life?
Prayer: Dear Lord, You are an amazing God. We strive to be like you, Lord, and yet we always fall short. Lord, thank you for today's lesson. We need to learn that even though we can't control what others do, we can control how we react. Lord, help us to act in a way that You would. Let others be drawn to You by what they see in us. Help us to not hold grudges, be quick to anger, or seek revenge on those who wrong us. This does not come easy to us and we need Your help to succeed. In Your name, Amen.
Tomorrow's readings are 1 Samuel 30:1-31; 1 Chronicles 12:20-22; 1 Samuel 31:1-13; 1 Chronicles 10:1-14; 1 Chronicles 9:40-44; 2 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 1:1-27
3 comments:
Thanks Pam.
So sorry Kezia had to go through that, and so happy her friends stuck by her! Great personal application.
One thing I found interesting in today's passage was raising Samuel's spirit. I'd like to research that chapter more when I have time.
Great post, Pam. I've been telling my boys the same thing about not being able to control what someone else does or says, but only being able to control what THEY do and say. They're too young to really grasp it yet, but someday...
Tammy, I was also interested in the raising of Samuel's spirit. I can't look it up now, but if I come across something before you have a chance to check it out, I'll post a link or something.
Good post! Man, girls are brutal! I don't know how old your daughter is but I have one at the end of 6th grade and some days I think I could not survive some of the social challenges she does. Yeah God! He gave you something through this passage you can encourage her with. I think your parallel was great! Tell your daughter she is not the only gal this happens to! My daughter has a certain girl who bashes her on any level she can, her clothes, her shoes, her lunch, her hair, her butt, you name it. I keep trying to remember 1-not to go beat them up myself! Ha! 2-God is doing amazing things in her character! We are former homeschoolers and believe you me, it's so hard for me not to take the door out that I know I have! She was protected from this for so long but sometimes being protected does not teach us things we need to learn! I was in the homeschool circle for 5 years (and I'm not saying I would not go back should the Lord lead, and each family should seek the Lord on this for sure) and the big talk was always "ha, they think our kids are missing out on a social life, ha, ha!" Well, they do on many levels! These tough things are not learned within the safety net of home and playgroups. Although there may be kids who were not nice to them, they don't face it on a daily level. Here, they learn to work out people issues.
This was proven to me just this weekend when we had a wonderful family with six kids over for dinner. They homeschool and thier 17 and 14 year old (very sweet gals) sat down to eat with my 12 year old. They did not say a word! They didn't know how to strike up any type of conversation at all! THey just sat there and stared at eachother. My daughter found it strange.
So, anyhoo....guess you hit a soft spot on me. It is building them and it's a good journey of God working them to deal with people.
I appreciated your story and telling how this reading met the road for you. Refreshing.
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