Edited to add 7-8:28 (thanks Miriam!)
Not sure if there was a typo for today's readings or what, but it was really short! And at first I didn't think I'd have much to say, but then I reread the first section and found....
Scripture
He answered their prayers, because they trusted him. 1 Chronicles 5:20b
Observation
The Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh asked God for help, trusted in Him and received His help.
Application
First of all, we need to recognize our need for God. We need to lay aside our pride, recognize that we cannot do it on our own strength and that we need God. Then we need to ask for help, and trust Him that He will keep His promises to us.
This obviously is not supposed to be taken out of context to mean that as long as we trust Him, we can treat Him like a genie in a bottle. We still need to pray for His will to be done. But some prayers He will always answer - He will give us the strength to do what He has asked of us, He will give us peace that passes human understanding, He will never leave us, and many more.
Trusting God also means leaving what we cannot control in His hands. We can't keep snatching it back when He doesn't answer the way we want Him to. We have to trust Him. Period.
Prayer
This reminds me of the Serenity Prayer, which is actually longer than just the famous first lines and is completely applicable to today's readings....
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
Tomorrow's passage: 1 Chronicles 8:29-9:1, Daniel 4, Ezekiel 40:1-37
3 comments:
I looked up the readings for this week on the website... it has 1 Chronicles 7-8:28 included in today's reading.
Great post, Tammy. Sometimes we forget how much we need to pray and ASK. Of course God knows our needs (and our wants) and could just make things turn out right without our prayers, but I think it's made very clear in a number of different places in the Bible how important prayer is and how important it is to ASK for what we need or want, also acknowledging that we accept God's will and not our own.
That verse jumped out at me too. I think because it seemed so simple! ...and so profound.
Thanks for sharing that poem, I was ironically thinking of it the other day but I've never heard the rest of it.
The only other thought I had from today's reading (because I'm a visual person) was..
SOMEBODY JUST SHOW ME A FAMILY TREE AND GET IT OVER WITH!:)
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