Start Your Day with Inspiration

Our Daily Bread

Genesis 29:31-35

“This time I will praise the Lord.”  So [Leah]named him Judah. [Genesis 29:35]

A MOM LOOKS BACK

“I really didn’t like Mother’s Day,” said Donna, a mom of three.  “It brought back to me all the inadequacies and failures I felt and feel as a mother.”

Donna started her parenting life with high expectations.  Reality lowered the bar.  “Being a mother was really the hardest thing I ever did,” she said.  And one particular child “pushed every button I had.”

When God chose Leah to be a matriarch of Israel, no doubt she had high expectations for each of her children.  She gave her first four sons names with relevance to her difficult situation (Genesis 29:32-35).  Yet when it comes to dark stories in the Bible, these sons have starring roles as the bad guys.  Some were guilty as murderers (34:24-30) and slavers (37:17-28).  Leah’s son Judah is the villain in one of the uglier accounts in Scripture (ch38).

How like God to bring the Messiah through Leah’s descendants-including Judah.  In the most difficult circumstances at through the most unexpected people, God works out redemption.

Donna learned this too.  As she faced all her parenting challenges, she never found an answer “except to keep going and keep praying.”  And that kid who pushed all her buttons?  He’s grown now, and he loves and respects his mom.  Looking back, Donna says “Perhaps he was sent to me to teach me something about myself and something about my God.”  Tim Gustafson

Where have you sensed the keenest disappointments in your life?  what do you find you’re learning about God through this?

Heavenly Father, please help me to trust You in everything.

BIBLE IN A YEAR 2 Kings 13-14; John 2

OUR DAILY BREAD

LUKE 12:13-21

You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Luke 12:20

NO REGRETS

There was no mention made of the stuff we often spend our lives chasing.  That’s what palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware discovered as she sat with the dying.  She intentionally questioned them: “Would you do anything differently if you could do it again?”  common themes surfaced, and she compiled a list of the top five regrets of the dying: 1. I will I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself.  2.  I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.  3.  I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.  4.  I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.  And 5.  I wish I’d let myself be happier.

Ware’s list brings to mind the parable Jesus tells in Luke 12.  A rich man decides to build bigger barns to store his great harvest, after which he tells himself he’ll retire in style, sit back and relax, and live until he dies (v18-19).  But in that moment, God demands his life with a rather harsh address: “You fool!”-followed by a haunting question: in essence, “And what will become of all your stuff?” (v20).

Is it possible to die with zero regrets?  That’s hard to know for certain.  But what we do know is clearly expressed in Scripture-storing up stuff for ourselves is a dead end.  True riches come from a life invested in God.   John Blasé

What if your life was demanded of you today?  Would wise or foolish be applied to you?  Why?

Dear Jesus, when the time comes, I want to have as few regrets as possible.  Please help me to live wisely, building a life rich in You.

BIBLE IN A YEAR  2 Kings 15-16; john 3:1-18

OUR DAILY BREAD

Leviticus 25:35-38

Help ‘the poor] as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.  Leviticus 25:35

A HELPING HAND

In the early 1900s, laws restricted Black people and immigrants to the United States from renting or buying property in Coronado, California.  A Black man named Gus Thompson (who’d been born into slavery) had purchased land earlier and built a boarding home in Coronado before the discriminating laws were passed.  In 1939, Gus rented to an Asian family, and eventually sold the land to them.  Nearly eight-five years later, after selling the property, some members of the Asian family are donating their proceeds from the sale to help Black college students.  They’re also working to name a center at San Diego State University after Gus and his wife, Emma.

Leviticus also speaks of what it means to treat others well.  God instructed His people, “Help as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you”.  He instructed the people to treat each other well and fairly, especially those in need.  Out of reverent “fear” for Him, they were to help those who’d fallen on hard times and weren’t able to take care of themselves.  They were to treat them just as they would treat a “foreigner and stranger” with hospitality and love.

Gus Thompson and his wife helped a family that didn’t look like them.  In return, that family is blessing many other people.  Let’s extend Gods compassion to those in need as He helps us reveal His love for them.  Katara Patton

Who needs help in your community?  How can you extend care to them?

Caring Father, please open my eyes so I can see how to help others.

BIBLE IN A YEAR  2 Kings 17-18; John 3:19-30

OUR DAILY BREAD

2 Kings 19:14-20

Hezekiah received the letter…and spread it out before the Lord 2 Kings 19:14

BRING IT TO GOD

Brian had been with the heart specialist for more than an hour.  His friend remained in the waiting room, praying for wisdom and healing for his ailing friend.  When Brian finally returned to the waiting room, he showed him the pile of papers he’d received.  As he spread them out on a table, he discussed the various options being considered to threat his threatening condition.  The two discussed the need to pray and ask God for wisdom for next steps.  And then Brian said, “whatever lies ahead, I’m in God’s hands.”

King Hezekiah “spread out before the Lord” (2Kings19:14).  The words in the letter didn’t address a threatening medical condition but the threat of a powerful enemy-Assyria-that had seized all the fortified cities of Judah and was preparing to attack Jerusalem, its capital.  Hezekiah prayed, “You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth…Now, Lord our God deliver us”.  Soon the prophet Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah, telling him, “The Lord…says: I have heard your prayer” And “that night” God destroyed the Assyrian army.

Whatever you face today, spread It out before God.  As you “present your requests to God”, He hears you and is with you.  You can rest in His hands as you experience His wisdom, love, and hope.  Tom Felten

What will it mean for you to spread out before God the concerns on your heart today?  How can you choose to rest in His power and presence?

Loving God, thank You for hearing me when I ring my concerns to You.

BIBLE IN A YEAR  2 Kings 19-21; John 4:1-30

OUR DAILY BREAD

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that christ’s power may rest on me.  2 Corinthians 12:9

SUCH GLORIOUS KNOWLEDGE

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas endured much to dedicate himself to a life of seeking God.  His family imprisoned him for a year in an attempt to discourage him from joining the Dominican Order, a monastic group dedicated to a life of simplicity, study, and preaching.  After a life time of studying Scripture and creation, and writing nearly one hundred volumes, Aquinas had such an intense experience of God that he wrote, “I can no longer write, for God has given much such glorious knowledge that all contained in my works are as stray.”  He died only three moths later.

The apostle Paul also described an experience form God so overwhelming that is was impossible to put into words, when he was “Caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell”.  “Because of these surpassingly great revelations,”  Paul was given an unidentified “thorn in his flesh” to keep him humble and reliant on god.  He was told, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”.

The more we understand about od, the more we understand how impossible it is for us to capture who He is in words.  Yet in our weakness and in our loss for what to say, Christ’s grace and beauty shines clearly through.   Monica LA Rose

What experiences form God do you find impossible to put into words?  How have these experiences changed you?

Thank You, God, for Your beauty and the way it changes me.  Please help me humbly rest in You.

OUR DAILY BREAD 

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Mesiah, the Son of God  Mark 1:1

THE SON OF GOD

Recently, my brother Scott acquired our dad’s military service records from WWII.  As I studied the pages, there was nothing starting or shocking-nothing about who Dad was.  There were mere facts.  Data.  It was interesting to read but ultimately dissatisfying because I didn’t come away feeling like I learned anything new about Dad.

Thankfully, in giving us a record of the life and work of Jesus, the four gospels are much more than just data.  They are descriptions that reveal who Jesus was in His time on this earth as well as what He did and said.  In Mark’s gospel, that record was for the purpose of proving Mark’s thesis statement:  “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God”.  Immediately, Mark tells us how John the Baptist testified about this Messiah.  John said, “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie”  mark’s account makes it clear that Jesus is the Son of God.  As John the disciple adds in his own account of Jesus’ lief, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”

The evidence of Jesus’ life is abundant.  These questions remain; what does He mean to you?  How has He changed your life/   Bill Crowder

What do you think of the evidence of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection?  Ow might you tell someone about your response to it?

Father, thank You for the clear record of You Son’s life.

BIBLE IN A YEAR   2 Kings 24-25; John 5:1-24

OUR DAILY BREAD

Proverbs 3:1-8

In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:6

FOLLOWING GOD

On my free day in Paris during a visit a few years ago, I had some time to roam around the famed city by myself before meeting a friend by the Eiffel Tower for dinner.  All was fine until my pone’s battery died.  Id didn’t have a map, so I wasn’t sure where I was going, but this city girl didn’t panic.  I just continued to walk along the Seine River and kept my eyes on the towering Eiffel Tower.  My plan worked until I got closer to the landmark that somehow disappeared behind the surround buildings.

I was astonished that such a large structure could be hidden in plain sight!  I finally realized I needed help, so I asked for directions and found my friend.

Life can be so unpredictable.  As we face obstacles and challenges in life.  we can ask God for help and direction.  Asking Him helps us not get lost along our journey or be tempted to take detours or to quit.  Especially when life seems hard or confusing, we can turn to god for guidance. 

In Provers 3:5-6, Solomon encourages his readers by telling them to “trust in the Lord with all your and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

As we seek God’s wisdom through prayer and reading the Bibel.  He’ll guide us.  Let’s continue to trust Him and follow His lead.  Nancy Gavilanes

Why is it sometimes hard to follow God?  How can you stay better connected to Him?

Dear God, thank you for leading and guiding me.

BIBLE IN A YEAR 1 Chronicles 1-3; John 5:25-47