Max Lucado Daily: He Knows
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14 NIV
The one to whom we pray knows our feelings. He knows our temptation. He has felt discouraged. He has been hungry and sleepy and tired . . . He nods in understanding when we pray in anger . . . He smiles when we confess our weariness . . .
He, too, knew the drone of the humdrum and the weariness that comes with long days . . . God became flesh and dwelt among us.
1 Samuel 1
The Birth of Samuel
1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite[a] from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. 6 Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”
9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s house. 10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
12 As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”
15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
18 She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,[b] saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”
Hannah Dedicates Samuel
21 When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, 22 Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always.”[c]
23 “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his[d] word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
24 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,[e] an ephah[f] of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. 25 When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, 26 and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. 27 I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 11:25-30
The Father Revealed in the Son
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Heavy Lifting
September 15, 2011 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. —Matthew 11:28
One day I found my son straining to lift a pair of four-pound barbells over his head—an ambitious feat for a toddler. He had raised them only a few inches off the ground, but his eyes were determined and his face was pink with effort. I offered to help, and together we heaved the weight up toward the ceiling. The heavy lifting that was so hard for him was easy for me.
Jesus has this perspective on the stuff that’s hard for us to manage. When life seems like a carousel of catastrophes, Jesus isn’t fazed by a fender-bender, troubled by a toothache, or harassed by a heated argument—even if it all happens in one day! He can handle anything, and that is why He said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden” (Matt. 11:28).
Are you worn out from ongoing problems? Are you weighed down with stress and worry? Jesus is the only real solution. Approaching the Lord in prayer allows us to cast our burdens on Him so that He can sustain us (Ps. 55:22). Today, ask Him to assist you with everything. By helping you with your burdens, He can supply rest for your soul, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt. 11:29-30).
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer. —Scriven
Prayer is the place where burdens change shoulders.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 15th, 2011
What To Renounce
We have renounced the hidden things of shame . . . —2 Corinthians 4:2
Have you “renounced the hidden things of shame” in your life—the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind—renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-3). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.
“. . . not walking in craftiness. . .” (2 Corinthians 4:2). This means not resorting to something simply to make your own point. This is a terrible trap. You know that God will allow you to work in only one way—the way of truth. Then be careful never to catch people through the other way—the way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God’s blight and ruin will be upon you. What may be craftiness for you, may not be for others—God has called you to a higher standard. Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest—your best for His glory. For you, doing certain things would mean craftiness coming into your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you. Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
What Your Wife Can't Get Enough Of - #6439
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Most of us urban or suburban type husbands don't go out with a bow and arrow to bring in our family's dinner. That was in the good old days where Dad went hunting for dinner. Instead, we go to a shop, or an office, or some such place and we get a paycheck. Then we turn it over to the grocery store.
But the principle is still the same: man is the provider, especially for his wife. Now, I know there's a lot of women working today, and that's changed some. But most men still pride themselves in being able to meet their wife's needs, and that's why it's so tough for them when they're out of work. See, above all else, a man wants to be known as a good provider. Somehow we always seem to fall short, but that's okay if we keep providing the most important provision for our wife's needs.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Your Wife Can't Get Enough Of."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Genesis 25. We're reading about the life of Isaac. Now, Isaac is married to a wonderful woman named Rebecca, and he has been promised that he and his children will be the beginning of a whole new nation. His father, Abraham, you may remember fathered a young man named Ishmael before him that really was a result of a relationship that was rushed, because they couldn't wait for God to send Isaac.
Well, right now, Ishmael has 12 sons; Isaac still has no children. And he and Rebecca are getting old. So we find what his response as a husband is. "Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, 'Why is this happening to me?' So she went to inquire of the Lord."
Now the specific situation here is that Rebecca is unable to conceive a child. But let's look beyond the specifics of physical barrenness here, though God has miraculously answered that kind of prayer on the couple's behalf. But let's look at it this way. There is something in the life of Isaac's wife that he, as her husband, is powerless to change. Do you have something like that in the life of your wife--something you're powerless to change? Maybe she's got emotional needs that are just too complex for you to understand, let alone meet them. Hurts that deep inside her that you can't seem to heal, fears that you can't seem to quell in her, weaknesses that you can't change in her, answers that you just can't seem to have for her.
See, there's something you can do that could meet her deepest need. It's what Isaac did. It says, "Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife." You know what a beautiful picture that is. The Godly man will often be found praying to the Lord on behalf of his wife. The kind of prayer that God can do the most with is the kind Isaac prayed. It's a desperate prayer; it's an admission of our own inability. There's a lot of God in that prayer, and a little of you. Pray with your wife often, and the result will be your prayer will be answered. Theirs was. They had two babies instead of one. And, as a result of him praying for her, she herself went on to inquire of the Lord, and she was a praying wife.
We can be delivered from that macho frustration that says, "I've got to meet all my wife's needs" and then run from the ones that we can't meet. Together, often, go to your knees and seek your Father for the things that you need. If you're a husband, let your wife live in the secure knowledge that you speak her name often in the Throne Room of Almighty God. She's hungry for your prayer on her behalf, and she can't get enough of it.
