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Max Lucado Daily: GOD HEARS OUR REQUESTS - June 14, 2022 The King of creation gives special heed to the voices of his family. In Matthew 6:9 he even tells us what to ask him: “Thy kingdom come.”
When you pray, “Thy kingdom come,” you are inviting the Messiah himself to walk into your world. Come, my King! Take your throne in our land. Be present in my heart. Be present in my office. Be Lord of my family, my fears, and my doubts. This is a bold appeal for God to occupy every corner of your life. Who are you to ask such a thing? You are his child, for heaven’s sake! And so you ask boldly. “So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need” (Hebrews 4:16 TLB).
Luke 18:1-23
The Story of the Persistent Widow
18 1-3 Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’
4-5 “He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’”
6-8 Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?”
The Story of the Tax Man and the Pharisee
9-12 He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’
13 “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”
14 Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
* * *
15-17 People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. “Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”
The Rich Official
18 One day one of the local officials asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to deserve eternal life?”
19-20 Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good—only God. You know the commandments, don’t you? No illicit sex, no killing, no stealing, no lying, honor your father and mother.”
21 He said, “I’ve kept them all for as long as I can remember.”
22 When Jesus heard that, he said, “Then there’s only one thing left to do: Sell everything you own and give it away to the poor. You will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 This was the last thing the official expected to hear. He was very rich and became terribly sad. He was holding on tight to a lot of things and not about to let them go.
Our Daily Bread Devotion Today's Scripture
Obadiah 1:1
−4 Your World Will Collapse
1 Obadiah’s Message to Edom
from God, the Master.
We got the news straight from God
by a special messenger sent out to the godless nations:
“On your feet, prepare for battle;
get ready to make war on Edom! Insight
The book of Obadiah is a prophecy written for the people of Israel, but the prophecy has to do with the nation of Edom located to the south of Israel. The people of Edom were the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother, making them close relatives of the Israelite people. This is why Israel was forbidden to hate the Edomites (Deuteronomy 23:7). But the tense relationship between Jacob and Esau continued among their descendants. The Edomites wouldn’t allow the Israelites to pass through their land during their journey to Canaan (Numbers 20:14–21). And Edom stood by when Jerusalem was ransacked (Obadiah 1:11–14). Because of this indifference to their brother’s plight, Edom would be brought down (v. 4). This prophecy is repeated in Ezekiel 35. After the death of Herod the Great (an Edomite), the nation and people of Edom eventually disappeared from the historical record, fulfilling the prophecies against them.
By: J.R. Hudberg Pride and Decepti
The pride of your heart has deceived you.
Obadiah 1:3 Loving God, thank You for Your gentle, nudging correction. With my shoulders slumped, I murmured those difficult words. I’ve been so arrogant, thinking I could do it all on my own. For months, I’d been enjoying successful work projects, and the accolades lulled me into trusting my capabilities and rejecting God’s leading. It took a challenging project for me to realize I wasn’t as smart as I thought. My proud heart had deceived me into believing I didn’t need God’s help.
The powerful kingdom of Edom received discipline from God for its pride. Edom was located amid mountainous terrain, making her seemingly invulnerable to enemies (Obadiah 1:3). Edom was also a wealthy nation, situated at the center of strategic trade routes and rich in copper, a highly valued commodity in the ancient world. It was full of good things yet also full of pride. Its citizens believed their kingdom was invincible, even as they oppressed God’s people (vv. 10–14). But God used the prophet Obadiah to tell them of His judgment. Nations would rise up against Edom, and the once-powerful kingdom would be defenseless and humiliated (vv. 1–2).
Pride deceives us into thinking we can live life on our terms, without God. It makes us feel invulnerable to authority, correction, and weakness. But God calls us to humble ourselves before Him (1 Peter 5:6). As we turn from our pride and choose repentance, God will guide us toward total trust in Him. Reflect & Pray
What happens when blessings in your life become sources of pride? How can pride deceive you?
Father, protect me from pride. Please give me a humble heart.
MyUtmost for His Highest Get Moving! (1)
By Oswald Chambers
Abide in Me… —John 15:4
In the matter of determination. The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by way of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I then have to build my thinking patiently to bring it into perfect harmony with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus— I have to do it myself. I have to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). “Abide in Me”— in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. Our lives are not made up of only one neatly confined area.
Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him? How irrelevant and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting. It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and unblemished. He was at home with God wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek, submitting to His Father’s plans and directions for Him. Just think of how amazingly relaxed our Lord’s life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, “Yes, Lord, just a minute— I still have this to do. Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then.” Get moving— begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort. Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future. WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.… We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. My Utmost for His Highest, January 6, 736 R
A Word with you Ron Hutchcraft My children love roller coasters. They didn't get that from me. No, when my dad took me on the big "thrills and chills" coaster at our city amusement park, I needed counseling for years to come!
Of course, you don't have to buy a ticket these days to get a wild ride. No, just invest in the stock market for example. You know, plenty of ups and downs! And Wall Street's wild rides over the past few years. And they have only been a mirror of a world that seems to be off-the-charts financially. There's a lot of questions about credit rating and currencies, and interest rates, and housing bubbles. And, oh man! And, you know, sometimes they talk about like our future credit rating as a country may depend on how budget negotiations go in Washington. Well, in that case, hang on tight.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Get Off Life's Roller Coaster."
They even without all the mayhem in the economy, life still gets crazy. Sudden drops can come from a change in your family, or your job, or your health. We're always one email, one text, one call, one doctor visit, one conversation away from the bottom dropping out. I've been there when the "Code Blue" was someone close to me, when the baby with "problems" was one of ours, when the income suddenly went away, when the phone call came that changed everything.
But when the roller coaster was twisting and dropping violently, one thing kept me safe. The coaster was attached to the track. And the track wasn't moving.
Years ago, I chose to go out of the business of running my own life, which the Bible has a simple word for - "sin." See, I've been trying to let Jesus drive ever since. After all, the Bible says I was "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). So why would I not let Him run the life that He gave me to live for Him? See, He's the "track" that my crazy roller-coaster car is attached to.
Or, in the reassuring words of God's Book, the Bible, and our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 6:19 (I love this!) we have in Jesus "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" Don't you want that? I mean, I know that my "daily bread" comes from a God whose stock never drops and whose resources are always infinite. I live in total security...hand-to-mouth - His hand to my mouth. I know that in the words of the Bible, "my times are in His hands" (Psalm 31:15) - not in the hands of a doctor or a disease. I don't need to fear for the people I love because, again the Bible says, "I know Whom I have believed and I am convinced He is able to guard what (or who) I have committed to Him" (2 Timothy 1:12).
See, you can survive the ride if your soul is anchored. And Jesus is that anchor, because He is, in the Bible's words, "the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). He loves you today as much as He did the day He bled for your sins on a cross. He's as powerful today as He was the day He blew away death at His now-empty tomb. And "nothing," the Bible says, "will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).
Listen, if life for you has been a lot of drops and a lot of crazy twists and turns, and you're ready for the anchor you were made for, well then let this be the day you open up to Jesus. Take your life out of your hands. Put it into His. You'll notice there's nail prints in those hands. That's how much He loves you, to die for every wrong thing you've ever done against Him.
Because He's alive and walked out of His grave, He can walk into your life today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours beginning today." I'd suggest you check out our website and get some more information on how this relationship works. Go to ANewStory.com.
See, you can't slow down a roller coaster, but you can make sure that you're attached to the track.
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