20-20 Blog

Scripture Focus:

Amos 4: 6 You know, don’t you, that I’m the One
who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards,
Who left you hungry and standing in bread lines?
But you never got hungry for me. You continued to ignore me.”

vs 8 You never got thirsty for me.
vs 10 You didn’t notice me.
vs 12 Prepare to meet your God!

Amos 5:6 So seek God and live! You don’t want to end up
with nothing to show for your life
But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground.
For God will send just such a fire,
and the firefighters will show up too late.

Observation:

Trials and disaster appear to be God’s way of getting our attention. Blessing us doesn’t seem to do it. But even disaster doesn’t always correct our perspective. According to Amos, we don’t recognize that God caused the disaster to get our attention.

Amos 4:12 is probably the scariest verse in the Bible: Prepare to meet your God! I suppose the feeling it inspires would depend on where you stand spiritually, or how eager you are for the appearing of Jesus.

Application:

James tells us that trials test my faith and produce patience, but Amos indicates that trials can sometimes be God’s way of getting my attention when I’m living a life that ignores God, so when a trial appears, it’s time to take a good look at my life and ask myself some hard questions, such as how would I stand if I heard the words, “Prepare to meet your God!”

Prayer:

Father God, help me live my life in such a way today, that I am prepared to meet you at any moment. May I be hungry and thirsty for you and be aware of you today.

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Amos 2:4
They rejected God’s revelation,
refused to keep my commands.
But they swallowed the same old lies
that got their ancestors onto dead-end roads.

2 Timothy 4:3–5
You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.
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Observation:

Apparently it’s pretty easy to believe a lie. Both Amos and Paul talk about this issue in today’s scripture reading. Believing a lie, even if you are deceived and think it’s the truth, has terrible consequences.

Paul mentions what will set you up for believing a lie: having no stomach for solid teaching, wanting something so badly that you’re an easy prey for a lie—because you want to believe it!

Application:

Watch out that you don’t want something so much that you’re willing to believe a lie to get it. God’s word is the final standard for everything. Measure everything against it.

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2 Kings 2:13–14 He took Elijah’s cloak—all that was left of Elijah!—and hit the river with it, saying, “Now where is the God of Elijah? Where is he?” When he struck the water, the river divided and Elisha walked through.

Observation:

I love the way Elisha invokes the God of Elijah. In the previous chapter of Kings Elisha had just seen his master and mentor, Elijah, incinerate 100 men who had tried to take him by force to King Ahaziah. This was just one of many amazing deeds Elisha had seen while learning to be a protege of Elijah.

When Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind and chariot of fire, Elisha was left only with Elijah’s robe and the promise that he would be like Elijah. His first act was to strike the Jordan with Elijah’s robe and say, “Now where is the God of Elijah? Where is he?”

And God comes through for him.

Application:

I don’t know why it is that certain people have the faith to call on God and so confidently know that God is going to answer them and grant their request. But the rest of us should take a cue from Elisha who cried out, “Now where is the God of Elijah?!”

It seems we can get God’s attention when we remind him of what he has done in the past for people like Elijah, who, as James 5:17 says, was a man just like us.

Prayer:

Father God . . . (personal)

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2 Chronicles 19:11 (Jehoshaphat to the leaders of Judah) “Be bold and diligent. And God be with you as you do your best.”
Colossians 4:17 (Paul to church leaders) “Do your best in the job you received from the Master. Do your very best.”

Observation:

I found it interesting that the same basic command is given to leaders in the Old Testament and the New Testament: Do your best—your very best. God does promise to do mighty things for us, but that doesn’t take away our responsibility to do our best, our very best.

Application:

I can’t do my very best tomorrow. I can only do my very best right now. This moment. Am I doing the things that will move me, my business, and the Kingdom of God forward right now? Or am I frittering my time away on pleasant, but unprofitable, activities?

Prayer:

Father God, help me keep on track today. I’ve laid out my schedule for the day to the best of my ability, and now it’s up to me to stay on task and do my best. My very best.

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Romans 13:11–14 But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing!

Observation:

This is a repeat theme in scripture—getting overly concerned about this life and the accumulation of stuff. Building our house upon the sand. Letting the weeds (cares) of this world choke out our effectiveness.

Paul reminds me again in this passage that this life isn’t all there is. He warns me not to focus entirely on this life, but to keep an ear open to what God is doing, and how he wants me to participate in his grand plan for eternity. God’s work has eternal value and will last forever!

Application:

Listen to what God is saying. Be in tune with the Spirit today. Be willing to hold things loosely so I don’t get encumbered with the cares of this world and miss out on the most important things of all.

Prayer:

Father God, how can I join you today in your eternal purposes?

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Proverbs 16: 3 Put God in charge of your work,
then what you’ve planned will take place.

Proverbs 16: 9 We plan the way we want to live,
but only God makes us able to live it.

Observation:

God is available to be the boss of my work and of my life. If I let him be in charge, then what I plan will take place. God is the one who enables my plans to succeed.

Application:

I can feel like everything depends on me in my business and forget that God is willing to take charge and make sure my business plans will succeed. Why is it so easy to forget that God is the boss and begin to take on all the responsibility and stress of being the boss myself?! He’s much better at the job, so let Him do it!

Prayer:

Father God, you’re the boss. Please show me what I need to do today—and give me the grace and will to do it!

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Proverbs 15: 8 God can’t stand pious poses,
but he delights in genuine prayers.

Observation:

God can tell the fake from the real. Piously spoken prayers that are more for show than from the heart are a waste of time. God not only won’t answer them—he doesn’t like them! But God actually delights in genuine prayers—prayers from the heart, prayers that, as Hebrews says, believe God exists and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him.

Application:

It’s easy to slip into fake prayer—to just say words without the God-pleasing kind of faith. That kind of prayer is a waste of time and even causes a negative reaction from God.

Prayer:

Father God, may my prayers be sincere, genuine, and real. May they delight your heart.

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Proverbs 10:22 God’s blessing makes life rich;
nothing we do can improve on God.

Proverbs 11: 28 A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;
a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.

Proverbs 12:2 A good person basks in the delight of God

Observation:

There were so many good Proverbs that it was hard to pick one! I love the emphasis on focusing on God rather than things.

Application:

Life is short. Eternity is long. Does it make sense to focus so hard on the things of this world that are temporary and give God the leftovers of my life?

Prayer:

Father God, I want my life to be a tree of life, not a stump. Only you are the source of a flourishing life.

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Romans 4:18 When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.
Vs 19 Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless.

Observation:

Abraham encountered a hopeless time where it looked like things would NOT work out. So what did he do? Even though he had no power to do anything, he still believed that God would do what he said he would do.

Application:

Don’t focus on the hopelessness of my situation. Focus on the power of God to act on my behalf.

Prayer:

Father God, I’m looking to you today to perform great and mighty things in my life and through me, as I trust you to do it.

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Romans 3:25–26; 27–28 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

What we’ve learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We’ve finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

Observation:

Jesus’ sacrifice—his death on the cross—clears us of blame before God. That’s good news! But it doesn’t stop there. “He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.” We do this by letting God lead us rather than deciding ourselves what God would like. When we follow God’s leading, we’ll be in harmony with God AND with other people.

Application:

This sounds like a Utopian world! A place where I am totally in step with God and with others, in harmonious communion with God and others. That is a place I long to be. Jesus makes that possible, but how do I walk in that every day?

Perhaps I should start by thanking God first thing in the morning for letting me into his inner circle, his family, his community. Then I could acknowledge God’s leadership and ask him what he’s up to today and how I can become a part of his great work for this very day!

Prayer:

Father God, I’m listening to your Spirit, wanting to follow your leading at any given moment, whether in small or great things.

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