20-20 Blog

Today’s Bible Reading: Jeremiah 52; Revelation 1; Psalm 143; Psalm 144 (The Message)

Scripture Focus:

Psalm 143:10
Teach me how to live to please you,
      because you’re my God.

Observation:

David asks God to teach him how to please God. How to please God is something that must be taught—not something we do naturally. It’s a learned behavior. What comes naturally is how to please ourselves.

Just like a child would be totally self-centered if not corrected by a parent, so we would be self-absorbed if we didn’t have God teach us how to walk in a manner that pleases him.

Application:

Don’t focus on your own comfort or having your own way today. Ask God to show you what would please him. Be willing to do what the Spirit of God whispers in your ear.

Prayer:

Father God, here I am. What would you like me to do today?

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Today’s Bible Reading: 1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18; 2 Chronicles 19; Colossians 4 (The Message)

Scripture Focus:

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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Today’s Bible Reading: 1 Kings 2; 1 Chronicles 29; Psalm 95; 2 Thessalonians 1 (The Message)

Scripture Focus:

1 Chronicles 29:19 And give my son Solomon an uncluttered and focused heart so that he can obey what you command, live by your directions and counsel, and carry through with building The Temple for which I have provided.”

Observation:

In order for Solomon to accomplish what God wanted him to do—obey God, follow God’s direction and counsel, and build the Temple—he needed to not be distracted. He needed an uncluttered and focused heart.

Application:

Besides the more generic obeying God and following God’s direction and counsel, God gives each of us a main task in life which can only be accomplished well if we stay focused and uncluttered in our hearts. I need to know what God has called me to do and stay focused on that calling, despite the distractions all around me.

Prayer:

Father God, my heart and life can get cluttered so easily. Help me to keep it simple today.

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Today’s Bible Reading: Leviticus 25; Psalm 25; Psalm 26; Acts 22

Scripture Focus:
Psalm 26:1–3 I’ve thrown in my lot with you, God, and I’m not budging. Examine me, God, from head to foot, order your battery of tests. Make sure I’m fit inside and out so I never lose sight of your love, but keep in step with you, never missing a beat.

Observation:
We decide who we will follow. If we make no decision, we’ve decided to follow our own way, which ends up being Satan’s way—the way of self.

But if we decide to follow God, we get put in an uncomfortable position—we cannot remain the same, be ourselves the way we’ve always been. If we are to walk with God, he must examine us and make sure we are fit for the walk with him—otherwise, we’ll never endure.

Application:
“Examine me,” is a good prayer to pray to God consistently. Make no mistake. God will do so, and the results may be uncomfortable, but the alternative is worse. Am I willing to make the changes I need to make to keep in step with God? I like where He’s going a lot more than where I’m headed when I take my eyes off of Him!

Prayer:
Dear God, examine me. Make sure I’m fit to walk with you today. Help me never lose sight of your love. Help me keep in step with you, never missing a beat.

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Today’s Bible Reading: 2 Timothy 1, 2, 3, 4

Scripture Focus:

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 2:4–7 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

Observation:

God has not given me a spirit of fear. Instead, he gives me a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. Armed with such a spirit from God himself, I can focus on the job God has given ME to do. As I focus, God will give me understanding in ALL things.

Application:

There isn’t room for worry or fear in my life today. Worry and fear are paralyzing. Power, love, and a sound mind are energizing. That’s what God gives to me as I start my day, but I must focus. God doesn’t promise an easy, self indulgent life. Just the opposite. But the rewards are great. “The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.”

Prayer:

May I walk in the power and love of God today. I know I have a sound mind, for I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), so God, please help me focus today on the things that matter.

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Today’s Bible Reading: Haggai 1, 2; Psalm 129; Luke 10

Scripture Focus:

Haggai 1:5–6 Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways!
“ You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

Observation:

Frequently in the Bible God lets us know that grasping at things without being generous to him and others is actually a way of losing those things. It’s like putting money into a bag with holes.

Could it be the same way with time? Time is a commodity we all crave and never seem to have enough of.

I think of the verse: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

Application:

I’m struggling with a lack of time, so I tend to hoard the little time I get. It’s been a struggle to give God my undivided attention in the morning to start the day right, but that is exactly where I need to start—giving him my best, the firstfruits of the day.

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Today’s Bible Reading:Lamentations 1, 2; Obadiah 1; Revelation 14

Scripture Focus:

Lamentations 2:4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

Observation:

The Bible says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The opposite is also true. If God be against us, who can be for us?

This verse talks of God as Israel’s enemy, an adversary. How did that happen—that God should be against the very people he chose and blessed? It was because they were disobedient to his laws and commandments, and though he warned them through his prophets for years and years, they refused to turn from their ways.

God is patient and gives his people ample opportunity to turn around, but there comes a point when it is time for judgment. Then, beware, for God “stands as an enemy.”

Application:

Has God been trying to tell me something? Am I listening? Am I making adjustments in my life to line up with God’s perfect will for me? It’s better to be sensitive to God’s direction than to ignore his voice and eventually find that God becomes like an enemy to me.

Prayer:

Father God, keep me sensitive to your corrective voice.

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Today’s Bible Reading: Jeremiah 50, 51; 3 John 1

Scripture Focus:

Jeremiah 51:5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the LORD of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

Observation:

In the previous chapters we read about how God was using Babylon to punish his people for their sin, after years of pleading with them to repent. Even though God punished Israel and Judah, it was not with the purpose to abandon them, but to redeem them.

Application:

This verse gives hope to the vilest offender of God’s justice, and it gives hope to me, when I struggle to live a truly righteous life before God. If God must punish, it is for the purpose of redemption.

As Hebrews 12:8 & 10 says, “If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. . . God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

Prayer:

Father, may I not chafe against your discipline, but learn from it.

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