G: Numbers 10:35-36

Numbers 10:35-36

English Standard Version (ESV)

 ³⁵ And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” ³⁶ And when it rested, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

 This to me is a brilliant reminder of God's power and might. God's enemies have to scatter before him, because he is God. All that is dark tries to hide in the presence of the Father of Lights, and it tries to get away because it can't bear to be brought to light. I incorporate these two verses into my prayers as I start the day. When they move the ark, the Israelites are asking God to go before them on the path they travel, and when they rest they are asking him to be with them. In this way God guided and went with them on their travels, driving out their enemies and bringing them into the land promised them.

My prayer today is that God guides me and goes with me through every instance and scenario I run into today, and that he may be glorified by my thoughts, words, and actions.

In Christ and Love,
Gabrielle

G: Psalm 119:97-104

Psalm 119:97-104
English Standard Version (ESV)
Mem

 ⁹⁷ Oh how I love your law!
   It is my meditation all the day.
⁹⁸ Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
   for it is ever with me.
⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers,
   for your testimonies are my meditation.
¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the aged,
   for I keep your precepts.
¹⁰¹ I hold back my feet from every evil way,
   in order to keep your word.
¹⁰² I do not turn aside from your rules,
   for you have taught me.
¹⁰³ How sweet are your words to my taste,
   sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹⁰⁴ Through your precepts I get understanding;
   therefore I hate every false way.

103 and 104 are what caught my attention this morning, perhaps because I'm steeping hot tea while writing. Even with all of the sweeteners and artificial sweeteners and halfway-but-not-quite-natural sweeteners that society has come up with, it's hard to beat honey. Honey is pretty much the epitome of a 100% natural sweetener, harvested or eaten by many predators, humans and animals alike. If honey is so coveted for its sweetness, how much more should God's words be coveted! The Bible says that God's words are "sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Like I said, hard to beat honey. And yet God wins in a landslide.

Sometimes when I'm craving food (usually sweet food,) I'll sit down and read my Bible instead. I read somewhere that sometimes when we're having a craving that we associate with food, it's really our soul crying out to satisfy the craving for spiritual food--the Word of God. I've found that to be true, and reading my Bible  has satisfied my strange cravings before. I think of it in association to tea--when tea doesn't taste just right, most people go for the honey. When life doesn't taste just right, a lot of people go for the Bible. That's not to say that's the only time we should go for our Bibles--that's not the case at all! Where honey makes tea sweeter, the Bible, God's word, makes life sweeter. It doesn't necessarily make it easier. It makes it bearable and beautiful despite the trial and hardship.

And in the rest of this section (Mem) you can see what kind of sweetness God's words adds to life! "Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies...more understanding than all my teachers...understand more than the aged*...through your precepts I get understanding." (*There's a footnote in my Bible that says "aged" can be read as "elders" as well.) Who wouldn't want to be wiser and more understanding?

Today my goal is to remember that instruction from God is always sweet, even if it's discipline or a warning. Remember--sweet doesn't mean easy. It means beautiful and full of love.

In Christ and Love,
Gabrielle

G: 2 Chronicles 20: 15-23

2 Chronicles 20:15-23

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁵ And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. ¹⁶ Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. ¹⁷ You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.”  ¹⁸ Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. ¹⁹ And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
 ²⁰ And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” ²¹ And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,
   “Give thanks to the LORD,
   for his steadfast love endures forever.”
 ²² And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. ²³ For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.

This won't be a long post today. It's really verse 15 that speaks the most to me, but I posted the whole section because that's what I read this morning. It's really tough to remember that the battle is not mine but God's and to trust that he'll take care of me. I'm such a control freak about my life that it's really, really hard for me to relinquish my hold on things and just sit by while someone else does the fighting or the planning or anything else that needs doing that I can't do. It's scary for me to let go. But I'm learning. :)

In Christ and Love,
Gabrielle

M: Ecclesiastes 2:10-16

So today, while meeting with a newer church friend, she invited me to ask God to show some clarity on a question that had been bugging my mind a lot recently. She, being a firm believer in drawing lots and God leading your fingers to where you need to read in the bible, had us both pray with our hands on the Bible before opening it and reading the first thing my finger landed on. It landed on this passage.

Ecclesiastes 2:10-16
New King James Version (NKJV)
10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. 
      I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, 
      For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; 
      And this was my reward from all my labor. 
       11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done 
      And on the labor in which I had toiled; 
      And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. 
      There was no profit under the sun.
The End of the Wise and the Fool
    12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
      For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
      Only what he has already done.
       13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly
      As light excels darkness.
       14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
      But the fool walks in darkness.
      Yet I myself perceived
      That the same event happens to them all.
       15 So I said in my heart,

      “ As it happens to the fool,
      It also happens to me,
      And why was I then more wise?”
      Then I said in my heart,

      “ This also is vanity.”
       16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
      Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
      And how does a wise man die?
      As the fool!

It took a few seconds for the information to register after reading it aloud, but even outside of the context of the questions I was asking, it's a very thought provoking passage. The idea that even a wise man will die, in the same way a fool will die, what is the purpose of wisdom?

Is it because we like to feel smart? Be better than our fellow man? Feel that we are making all the right steps and choices?

Even the wisest of the wise in all their wisdom appear like fools to the incomprehensible knowledge of God. So why do we feel we are smart? Or right? Or genius'? Or that we have a right to be a know-it-all?
We really don't. I need to learn and recognize that even in the massive amount of information I know, I have no right to judge or look down at someone else because they might not know the same amount I do. Certainly I may be more knowledgable in the arts than an engineer, but that doesn't give me the right to feel he or she is stupid and is a fool for not knowing what I do. The engineer could look the same back about me not knowing how a doorknob works!

But most important is the recognition that God knows everything. Only He is truly wise. So why don't we go to Him more often? Why don't we ask Him about things that happen in our life? Why do we feel that all of that universal knowledge is something we must attain without any help, guidance, or teaching from Him?
My lesson to learn, is that even when I think I am wise enough to know what I need to do, to continue to lean on Him for support and knowledge, since He knows better than I.

God bless,
-Matthew


((Note: Written by Matthew, posted by Gabrielle for him because currently Matthew is unable to directly post to the blog.))

G: Matthew 11:28-30

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
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. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Just a quick post today. Verse 28 is very relevant to my life right now, and I'm clinging to God's promise of rest as life seems to be getting crazier. It's nice to have that promise, and it IS a promise. God says "I will give you rest." (verse 28.) He doesn't say "I might." He doesn't say "Perhaps." He says "I will." And what a comfort that is!

In Christ and Love,
Gabrielle

G: Ephesians 5:1-2

Ephesians 5:1-2 (ESV)

 ¹ Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

These two verses are BibleGateway's verse of the day, and it also happens that this is a subject that weighs on my heart more often than not. In the United States, people (for the most part) don't judge what we believe--they judge what we do. The persecution we face here comes because we hold fast to our faith and the things we believe are right, and we act on it. A lot of times though, when we're criticized we get defensive.


Why?


Because as humans we don't like to be told what to do. Some may be better at taking instruction than others, but as a whole when has humanity ever wanted to listen to instruction? So when someone is trying to tell us how to believe, we defend ourselves, often with a hurt attitude.


Well, that works both ways. Am I saying don't go out and be missionaries (Matthew 28) and gospel sharers? I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that Ephesians 5:2 is key to how we are to go about sharing what we believe and telling others of the good news.


How are we to do that? Let's read again.

Ephesians 5:2 (ESV)

² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

As Christians, we are commanded to walk in love, the kind of all-encompassing, self-sacrificial agape love that Christ had for us. We're not commanded to order people to change. We're not told to scream them down, or to tell them they're going to Hell, or to ridicule or embarrass them.


We are simply called to walk in love.


A lot of non-Christians you talk to will tell you that their perception of a Christian is someone who is close-minded and who shoves their beliefs down others' throats without any regard to what that person may already believe. Many I've talked to are shocked when I tell them what the Bible has to say about love--how Christians were not called to condemn, but to love those around us and share the love of God through that. By loving others and loving God, we are pressing forward to take hold of the commandments issued in Ephesians 5:1-2.


My personal opinion, and the opinion of Ephesians 5:1-2, is that the "bad cop" approach to Christianity is the wrong way to go about it. You can be persistent in sharing without being aggressive. The approach I often take when sharing is "I'm curious as to what you believe. You're [this religion], right? I don't know much about that." I don't lie, I don't yell. I approach the person as a person, not only as a conversion number. I generally trend toward being a nice person, and so I just act like myself while keeping in mind that we are called to love.

It's really hard when someone doesn't agree with your beliefs, and you think they're wrong. Who doesn't want people to believe like we do? The natural thing is to get defensive and say "But you're wrong!" The Bible doesn't say don't tell them they're wrong--but it does say to do it with love.

 I keep using the word "love," but many people have different definitions of what love is. The definition I am using comes from 1 Corinthians 13:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV)

 ⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Today, my goal is to walk in love, remembering to love those around me as Christ loved us. I often have to work at not insisting I'm right, because like many people I love to be right. And so today I am going to start working on not insisting that I be right, and instead listening to what other people have to say as well.


 In Christ and Love,
Gabrielle

Welcome

Welcome to my little corner of the internet. I'm Gabrielle, a college student learning to seek God with my whole heart while reaching out to love on the people around me. I've done my own quiet time for a while now, but seldom do I write about it. That leads to forgetting what I read, which defeats the whole purpose of the quiet times. Here I'll be posting what I think and learn each day in my quiet time with my Savior. This is my way to keep myself accountable. If you (the reader) want to comment on or discuss anything in my posts, feel free to. I'd love to discuss and learn more. Personal quiet times are wonderful, and community discussion is sometimes even better.

My goal is to post once per day in order to keep myself accountable and retain what I read. The title of this blog, Two-Penny Promises, comes from the story of the widow's mites found at a glance in Luke 21:

Luke 21:1-4 (ESV)
The Widow's Offering

¹ Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, ² and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ³ And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. ⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

I strive to live a life such as the widow did--giving everything that I have to God, even when I don't have much to give.

My posts will likely be made in the mornings, right after or during my quiet times. We'll see as the Spirit allows.

My boyfriend will be joining in on this as well, so there will also be posts from him. We'll distinguish between the two, don't worry. :)

In Christ and love,

Gabrielle