Solomon and helping your neighbor

2 Chronicles 4-6 and Luke 10

2 Chronicles 4-6

So in today's reading of, 2 Chronicles 4-6, we see God fulfill His promise to David, and we see that our heart matters to God.

Even though David couldn't build the temple because of David's heart, God allowed David's son to do what was in his father's heart to do.

Our heart matters.  Be sure to examine yours throughout the day everyday.

The other moving thing I saw in 2 Chronicles is the pleasure God gets when we, His children, worship Him with true hearts.  I loved reading about the cloud coming into the worship service and God being in the midst of it.

Do you worship in such a true manner that you know God is pleased and among your worship to Him?

Luke 10

Who is your neighbor?  How helpful and neighborly are you to those who are different from you?  It's easy to come to the aide of someone of the same faith, race, status, and what have you, but how eager are you to help someone who is totally different?

Ask yourself that question and examine your heart.

Remember we can fool others and sometimes we can even fool ourselves, but you cannot fool the true and living God.  He knows what's in your heart and He examines it.

Praying the Scriptures back to God, Psalm 73 and 74

Psalm 73-74

The last time we were together to read the Scripture passages from She Reads Truth yearly plan, I gave you the wrong month. Bear with me please as I figure out exactly how I will share so much of the Bible resources that I'm finding with you.

Today our Bible reading will come from Psalm 73-74.

Psalm 73

Self-pity, I don't know about you, but I've sure experienced my fair share of it.

This Psalm illustrates the results of allowing our faith in God to be buried under self-pity.

The psalmist became so depressed when he contrasted the seeming prosperity of the wicked with the difficulties of living a righteous life.

We start to see a shift in his attitude in verse 15.  He starts to look at life from the perspective of being under the control of a sovereign and holy God where he concludes that the wicked, not the righteous have blundered.

Psalm 74

The community express their agony of the people in the midst of the most excruciating of circumstances.  Their enemies have destroyed their temples, but worse, it seems, to the psalmist anyway, that God had abandoned them.

Do you know what this feels like?  To feel like God has abandon you and your enemies, the unbelievers are getting away and prospering for being in the state their in?

Have you ever felt the need to pray and "remind God" so to speak of what His Word says concerning you, His child?

That's what we see the psalmist doing here.  He reminds God of His bond with Israel, His past supernatural deeds in protection of Israel and begs God to save His covenant nation now.

I call this, "Praying the Scriptures."

Do you pray Scriptures often in your own life?