PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verses 7, 12): Today, Father, I feel convicted about my mentality as of late. In these verses, You mention that Your people did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. I’m not sure if what I’m doing is truly evil in Your sight or not, but I do know that it’s not the way I want to be living my life, Father. I’m am starting to get into a complainers mindset, again, now that I’ve been back home for several months and am officially retired from the military. It’s minimal, but I’m struggling to voice my concerns, gripes, and complaints to my wife for some reason even though we’ve had pretty great communication over the last year or so. Please forgive me for this, Father. Help me to be better at having less of a complainer’s mindset and more of an appreciative one, Father. Help me to keep these thoughts solely in my own head less often and be better at communicating my concerns with others, Father.
PROMISE (verses 4-6): Although You fulfilled Your promise about the great inheritance to Your people, You still left behind a test for them. You never really stop testing us in scripture and this is proof of that. Your promise was fulfilled, but You wanted to make sure the future generations didn’t forget about You and move onto sinful/evil ways of living. Unfortunately, Your people failed Your tests multiple times over as the generations passed. Your promise of a test came to fruition, but also the promise that You would temporarily turn Your back on them throughout their evil ways came to fruition. Are You testing me, Father? Have I been passing Your tests at least halfway decently?
ATTITUDE (verses 11, 30): Although my attitude adjustment isn’t specific to these two verses, I would like to focus on a single word in these two verses—peaceful. My entire life has been riddled with a lack of peace for the most-part. A lack of peace in my own mind, a lack of peace around me, a lack of peace in my heart, etc. I know I’ve gotten better as of late with an attitude of peace, but I am still struggling here-and-there. I want to fully embrace an attitude of peace in my life, Father. Please show me what it truly means to embrace an attitude of peace, but also help me to get to that in my own life. Help me to know, see, and live in a peaceful attitude in my faith walk and in this life, Father.
COMMAND (verses 7, 12): In the scripture as a whole, I do not see a direct command coming from You like You have given in most other scriptures I’ve read. I do see an implied one, however, in these two verses. You tell us that the Israelites are doing what is evil in the Lord’s sight; not once but twice just in this chapter. I see an implication here that You are commanding us to stop doing things that are evil in Your sight, else we receive a promise of anger from You. I know I’m not perfect and I know that Your grace is sufficient. I also know that Jesus was sacrificed for my sin, but that doesn’t mean I can/should just run around sinning purposely even more just because I’m covered by the blood of Christ. When we love someone, we want to do things that are pleasing to them and “evil” acts are not please in Your sight. Help me to be better at recognizing the things I need to change, but also keeping those changes in effect, Father.
EXAMPLE (verses 9, 15): I love the example You are providing to me here. The Israelites keep delving back into their sinful ways of living, so You find it necessary to punish them (at least temporarily). In these verses, however, You provide me with a couple of examples showing that You always love us even when I am being stubborn, stupid, ridiculous, lazy, or just outright disobedient. You show me that no matter what I’m doing in this life, that You are always there for me if I’m just willing to call out to You. Thank You, Father, for being the perfect Father to me. Thank You for never turning Your back on me permanently. Thank You for this great example of Your love, grace, and affection towards Your followers when we call out to You, Father.
*DAILY NOTE: I wish I had done this quiet time yesterday as I could have really used it, but once again I skipped a day of quiet times. I am sorry for my lack of inconsistency, Father. I’m getting back into the flow of things with my quiet times, but I am still hitting some mental/personal speed bumps along the way. Thank You for never leaving me and always being available to me even if I sometimes fail to reach out to You. I can feel Your presence around me at all times and am extremely grateful for that. Now, if only I could get myself to always reach out to You with the consistency that You expect of me. Help me to be a better follower of You, Father, but also a better speaker of Your truths. Help me to be a vessel of relaying all that You are to those around me, Father. Thank You for such an amazing quiet time this morning. I look forward to another great conversation with You tomorrow.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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