Begin with forgiveness

M’lakhim Alef (1 Kings) 8:30

Yes, listen to the plea of your servant, and also that of your people Isra’el when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven where you live; and when you hear, forgive!

Our prayers must start with forgiveness.  How can we come before ADONAI and ask of anything if we have the dust of this world still settled on our shoulders?  If we do not take the time to clean our hearts and souls to come before God in praise and supplication, why would we think that He would take the time to hear our prayers?  Lord forgive me for my hubris in treating You like an atm with prayers of selfish demands.  Let my heart be changed by the power of the Ruach so that I cleansed of my selfishness and pray with the desire of Your will in all things.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Just my understanding of God’s Word

Luke 9:62

62 To him Yeshua said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is fit to serve in the Kingdom of God.”

I cannot fall back on past success and consider myself actively working for the Kingdom. Adonai commands that I actively show proof of my trust through action. Abba grant that I be that strong worker.

Live your witness

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Also, make it your ambition to live quietly, to mind your own business and to earn your living by your own efforts—just as we told you. Then your daily life will gain the respect of outsiders, and you will not be dependent on anyone.

We are only as good as our witness to the world. If we live frantic lives involved in everyone’s business and not taking care of our own home how can people see the loving care of ADONAI in our lives. It is how we handle ourselves day in and day out that is our witness not for the couple of hours spent at worship with a congregation on Shabbat. Lord let my life be the open book that always leads back to You. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Do what God desires, not ourselves

Divrei-HaYamim Alef (1 Chronicles) 22:7-8

“My son,” said David to Shlomo, “my heart was set on building a house for the name of ADONAI my God. But a message from ADONAI came to me, ‘You have shed much blood and fought great wars. You are not to build a house for my name, because you have shed so much blood on the earth in my sight.

Not all we desire are we to do. Just as David, a man after God’s own heart, desired to build a permanent temple to ADONAI it was not for him to do because of the violence he himself did in founding the kingdom of Isra’el. David was humble enough to take no for an answer and in that moment of trust God rewarded him in letting his son take up the commission to build the temple. We must be like David and lay all the desires of our hearts before ADONAI and pursue those which He tells us to do. Lord let me keep to Your plan for my life and not my own. Let Your light shine through me to the world just as David’s kingship brought honor and glory to You in his obedience. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

We must invest in people

1 Thessalonians 2:8

We were so devoted to you that we were glad to share with you not only God’s Good News but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

Sha’ul shows us it is not enough to tell people about salvation through the blood of Yeshua but to invest in people with our own lives so they can see how the love of ADONAI blesses them day to day. Lord let me be all that You would have me to be in serving You. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Community

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

We always thank God for all of you, regularly mentioning you in our prayers, calling to mind before God our Father what our Lord Yeshua the Messiah has brought about in you—how your trust produces action, your love hard work, and your hope perseverance.

As Sha’ul does we are to remind ADONAI of the many others that trust in Him.  Not because God will forget but that we can take solace in knowing we are not alone in labors for ADONAI.  It is the understanding of the believing community around us that God can provide encouragement to us in these days ahead.  Lord thank You for all that seek Your face and follow Your mitzvahs and the encouragement they give in these trying times.  Praise Your holy name forever and ever, amen.

Don’t sell out

Mattityahu (Matthew) 28:11-15

As they were going, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the head cohanim everything that had happened. Then they met with the elders; and after discussing the matter, they gave the soldiers a sizeable sum of money and said to them, “Tell people, ‘His talmidim came during the night and stole his body while we were sleeping.’ If the governor hears of it, we will put things right with him and keep you from getting in trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did as they were told, and this story has been spread about by Judeans till this very day.

The guards at the tomb just had a supernatural encounter. An angel looking like lightning and clothed in blinding white rolled away the stone and exposed that there was no body in the tomb. But men seeking to hold onto this false sense of power had the soldiers deny that this happened for money even though their lying could mean death by Roman Legion punishment. Many of us today are like the guards experiencing a supernatural event only to be talked out of the power and mystery of it by those who would deny God even exists. We mustn’t give into such nonsense but stand firm in the power and glory God has let us partake in through the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit. Lord strengthen me to never deny the power You have in my life. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Don’t be a GOAT

Sh’mu’el Bet (2 Samuel) 18:10-15

Someone saw it and told Yo’av, “I saw Avshalom hanging in a terebinth.” Yo’av asked the man who told him, “Here now, you saw it; so why didn’t you strike him to the ground then and there? I would have had to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt besides.” The man replied to Yo’av, “Even if I were to get a thousand pieces of silver, I still wouldn’t raise my hand against the son of the king! After all, while we were listening, the king ordered you, Avishai and Ittai, ‘Be careful that no one touches young Avshalom.’ Or, if I had pretended that I didn’t know, the king would have known otherwise anyway; and you wouldn’t have interceded for me either.” Yo’av said, “I can’t waste time arguing with you!” He took three darts in his hand and rammed them through Avshalom’s heart while he was still alive, hanging from the terebinth. Then Yo’av’s ten young armor-bearers surrounded Avshalom, struck him and killed him.

Yo’av’s story has always disturbed me.  One of King David’s mighty men and leader of the Armies of Isra’el he continued to do things that he saw as right and just for his own will and not the will of the King he served.  From the murder of Avner, to the deceit to bring Avshalom out of banishment and the slaying of him in battle to the murder of ‘Amasa.  Each of these events he committed not for the good of the kingdom but for the enrichment of himself.  His selfishness was so well known that even this unnamed soldier would not follow his unjust order.  Yet for all his selfish actions ADONAI used him to preserve and provoke King David to be the man after His own heart.  I worry sometimes I might be another Yo’av just going through the motions of service only to make myself more in this fleeting moment and not seeing like King David the eternity of reward in serving ADONAI faithfully.  Abba, Father, do not let me faulter and become so self-centered that I lose sight of this path You have put me on.  I keep me from selfish delusion so I will not be asked to go with the goats to the left in that day.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Teach the children well

Tehillim (Psalms) 71:18

So now that I’m old, and my hair is gray,
don’t abandon me, God, till I have proclaimed
your strength to the next generation,
your power to all who will come,

With age comes a commission from ADONAI. We are to teach the next generation about Him. I look at all that is going on in this world and I worry that not enough of us are doing this. Lord let me be a voice in this wilderness that still proclaims Your greatness to all. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Sin rots, God heals

Tehillim (Psalms) 32:1-5

How blessed are those whose offense is forgiven,

those whose sin is covered!

How blessed those to whom ADONAI imputes no guilt,

in whose spirit is no deceit!

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away

because of my groaning all day long;

day and night your hand was heavy on me;

the sap in me dried up as in a summer drought. (Selah)

When I acknowledged my sin to you,

when I stopped concealing my guilt,

and said, “I will confess my offenses to ADONAI”;

then you, you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah)

Without acknowledgement of our sin before ADONAI it will continuously eat away at ourselves to the point that physical manifestation will occur.  Sin demands a cost that will eventually take the life of the sinner forever unless there is confession and acceptance of salvation through the blood of Yeshua. It is that confession and with that trust in salvation that we can do as Yeshua commanded all he healed to “Go and sin, no more”.  Lord I feel ashamed at the amount of confession I have to bring before You because of my own deceitful heart and that at times my trust is so weak.  Strengthen me Lord so like David I can truly rejoice in the salvation You provide.  I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Lack of the Word brings sin

Sh’mu’el Bet (2 Samuel) 13:2, 10-16

Amnon became so obsessed with his sister Tamar that he became ill, for she was a virgin, and Amnon thought it would be impossible to approach her.

Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the room, so that I can have you serve me. Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the room to Amnon her brother. But when she brought them near, so that he could eat, he grabbed her and said to her, “Come to bed with me, my sister.” “No, my brother,” she answered him, “don’t force me! Things like this aren’t done in Isra’el; don’t behave so disgracefully! Where could I go with such shame? And as for you, you will be regarded as one of Isra’el’s vulgar brutes. Now therefore, please! Speak to the king, because he won’t keep me from you.” However, he wouldn’t listen to her; and since he was stronger than she, he overpowered her and raped her. But then he was filled with utter revulsion for her—his hatred of her was even greater than the love he had had for her before. Amnon said to her, “Get up, and get out of here!” “No,” she objected, “because throwing me out like this is an even worse thing than what you’ve already done to me!” But he wouldn’t listen to her;

Such is the way of sin in our lives. It may be a thought, just an idea but without having the Word of God written into one’s heart it grows till it is manifest in the physical just as with Amnon starving himself for Tamar. And when that selfish desire is fulfilled in the physical there is no spiritual filling so the hole that it was meant to fill in our lives becomes deeper and more destructive leading, if there is no repentance, to death. We are to flee from such thoughts and focus on the Word, read it, study it, write it on our hearts and trust in ADONAI in where he leads us in our lives. If we do this then as David says in the psalms, “we will be given the desires of our heart,” and we will have peace in our soul. Lord let me always fill myself with Your Word for I am a foolish man without Your direction. Lead me always in Your ways. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.

Forgiveness

Sh’mu’el Bet (2 Samuel) 12:9-13

“‘So why have you shown such contempt for the word of ADONAI and done what I see as evil? You murdered Uriyah the Hitti with the sword and taken his wife as your own wife; you put him to death with the sword of the people of’ Amon. Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house—because you have shown contempt for me and taken the wife of Uriyah the Hitti as your own wife.’ Here is what ADONAI says: ‘I will generate evil against you out of your own household. I will take your wives before your very eyes and give them to your neighbor; he will go to bed with your wives, and everyone will know about it. For you did it secretly, but I will do this before all Isra’el in broad daylight.'”
David said to Natan, “I have sinned against ADONAI.”

When we sin, there are consequences that must be endured. I have destroyed relationships with my lying, caused financial pain restoring things I have stole and tons of regret that can trigger times of crippling remorse. David committed adultery, tried to use deception to hide his sin and in the end had Uriyah murdered all for lusting after a woman because he was too lazy to be with the men defending Isra’el against Amon. Yet for all that ADONAI forgave him the moment he confessed his sin, and in forgiving David instilled in him part of His own spirit to strengthen him in the days to come. It is the same for us, there is always consequences when we sin that we will have to answer for, but they are small in comparison for the blood price Yeshua paid so we can stand forgiven before God. Lord You know my heart and once again You have broken me with Your Word. Forgive me, hold me, fill me so my days will be counted as a blessing to You. I ask this in Yeshua’s name, amen.