Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:Subjecta:David Forgives Absalom
Bible Verse:2 Samuel 14:1-21 (abridged)(NLT)
"Joab knew that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. So Joab had a wise woman brought from Tekoa and said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth.
When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor, and she said, “Help me, O king!” The king asked her, “What is troubling you?”
She said, “I am indeed a widow; my husband is dead. I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir as well.’ They would put out the only burning coal I have left, leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.”
The king said to the woman, “Go home, and I will issue an order in your behalf. As surely as the Lord lives, not one hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.”
Then the woman said, “Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, for the king has not brought back his banished son? And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you.’”
Then the king said to the woman, “Do not keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you. Isn’t the hand of Joab with you in all this?”
The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God—he knows everything that happens in the land.”
The king said to Joab, “Very well, I will do it. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.”
"
Message:
Both the Psalm today and the account of Joab, David, and the wise woman, put us in mind of how difficult it is for most of us to take criticism or even the best advice, sometimes, when we are headed in the wrong direction. Kings, of course, require special handling. As the Spanish proverb says, “With the rich and mighty, always a little patience.”
Still, why is it that even if our best friend tells us we are wrong about something, our first reaction is (generally) to defend ourselves? We learn and we state that pride is the mother of so much sin, yet it is so difficult to put it aside. We must pray and train ourselves to hear criticism without anger and defensiveness, for by doing so, we will gain greatly.
Meditation
:
Prayer :
I bind myself to you this day, oh Christ, in your truth and in your sacrifice. I give to you my anxiety and my fear, my depression and my doubt, for you have promised to take them if we only ask; and I take upon myself your burden, for it is light and your way is gentle. May I keep this in my heart and mind all this day.....Amen
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