Tag Archives: persistence

Don’t give up, July 29, 2019

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

I read the headlines and was appalled. A mother drowns her kids. Another reads, “Father kills mother while children watch, then shoots three children. And another, “Parents cage two children for three years before discovered.”

How does this happen? What kind of people can perform these atrocities to innocent children?

This morning I read the lectionary readings that will be associated with this week’s podcast and heard Jesus’ words regarding prayer. His disciples asked him to teach them to pray. Luke recorded a version of that now famous prayer that many rattle off their tongues without even thinking about it. We often refer to it as the Lord’s prayer, but it is really the disciples’ prayer. It’s the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

But after that prayer, Jesus told about the necessity to maintain our vigilance in prayer. When we want something from God, we need to continue to ask. Be persistent, he says. In Luke chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, he says, “So listen: Keep on asking, and you will receive. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened for you. All who keep asking will receive, all who keep seeking will find, and doors will open to those who keep knocking.”

That tells me we should not give up on our prayers. God’s word gives us plenty of examples of godly men and women who prayed for long periods of time before they received answers to their requests. Abraham’s peers were great-grandfathers before he had his promised son. Joseph languished in prison before he became the second highest authority in Egypt. Paul prayed for an unknown thorn in his flesh to be removed, something we’re not sure what that thorn was, and God never removed it, but only told him after long supplication that he would receive grace to bear it.

Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

There is another point of wisdom in these words that wanes in our society today. We give up on almost everything. My grandkids really excel in many areas. I have to brag on them. But once in a while, they will grab a new project, struggle with it a while and want to quit because it’s hard. Fortunately, they have a mom and dad that won’t let them quit something just because it’s hard.

If it’s something that is well beyond their capability, that is different. If it’s dangerous or could cause significant damage, that’s different. But often, they will just give a tiny bit of guidance and let their kids learn how to handle hard things. Sometimes they fail the first few times at a task. But they get better through those early failures and learn to become very good through the tutelage of their parents and other adults. It might be hard, but they grow because of it.

When we stop because it’s hard or it didn’t happen the first time, we miss great opportunities. We lose because we fail to recognize the success in learning from mistakes. It’s the problem many young people face when “helicopter” parent bail kids out of every failure and make everything right regardless of the circumstances. Sometimes, it’s good for us to feel the consequences of our failure. We learn from those instances. We figure out how to succeed when we must endure the pain and suffering that comes from our mistakes.

You’ve probably heard the quote from Thomas Edison’s interview about his first failures in creating his electric lightbulb. He said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

I also find his observation, “We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

How much could we accomplish if we just got at it and didn’t give up? What could we do if we just stuck to it and continued to try until we did something. Instead we get tired, feel bad about ourselves for not becoming the next Rockafeller at the age of 20, and just sit on the couch playing video games instead. I sometimes wonder how we became known as the land of opportunity unless it’s now because we give up on everything and anyone who joins us has the opportunity to do all the things we give up trying.

Life is hard. Life is filled with failure and disappointment. We cannot nor should not win every time. Everyone should not get a trophy. We don’t learn as much through winning as we do through losing. In failing is really where we build our character.

We learn grace. We learn how to pick ourselves back up and how to start over. We learn that not being at the top is okay. We learn we can survive, begin again, lean on a friend. We learn we are not alone because no one wins every time.

Jesus says don’t stop. Don’t quit. Keep at it. Don’t give up. It’s a lesson we need to learn today.

He goes on to indict us as a society in what I mentioned as I began this podcast. Do you remember those headlines? In the next verses, Jesus asks what should have been some rhetorical questions. In verses 11 through 13 he says, “Some of you are fathers, so ask yourselves this: if your son comes up to you and asks for a fish for dinner, will you give him a snake instead? If your boy wants an egg to eat, will you give him a scorpion? Look, all of you are flawed in so many ways, yet in spite of all your faults, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to all who ask!”

Today, however, too many of our children grow up in fatherless homes. They don’t know what a father should be. They don’t have any idea how a loving father acts. Our kids are abandoned physically or emotionally as fathers relinquish their responsibilities as the head of the house and act like kids themselves without thought of what they do to the next generation. And the problem in the United States is that this has now gone on for two or three generations, so often, kids can’t find role models from grandfathers or even great-grandfathers in their families.

What are we to do to fix the problem? How are we to help this newest generation understand what it means to be a loving father or mother? How do we demonstrate solid family relationships when almost every family across the country feels the pain of broken homes? The only source for a solid role model is God. Our heavenly Father is the only perfect father. Scripture uses our earthly father as a model to help describe him, but the tables have turned.

I think for us to now understand who we should be as fathers and mothers, we must look to scripture and examine the life of Jesus and how he describes his Father in heaven to understand how we should build our relationships within our families and with those around us. We have so warped our roles as parents through neglecting what parenthood should be through generations of misguided relationships, that we no longer know what it means to be families.

It’s time we look to the source of relationships and marriage and families to find what these institutions should look like. We need to go to God who created us and the foundation of the family by putting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the command to populate the world, instituting what we know as a marriage relationship.

It’s time we look at the good and bad fathers and mothers in scripture. We should see the consequences of the bad behavior and try our best to avoid repeating those mistakes. We should learn from the good behavior and try our best to emulate it.

God will help us learn what we should know as good fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, if we will listen to him. He will also help us recover from our failures if we will not give up, but will pick ourselves up, ask forgiveness for our failures and our sins, and try again. He will help us through those rough places. He will give us the strength to endure.

God can and will give us the courage to journey through this life as the people he would have us be. But we must put our trust in him if we hope to succeed. That doesn’t mean we will be wealthy. It does mean we will be rich. Our riches will come from the legacy of peace he promised as we follow his commands, do his will, learn his ways, and keep them.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the ene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

How hard do you try? (Luke 19:1-5)

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
How hard do you try when problems seem insurmountable? (Luke 19:1-5)
Scripture
1. Luke 19:1-5
2. Jesus enters Jericho and seems only to be passing through. Living in Jericho is a man named Zaccheus. He’s the head tax collector and is very rich. He is also very short. He wants to see Jesus as He passes through the center of town, but he can’t get a glimpse because the crowd blocks his view. So he runs ahead of the crowd and climbs up into a sycamore tree so he can see Jesus when He passes beneath him.

Jesus comes along and looks up into the tree, and there He sees Zaccheus.

Jesus: Zaccheus, hurry down from that tree because I need to stay at your house tonight.

Devotional
1. For the last week, I’ve been assisting in the training of Army medical brigade headquarters. These units provide direction for the medical formations on the battlefield to provide treatment for the sick, injured, and wounded within the area the Army operates. They tell those medical units, like hospitals, evacuation units with helicopters and ambulances, dental units, behavioral health units, preventive medicine teams, and a host of other medical capability where and when to move within the battlespace to ensure our service men and women are afforded the best care possible in sometimes pretty horrible conditions.
2. Armies move pretty quickly on the battlefield. Hospitals can’t move so fast. It takes lots of people and trucks to tear down, move, and set up one of those 250 bed hospitals on the battlefield and their may be two or three or five of those that must be within range of the front line of troops to ensure trauma care is available in a timely manner.
3. I mention those simple parameters to address the problem these medical brigades must address in the training scenarios we give them. We ask them to support an army that will fight across six or seven hundred miles in two or three weeks. The helicopters can only fly 2 ½ hours, so that’s less than one hour each way to pick up and return casualties from the front. That’s about 100 miles. These commanders face what seems to be an insurmountable problem. How do you treat patients across a six hundred mile battlefield following a combat force when it takes days to move and set up a hospital?
4. So now we turn to the story of Zaccheus. He faced what seemed to be an insurmountable problem. Zaccheus wanted to see Jesus. He had heard about this man from Nazareth who did no wrong. A man who challenged the authority of the temple leaders. A man who feared nothing and no one. A man who worked miracles. A man who was said to even control nature, calming storms with His words. Zaccheus wanted to see this man.
5. But Zaccheus was short in stature. He couldn’t see above the crowd. It was like a ten year old standing behind adults trying to see the parade. He wanted to see what was happening, but the crowd was too thick. Hundreds of others also wanted to get a view of this miracle worker and Zaccheus found himself pushed aside by the crowd. He was a tax collector. No one cared about giving him room. Everyone hated him. He worked for the Romans. He deserved to stand in the back.
6. But Zaccheus would not be stopped. He would not let the people’s dislike for him keep him from seeing Jesus. Zaccheus would not give up this opportunity to catch a glimpse of this man everyone was talking about. He would find a way to see the one who changed the life of everyone who met Him. Zaccheus would find a way.
7. So he ran ahead, climbed a tree, and waited anxiously for the Master to walk by.
8. Jesus did an amazing thing. He invited Himself to Zaccheus house for dinner. The onlookers were astounded. First, that Jesus was bold enough to break the rules of protocol and invite Himself for dinner. And second, and most egregious, He invited Himself to a tax collector’s house.
9. Zaccheus was creative, persistent, and would not accept defeat in doing something important for a future that would help others. Remember after meeting Jesus he promised to restore anything he took wrongly fourfold and to give half his wealth to the poor.
10. Back to my training sessions this week. The medical commands would find it easy to give up on this insurmountable problem. It’s hard to find solutions to this almost impossible scenario. But lives are at stake. They must find a solution or American soldiers will die because of their failure to find a solution.
11. They will be creative. They will be persistent. They will not accept defeat in doing something so important to the future of others.
12. How about you? What problem are you facing that seems insurmountable but makes a difference in the lives of those around you? What mountain looms before you that you need to climb, go around, tunnel through, or something to better the lives of someone? Zaccheus didn’t quit. These medical brigade will not quit. How about you? God can give you a creative mind to help you find solutions if you stick with it and keep at the task ensuring a better future for others.
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”
Bible Reading Plan – http://www.Bible-Reading.com

Don’t give up (Luke 13:6-9) November 24, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ecclesiastes 9-10

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:6-9
Jesus: (following up with this parable) A man has a fig tree planted in his vineyard. One day he comes out looking for fruit on it, but there are no figs. He says to the vineyard keeper, “Look at this tree. For three years, I’ve come hoping to find some fresh figs, but what do I find? Nothing. So just go ahead and cut it down. Why waste the space with a fruitless tree?”
The vineyard keeper replies, “Give it another chance, sir. Give me one more year working with it. I’ll cultivate the soil and heap on some manure to fertilize it. If it surprises us and bears fruit next year, that will be great, but if not, then we’ll cut it down.”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I remember as a lieutenant, one soldier in my platoon that just couldn’t do anything right. I’m not sure how he made it out of basic training and certainly couldn’t understand how he got through his medical training to become a medic. But there he was in my platoon formation every morning filling one of the slots and as short as we were of personnel at the time, I had to figure out how to use him or get him better trained to do the missions we needed to cover to take care of the soldiers in the battalion my platoon served.

After he had been there for about three months and doing everything I knew to do to try and teach this kid how to do his job, I’d just about given up. Everything I tried backfired. None of the companies we supported wanted him as part of the team when it came to their medical support. He just couldn’t do anything right and was a lot more of a hindrance than a help when it came time to go to the field and train.

I was ready to do the paperwork to send him home before he hit that magic timeline to get him all the benefits as a veteran and just let him go when my platoon sergeant came to me. It was a lot like the story of the fig tree. He asked me to give him one more month to work with this soldier and see if he could turn him around. It would still fit within that probationary timeline before he received full VA benefits and I agreed.

I don’t know what my platoon sergeant said or did with that soldier, but a minor miracle occurred in that month. Something woke up in his brain and he suddenly started understanding his role and responsibilities as a soldier-medic in a deployable infantry battalion. He understood that the lives of those infantrymen he went to the field to support were in his hands as they trained and maneuvered in some fairly risky environments. And he became one of my best medics in the rest of my time as platoon leader in that organization.

I learned a lesson from that soldier and from that platoon sergeant that carried across in both my professional and spiritual life. I’ve tried not just write people off. I think we are often too quick to do that sometimes. We assume people are unsalvageable and quit on them. We give up trying and consequently lose out on an opportunity to gain a good employee, win a good friend, or bring another person to Jesus.

We forget that some people just aren’t ready to accept what we have to teach them or tell them and need time to think things through. Few parents today know that a hundred years ago, formal education, reading, writing, math, didn’t start until kids were 8 or 9 years old. The thought was their brains weren’t ready for them to sit in a class all day and absorb the information. A kid’s role in life was to play, learn to get along with other people, begin to form their basis for moral and ethical values through their interaction with other kids and adults. Their job was to play, not go to school. So maybe those kids that don’t get it in first and second grade today aren’t slow or behind or learning disabled. Maybe they are right on target and we just miss the boat in how we try to educate our kids. We need to give them another chance and remember that we are not all alike.

And maybe that son or daughter that you’ve been praying for or that neighbor that you know needs God or that co-worker that seems so abrasive just needs a little more nurturing in God’s love to have that eureka moment when it all comes together and suddenly the lights come on. In our instant gratification world, we want everything to happen right now. That’s not how things usually work in nature. Often it’s not how God works things out for us in our spiritual journey, either.

So when you have that urgent prayer need, that loved one that really needs God and you’ve been praying your heart out for them. Don’t give up. Remember the story of the fig tree and the caretaker. Give it a little longer with extra effort and extra care and see what happens. You never know what God will do in that time. You might be surprised at the results.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Learn the lessons (Luke 11:5-8) November 1, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Chronicles 29-32

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 11:5-8
Jesus: Imagine that one of your friends comes over at midnight. He bangs on the door and shouts, “Friend, will you lend me three loaves of bread? A friend of mine just showed up unexpectedly from a journey, and I don’t have anything to feed him.” Would you shout out from your bed, “I’m already in bed, and so are the kids. I already locked the door. I can’t be bothered”? You know this as well as I do: even if you didn’t care that this fellow was your friend, if he keeps knocking long enough, you’ll get up and give him whatever he needs simply because of his brash persistence!

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Well, today the scenario might end a little different. Today, we would call the police and tell them about someone trying to break and enter and have them arrested, friend or not. If they bothered us at midnight we wouldn’t care who they were, we’d just call the cops and that would be it, right? Or maybe we would wait just a little while until they were loud enough to be heard by one of the other neighbors and then invoke the “castle law” and pull out a 12-gauge and end the conversation.

We’re not nearly as hospitable in this country as the middle easterners were in Jesus day. No one wanted to get up in the middle of the night and have their sleep disturbed, but their rules of hospitality led them to get up and help sometimes even when they didn’t feel like it. A lot of people then would have put off the neighbor until morning, asking them to make do until they the city woke up. Then they would be happen to not only provide the bread, but would probably invite them over for a whole meal.

That’s the way of these hospitable people. Their society was much more friendly than ours. Actually, it still is. We hear a lot about ISIS and the radical side of the Muslims that want to kill us, but the typical middle easterner is much more hospitable than the typical American. There, expect to be invited into their home for tea often. It’s just their way. Here, if you’re invite for coffee or tea at all, it will be at Starbucks or some local coffee shop, not in their home. We just don’t make people feel welcome. We say we do, but we don’t.

So what does all of that have to do with Jesus’ words today? Two things. First, we should recognize sometimes we don’t understand His words the same way those He spoke to originally did. They lived that middle eastern hospitality every day. They would have taken the story a little more to heart than we do because sometimes travelers did get stuck on the road later than expected and just dropped in unexpectedly, but their rules of hospitality said you took them in and fed them. The neighbor had to get some bread from somewhere and hoped his friend would provide it. We don’t understand it as well as they did, but we can put ourselves in their culture and understand the parable better.

One of the lessons learned from this and many other stories Jesus tells reminds us we can experience His lessons better when we know more about the culture of those to whom Jesus spoke. It isn’t hard to find out what it was like for the people in first century Judea, but you do need to study a little. Isn’t it worth a little study to get more out of God’s word? I certainly think so.

Second, the simple message of the parable is two fold. The man could never have gotten the three loaves of bread in the middle of the night unless he went next door and asked in the first place. So first, we need to ask God for what we need. He knows what we need, but we need to ask so that we know it is God who provides. It helps us remember that God is the one who gives us what we need day by day. Second, we need to be persistent in our asking when we are asking for something. Sometimes we figure out the thing we are asking for is not in our best interest when we keep on asking and God doesn’t answer the way we want Him to. Sometimes God needs us to mature our thinking about an issue and delays an answer so that we can be better prepared when the answer comes. Sometimes God is working on solutions behind the scenes and wants to work His miracles through other means that what we might think is the most obvious way to answer our prayer. In all these instances, He asks us to be persistent in our asking.

So now, go out and do some study about the culture of Jesus day. Read His parables again and learn the lessons even better than you did before. You’ll be glad you did.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Her faith paid off (Matthew 15:24-28) April 9, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Mark 9-10

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 15:24,26,28
Jesus: I was sent here only to gather up the lost sheep of Israel.
The woman came up to Jesus and knelt before Him.
Canaanite Woman: Lord, help me!
Jesus: It is not right to waste the children’s bread by feeding dogs.
Canaanite Woman: But, Lord, even dogs eat the crumbs that fall by the table as their master is eating.
Jesus—whose ancestors included Ruth and Rahab—spoke with kindness and insight.
Jesus: Woman, you have great faith. And your request is done.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus’ words at first seem pretty harsh, don’t they? Here’s a women in desperate need for her daughter. The girl is possessed by a demon and she can do nothing to help her. She comes to the Master hoping that He can do something to relieve her of the plight she suffers. And what does Jesus do? He snubs her. “I was sent here only to gather up the lost sheep of Israel.”

And it gets worse!

The woman cries and pleads, falls on her face at His feet and cries out, “Lord, help me!” What was the reply of the only One who could help her? “It is not right to waste the children’s bread by feeding dogs.”

Did Jesus just call her a dog? Did He insult her in the most vile way and cast her aside as so much garbage?

I don’t think so. I think we have to look at the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to say. Sometimes we get so use to God answering our prayers that we forget who does those miraculous things for us. We forget that it really is God answering and we just walk away after He has done some incredible thing for us without even thanking Him. Sometimes we are really ungrateful, snobbish little brats. And I think Jesus in some ways wanted those around Him to understand we sometimes need to get desperate in our asking.

When you really think about it, none of us deserve to have God answer our requests. What have we really done to deserve His grace, mercy, and kindness? What have we done that merits His expenditure of power on our behalf? Nothing. We were His enemies. Lost. Rebellious. Disobedient. Sinful. Still He pours out His favor on us. Pretty remarkable, isn’t it?

So one thing Jesus wants to show us in this story is to be grateful for what we get from God, because we really don’t deserve anything.

Another point that comes out clearly in this story is that sometimes we need to be persistent in our desperate petitioning. Jesus will give us more examples of being persistent in our prayers and petitions later. I think it’s a hard lesson for us to learn, but one that is so important for us in the United States where we live under a philosophy of instant gratification. I want what I want…and I want it NOW! I even get frustrated with the little hour glass on my computer when it takes more than five seconds for a website to load. Can you imagine? What have we come to? Where is our patience, our persistence? We sometimes need to be like this woman who came back to Jesus and said, but Lord, even the dogs get crumbs from the table.

And that’s the next point. God gives even us dogs His grace and mercy. We don’t deserve it, but He gives it to us. In fact, He pours out His love lavishly on us. He loves us so much that He gave His only Son to die for us. We can not begin to imagine the love the Father has for us. Compared to God, we are so far below the level of a dog or a rat or a worm, how could He be mindful of us, David asks in the Psalms. Yet, God gave us His very best. And Paul tells us, if God gave us His Son, would He withhold anything else from us? We gives us everything. He makes us heirs as He adopts us into His family. Just stop and think about that. We are not worthy to receive the crumbs from His table, yet He adopts us and sits us in chairs at the banquet feast.

But it takes something on our part. It takes faith. The woman in our story had enough faith to come back to Jesus and plead for her daughter. She had enough faith to believe He could do something for her that no one else could do. She had enough faith that she was not going to go away until Jesus did something for her. She knew He might tell her no, but she had to try. She had to exercise her faith in Him. She had to plead for her daughter. And she was willing to break all the social norms to do so. She was a Canaanite. Even worse than a Samaritan. She lived among the worst of the pagans. And she was a woman. How in the world could she dare to approach Jesus with such boldness? But she did because He was her hope.

Do you have the gratitude, the persistence, the faith to approach Jesus? This lady did. And it really paid off.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Keep on…(Luke 11:1-13), September 28, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Luke 11:1-13

Set – Zechariah 2; Luke 11

Go! – Zechariah 1-3; Luke 11

Luke 11:1-13
¹ Another time Jesus was praying, and when He finished, one of His disciples approached Him.
Disciple: Teacher, would You teach us Your way of prayer? John taught his disciples his way of prayer, and we’re hoping You’ll do the same.
Jesus: ² Here’s how to pray:
Father [in heaven], may Your name be revered.
May Your kingdom come.
[May Your will be accomplished on earth
as it is in heaven.]
³ Give us the food we need for tomorrow,
⁴ And forgive us for our wrongs,
for we forgive those who wrong us.
And lead us away from temptation.
[And save us from the evil one.]
Imagine that one of your friends comes over at midnight. He bangs on the door and shouts, “Friend, will you lend me three loaves of bread? ⁶ A friend of mine just showed up unexpectedly from a journey, and I don’t have anything to feed him.” ⁷ Would you shout out from your bed, “I’m already in bed, and so are the kids. I already locked the door. I can’t be bothered”? ⁸ You know this as well as I do: even if you didn’t care that this fellow was your friend, if he keeps knocking long enough, you’ll get up and give him whatever he needs simply because of his brash persistence!
⁹ So listen: Keep on asking, and you will receive. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰ All who keep asking will receive, all who keep seeking will find, and doors will open to those who keep knocking.
¹¹ Some of you are fathers, so ask yourselves this: if your son comes up to you and asks for a fish for dinner, will you give him a snake instead? ¹² If your boy wants an egg to eat, will you give him a scorpion? ¹³ Look, all of you are flawed in so many ways, yet in spite of all your faults, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to all who ask!

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Experts in any field recognize that repetition makes you an expert. Whether talking about sports, music, sciences, writing, art, or any other field, doing something many times makes you better and better the more you do it. So it is with seeking Me and My will for your life. The more you read My word, the better you understand Me and what I want for you. The more you listen to My voice, the easier it is to recognize My voice amidst the cacophony of voices around you.

Just coming to Me at an altar one day and asking for forgiveness doesn’t mean I’m through with you. I want you to continue to seek Me day after day, week after week, year after year for the rest of your life. I want you to become an expert at hearing My voice and finding Me in places others might never expect to find Me. But you will because you have become an expert at hearing My voice. I want you to know My voice the way a mother knows the single cry of her baby among the dozens of cries in a nursery.

That’s what I was trying to tell My disciples that day as they asked Me to teach them to pray. Prayer isn’t so much about form and getting the words right as it is about just talking with Me…a lot. Get to know Me. Spend time hanging out with Me. Take a look at My world and see My handiwork. Then talk to Me about what you think about it. Let Me know what you think about the world I made, the place you live, the family you have, the country you live in. Some things you won’t like about it, but that’s okay. Sin has left a lot of ugly scars on My creation, but Ican help you see beyond the scars and see the beauty of the world I created for you.

Tell Me about your problems. Tell Me about your blessings. Tell Me about the needs others have shared with you. Tell Me about your dreams. I want to know all about you and want to share My dreams for you. I have plans for you and when you get to know Me well, you will understand that I have your best in mind…always. So keep on asking, you’ll get better at asking and you’ll receive. Keep on seeking, you’ll get better at seeking and you’ll find. Keep on knocking, you’ll get better at knocking on My door and I’ll answer you. Keep on staying in touch with Me every way you know how. I’ll be here.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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