ALL – Psalm 73:1-28
ALL – Proverbs 24:13-14
OT – Isaiah 62:6-65:25
NT – Philippians 2:19-3:3
Interesting passage for the day: Whatever happens, dear friends, be glad in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you this and it is good for you to hear it again and again. – Philippians 3:1, The Living Bible
Thought: In the Jewish Passover Seder, at one point they begin to walk through a long list of God’s blessings:
“If the Lord had merely rescued us, but had not punished the Egyptians … Dayenu: It would have been enough.
“If He had only destroyed their gods, but had not parted the Red Sea … Dayenu: It would have been enough.
“If He had only destroyed our enemies, but had not fed us His food in the desert … Dayenu: It would have been enough.
“If He had only led us through the desert, but had not given us His holy day of rest … Dayenu: It would have been enough.
“If He had only given us His Words and Commandments, but not a Promised Land forever … Dayenu: It would have been enough.”
Who knows how many Passover Seders Paul had participated in throughout his lifetime? And having grown up with this yearly reminder that God has done enough—no, MORE than enough—for us all, and then coming to know that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins and rise to give us the hope of eternal life … No wonder Paul insisted on gladness and rejoicing!
When we consider how unworthy we are of God’s attention, let alone of His love, then it becomes clear why we should be persistently glad and thankful, no matter what happens. The history of God’s provision and work for us is enough reason to be thankful even when we are going through the roughest times in our lives! In those times, we should be crying out to our Jesus for help, salvation and deliverance; the fact that we have reason to rejoice in God does not mean that we have to deny the reality of hard times. But even in the midst of our pleading, we have reasons to be thankful. God has done so much for us. And even if Jesus’ death and resurrection, for instance, were all He had done for us … “Dayenu: It would have been enough.” It is only right to give Him thanks persistently.
Question: What is the number one reason you give thanks to God? When nothing else about life seems worthwhile, what has God done for you that gives you hope? How could you incorporate the discipline of persistent and joyful thankfulness, even in hard times, into your life?
To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.
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1 comment:
By the way, as far as I can tell, "Dayenu" is a Hebrew word that essentially says, "Let's judge." So each time in the Seder that they would say, "If God had only done such-and-such but not this-or-that," they would follow it with a group judgment, and their solemn decision was consistently: "It would have been enough." Apparently we aren't supposed to just say that God's good when we don't mean it. We're supposed to sit down and carefully think about how good God is, and what we are encouraged to do, even when things are just a total struggle, is to "judge" or decide that God is still more than good enough.
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