How'd That Grow?

ALL – Psalm 65:1-13
ALL – Proverbs 23:24-25
OT – Isaiah 37:1-38:22
NT – Galatians 6:1-18

Interesting passage for the day: Don’t be misled; remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it: a man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows. – Galatians 6:7, The Living Bible

Thought: I can never read this verse without examining my life. Can you? I can’t imagine coming across this verse and patting myself on the back to tell myself, “You should be good to go!” Even at my best, I fail. I fall short. Even when I’m sowing mostly the kinds of crops I want, I’m bound to be sowing something I don’t want, too.

On the other hand, we walk by the grace of God. So what I hear this verse saying is not that God’s going to surprise us one day with a bad crop of stuff we didn’t even know we were sowing. Instead, it’s a call to trust in Jesus’ cross and walk by His Spirit and rest in His loving grace toward us. It’s a call to hold nothing back from Jesus—not knowingly. It’s a call to humility and confession and repentance and obedience at the foot of the cross.

Question: Are you holding back anything from Jesus today—anything that you know of? Sow seeds of repentance and faithfulness rather than rebellion and waywardness.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

The Guide, The Spirit

ALL – Psalm 64:1-10
ALL – Proverbs 23:23
OT – Isaiah 33:13-36:22
NT – Galatians 5:13-26

Interesting passage for the day: I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions. He will tell you where to go and what to do, and then you won’t always be doing the wrong things your evil nature wants you to do. – Galatians 5:16, The Living Bible

Thought: We need the Scriptures because they help us to learn to recognize God’s voice, and they correct us when we think we heard God’s voice and later find out otherwise.

But I’m growing more and more impressed with how often the New Testament writers urge us to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice as we make our daily choices. We believers have the Holy Spirit living in us! He whispers to our hearts and minds what His desires are for us in every situation. And we are called to listen and obey.

This certainly involves challenges. We have to learn to distinguish between our own desires and the Holy Spirit’s. We need enough humility to admit that we sometimes claim we’re hearing His voice when we really aren’t. We still need to discipline ourselves to return to the Scriptures, even though some people might deny this is a necessity since the Holy Spirit is guiding them (but then, wouldn’t the Holy Spirit’s desire for us include time in God’s Word?).

But we should be able to walk through life a lot more confidently than we often do. We should be confident that we can make good choices consistently—GODLY choices—not because we have perfectly read, studied, memorized, systematized and analyzed the Bible, but because we walk with the Holy Spirit every moment.

Question: What decisions are you thinking through today? What direction do you hear the Spirit leading you to take? Share it here and share your impressions with believing friends. You’re free to follow wherever He leads.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.