Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
WHAT'S INSIDE OF YOU?
Have you ever made a poor decision and thought, "Why did I do that?"
In the Old testament, the heart was considered the center of inner life, and people believed it dictated thoughts, emotions, and actions. It was essentially a combination of someone's soul and mind.
When Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts, what it essentially is saying is to pay careful attention to how you will your inner life.
What goes into your soul and mind determines what comes out of your mouth. And what you say influences your actions and decisions. While you might not notice the effect your choices have on you today-over time, they will impact the direction of your life.
So how do we intentionally take care of our inner lives?
Our bodies were made by God, which means the things they need most is God. He is the One who sustains us. So some of the best things we can do for ourselves is to intentionally seek God through prayer, studying the Scripture, reflecting on His blessings, and inviting the Holy Spirit to speak to us throughout the day.
The best way to guard our hearts is by giving out hearts to God. When we make Him the center of our lives and the source of our strength, what we do will flow out from Him.
So instead of fitting God into our daily routines, let's create our daily routines around our relationship with God, Let's create space for God to speak to us and restore us. Let's allow God to heal the parts of our lives that are broken- so that what comes out of us is good, encouraging, and leads to an abundant, joy-filled, life.
BE ENCOURAGED
The best way to guard your heart is entrust your heart to God.
SHARE YOUR FAITH
Talk about the Verse of the Day with others and discuss what's influencing your heart!
Jesus, thank You for loving me enough to want to protect my heart. Will you give me a passion to guard what is valuable? To keep watch over what and who is influencing me? I want my life to reflect that You are my top priority. In Jesus' name, Amen.
You belong to the One who loves you and gave Himself for you.
As you prepare to spend time with God, reflect on all that He's done.
JOHN 3:16-17
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.
Re-read this verse and consider how great God's love is.
Right now, worship God as you reflect on His love.
1 JOHN 4:16
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
in what ways do you need to put your trust in God today?
Talk to God about whatever comes to mind.
JOHN 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. By this you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Re-read this verse and then ask God to reveal how He wants you to show love to others this week.
What did God bring to your attention today?
Spend a few minutes processing this and consider revisiting this space throughout your day.
DAILY BIBLE READING:
DANIEL 8-10
3 JOHN
DANIEL'S VISION OF THE RAM AND THE GOAT
INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION
“Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.”
DANIEL'S PRAYER FOR HIS PEOPLE
I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem. O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, O my God, incline your ear and hear.Open your eyes and see. the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
GABRIEL BRINGS AN ANSWER
While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God,
THE SEVENTY WEEKS
Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. And for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again,
DANIEL'S TERRIFYING VISION OF A MAN
the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision.
I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. 3I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.
“Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength. 17How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”
18Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. 19And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
3 JOHN
GREETING
, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION
You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
FINAL GREETINGS
DEUTERONOMY 24:17-22
you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
INSIGHT
Deuteronomy 24 describes the act of gleaning, which served as one means for the Israelites to care for the marginalized and poor. The Scriptures record some instances of this practice (the story of Ruth being a prime example), but their failure in this area was commonplace. The prophets charged the Israelites with not being hospitable and oppressing the poor. Ultimately, it was part of the reason God sent them into exile (see Isaiah 1:17; Amos 4:1-3; Zechariah 7:9-10; Malachi 3:5). Today, He still desires that we practice hospitality by serving those in need. As the Spirit helps us, we can look for ways to be generous to others and celebrate the generosity of God.
By: Matt Lucas
HOSPITABLE GENEROSITY
A few years ago, our church hosted refugees fleeing their country because of a change in their political leadership. Entire families came with only what they could fit in a small bag. Several of our church families opened their homes, some with little room to spare.
Such gracious hospitality echoes God’s command to the Israelites before they inhabited the promised land. As an agricultural society, they understood the importance of the harvest. Every bit of food would be essential to get them through until next year’s harvest. God told the Israelites when harvesting not to go back to retrieve what they may have missed. “Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow” (Deuteronomy 24:19). They were to practice generosity not by giving when they knew they had enough but by giving out of a heart of trusting in God’s provision “so that the Lord [their] God may bless [them] in all the work of their hands” (v. 19). God always has enough.
The practice of hospitality also reminded them that they had been “slaves in Egypt” (v. 22). While we may not have experienced such oppression, we’ve all experienced being an outsider or being in need. As we give to others, we do well to remember our most basic need: freedom from our sin. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
When we’re hospitable, we celebrate our generous God, who “loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
By: Matt Lucas
REFLECT AND PRAY:
What needy person or group has God drawn your attention to? What might you give to them?
Dear Father, please open my eyes to those in need. In Jesus' name, Amen.
THE CHOSEN AND FRIENDS: GOD WITH US
IT'S A WHOLE NEW WORLD
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”
That’s an awfully bitter cherry to put atop the Parable of the Tenants. But what other word could have been more fitting?
Here you have a story of a landowner who plants a vineyard, rents it to some farmers to tease out the fruit, and when the owner sends his servants to collect, the farmers strike them down. And when the owner sends his own son to collect, they kill him, too, leaving just one viable option: it’s time to pass along the land to some other farmers.
The Parable of the Tenants comes your way in Matthew 21, a chapter that covers the first few days of the last week of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth (Holy Week). The first day, of course, is Palm Sunday, that boisterous moment Jesus rides into town in a manner that speaks not only to his being King, but to his being the Son. And on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to follow? That Son runs into just about every person (the religious leaders), place (the Temple), or thing (a literal fig tree) that refuses to be fruitful. By Friday, that Son will have been struck down.
And so: “I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”
My dad, a New Testament professor, taught me at an early age to look for two words in every Scriptural text: the word of challenge and the word of comfort. In this case, the word is the same for both: the rejection of the Son—and his resurrection, too—are bringing about a great reordering in the world and the world to come. Those who think they have, will suddenly “have not,” and those who think they “have not,” will suddenly have. Those who are supposedly “first” will suddenly be last, and those who are certain they’re last will suddenly be first. It’s what Jesus reveals to us about what the Father is up to, and it’s why the scene you watched from The Chosen ends with someone crying out, “It’s a whole new world!”
