Reflective Bible Study

Continuing in Luke’s gospel, after Jesus is rejected in Nazareth, He travels back to Capernaum and on what may have been the following Sabbath, we see something significant happen. I wonder if Jesus ever actually had a normal Sabbath day at a synagogue in His entire three-year ministry. While the gospel writers include many exceptions, like the one we read in our last episode and the one we will read about in this episode, it is unlikely they would give much space to a normal trip to a synagogue.

This means we are left picturing Jesus’ trips to synagogues being very abnormal or hostile encounters, but it is possible that many were simply normal and uneventful. Calculating an approximate number of synagogue visits, 52 weeks in a year times 3.5 years equals 182. However, I would imagine that there were many Sabbaths Jesus did not visit a synagogue, so for the purposes of this calculating, let’s subtract our total number by 22 down to 160. I would venture a guess that many of these 160 probable synagogue Sabbaths were normal.

However, our passage for this episode describes a more abnormal visit to a synagogue, and this event is recorded as happening soon after Jesus was run out of Nazareth’s synagogue. This episode’s passage comes from Luke’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, Luke tells us:

³¹ Then he [Jesus] went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. ³² They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.

³³ In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, ³⁴ “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

³⁵ “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

³⁶ All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” ³⁷ And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

Let’s pause reading here because I want to draw our attention onto something significant. If casting a demon out of someone isn’t significant enough, I am amazed that Jesus commands the demon to be quiet after the demon begins to reveal who Jesus really is.

In my mind, Jesus does this for two big reasons.

First, demons can either lie or tell the truth. They usually lie, making any truth they say suspect. If Jesus let the demon truthfully say who He was, it would potentially taint His ministry and witness because it is never wise to trust a demon. Even a 100% truthful demon is untrustworthy because demons are not always 100% truthful. It is even unwise to listen to a demon to try to discern the truth from the error. Demons have had thousands of years of practice lying in convincing ways and they might lie in more ways that we can catch.

It is safest for us to follow Jesus’ example and simply not listen to any demon. If God wants us to learn or know something important or significant, there is an almost zero chance He would use a demon. While God could use a demon, it would not benefit the bigger picture in any positive-for-God way.

Second, there was too much cultural weight surrounding the role of the Messiah as a military leader who would come and overthrow the Romans. Jesus’ arrival to walk a path different from culture’s expectations would benefit from more ambiguity or uncertainty on whether He truly was the Messiah or simply someone else who was significant.

Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies related to a Messiah coming and suffering, and He left the prophecies related to His coming as a King largely untouched and waiting for His second coming.

If the people early on in Jesus’ ministry latched on too quickly to Jesus being the Messiah they knew God promised, they would likely slip into believing Jesus came as King and would try to force Him into this role. In other cases, such as the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sidesteps this very issue because the crowds wanted Him to become their King.

However, this Sabbath day is not over yet. Continuing in verse 38, Luke tells us:

³⁸ Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. ³⁹ So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

⁴⁰ At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. ⁴¹ Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

It appears in this passage that Satan wanted to derail Jesus’ ministry by proclaiming who He was as much as possible. If the demon that Sabbath morning in the synagogue wasn’t enough, many more demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus and they try to make the same proclamation that evening.

When reading this event, it is difficult to escape one huge truth: The words Jesus spoke contained power. We can see this truth in the simple detail that Jesus’ command was powerful enough to cast a demon out of an individual.

However, Jesus’ word is even stronger than this. Jesus’ command isn’t just strong enough to cast demons out of people, but it is also strong enough to silence demons from speaking! That is amazingly significant in the big picture.

Jesus’ command is also powerful enough to reverse and eliminate sickness. Verse 39 describes how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, “So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.” Rebuking something involves speaking, and this tells us Jesus’ word is powerful enough to heal.

On this Sabbath day, we discover a Jesus that is more powerful than we might first imagine. Jesus’ word is strong enough to cast out demons, it is strong enough to silence them and keep them from speaking, and it is strong enough to heal sickness and disease. When facing struggles, challenges, disease, or discouragement in our own life, we should look to the words of Jesus for the power to overcome!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue to seek God first and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus. When challenges come into our lives, choose to recognize them as opportunities to look to Jesus’ words for power to overcome. Jesus is more powerful than what we often give Him credit for, and I believe He is ready, waiting to help us the moment we decide to ask. While some challenges are given to strengthen our character, I believe other challenges are given to remind us it is best to turn to God for help!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. A strong personal relationship with God is best developed through personal prayer and Bible study. While praying and studying in small or large groups is beneficial on one level, never give up your own personal study time because through our personal study we are able to grow a personal relationship with God and we are able to strengthen our personal faith. Personal Bible study is the best foundation to grow our faith in Jesus on.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or be tricked or deceived out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving forward in our journey through Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled, we come to a prophecy that I had a difficult time deciding where to place in our year together. On one hand, this prophecy that’s found in the book of Isaiah would fit nicely within the group of prophecies that focus on Jesus’ mission and death. However, there is another aspect of this prophecy that gets fulfilled near the beginning of Jesus’ time on earth.

For this second reason, I pulled this prophecy up to this week, and placed it here, at the point in our prophecies right after Jesus arrives on earth to help give us a frame and an understanding of why He came to this planet of sinners.

Let’s read the prophecy, then unpack some of the details shared within it. Our prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 59, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 12, which is part way into this prophecy, Isaiah writes:

¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
And our sins testify against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And we know our iniquities:
¹³ Transgressing and denying the Lord,
And turning away from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words.
¹⁴ Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands far away;
For truth has stumbled in the street,
And uprightness cannot enter.
^15a Yes, truth is lacking;
And he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey.

Pausing reading our prophecy, I cannot help but see in what we just read a description of our world today. However, I suspect that what is described here could be relevant to most points in time in history, and I suspect that the first century when Jesus walked the earth, and also the century several hundred years before this when Isaiah was alive could be described this way.

However, let’s continue with this prophecy to discover what God does with the world in this state. Picking back up in the second half of verse 15, we read:

^15b Now the Lord saw,
And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.
¹⁶ And He saw that there was no man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His own arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
¹⁸ According to their deeds, so He will repay,
Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies;
To the coastlands He will make recompense.
¹⁹ So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west
And His glory from the rising of the sun,
For He will come like a rushing stream
Which the wind of the Lord drives.
²⁰ “A Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the Lord.

²¹ “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”

In this prophecy, after seeing that there was no way for humanity to redeem itself, God decides to take matters into His own hands and step into history as a Redeemer. Looking out at the inhabitants of this planet, from God’s perspective, there was no one available who could intercede on our behalf to fix the sin problem. Because of this, God decided that He would send Himself, specifically Jesus, one member of the Godhead, to intercede for us and be the Redeemer for humanity.

At the very beginning of Jesus’ time on this planet as a baby, Luke’s gospel describes a fascinating encounter Jesus and His earthly parents have when they go to dedicate Him in the temple a few days after His birth. In Luke, chapter 2, starting in verse 25, we read:

²⁵ And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, ²⁸ then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

²⁹ “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
³¹ Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
³² A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

³³ And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him. ³⁴ And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed— ³⁵ and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

³⁶ And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. ³⁸ At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When Joseph and Mary enter the temple, they are greeted by two people who have amazing things to say about Jesus. The first person Luke’s gospel describes as a man, Simeon. For most of my growing up life, I had pictured Simeon as the priest on duty that day, but nothing in Luke’s gospel suggests this.

Instead, Simeon happens to be a somewhat regular guy who had an extra-close relationship with God. Luke’s gospel describes Simeon having the Holy Spirit in his life, and Simeon speaks a prophetic word over Jesus’ life and ministry.

Anna, who is called a prophetess, was also there, and while we don’t know exactly what she said, she drew the attention of everyone present onto Jesus and who He was.

Here at the opening of Jesus’ time on earth, we find a partial fulfillment of the covenant promise found at the end of Isaiah’s prophecy. “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”

Looking at Jesus’ life and ministry, He came to be our Savior, our Intercessor, and our Redeemer. While there was nothing we could do to break free from the grip of sin, because of Jesus, and through the help of God’s Holy Spirit, we can leave sin in our past and live a redeemed life with God. When we place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, and live with and for God in this life, drawing close to Him, we prepare ourselves for eternity when we will live with God in the new heaven and new earth forever.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Intentionally place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and lean on Him as your Redeemer and Intercessor. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross pays the debt our sin caused, and when we let Jesus, He is happy to pay this debt when we choose to align our lives with God while also turning away from sin.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to Jesus each and every day. Through regular prayer and Bible study, discover how God loves you personally and just how far He is willing to go to redeem you from the sin that has infected this world.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As Luke describes the early part of Jesus’ ministry, we read about a visit Jesus takes to His hometown of Nazareth, and specifically to the synagogue that He likely grew up attending.

However, this visit was different. All the times before this, Jesus’ time in this synagogue had been out of the spotlight and prior to His baptism while Jesus was simply learning and practicing carpentry with Joseph. Now, following Jesus’ baptism and trip into the desert to be tempted, we find Jesus returning to Nazareth for a visit after having left the family business and stepping into the role and mission God had sent Him into this world to accomplish.

But things were different. Word had been spreading about what Jesus was doing, and it made the people who saw Jesus grow up a little confused. Let’s read about what happened.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 4, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 16, Luke tells us that:

¹⁶ Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as he usually did. He stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. Jesus unrolled it and found the right place. There it is written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me.
    He has anointed me
    to announce the good news to poor people.
He has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners.
    He has sent me so that the blind will see again.
He wants me to set free those who are treated badly.
¹⁹     And he has sent me to announce the year when he will set his people free.”

²⁰ Then Jesus rolled up the scroll. He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were staring at him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this passage of Scripture is coming true as you listen.”

²² Everyone said good things about him. They were amazed at the gracious words they heard from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

²³ Jesus said, “Here is a saying you will certainly apply to me. ‘Doctor, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me this. ‘Do the things here in your hometown that we heard you did in Capernaum.’ ”

²⁴ “What I’m about to tell you is true,” he continued. “A prophet is not accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I tell you for sure that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. And there had been no rain for three and a half years. There wasn’t enough food to eat anywhere in the land. ²⁶ But Elijah was not sent to any of those widows. Instead, he was sent to a widow in Zarephath near Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel who had skin diseases in the days of Elisha the prophet. But not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were very angry when they heard that. ²⁹ They got up and ran Jesus out of town. They took him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They planned to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

When reading this event, I am always amazed at how those in the Nazareth synagogue are so excited about Jesus’ opening words as He is reading from Isaiah’s writing, but they immediately turn on Jesus for sharing some difficult truths. It is as though they were waiting for a reason to doubt Jesus, or perhaps Jesus was waiting for a moment to challenge who they believed Him to be.

The hinge moment in this entire event is one comment that the Jews in this synagogue ask themselves about Jesus. In verse 22, Luke tells us that those in the Nazareth synagogue asked themselves, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Perhaps this question is a valid question. Perhaps those in the Nazareth synagogue did not know about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth. It is possible that Mary and Joseph had kept the secret of Jesus’ birth quiet and those in this Nazareth synagogue believed Jesus to be like any other person in their midst.

However, it is also possible that Mary and Joseph had told those in this synagogue the extraordinary birth of Jesus, the escape to Egypt, and how God had called them back to Nazareth after it was safe to return. If this was the case, then it also wouldn’t surprise me to learn that those in Nazareth were skeptical of what Mary and Joseph told them. I wouldn’t hesitate thinking that many in the synagogue preferred to think Jesus was Mary and Joseph’s biological son.

However, Jesus uses this rhetorical question as an opportunity to challenge those present. While Jesus does make some negative predictions specifically about those in the Nazareth synagogue, the message Jesus refreshes their mind with from Israel’s past is fascinating to me. It is in the anger that we see when Jesus shares historical fact that reveals the character of those present, and what Jesus shared interestingly enough proves His point just as strongly as the rejection He faced.

The big point Jesus wants to emphasize for us is in verse 24 when He says, “A prophet is not accepted in his hometown.” Jesus uses this truth to emphasize and predict what those in this synagogue would do minutes later.

However, the examples Jesus shares don’t appear to support this key point. Jesus then shares two of the most famous prophets in Israel’s history helping people outside of Israel while people in Israel were suffering. In Elijah’s case, the famine was caused by the rebellion of the king, and the land was being punished. It is hard to say what a widow living in Israel would have done if Elijah has shown up. She would have faced the dilemma of helping Elijah or turning him over to the king. In Elisha’s case, we discover a miraculous healing of a Syrian official, when there were obviously people in need in Israel.

On the surface, the examples Jesus shared amplify God’s love for those outside of the Jewish nation. However, it doesn’t really speak negatively about the Jews themselves. In contrast, the message Jesus shared directly conflicted with the egotistical, self-inflated view the Jews had of themselves, which said God would bless them for who they were and not for what they were currently doing. Jesus challenged them with these examples.

However, under the surface, we see these examples showing how God’s people rejected His prophets. In the days of Elijah’s famine, the people of Israel had sided with the king of Israel who had rejected and rebelled against God. If a widow loyal to God earnestly hunted for Elijah to ask for help, I’m confident God would have helped the widow’s search to be successful. In the case of Elijah and the famine, the people of Israel rejected the clear prophet God had sent them.

In the days of Elisha, nowhere do we see someone with skin diseases coming to ask Elisha for help. It takes the captive slave of a foreign officer to suggest he goes to see Elisha to ask for help. And even after receiving instructions, it takes Naaman’s advisors to convince Naaman to actually follow through with the relatively simplistic instructions. While Naaman is the only one healed of the skin disease he had during this era of history, I don’t believe it was because God was punishing everyone else, but that no one else had been determined to ask for God and the prophet’s help.

Those living in Nazareth at the time had the opportunity of a lifetime in front of them. They had the opportunity to be the first group of Jews to accept a prophet who had grown up among them even when all the evidence and history pointed the other way. In the same way, when God sends people into our lives, it is possible He will use strangers, but it is also possible He will use those closest to us to help us turn our lives back to Him.

When God sends someone into our life, we would be wise to pay attention and accept the message leading us back to God!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue purposefully seeking God first in your life. Choose to accept the people and messages He sends to us and choose to turn your heart, your mind, your life, and your will back to God. Intentionally place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and what He accomplished for us on our behalf.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and open your heart to God. While other people can have interesting and useful ideas, choose to filter everything you hear and read through the truth of God’s Word the Bible! God has blessed and protected the Bible for us and He has gifted the Bible to us so we can learn His truth for our lives!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or reject where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we move forward in our year looking at Old Testament prophecies that point forward to Jesus, we come to one that draws our attention onto the place where Jesus would be born. In a fascinating way, from one of the least assuming prophets in the Old Testament, we find a prophecy about the Messiah coming from one of the least significant locations in all of Israel and Judah.

This prophecy is found in the book of Micah, in chapter 5, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 2, Micah writes prophetically:

² “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”
³ Therefore He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.
Then the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.
⁴ And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.
And they will remain,
Because at that time He will be great
To the ends of the earth.

In these few verses, we discover how it seems as though God chose Bethlehem because it was small to be the birthplace for the Messiah. From the way Micah describes the Messiah’s birthplace, I get the picture that God likes to draw focus onto places and people that others could easily overlook.

However, in an even more amazing turn of events, more than just Bethlehem, the place prophesied to be the birth location of the Messiah, turns out to be God drawing attention to the otherwise non-glamorous.

Jumping forward into the New Testament, to the time of Jesus’ birth as recorded in Luke’s gospel, chapter 2, we read a short summary of Jesus’ birth. Staring in verse 4, Luke tells us that:

⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, ⁵ in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. ⁶ While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

From the way Luke describes Mary and Joseph, I don’t get the impression that anything about this young couple was special or significant on the surface. While Mary plays a key role in Jesus’ entry into this world, had she not been chosen for this task, I doubt anyone would have even remembered her beyond a generation or two outside of her family tree.

However, because God chose to use this couple when deciding to step into history, Mary and Joseph are forever remembered in the timeline of history. God likes to elevate the otherwise unknown, and place them in His spotlight.

Moving to Jesus’ birth event in Matthew’s gospel, we discover how this prophecy was known by those at the highest levels of the Jewish faith, because as we will read in a minute, the religious leaders in Jerusalem voluntarily provide the information to Herod about where the Messiah would be born.

Reading from Matthew, chapter 2, starting in verse 1, we learn that:

¹ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ² “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:

⁶ ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

In this amazing event, not only do we find travelers from the east, possibly from Babylon or somewhere in that region coming to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, but we also have the religious elite of that generation appearing to be completely unaware that anything significant was happening.

The reason this is significant in my mind is that these religious leaders openly, willingly, and without any hesitation tell Herod the location of the Messiah’s birthplace. If these religious leaders believed the time of the Messiah’s birth to be imminent, then I would suspect that they would have been a little less open sharing this information with someone who was known for openly killing any potential opposition. Herod had the reputation for killing first and then asking questions later, and as we will uncover in a later prophecy and podcast episode, what begins in this portion of Matthew ends with a miracle tucked within a tragedy.

However, stepping back to the big themes of this prophecy, I cannot escape the truth that God likes to use and draw attention to people, places, ideas, and things that are easily overlooked by others. While the logical location for the Messiah’s birth would be in Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel and Judea, this is not what happened.

The wise men who came looking for Jesus may have suspected that Jesus would be born in Jerusalem, or they may have traveled there simply because they didn’t know exactly where the star they were following would take them. In their minds, I suspect that since the star appeared to be taking them towards Jerusalem, they may have believed that Jerusalem would either be the place they would find the Messiah, or that Jerusalem would be the place where they would learn where they could ultimately find the Messiah.

Everything in Jesus’ birth story shines the light on what otherwise would be normal and insignificant. In our own lives and stories, while God is capable of using us for great things, more often than not, any and every great thing He uses us for will be built on the foundation of the simple, ordinary, not-glamorous habits that simply draw us into connection with Him.

However, just because our lives might not be spectacular, and our spiritual habits may at times won’t feel significant or special, we can trust that God has not forgotten us, and that His timing is best from eternity’s perspective. God loves to shine the spotlight on the ordinary when the ordinary has been laid on a foundation He can use!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to focus on growing closer to Him using the simple, not glamorous habits of prayer, reading your Bible, and listening. While sometimes it may feel as though God’s silence means He is also absent, this could not be further from the truth. God is always with us whether we feel like He is or not, and we open our hearts to His when we open our lives to His Word.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, because God wants a personal relationship with you. For your relationship with God to be personal, don’t let others step into the role of middle-men. Instead, let other people share ideas with you, then bring these ideas to God in prayer and study and allow Him to lead you into His truth.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!