PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Thursday

Scripture lesson:1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 The Wisdom of Solomon

Time to reflect: Solomon at least started out right. He was more concerned with being a good and wise leader than about getting riches or honor or success for himself. God liked that and helped him rule (at least for awhile).

Moving through the day: Pray that the leaders of the world learn to think about their people rather than themselves.

Scripture:

^{Chapter 2:}

¹⁰ Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. ¹¹ He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. ¹² So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

^{Chapter 3:}

³ Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.

 ⁴ The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ⁵ At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."

 ⁶ Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

 ⁷ "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. ⁸ Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. ⁹ So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

 ¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. ¹¹ So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, ¹² I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. ¹³ Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. ¹⁴ And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Matthew 19:16-30 Jesus keeps challenging us

Time to reflect: This passage is one of several in Matthew of people called to be disciples that turned down the opportunity. An unwillingness to sacrifice what was important to him, wealth, was the deterrent for this young man.

Moving through the day: What would keep you from being a follow of Jesus? Possessions, responsibilities, family, unwillingness to face hardships, other interests?

Scripture:

The Rich Young Man

 ¹⁶Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"

 ¹⁷"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

 ¹⁸"Which ones?" the man inquired.

   Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, ¹⁹honor your father and mother,'^[a] and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'^[b]"

 ²⁰"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"

 ²¹Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

 ²²When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

 ²³Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

 ²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"

 ²⁶Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

 ²⁷Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"

 ²⁸Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother^[c] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 19:19 Exodus 20:1216; Deut. 5:16-20

2. Matthew 19:19 Lev. 19:18

3. Matthew 19:29 Some manuscripts mother or wife

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: 1 John 2:15-17 Love of this world

Time to reflect: It is natural to be concerned if not desperately committed to the things of this world. However, the Bible points out again and again that the things of this world are temporary, transitory and impermanent while the things of God are eternal. This is tough. This is something we have to work at all the time to overcome focusing on the impermanent.

Moving through the day: What things or things (not family or other eternal values) would be the hardest for you to give up?

¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Thursday

Scripture lesson:2 Samuel 11:1-15 David and Bathsheba

Time to reflect: “Power corrupts.” Even King David yields to temptation that is clearly stupid and contrary to God's Will. We all need protection from ourselves, and we need people to speak the word of truth even if we don't want to hear it. (David had the prophet, Nathan for this purpose.) (One technical note: Uriah refused David's offer to go home to his wife (and thus mask her infidelity – they could have blamed the pregnancy on Uriah) because the Hebrew laws for sacred battle forbade intercourse until the fighting had ceased. Uriah, the foreigner was a better follower of the Law than was the Israelite king, David!)

Moving through the day: Who/what do you have to prevent you from talking yourself into things that are not right?

Scripture:

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then [a] she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."

 6 So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house.

 10 When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?"

 11 Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"

 12 Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home.

 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Exodus 34:1-10 God tries again

Time to reflect: God had every right to just abandon Israel at this point (this is right after the Golden Calf incident). Instead, God patiently issues the 10 Commandments again.

Moving through the day: Pray a prayer of thanksgiving over the fact that God doesn't give up on us.

Scripture:

The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain."

So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

  Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. "O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance."

Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Genesis 11:1-9 The tower of Babel

Time to reflect: Long recognized as a reference to the ziggurat in Babylon and an explanation of the multiplicity of languages, the writer of Genesis uses it to teach lessons, especially about human self-confidence and the desire to be like God. For a good part of the 20^th century, we were convinced that science was going to be the answer to everything and that everything is solvable. We now know that this isn't to be, and, in fact, some of the worst aspects of modern life are a result of science for the sake of science without a moral rudder. We kept building bigger engines for a boat without a rudder.

Moving through the day: Meditate on the difference between doing something because we can and doing something because it will be helpful.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

  So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Monday

Scripture lesson: Genesis 8:15-22 The forgiving God

Time to reflect: This passage ends with the promise of the “Covenant of Noah” that no matter how rotten we are God will not get fed up and wipe us all out.

Moving Through The Day: Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for God's grace.

Scripture:

Then God said to Noah, "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."

  So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

  "As long as the earth endures,
       seedtime and harvest,
       cold and heat,
       summer and winter,
       day and night
       will never cease."