Bible Reading #211 - Setting Up a Pillar

Setting Up a Pillar

Genesis 28

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 18-19) "Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz." (v. 22) "and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."

Bible Reading #188 - Only Mortal

Only Mortal

Genesis 6

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 3) "Then the LORD said, 'My Spirit will struggle with humans forever, because they are flesh and blood. They will live 120 years.' " (v. 5-6) "The LORD saw how evil humans become on the earth. All day long their deepest thoughts were nothing but evil. The LORD was sorry that he made humans on the earth, and he was heartbroken."

Daily Bible Reading with DragoNate #49

Rest for the Weary

Matthew 11

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 25-30) "At that time Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.' "

My Thoughts

Here in Matthew, Jesus talks about giving rest to those who are weary and burdened. He says to take His yoke upon ourselves and learn from Him and we will find rest for our souls. The word 'yoke' in this case means servitude; for us to be in servitude to Jesus. That is not a bad thing because we are supposed to serve Him, and because He says it is easy and the burden light.

Just as we need rest physically and mentally, we also need rest spiritually. Spiritual rest is different because you don't get it from sleeping. You can rest your spirit by spending time in God's word and spending time talking to God. Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest." We get rest for our spirits from Him, but that is not limited to only our spirits. I have asked God many times for extra rest at night, when I've gone to bed late or had a stressful day.

Our spirits can become stressed and overwhelmed just like our bodies and minds. That stress becomes worse if we are not spending time with God and trusting in Him. Just like we need to sleep regularly or our health will suffer, we need to talk to God regularly or our spirits will suffer.

The 'burden' that we get from God is not really a burden. Not a bad one at least. It is more like an honor. What I believe is that it is God's love. The reason it could be considered a burden is because He gives us so much that we cannot hold all of it. We have to give some away. That is His yoke; it is easy to give His love away, that is all we need to do. God doesn't care one bit about how many good deeds you perform, how many people you've brought to Him, He doesn't even care about the quality of the work that you do for Him. What He cares about is that you are faithful to Him and that you do what you do for Him because that is what you want.

Remember to talk to God regularly and to make time to read His word. There are no rules about how, when, where, etcetera you talk to Him. Just do. You need that rest more than you need the rest you get from sleeping.

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Prayer Time

Now you talk to God about what you read, and you can even read this chapter of the Bible for yourself before you do.

Let me know your thoughts on this reading as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I pray that what you have read blesses and inspires you! Godbless!

Daily Bible Reading with DragoNate #32

Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 16-17) "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature..." (v. 22) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

My Thoughts

If you live according to Christ, you have the fruit of the Spirit and you will reap eternal life. You will reap what you sow, whether you sow bad seeds or good ones, you will reap what you sow. What kind of farmer wants to sow bad seeds? None that I can think of. Bad seeds means a bad crop, which means a bad season which means bad business. If you are going to plant a crop, you want to sow good seeds so that you have a rich harvest and income.

So, if you were to plant seeds of the fruit of the Spirit, you will reap a good crop. This is what we should strive for. We should strive to live in the Spirit by having the fruit of the Spirit present in our lives. These are not commandments and they are not something that God wants from you. The fruit of the Spirit are things that God wants for you. Each individual one is very important and will enrich your life even more. I won't go through each in depth right now, I may do that another time as a standalone thing.

God is love. If God is love, and God is in us and we are in God, it only makes sense for us to have love. Like 1 Corinthians 13 says, I am nothing without love. Joy is not just happiness. Joy is when you can go through a hard time and have joy that God is on your side, or you can still have joy in knowing that you will see your loved ones again one day. Joy is a permanent thing that lasts, not an emotion just for the moment. Peace is not worrying about anything. Don't dwell on the negatives. Doing so causes stress. Having peace means to remember and to focus on the positive things. Don't let yourself become stressed or angry or hasty. Doing things too fast all the time causes stress as well.

Patience is to wait on God, knowing that He will not let you down. Again, don't be hasty. Have patience for the things you want, patience with people and patience with God because God is ever so patient with us. Being impatient will only make you have to wait longer. Kindness is to be nice to everyone you interact with. Don't be pushy or impatient, don't get angry or frustrated, instead smile to people. Sometimes people are having a bad day and all they need to feel better is a smile from someone. That's literally all it takes sometimes.

Goodness is similar to kindness. It means to have good in your heart. Goodness makes your intentions good and your words good. Goodness stops you from doing wrong and fills you with a desire to do good things. Faithfulness is, again, trusting and believing; having faith, that God knows what's best and that He will never leave you. Gentleness means to not be harsh toward others. If you are harsh toward others for no reason, how can you  expect God not to be harsh towards you? Be gentle, kind and good toward other people. The last one, self-control, means to have control over your urges. Not giving in to temptation. No matter what it is you feel like doing, you control yourself enough to pray before you act, whether to make a wise choice, or to calm yourself down.

All of these are very important and we should take care that we have each in our own lives so that we can get the best that God wants for us. Remember that you reap what you sow and act accordingly. Do you want eternal life in Christ Jesus? Then you have to live in the Spirit. For the rest of the week after you read this, try to focus on just one of these. The next week, do another, and so on.

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Prayer Time

Now you talk to God about what you read, and you can even read this chapter of the Bible for yourself before you do.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I pray that what you have read blesses and inspires you! Godbless!