Daily Bible Reading with DragoNate #151

A Do-Nothing God?

Zephaniah 1

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 12) " 'At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are satisfied with their hardened lifestyle, who think that the LORD won't do anything--good or bad."

My Thoughts

Tons of people today think that God is a do-nothing God. They think that God either sits in heaven watching us and leaving everything to us, never lifting a finger. Or, they think that God has abandoned us, doesn't even watch us anymore. Those people would be wrong, wouldn't they?

The people in Zephaniah's time thought this way as well. They thought that God would just sit in heaven and not care about what they did and that He wasn't going to do anything about anything. Well, God did do something.

God is very much active today. You may not hear stories like what happens in the Bible as often now as they seemed to then. I was going to say "that's because God doesn't do that anymore" or that He's changed. God stopped me right away here and reminded me that He is unchanging. It's not God who has changed, but us.

God is just as prominent as He always has been. He has not changed. We have. We have lost faith, diminished faith. Our society today has become so absorbed in itself. Almost everyone is now so focused on time. 'Time is money.' I admit even I get into that mindset sometimes and I get impatient with things.

Amazing things happen all the time. God has answered many of my prayers. People hear from God often, though not often does each individual hear from God. There are different reasons for that. All I'm going to say about that is that if you are not right with God, don't expect to hear much from Him.

My point with all this is that God is not silent. In any way. If you believe that God is silent and doesn't care anymore, how can you possibly accept it when He speaks to you? How can you expect Him to speak to you or answer prayer if you don't believe in Him? You have to trust, believe and have faith. Otherwise, you are the one that has closed the door on Him and blocked it off. Open the door and invite God in, if that is what you want.

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 #102

Shelter From God

Zephaniah 2

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 3) "Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger." 

My Thoughts

Those who love and obey the Lord, and follow His commands and His ways are given shelter from God. Yes, from God. As I have mentioned before, God never promises us a good life or a safe life or a happy life or that nothing bad will ever happen to us. We can make all of that more or less true by keeping our joy in the Lord.

The shelter that Zephaniah is talking about is from God's anger. Yes, God gets angry too, but extremely slowly and His anger is a righteous anger. God's anger is against those who do wrong. Those who go against God's commands and those who disregard Him. Sin is disobedience to God, and that must be punished because God, being completely Holy, cannot be in the presence of sin. That's where Jesus comes in.

Jesus is our shelter. Jesus has given us shelter from the wrath of God. If we accept Jesus and invite Him to dwell in our heart, then He does so and He also gives us shelter so that we don't have to face the wrath of God that He will pour out on those who don't accept Jesus.

Those who don't accept Jesus and who do not follow God faithfully will not be given any such shelter. They will instead have to suffer at the hand of God, and believe me, that is not something anyone would ever want, nor would I wish that upon my worst enemy.

Again, the choice to accept Jesus is yours, and yours alone. If you choose to, then I welcome you into the family of God! If you choose not to, I just want you to know why. You have to ask yourself this, I don't really need to know, but you do. After all, it is a very serious decision with very serious consequences on both sides; positive and negative. Make sure you know the reason why, and if you do not, then I do suggest that you find out.

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 #65

Meekness

Zephaniah 3

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 11-12) "On that day you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from this city those who rejoice in their pride. Never again will you haughty on my hill. But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the Lord."

My Thoughts

You have probably heard of being humble before, but have you heard of being meek? Meekness isn't a bad thing when it comes to God, in fact we should be meek before God. It is similar in meaning to humble but a bit different. Meek is a word that is often used in a negative kind of way, like to describe those kids in school who just let others push them around.

Meekness is like humbleness, not elevating ourselves and not boasting. Meekness is like submissiveness, to submit to God and what He wants rather than what we want. Meekness is to be obedient to God. It is not to let God push us around and walk all over us the way people do, but it is to do what God wants us to do because we want and choose to do so.

When we are meek before God, we rely on Him and not ourselves or anything that we have. We abandon our own desires for the sake of Christ and His work. That doesn't mean that we can't ask God for anything that we want or that we can't have things that we want. That just means that we focus on God and His desires rather than on our own.

God always has our best interests at heart, so why would it be a bad thing to do this? If we focus on our own desires and our own selves, we won't get very far. We need to align our hearts and our minds with that of Christ so that we put Him into everything that we do. When we rely on God, amazing things can happen because we are allowing God to act and having faith in Him.

When it comes to God, be meek and humble. Put your trust fully in Him and be obedient to what He wants. Your life will be filled with more joy the more you lean on God.

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!