Day 20 - January 22, 2010

Today's Reading:  1 Samuel 2-15

Something to Ponder:
Have you ever heard God speaking to you?  How do you listen for God?

Key Verse:  1 Samuel 12:23
"As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you.  And I will teach you the way that is good and right."

Encouragement:
You have given a good effort so far.  You have begun to develop a wonderful habit that will inform your faith.  Your continued reading will open so many doors to understanding our God.  It will also raise new questions.  Don't let the questions bother you.  Write them down.  Don't be afraid to bring them up.  The most learned people I know have more questions than they do answers.  At least the learned ones that I trust.

The Lutheran Word for Today:
"The granting of our prayer is so to be defined that God does not always do what we desire, but does what is beneficial for us.  For since God is good, He can give nothing but what is good.  However, we often ask for our children, often for our friends, often for ourselves, not what is good, but what seems to us to be good.  In such cases God grants our prayer even when He does not do what we ask.  This is why in the Lord's Prayer we pray for the hallowing of the name of the Lord, for the coming of God's Kingdom, and for the fulfilling of His will before we pray for our own concerns and the necessities of this life, that in such matters God may do, not what seems good to us, but what IS good."  Martin Luther, in a teaching on Psalm 120 in 1531.