He Holds Our Hand

WOW! We have made it to the end of another week has we are fast approaching the end of February and heading into the third month of the New Year which is March lets take this opportunity to take stock in God words and TRUST that are Father in Heaven is guiding us along the way NO MATTER what the trails of life throw at us we can REST assured he as us in his right hand with I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 READ ISAIAH 41:8–13 The little girl who navigated the stairway one Sunday at church was cute, spunky, and independent. One by one the child—who appeared to be not much older than two years—took the steps down to the lower level. Descending the stairs was her mission and she accomplished it. I smiled to myself as I pondered the daring independence of this courageous toddler. The child wasn’t afraid because she knew her caring mother’s watchful eye was always on her and her loving hand was extended to help her. This aptly pictures the Lord’s readiness to help His children as they make their way through life with its varied uncertainties. Today’s Scripture includes two “hand” references. After cautioning His ancient people not to fear or be dismayed, the Lord told them, “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Many anxious and fearful children have been steadied by the strength of a parent. Here God’s power comes into view. In the second “hand” reference, once again it’s the Lord who acted to secure the safety of His own. “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand” (v. 13). While life situations and times have changed, the Lord hasn’t. We need not despair (v. 10) because the Lord still assures us with the promise of His support and with the words we desperately need to hear: “Do not fear” (vv. 10, 13). By Arthur Jackson REFLECT & PRAY With God’s hand holding my hand, I am safe! Father, thank You for always watching over me. For help, read Navigating the Storms of Life at discoveryseries.org/hp061. INSIGHT God assures the Israelites they are “the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10). Privileged to be “chosen . . . to be his people, his treasured possession” (7:6), He gave them the title of honor—“my servant”—just as He did their revered lawgiver, Moses (Malachi 4:4) and their beloved king, David (1 Chronicles 17:7). By physical offspring, they were the “descendants of Abraham my friend” (Isaiah 41:8). Abraham was one of only two people called God’s friend in the Old Testament; the other person is Moses, for God spoke to him “as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). The patriarch Job wished he had an advocate and intercessor who would plead with God “as one pleads for a friend” (Job 16:21). Today we have such a Friend—our Lord Jesus (John 15:13-15). We have a “new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God” (Romans 5:11 nlt). K. T. Sim

Praying and Growing

The weekend has come and gone and we have entered into third week of February as we start this New Week take a moment to reflect on the fact that we are wrapping up the second month of the New Year and gearing up to enter into the third month of the New Year which is March take a moment to reflect inwardly on the path that God is getting ready to take us on with these words of wisdom Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God. Colossians 3:17 READ JONAH 4 When my friend David’s wife developed Alzheimer’s disease, the changes it brought to his life made him bitter. He needed to retire early to care for her; and as the disease progressed, she required increasingly more care. “I was so angry at God,” he told me. “But the more I prayed about it, the more He showed me my heart and how I had been selfish for most of our marriage.” Tears welled in his eyes as he confessed, “She’s been sick ten years, but God has helped me see things differently. Now, everything I do out of love for her, I also do for Jesus. Caring for her has become the greatest privilege of my life.” Sometimes God answers our prayers not by giving us what we want but by challenging us to change. When the prophet Jonah was angry because God spared the wicked city of Nineveh from destruction, God caused a plant to shade him from the hot sun (Jonah 4:6). Then He made it wither. When Jonah complained, God answered, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” (vv. 7-9). Jonah, focused only on himself, insisted it was. But God challenged him to think about others and have compassion. God sometimes uses our prayers in unexpected ways to help us learn and grow. It’s a change we can welcome with open hearts because He wants to transform us with His love. By James Banks REFLECT & PRAY God grows us as we spend time with Him. Lord Jesus, thank You for helping me grow when I pray. Help me to be sensitive to what You want for my life today. INSIGHT Jonah’s reluctance to forgive his enemies is a reminder that the heart of God is bigger than our own. For more about the story of Jonah, read The Failure of Success at discoveryseries.org/q0720.

Sinking into Grace

We have reached the end of the week YES! It is FRIDAY! as we prepare ourselves to enter into the weekend take a moment to reflect on this past week with a sense of Gratitude and Love as million are still Celebrating Valentine's Day the rest of this weekend truly do know that JESUS is totally In Love with You with these words of wisdom [God] grants sleep to those he loves. Psalm 127:2 READ PSALM 127:1–2 Finally, on January 8, 1964, seventeen-year-old Randy Gardner did something he hadn’t done for eleven days and twenty-five minutes: he nodded off to sleep. He wanted to beat the Guinness Book World Record for how long a human could stay awake. By drinking soft drinks and hitting the basketball court and bowling alley, Gardner rebuffed sleep for a week and a half. Before finally collapsing, his sense of taste, smell, and hearing went haywire. Decades later, Gardner suffered from severe bouts of insomnia. He set the record but also confirmed the obvious: sleep is essential. Many of us struggle to get a decent night’s rest. Unlike Gardner who deprived himself intentionally, we might suffer sleeplessness for a number of reasons—including a mountain of anxieties: the fear of all we need to accomplish, the dread of others’ expectations, the distress of living at a frantic pace. Sometimes it’s hard for us to turn off the fear and relax. The psalmist tells us that “unless the Lord builds the house,” we labor in vain (Psalm 127:1). Our “toiling” and our relentless efforts are useless unless God provides what we need. Thankfully, God does provide what we need. He “grants sleep to those he loves” (v. 2). And God’s love extends to all of us. He invites us to release our anxieties to Him and sink into His rest, into His grace. By Winn Collier REFLECT & PRAY Trusting God releases anxiety and carries us into rest. God, I’m so anxious. I churn inside. Would You help me trust You with my night, with my day, with my life? INSIGHT Psalm 127:1-2 states that the planning and activity of humanity is pointless without the involvement of the Lord. But what does it mean that “the builders labor in vain” and “the guards stand watch in vain”? Vain means “purposelessness” or “futility.” It’s not that the house doesn’t get built or the city isn’t being watched. It means that building the house and protecting the city are under the control of the Lord. Despite our best efforts, it’s the Lord who determines the outcome. Our labors are in vain if we think we are the ultimate determiners of what happens in our lives. J.R. Hudberg

Giving Credit

The weekend has come to an end and we begin to start a New Week in the third week of February sometimes we need to truly stop a reflect on these words of wisdom to help us and guide us into the deep knowledge of Gods love for us Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:31 READ JEREMIAH 9:23–26 In the early 1960s, some unusual paintings featuring a person or animal with huge, sad eyes became popular. Some considered the work “kitschy”—or tacky—but others delighted in it. As the artist’s husband began to promote his wife’s creations, the couple grew quite prosperous. But the artist’s signature—Margaret Keane—didn’t appear on her work. Instead, Margaret’s husband presented his wife’s work as his own. Margaret fearfully remained silent about the fraud for twenty years until the couple’s marriage ended. It took a courtroom “paint-off” between them to prove the true artist’s identity. The man’s deception was clearly wrong, but even as followers of Jesus, we may find it easy to take credit for talents we possess, leadership skills we display, or even for our kind deeds to others. But those qualities are possible only because of God’s grace. In Jeremiah 9, we find the prophet lamenting the lack of humility and the unrepentant hearts of the people. He wrote that the Lord says we shouldn’t boast of our wisdom, our strength, or our riches, but only that we might understand and know that He is the Lord “who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth” (v. 24). Our hearts fill with gratitude as we realize the identity of the true Artist. “Every good and perfect gift is . . . from the Father” (James 1:17). All of the credit, all of the praise belongs to the Giver of good gifts. By Cindy Hess Kasper REFLECT & PRAY We were created to give God glory. Dear Father, thank You for all the good gifts You so graciously give. INSIGHT The words of Jeremiah 9:23-26 occur in the context of Israel’s refusal to repent of their sin, particularly unjust practices that exploited the poor. The situation was so bad that the supposedly “wise” religious leaders used God’s law to justify their unjust behavior (8:8-12). In chapter 9, Jeremiah identifies the issue at the root of Israel’s corruption: tragically misguided cultural values and misplaced loyalties. Instead of the quiet humility of true wisdom, even the supposedly wise saw power and wealth as values deserving of boasting (v. 23). Jeremiah responded to this crisis of morality by saying ironically that if they must boast, their “boasting” could only be valid if their lives flowed from God, the only source of true wisdom. Only if their lives showed His love and justice could they have any claim to a lifestyle worth valuing (v. 24). Monica Brands

Love and Peace

The week has come to an end YES! we have made it to FRIDAY! as we prepare ourselves for the weekend lets take a moment to reflect on these words of wisdom bu]y our Heavenly Father who Loves and Adores us so much with You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. . . . You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence. Psalm 16:10-11 READ PSALM 16 It always amazes me the way peace—powerful, unexplainable peace (Philippians 4:7)—can somehow fill our hearts even in our deepest grief. I experienced this most recently at my father’s memorial service. As a long line of sympathetic acquaintances passed by offering their condolences, I was relieved to see a good high school friend. Without a word, he simply wrapped me in a long bear hug. His quiet understanding flooded me with the first feelings of peace within grief that difficult day, a powerful reminder that I wasn’t as alone as I felt. As David describes in Psalm 16, the kind of peace and joy God brings into our lives isn’t caused by a choice to stoically stomp down the pain during hard times; it’s more like a gift we can’t help but experience when we take refuge in our good God (vv. 1-2). We could respond to the aching pain that death brings by distracting ourselves, perhaps thinking that turning to these other “gods” will keep the pain at bay. But sooner or later we’ll find that efforts to avoid our pain only bring deeper pain (v. 4). Or we could turn to God, trusting that even when we don’t understand, the life He’s already given us—even in its pain—is still beautiful and good (vv. 6-8). And we can surrender to His loving arms that tenderly carry us through our pain into a peace and joy that even death can never quench (v. 11). By Monica Brands REFLECT & PRAY God’s love carries and holds us through our pain into peace and joy. Father, thank You for the way Your tender touch embraces and holds us in our times of joy and pain. Help us to turn in trust to You for healing. INSIGHT Psalms are prayers to God from real people about real situations. In Psalm 16, David speaks to God about his hope and security. As if to underline the personal nature and heavenward direction of the psalm, David uses first person pronouns (I, me, my) an astonishing twenty-eight times in these few verses. The book of Psalms has been contrasted to the rest of Scripture by suggesting that in sixty-five books God talks to us, but in one book we talk to God. To be sure, God also speaks to us through the psalms, but there is a special sense in which they are unique in their communication style. J.R. Hudberg

All I Can See

WOW! The weekend has come to an end and we are jump-starting a New Week we have transition into the second month of the New Year YES! It's February we have enter into the LOVE month as we take a moment to reflect Gods Love during this month with these words of wisdom He must become greater; I must become less. John 3:30 READ JOHN 3:22–35 Krista stood in the freezing cold on a winter day, looking at the beautiful snow-encased lighthouse along the lake. As she pulled out her phone to take pictures, her glasses fogged over. She couldn’t see a thing so she decided to point her camera toward the lighthouse and snapped three pictures at different angles. Looking at them later, she realized the camera had been set to take “selfies.” She laughed as she said, “My focus was me, me, and me. All I saw was me.” Krista’s photos got me thinking of a similar mistake: We can become so self-focused we lose sight of the bigger picture of God’s plan. Jesus’s cousin John clearly knew his focus wasn’t himself. Right from the start he recognized that his position or calling was to point others to Jesus, the Son of God. “Look, the Lamb of God!” he said when he saw Jesus coming toward him and his followers (John 1:29). He continued, “The reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed” (v. 31). When John’s disciples later reported that Jesus was gaining followers, John said, “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ . . . He must become greater; I must become less” (3:28-30). May the central focus of our lives be Jesus and loving Him with our whole heart. By Anne Cetas REFLECT & PRAY Lord, I often get centered on myself and my needs and wants. Help me to look outside of myself to You. How can I love Jesus best? Who might He want me to love? INSIGHT Scholars disagree about who is speaking in John 3:31-34. Does it continue John the Baptist’s endorsement of Jesus, or is it John the apostle adding his postscript to that endorsement? Since quotation marks were not used in ancient Greek, it’s open to interpretation. What is certain, however, is that the repeated phrase describes the nature of Christ—He is “above all” (v. 31). Bill Crowder

Deeper Love

We have come to the end of the week YES! It's FRIDAY! we have step over into the second month of the New Year Welcome to February as we have entered into this New month lets take a moment to go deeper with our Heavenly Father with these words of wisdom God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 READ 1 PETER 4:7–11 When they first met, Edwin Stanton snubbed US president Abraham Lincoln personally and professionally—even referring to him as a “long-armed creature.” But Lincoln appreciated Stanton’s abilities and chose to forgive him, eventually appointing Stanton to a vital cabinet position during the Civil War. Stanton later grew to love Lincoln as a friend. It was Stanton who sat by Lincoln’s bed throughout the night after the president was shot at Ford’s Theater and whispered through tears on his passing, “Now he belongs to the ages.” Reconciliation is a beautiful thing. The apostle Peter pointed followers of Jesus there when he wrote, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Peter’s words cause me to wonder if he was thinking of his own denial of Jesus (Luke 22:54–62) and the forgiveness Jesus offered him (and us) through the cross. The deep love Jesus demonstrated through His death on the cross frees us from the debt for our sins and opens the way for our reconciliation with God (Colossians 1:19–20). His forgiveness empowers us to forgive others as we realize we can’t forgive in our own strength and ask Him to help us. When we love others because our Savior loves them and forgive because He has forgiven us, God gives us strength to let go of the past and walk forward with Him into beautiful new places of grace. By James Banks REFLECT & PRAY The forgiveness of God is the test by which I myself am judged. Oswald Chambers INSIGHT You might think today’s reading is merely a list of commands Peter expects his readers to embrace. However, the statements in verse 11 are written in the form of urging or encouragement. This is evident by the beginning phrase “if anyone.” The challenges to those who speak (teach and preach) and to those who serve describe how these things are to be done—with confidence. The one who speaks is to speak with assurance that the message reflects the heart and mind of God, and the one who serves does so knowing that God’s strength will supply all that is needed for the task at hand. The result of such reliance? “That in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” For further study, see Knowing God Through 1 Peter at