Day 1

Prayer

Today's prayers focused around strength to get through this day. I had a rough morning and woke up feeling very tired as my wife did not get much sleep last night. I prayed to God during my drive to work in the car and a few times throughout the day. I also remember praying during my drive to class for safety to get the class as well as thanking Him for getting me through my day.

As I start out my journey to work at around 07:30 every morning I usually find myself listening to Alistair Begg on 91.5FM and this morning he was preaching his last of three sermons on forgiveness, as it relates to the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. I listened intently having heard bits of his previous sermons and enjoying them thoroughly I wanted to hear how I could be a more forgiving person. Jesus says in Matthew's Gospel in chapter 6 verses 14 and 15 that if we forgive others their transgressions or sins (depending on translation) our Heavenly Father will forgive us our sins. Verse 15 is the reverse of this statement in the negative tone. If we do not forgive others, our Father will not forgive us our sins.

Daily Readings/Devotional

I recently started a daily reading plan with YouVersion reading through Morning and Evening, a classic devotional with a morning and evening meditation, by C.H. Spurgeon. The start of this blog coincides with the start of this year long reading plan so this will be a new and interesting exercise for me to write down my thoughts of daily prayer and readings. This blog will focus on these daily readings and devotional time; so, without further hesitation...

Morning Devotion - Joshua 5:12 "12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year."

Israel's wanderings were over. No more moving, no more tents. They had landed in the land that "flowed with milk and honey".  I found this verse to be a remembrance of all of the things that the Israelite people went through to get to this new promised land. Looking at this verse, having the entirety of the Bible and the life and works of Jesus Christ we can see the larger implication that this story points to having eternal rest with our Heavenly Father. In the mist of the trial faced by the Israelites this larger picture emerges where we see God saving and delivering his people from their afflictions, which is a foreshadowing of Jesus on the Cross.

Evening Devotion - Song of Solomon 1:4 "4 Draw me after you; let us run.The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you;we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.