Jeremiah 33:1-34:22, 1 Timothy 4:1-16, Psalms 89:1-13, Proverbs 25:23-24
Today is the 19th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today and every single day as we continue to take the steps forward necessary to navigate our way through the entire Bible this year and we’re well on our way for sure. And the weeks just keep going by. Here we are, closing down another work week, but this is how it goes. 365 steps takes us all the way through the Bible. And we’ve taken more of those steps than we haven’t. And our step today will take us back into the book of Jeremiah. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Jeremiah 33:1 through 34 versus 22 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in our reading from Paul’s first pastoral letter to Timothy, Paul told his son in the faith that he should train himself to be godly. And, I mean, that sounds healthy, right? Train yourself to be godly. It sounds like something we should all be doing, because whatever it is it can only bring good. But how do you train yourself to be godly. So, by definition, to train is to develop a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction over a period of time seeking mastery. So, that’s what to train is. To be godly, for those of us who believe, is ultimately to imitate Jesus. So, in essence Paul was encouraging Timothy to practice spiritual disciplines centered around being Christlike. So, that kind of gets us one foot in front of the other towards a definition of what Paul’s saying to do, but how do we do that? So, let’s go back. It was 292 days ago today it was New Year’s morning and we probably had a healthy breakfast. Maybe the yoga pants were off, right? And we were ready to tackle those New Year’s resolutions and those health resolutions and those fitness goals. And where we went from that moment 292 days ago is where we are right now. So, some of us have achieved fitness that we haven’t experienced in years. We’re feeling better than we have since we were in high school. Others of us are pretty much where we were at this time last year. So, if we want to be physically fit and attain health, we will have to train ourselves, right? this will certainly involve getting off the couch but more importantly, we will be training our minds and our wills to collaborate with our bodies and to be successful we’ll have to begin, right? We’ll actually have to begin and then we will have to not stop. We’ll have to continue in a straight line for as long as it takes. And it’s pretty astounding, what a few faithful months can do. Our bodies can definitely become stronger and more healthy and more defined in noticeable ways. We can feel better inside of our skin. Why would we think this would be any different within our spiritual lives? To train ourselves to be godly has a first step. We must become observant of ourselves. Every time we turn to anger or we turn to indifference or any of a host of spiritually unhealthy things that may be going on inside of us, we have to first be able to see it. Because when we can see it then it’s no longer in the darkness. And from there we have a platform to invite God. And when we invite the Holy Spirit each time we engage in these unhealthy behaviors then we are training ourselves to be godly. We are participating in systematic disciplines that make us more aware of God’s presence and His involvement and instruction in our lives. And once we’ve begun this, just like our bodies, then once we get started then we have to continue without stopping in a straight line for as long as it takes. But in terms of our spiritual lives, that straight line will become a narrow path and that narrow path will lead us to life. So, anything that can assist us in this kind of endeavor, that can become a spiritual discipline. Like we can find…like spiritual disciplines…if you’re like…oh…I want to know more about that, you can spend days and days and days googling that. I mean, there’s like no shortage of literature on it, but ultimately what we have to find are disciplines that are shaped like we are. And that are shaped like we and God together in relationship. And when we pursue this we will be achieving spiritual strengths and skills through practice and instruction over a period of time seeking mastery. So, find your own rhythms. None of us are…I mean…there’s only one master…and that is Jesus, but as we seek to be like Jesus then we are seeking mastery. We are training ourselves to be godly. And obviously if you made it this far in the year, if you are here, and you have come these 292 days to this point on our journey through the Scriptures then you have established that spiritual discipline and that rhythm. And in 292 days you can look back now and see the strength and see the discipline and see what’s changing inside of you. And it’s hard to put your finger on. It’s hard to say, well, it was that one thing or this one thing. It just happens over time as we continue to walk in a straight line without stopping.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite you into this because there is always more. There is more growth, there is more discipline, there is more life, and there is more wholeness, and there is more healing. And, so, come Holy Spirit because we want this more and where walking this path so that we can be remade into your likeness, into your image that we can be your hands and feet in this world, ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven in this world, bringing your love to this world, but we need to be whole and wholehearted. So, help us Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi, my name is Kerri and I’ve been listening since June, I believe, and I’ve really been blessed through the program and through being able to pray for other people and just hear the needs that others have and realize I’m not the only person that’s going through things. And I thought about calling before and I never have gotten up the courage to call and then right now I was listening __ and listening to Friday’s program trying to get caught up in a man from Birmingham challenging us to go ahead and call and say that if we didn’t that the enemy was trying to keep us from calling. And, so, I thought I’d better do that right now before anything else. First of all, I’d like to say to the new listeners that asked for prayer today, the mother of Josh and the lady in Alaska we’re there was a suicide in the community, I will be praying for Josh and the other ladies community, definitely. And it seems like there’s been a lot of prayers for children lately and I’d like to add my request to that. My children are grown __ . __ right now and two of them don’t even believe in God right now. I pretty much feel like a failure. I’d just like you guys to please pray that my kids would come back to God, and their three children, they all have children now, they’ve been, you know…
Hello DAB family, this is Evationer and it’s October the 15th and I just finished listening to the October 13th prayer and encouragement. Calling in with a praise report. About 70 to 80% of the pain that I’ve been experiencing since my accident on October 3rd as he abated. I’m just left with a bit of pain, which is good. It’s going to go away too, someday soon I hope. But the other reason why I’m calling is because I have often struggled as a Christian with, you know, why bad things happen to people, like rape and murder and financial destitution and natural disasters. And God’s been showing me that it’s not our job as Christians or believers to pass rash judgment on why something might happen to something else but rather to…or to someone else…but rather to diligently seek God for discernment on how to pray for that person, how best to pray in a way that lifts that person up and doesn’t cause that person to stumble, rather than just providing a prayer that’s a platitude and that really doesn’t mean much of anything. So, yeah, God really is kind of shown me some stuff. And I know that there’s so so many reasons why things happen. And I just…I love this community that actually, you know, provides us with a medium to call in and encourage and provide more than platitudes. So, thank you for this medium, thank you for anyone who’s prayed, and just please know that I do pray. I do pray for you, it’s just that I don’t have a lot of confidence in my words. So, sometimes I don’t call them in but prefer to just pray them myself over you. So, thank you Brian. Thank you for everybody who encourages us to call in. Have a blessed day.
Hello, this is Alpha from New England. Today is Monday, October 15th and just calling in for some prayers. Heavenly, Father we thank You for today would, we thank You for children You have blessed us with, we thank You and ask for continued guidance and wisdom as You guide us towards being the best stewards of these children __ . I want to pray for Linda in New Hampshire whose son is going through some challenges. He’s having some issues with his wife and there’s been some infidelity. We want to just pray Father for some intervention in that situation. Also mentioned some abuse from his father. I want to pray Lord for healing, for forgiveness, and for being able to overcome such situations. And I want to pray for Dave’s daughter, Nikki, whose friend committed suicide. I want to pray for a friend’s family. I also want to pray for Nikki and just use this as a point of reference Father for children who are going through a lot of tough times and contemplating suicide. I want to pray Lord that You always give us a sense of appreciation of life as a gift and that there’s so much we’ve been blessed with, so much we shouldn’t take for granted. Give us and our children Lord a sense of service, a sense of thinking about others, and being able to appreciate the life You’ve given us and the purpose You have for us. I want to pray for Christa’s son who’s contemplating suicide. Also want to just pray Lord that he…
Hi, Daily Audio Bible family, this is Melody Faith calling from Canada. I just wanted to, first of all, tell you thanks so much for all of your prayers. We’ve seen some really exciting things starting to happen. Our son is out of the cold, that’s the first thing. But there’s so much more. Please don’t stop praying, I just saw him and something is wrong. He’s sober right now but something is really wrong. I can’t put my finger on it, but God knows. God hears our prayers. I know that without a doubt. If you could just even say the name of Jesus on his behalf I would be so thankful because a breakthrough is going to come. We sense it, we know the answers on the way and we’re just continuing to fight that battle for him and I appreciate all your prayers and all your support and all your kind thoughts and kind words. I love you family. I’ll call again soon. Bye-bye for now.
Hi, this is Melody from Canada and Elaina from Canada. My beautiful daughter was born almost 2 weeks ago and she’s doing very well, and she loves listening with me to the Audio Bible and she’s healthy. And, so, praise God for that. Thank you everyone whose prayed for us __ so glad about I’m not pregnant anymore and my body is recovering very well. And I would just ask for prayers for my mental health. It’s…it’s tiring having a new baby and there’s a lot that I can be anxious about that I’m trusting God with. So far, she is healthy but just always wonder…like…does she pee enough, is this okay, and also because my little brother died when he was a baby. There’s that underlying kind of fear that something might happen to her too. And, so, I ‘m really working on putting God’s promises into action and chasing joy. One of her middle names is joy. And, so, I thank you so much for your prayers. Bye.