Today’s Reading: Ezra 10:1‐44, 1 Corinthians 6:1‐20, Psalm 31:9‐18, Proverbs 21:3
Ezra 10:4 – Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.”
Observations:
- Context: The people have “broken faith” with God and married foreign women. Ezra makes confession and shows true godly sorrow, “weeping and casting himself down,” for their sin. The people express the desire to repent and make a covenant with God to remove their foreign wives.
- Arise – move into action
- For it is your task – you are our leader, it is your responsibility
- We are with you – we will follow
- Be strong – (chazaq) take courage, be tough and resilient
- Do it – follow through, act
Apply: It became clear last night that I need to confront someone today within my ministry.
Pray: “Show me what my task is as a leader and give me the strength to arise and do it.”
What is the task that God is calling you to lead others to do today? Arise, be strong, and do it!
samholm.com 
Sam,
I am praying for you today. I ask God to give you strength, courage, wisdom and discernment in his calling. I also ask that he bless your time with your family today.
Sam
Sam – thank you for your prayers. (This is funny, it looks like we are talking to ourselves.) I need strength, courage and wisdom. I pray also that he will bless your time with your family.
Are you still on the same reading plan?
Sam,
I pray that God will give you the strength, courage, wisdom and discernment in the task he has called you to do. I also ask that he would bless you and your family today.
Sam
What stands out to me in these scriptures is the importance of our motivations. We know we must do more than just hear God’s word by putting it into practice. Today’s message reminds us that God knows our motives and we must serve him with a humble heart, trusting him in everything. If Christians defy God by marrying non-believers or intentionally sin without remorse and try to rationalize the sin, we cannot be right with God…even if we do some of His other instructions. He knows our hearts and demands that our motives be pure…to glorify him, trust him and humble ourselves.
Brian –
Great addition to the post. Yes, motivation is a huge part of the equation. “He knows our hearts and demands that our motives be pure.”
So what do I do about the motivations that I have that are selfish? Do we have any motivations that are purely selfless? I invite your thoughts.
Sam,
I am on a different reading plan, a chronological Bible, and have also skipped around to some other things based on studies I have been in. As a family we read through Ephesians together last week. We took a vacation to my parents 2nd home in Hot Springs Village. It was just the 5 of us for a week without any friends, other families, no commitments, etc. It had been a very disconnected year for us, with lots of activities for all of the kids during the school year and then mission trips and camps leading up to Crier Creek. I never thought it would happen, but we didn’t have dinner together too many times a week last year. So this was a great opportunity for us to reconnect. We had a daily fabulous family fellowship reading Ephesians and during that I taught everyone the SOAP journal technique. I was real encouraged by the conversations that we had. We also had a lot of fun swimming, boating, go karting, mini-golf, bumper pool, etc.
I do plan on starting the reading plan you are using in the new year.
How did your “God inspired” confrontation go today?
Sam
Sam –
I’m so thankful for fathers that are intintional with your family. Praise God.
My “God inspired” confrontation went great that day. Two days later the man came back to me and spoke humbly and openly about how God had used it. I want to be faithful to continue to confront when needed.
I’m considering moving to a new plan in January. I’m not sure what yet.
– Sam
Sam said:
“So what do I do about the motivations that I have that are selfish? Do we have any motivations that are purely selfless? I invite your thoughts.”
Response:
This will sound odd but I firmly believe God designed us to be selfish, just not in the way we use the word. Selfish just means striving to attain those things we want for our own happiness. In a worldly context, it’s greediness, neglecting others for our own desires, etc. In a Christian context, our motivations are still to be happy…and God wants us to seek this. What’s different is how we go about it. God’s word says to be happy (and phave eace beyond understanding) we should praise God always. It also says if we want to be the greatest, we must be the most passionnate servant. So I say BE SELFISH! …but chase the things that matter instead of fools gold. Fun topic.
Brian –
I fully agree. You sound like one of the great Bible minds of our generation – John Piper. He speaks often of how God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
I also see a lot of CS Lewis. One of my favorite arguements that he presents is that we are much too easily pleased. God desires for us to deeply desire the things that are greater.