Today’s Reading: Ecclesiastes 7:1‐9:18, 2 Corinthians 7:8‐16, Psalm 48:1‐14, Proverbs 22:17‐19

2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Context: Paul is urging the church in Corinth to live apart from sin.  He brings up his first letter and says that he was glad that they were grieved into repenting (v8).

Observations:

• Godly grief (remorse from having lost God’s approval) leads to repentance
• A repentance that leads to salvation (sanctification) without regret
• Worldly grief (remorse from having lost the world’s approval) produces death

If anyone struggles with true repentance, they have not experience Godly grief.

Apply:  I need to grieve my sin now and in the future.  I want Godly sorrow to motivate true repentance.

What would encourage true Godly grief in your life?

Today’s Reading: Ecclesiastes 4:1‐6:12, 2 Corinthians 6:14‐7:7, Psalm 47:1‐9, Proverbs 22:16

2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Context: Paul is explaining that the Corinthian church is to be set apart for God.

Observations:

• Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves…
  • Notice the gospel here:
    • Religion – I obey and therefor God shows me favor
    • The Gospel – God shows me favor and therefore I obey
• Cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit,
• Bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Apply: I asked a man today if he was “cleaning himself” in response to the promises of God.  I must be asking myself the same question to allow the Spirit to have his way in my life.

How do the promises of God motivate you to clean yourself?

Today’s Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:1‐3:22, 2 Corinthians 6:1‐13, Psalm 46:1‐11, Proverbs 22:15

Ecclesiastes 3:22-23 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

Context: Solomon is making it clear that everything under the sun is meaningless.  Meaning is only found in fearing and obeying God (12:13)

Observation:

• What do you have to show for hard work?
• Even when you work hard you experience sorrow.
• Even in the night you heart does not rest.
• Hard work is vanity – meaningless.

Apply: I am type A.  I must live in the constant realization that working harder will not give me more meaning.  Only through responding to the gospel by fearing and obeying God will I find satisfaction.

How do you break away from the world’s view of work?

Today’s Reading: Job 40:1‐ 42:17, 2 Corinthians 5:11‐21, Psalm 45:1‐17, Proverbs 22:14

Job 42:2 I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Context: God has appears to Job in a cloud and challenges him.  “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?… Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.”  Job 42:2 is how Job begins his response.

Observations:

• I know
  • God can do all things
  • No purpose of God’s can be thwarted

What a powerful statement knowing what Job has gone through.  Job is still a man of faith in God’s power and God’s purpose.

Apply: “Father, increase my faith.  Help me to walk like Job; knowing your purpose will be accomplished.”

What response would it prompt in our lives if we truly believed that no purpose of God’s can be thwarted?

Today’s Reading: Job 37:1‐39:30, 2 Corinthians 4:13‐5:10, Psalm 44:9‐26, Proverbs 22:13

2 Corinthians 5:9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

Context: The Corinthian church is going through trails and their outward body (home) is wasting away.  Yet, they are courageous, knowing their eternal (away) body is being renewed day by day and will be rewarded. 

Observations:

• Whether we are at home or away
• We make it our aim
  • To please him

Note: It is impossible to please God without living by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7 Hebrews 11:6).

Apply: In a season of decisions, I want my aim to be clear – to please him.  I want to spend time talking with Rebecca about what pleasing God tangibly looks like in our lives right now.

What can warn you that you are working to please yourself and not to please God?

Today’s Reading: Job 34:1‐36:33, 2 Corinthians 4:1‐12, Psalm 44:1‐8, Proverbs 22:10‐12

Psalm 44:1-3 O God, we have heard with our ears,
 our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
 in the days of old:
2 you with your own hand drove out the nations,
 but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
 but them you set free;
3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,
 nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
 and the light of your face,
 for you delighted in them.

Observations:

• The Fathers told their children the work of the Lord
• Israel did not win the land on their own strength
• God gave his people victory because he delighted in them
• The rest of the chapter continues in this line and speaks of God’s salvation

This summer I asked our staff how many of them had heard their parent’s testimony.  Only about half of them could say they had.

Apply: It is my job to tell the next generation what God has done.  I want to look for opportunities to do this today – specifically for my daughter.

What would motivate todays Christian parents to share what God has done with their kids?

Today’s Reading: Job 31:1‐33:33, 2 Corinthians 3:1‐18, Psalm 43:1‐5, Proverbs 22:8‐9

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 – Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Context: Paul is arguing that through the new covenant, established by Christ, we have a ministry that is greater than Moses.

Observations:

• We are not sufficient in ourselves
• We cannot claim anything as coming from us
• Our sufficiency comes from God
• God has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant
• Not of the letter (law)
• but of the Spirit
• For the letter kills
• But the Spirit gives life

Are you entering today living in your current reality?  The Spirit has given you a more glorious ministry than Moses.

Apply: I want to walk with an unveiled face today, being a minister of life through the Spirit.  Specifically, I want to behold the glory of the Lord and let him shine through me.  I want to let God show others himself through my countenance and words.

What gives you the confidence in the sufficiency that God has given you to be a minister of the new covenant?

Today’s Reading: Job 28:1‐30:31, 2 Corinthians 2:12‐17, Psalm 42:1‐11, Proverbs 22:7

Psalm 42:11 – “Why are you cast down, O my soul,
 and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
 my salvation and my God.”

Context: David feels distant from God:  “The chapter starts with: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”

Observations:

• This same verse is repeated three times in two chapters: 42:5, 42:11, and 43:5.
• My soul: Why – are you cast down / in turmoil within me?
• Hope in God
  • For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God

The solution to a soul in turmoil is the HOPE we find in God.

Apply: “Lord, where am I placing hope in things that are not of you?  Show me how to completely hope in You.

What have you done to help you hope in God and not in things of this world?

Today’s Reading: Job 23:1‐27:23, 2 Corinthians 1:12‐2:11, Psalm 41:1‐13, Proverbs 22:5‐6

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go;
 even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Context: Remember that the Proverbs are principles and not promises. 

Observations:

• Train up (chanak – also translated as dedicate) – a higher purpose or end result is in mind
• A child – not written specifically to parents, but we know that in Proverbs Solomon calls his son to listen.  If you don’t have kids, you can and should realize your responsibility to train up the next generation.
• In the way he should go – How to walk the road of life, What to do to journey well
• Even (or also) when he is old
• He will not depart (sur – turn aside) from it

This verse is often quoted and rarely applied. Dad’s you cannot train your children if you are not present and involved in their lives (Eph 6:4, 2 Tim 3:15).

Apply:  I struggle with letting my mind be distracted when I am with my daughter.  Often I am not fully engaged in her training.  Today, I want to make a point to be a present, intentional, trainer.

How can you better apply this principle to your life?

Today’s Reading: Job 20:1‐22:30, 2 Corinthians 1:1‐11, Psalm 40:11‐17, Proverbs 22:2‐4

2 Corinthians 1:4 (God) comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Context: In his introduction to 2 Corinthians, Paul thanks God for the comfort he offers to and through his followers.  He uses the word that most of our bibles translate as comfort (parakaleo/paraklesis – also translates as encourage) 10 times in verses 3-7.

Observations:

• God) comforts us in all our affliction
  • so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction
    • with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Comfort is an overlooked part of God’s ministry to and through us.  Experiencing God’s comfort through prayer, His Word and His people has been life transormational for me.

Apply: Today, I want to look for the opportunity to allow God to comfort others through me.

Have you experienced God’s comfort in your areas of pain?  Who do you know that needs to receive God’s comfort through you?