Shalom,

There is SO much in the entire Bible Reading for today that we could do several blog posts to cover it! It's a good thing that the Spoken Word Bible reading plan covers Psalms and Proverbs twice! We'll look at a couple of verses and then move on to Acts and Genesis. Verses 1-6 say:

¹FRET NOT yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness (that which is not upright or in right standing with God).

²For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

³Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good; so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed.

⁴Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.

⁵Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.

⁶And He will make your uprightness and right standing with God go forth as the light, and your justice and right as [the shining sun of] the noonday.

Notice that it says to not fret (have anxiety or worry and fear) over evildoers. It may LOOK like everything is going their way, but that is just temporary! We see in these few verses what we are to do as believers in Jesus of Nazareth and what our attitude should be. The results are spelled out very plainly, too. So also are the results that the evildoers, unbelievers and wicked people can expect UNLESS they change their thinking to agree with God and become believers! Read through the rest of the Psalm and take note of everything that is told for us to do as believers AND the promised reward! You won't even have to give a thought to the results of the wicked, except to realize how very much they NEED to hear and receive the message we've been called to preach - the Good News!

Then we see in Acts where Saul, who has been seething with hatred for the believers in Jesus, is stopped short by the Lord and captured by the very Gospel message that he has been so against! The thing that the Holy Spirit showed me so clearly this time through this passage is how very determined and focused the unbelievers were to stop the Gospel! Look at verse 1-2:

¹MEANWHILE SAUL, still drawing his breath hard from threatening and murderous desire against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

²And requested of him letters to the synagogues at Damascus [authorizing him], so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way [of life as determined by faith in Jesus Christ], he might bring them bound [with chains] to Jerusalem.

Saul was so consumed with his mission and would let nothing stop him! Then we see how the Jews who did not receive Saul's message reacted in verse 22-23:

²²But Saul increased all the more in strength, and continued to confound and put to confusion the Jews who lived in Damascus by comparing and examining evidence and proving that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah).

²³After considerable time had elapsed, the Jews conspired to put Saul out of the way by slaying him,

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the saints of God, the born again believers in Jesus of Nazareth were always so very determined to preach the Gospel to the unbelievers so the Holy Spirit could work through them with signs, wonders and miracles to set the captives free! I believe YOU are one of the few who really GET it or you wouldn't be reading this blog! Thank You, Jesus, for those who are on fire for the things of God! AMEN!

We see in Genesis where Jacob, who should have remembered that the Lord CHANGED his name to Israel, continued to deceive when he lied to his brother about where he was going! He didn't trust his brother and it was because he knew that he himself couldn't be trusted! That's the problem with allowing your word to become meaningless. If you don't have faith in your own word, you will have a hard time believing God will honor HIS Word. He WILL ALWAYS honor His Word, but we have to learn to trust in that Truth! Make sure your word to others is GOOD and you will have greater confidence in the Word of Almighty God! I Love it when the Word of God comes alive and is so very practical!

Shalom in Him!