“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:11-12//
Lord, help me to rejoice when people dismiss You.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Matthew 4:1-3//
Satan tempts us when we are lonely, tired, and hungry. Lord, fill me with Your word and wisdom to keep me from temptation.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Matthew 3:11//
Praise the Lord for saving me from my sins through the Holy Spirit!
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
Matthew 2:19-21//
“So he got up”…do I immediately follow the Lord’s direction or do I try to go my own way on my own timeline?
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Matthew 1:22-23//
I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. After all, anything is possible with God. But, do I believe that in my daily life?
They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.
2 Kings 12:15//
May it be said of me that my work may not need to be measured because of complete honesty.
Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
2 Kings 12:2//
We need wise and mature Christians in our lives to help navigate troubled waters that we have not yet experienced.
Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, “They have brought the heads of the princes.” Then Jehu ordered, “Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”
2 Kings 10:6-8//
God will destroy His enemies.
Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.
2 Kings 9:30//
When confronted with the end of life, evildoers will still try to appear externally that nothing is wrong. Appearance cannot make up for a multitude of sins.
Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.
2 Kings 8:14-15//
Some people are so evil that they will do anything to gain their desires.