Latest Thoughts of the Day

Nehemiah 2:4

12/29/2025

The king said to me, "What is it you want?"Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king.

While drawing his breath to answer the king, Nehemiah is lifting his soul to heaven in prayer. This kind of prayer is common to a person who prays without ceasing. If a person’s prayer life is active and regular and sincere and earnest, he often offers such yearnings heavenward as he goes through the responsibilities of his day. He is ready for unexpected opportunities like this one, to move forward the purposes of God for his life. It is powerful and effective prayer because it rises from a life of prayer. The Lord Jesus lived in constant communion with his Father, His heart ever open in this way. May such be our experience as we ourselves walk with God! Help us in this, Lord Jesus.

Ezra 2:4

12/28/2025

...of Shepathiah 372

The meticulous recording of the names of those who returned from exile in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem reminds us of the importance of detail in the mind of God. What returned from Babylon was not a nameless crowd, but a selection of particular people, accountable to one another and to appointed leadership, that they might fulfill the responsibility to which they were committed. Each leader had taught his offspring the truth of God and had instilled in them identity as a child of this One who was worthy of our giving our lives to serve. Every individual is not recorded in the Bible, but each one is fixed in God’s memory and will receive a reward according to the service he has rendered. To be one in a group of 372 was an honor worth living and dying for. Each individual life points to Jesus.

2 Chronicles 1:15

12/27/2025

The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore fig trees in the foothills.

In response to Solomon’s prayer for wisdom to rule in Jerusalem, God promised the wisdom but added a promise to make him extremely rich. Here the writer uses metaphors to describe how very rich Jerusalem had become. Solomon will become a legend in his own lifetime, both for his wisdom and his wealth. We watch him grow and learn and increase until, heedless of his own wisdom, he is led astray from his devotion to God by pressure from his many wives. Deuteronomy 17:16-17 had warned against accumulation of horses and many wives. Solomon warned us to love God and keep His commands. Solomon’s failure to obey turned his own heart from God. Keep us faithful to Your every word, Lord Jesus.

1 Chronicles 1:15

12/26/2025

Hivites, Arkites, Sinites

God raises up leadership among families as He oversees the re-population of the world through children of Noah. Our being able to trace lineage is important to God because He traces lineage and works His will among all the families of the earth. The three men of our present verse are significant in God’s eyes, though hidden from us. Thank You, Lord, that You have a sovereign purpose in the lives of all whom you have made. The descendants of the Hivites, the Arkites and the Sinites may be in the millions today. You know them all, and You have Your purpose being worked out among all the descendants of all the people who have ever lived. Among all these lines, two lines will lead to the coming to earth of Your son. All genealogies have their importance. Two alone will lead to Jesus.

2 King 1:15

12/25/2025

The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, "God down with him; do not be afraid of him" so Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

Elijah has already called down fire on two companies of fifty soldiers, as he refused to respond to the King’s command to come. The captain of the third fifty fell down before Elijah and begged for mercy. God is pleased to show mercy in response to this captain’s plea. Obviously this captain had enough faith to believe that Elijah was God’s prophet and had enough boldness in his faith to ask for mercy. The sparing of this company comes across as incidental. God’s exalts Elijah and deals with the king who sent to Baal to learn the future. God is still in control in Israel, even though His focus will be on Judah, looking ahead to Jesus.

I Kings 1:15

12/24/2025

So Bathsheba went to see the aged king in his room where Abishag the Shunamite was attending him.

King David is on Hospice, and Abishag is in place of an electric blanket. Perhaps the exaggerated formality of the interchange between Bathsheba and David is because of the handmaiden’s presence. A plot is unfolding to wrest the throne from David just before his death, and David is near enough to the instability of dementia that a particular kind of caution must be exercised. Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba must work together to move the situation to the place God wants it to be. God had all power to put Solomon on throne no matter what sinful men plotted, but it was His good pleasure to use the manipulation of Nathan and Bathsheba. Solomon will be king. Through him, the line will continue for a thousand years to Jesus.

2 Samuel 1:15

12/23/2025

Then David called one of his men and said, "Strike him down!" So he struck him down and he died.

There was no human or political reason why David should not be glad for his enemy, Saul, to be killed. The young man who had finished him off had carefully brought to David the crown and special armband that King Saul had been wearing. Probably he expected to be rewarded. Many of us are surprised at David’s response and amazed that the man who had done this service should be killed on the spot. It seems that we do not fully appreciate David’s view of regal authority and the depth at which David took God seriously. We are watching as God brings about the political situation which will place David securely on the throne of David. And we think of the Son of David, Jesus.

I Samuel 1:15

12/22/2025

'"Not so, my lord," Hannah replied. I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord."

Deep spirituality is something Eli himself knows nothing about, so he terribly misjudges Hannah. Her lips moved as she called out to God, and he had thought she was drunk. If it is true that we tend to suspect others of doing what we ourselves are tempted to do, Eli’s accusation says more about him than it does about her. But Eli still carried the authority of his office, so he becomes a channel of blessing from God to Hannah. God’s hearing of Hannah’s prayer moves forward the whole story of the Bible. Her baby will grow up to be the most important man in Israel. David will be anointed, and history will move toward Jesus.