DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY MARCH 31:
WORD OF WISDOM
If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can't hear
them anymore.
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DAILY DEVOTION
"Thy Will Be Done"
He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this
cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he
came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left
them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
Matthew 26:42-44
Though Jesus was constantly teaching His disciples, there is only one thing
recorded in Scripture that they specifically asked Him to teach them-to
pray. They had seen and heard Jesus talking to His Father, and they wanted
to learn how to pray as He did. In response, Jesus gave them what is
commonly called the Lord's Prayer, although it would be more accurate to
call it a model prayer instead. That well-known prayer begins with these
words: "And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in
heaven, so in earth" (Luke 11:2). Jesus was not teaching them something in
the abstract. He was not giving them theories or ideas. He was telling them,
and us, what matters when we pray.
As Jesus modeled in this prayer and in His own prayer just before Calvary,
every prayer must be offered in accordance with the will of God. There are
times when we greatly desire a particular outcome to a situation. Yet even
in those moments we must not insist on having things our way if God has
something else planned for us. Thus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus
prayed, knowing the physical agony and spiritual torment that awaited Him,
yet still praying in perfect submission to the will of the Father.
Prayer is not a means for us to get only answers that we will like. There
are times, like Paul experienced when he prayed for the thorn in his flesh
to be removed (2 Corinthians 12:9-10), that God uses the hard things for His
purpose. Even in the most difficult moments, we must pray for God's will
rather than our own.
Asking for God's will to be done is not just repeating words. It must be the
desire of our hearts.
___
DAILY BIBLE READING
Joshua
Joshua 20 (Easy To Read Version - ERV)
Cities of Safety
1 "Then the Lord said to Joshua:
2 Through Moses,
3 Anyone who kills someone accidentally can go to a city of safety to hide
from the relatives who want to kill him.
4 "If you accidentally kill someone and you run away to one of those cities,
you must stop at the entrance of the city and tell the leaders of the people
what happened. Then the leaders can allow you to enter the city. They will
give you a place to live among them.
5 If someone chases you and follows you to that city, the leaders of the
city must not give you up. They must protect you because you came to them
for safety after killing someone by accident-you were not angry and did not
plan to kill the person. It was something that just happened. 6 You should
stay in that city until the court has judged you and until the high priest
dies. Then you may go back to your hometown."
7 So the Israelites chose some cities to be called cities of safety. These
are the cities: Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali; Shechem
in the hill country of Ephraim; Kiriath Arba (Hebron) in the hill country of
Judah;
8 Bezer, east of the Jordan River across from Jericho, in the desert area in
the land of Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead in the land of Gad; and Golan in Bashan
in the land of Manasseh.
9 All Israelites or any foreigners living among them who killed someone by
accident were allowed to run away to one of these cities of safety. They
could be safe there and not be killed by anyone chasing them. The court in
that city would judge them."
