For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
1 Thes. 5
What instructions does Paul give in light of the coming Day of the Lord? As believers in Christ, we are all on the same team. Therefore, we should treat each other like teammates. Not every teammate is going to be someone you want to go have coffee, see a movie, or play pickle ball with, but you should treat them with love just the same. You want them to win because they are on your team. Furthermore, if Christ loves and accepts them, shouldn’t you? Paul describes here what it means to be a good teammate. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up…warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thes. 5:11a, 5:14b). Every bit of that is about helping each other stay the course and run to win.
2 Kings 19-20
Describe Hezekiah’s prayer. How can it be a model for your prayers? What was God’s response? Characterize Hezekiah in this chapter? What is good? Bad? When Hezekiah got ill to the point of death, for whatever reason, he wasn’t ready to go. So God had compassion on him and gave him 15 more years to live. It made me wonder what I would do with a gift of 15 added years. We don’t really know what Hezekiah did with his gift, outside of the two things mentioned here. First, we know that Hezekiah showed off his entire kingdom to the Babylonians. And second, we know that he settled into complacency regarding his descendants and their generations. To me, neither one of those actions really expresses a heart of gratitude to the God who showed him compassion.
Knowing my end date would certainly make planning and prioritizing different. But not knowing how long I have doesn’t change the fact that God has had compassion on me and given me life where I faced death. Should I not, then, live out whatever days I have in ways that show gratitude to Him for that? Life comes with obligations and responsibilities that we can’t just ignore, sure. But even those we can tackle with the humility that acknowledges God’s sovereignty and the compassion for others that we received from Him. So I pray the prayer of Moses in the 90th Psalm. “Teach [me] to number [my] days, that [I] may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12).