2 Chronicles 20:4 “So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord: and from the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord.” NKJV

Spoiler alert: Battles may lie in wait for you today. There is no predicting how these will look, in what form they will arrive, to what degree of difficulty you will face because of them, nor what changes you will be required to make due to them. But rest assured, Satan is behind them.

Today’s challenge might be of an emotional sort. You may be ingulfed in worry or guilt over unexpected news. Perhaps self-doubt will creep in as you scroll social media eyeing the perceived perfection filling each post.

Your challenge may be of a personal nature. Struggles with your health, your finances, or your job may seem insurmountable. Moving forward might seem impossible as your troubles multiply in your mind.

It is possible difficult relationships will challenge your day. Confrontations with friends, your spouse, your children, or co-workers may discourage you, leaving you ready to jump-ship.

And certainly, Satan’s goal of waging spiritual battle with you today is real. The busyness of your day can crowd out your time with God. Satan’s pursuits can render you reluctant to cast your cares upon your loving Father who will provide strength for the battles ahead. By day’s end, you are left defeated.

So, there you have it: today’s bad news.

Gratefully, good news awaits.

In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat feared his day ahead. As the enemy army approached, he desperately sought a solution. So, how did the king face this challenge and win his battle?

“So, Judah gathered together…” The King realized surrounding himself with like-minded people was powerful. “Together” allows us to feel each other’s pain, support each one’s efforts, and multiply our strength for upcoming battles.

“Ask help from the Lord…” The king desired united voices crying out to God. Calling upon our Father acknowledges our helplessness and His sovereignty. Rest assured, God hears our cries.

“They came to seek the Lord…” This denotes action is required in discovering God’s will and direction in our lives. The people of Judah traveled to gather and seek the Lord. What must we do?

Satan is persistent in attacking us, but we are not meant to face our battles alone. We are daughters of a mighty King who surrounds us and supports us through all that lies ahead. Our Father promises to be found when we seek Him with all our heart. (Jeremiah 29:13) So sisters, good news: Battles may lie in wait for us today, but so does sweet victory!

Father God, help us seek You.

Rita Cochrane

Happy New Year! Or is it really a new one? The Chinese celebrate a new year on an entirely different date, as do the traditional Jewish people. Is today a lot different from December 31, 2022? Did you get up on the same side of bed? Have your same coffee and rush off to church? Oh, I DO hope you did start off your week assembling with the body of Christ, as we should be doing every first day of the week (Hebrews 10:25).

Even in the garden, some of the “new” plants are really just an extension of the old. Those cascades of pink roses on the front porch are simply cuttings rooted from a plant in Evelyn’s yard. And seeds! What are they but a continuation of last year’s plants? Is there really anything new? Okay, it is nice every spring to have fresh “new” little plants full of promise.

Maybe there are some resolutions you have made, taking the occasion of the “new year” as motivation to do things better. That’s good. I wish I could be more motivated every day to do things better. But in all honesty, any day would be just as good of a motivation to change things, to become closer to God and to His expectation of us.

None of us are promised a tomorrow. I myself was busily cooking and planning for an upcoming VBS one evening in Iowa back in 1983, and by morning all my vital signs had ceased. After I was revived, Luke 12:20 came to mind. “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’”

It certainly changed my perspective on the fleeting nature of life itself, and on what was important.

Look at my poor garden. No, don’t! It’s awful. We’ve had several days of single-digit cold, and that’s in Fahrenheit measurements! Our usually hardy Southern perennials are going to be severely frost-damaged at best, and we will surely lose many plants that could not withstand the swift temperature drop and the prolonged cold.

The pansies that always enthralled me in the winter as a Northern-born transplant are wilted and mushy. Well, there was no guarantee that they would live through this winter as they did through  so many others. Will I plant new ones in a non-traditional time, maybe in March? Maybe…just as you may make some resolutions in March, or June, or September.

We will have to renew our gardens after this mess. Our lives are no different. It doesn’t take a full year to completely mess up, so renewal has to happen a lot more often than all the January firsts in our lives.

“For He says,

‘At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.’

Behold, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’”

(2 Corinthians 6:2, NASB).

This verse may not have been written on January 1. Today, any day, any hour, can be a time of resolution and renewal.

“Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude” (Philippians 3:13-15a).

Christine (Tina) Berglund

When I was a little girl, my mother would say that if she made me a promise, she would do everything in her power to fulfill it. If she thought there was any chance she could not fulfill it, she would not make it. She was even like that about Christmas or birthdays. She would not promise that “Santa would bring a certain gift” or that I would get something for my birthday. Money was tight, and I knew what she could afford was connected to how much I would receive. When I was a child, I was told that Santa was compensated for the gifts I received. They were not free. That certainly kept me from asking for extravagant gifts.

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines “vow” as a “solemn promise”. A vow is a promise made with deep sincerity. It is not something to be taken lightly. My New Analytical Bible says that a vow is, “A promise to God to perform some service for him on condition that he, in return grant a specific favor, such as a safe journey, victory, or offspring”.

We have many examples of vows made in the Old Testament. Hannah vowed to give her son back to God. Samson was born under a Nazarite vow. Jacob made a vow on his return to Isaac’s home. Jephthah vowed that if he won his battle, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. We know that his daughter was the first out of his house when he returned.

Those men under the Old Law who took the Nazarite vow asked for God’s help, and in return promised to give up eating or drinking anything from the vine, cutting their hair, and to devote themselves completely to the Lord (Numbers 6). They  could not make themselves unclean by being close to a dead body. There were things they had to do to purify themselves if such were to happen.

This, of course, applied to the Old Law, but it shows the importance God placed on taking a vow—making a promise to God. There are two passages in God’s law to the Israelites that speak about the seriousness of taking vows. Numbers 30:2 says, “If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth”.  The second is, “If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin” (Deuteronomy 23:21). Solomon also wrote concerning the vow in Ecclesiastes 5:4-5, “When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you owe. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.”

I realize that all of these passages were specific to the Israelite nation; but the similarity is that they were God’s chosen people, just as Christians are today. Remember what Paul said, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

Have you ever made a promise to God that if He would make a certain thing happen, you would do certain things for Him in return? Maybe you promised to start attending worship, stop doing something like smoking or drinking, or made some other promise in return for God’s help or blessing? We often make promises to God when we are in trouble or when someone is seriously ill. King David speaks of fulfilling promises when he says, “I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will perform my vows to you, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble” (Psalm 66:13-14).

The importance of fulfilling vows is still evident in the New Testament. Paul made some sort of vow and cut his hair because he had been under a vow. Nothing more is said of this than that he honored whatever vow he had made. He had made some promise to God, and he was in the process of fulfilling that vow.

We shouldn’t bargain with God. God does not work miraculously in our lives today. We cannot expect Him to bring retribution on someone for us. We cannot expect Him to miraculously give a child to a family. God does, however, answer our prayers, but not in a miraculous way. He certainly does not give us what we want because we have made a promise to change our lives in some way, give a large sum of money, or do anything because we get what we want.

If we make a promise to God, we are obligated to fulfill it. For instance, if we ask God to forgive our sins and we promise to work on our sins, we are obligated to fulfill that promise. In asking forgiveness, we are saying to God that we are willing to do what we can to remove those sins from our lives.

There are some 7,400 promises that God has made to us. We most certainly expect that He will fulfill those, so how can we not fulfill those we make to Him?

Sandra Oliver

by Lois McCord.

I’ve known for over a year that something must be done. The question has been, “When am I going to do it?” Week after week I have convinced myself that it could wait another few weeks or even a month, but the time has come. My Bible must be rebound or part of the New Testament is going to fall out.

I finally made the phone call to the bindery, made an appointment, and took my beloved Bible in to be repaired and rebound. “How long”, I asked, “will it take?” His reply, “About two weeks”. I sighed with relief that it wasn’t going to be a month or more.

I truly cherish this Bible. Twenty years ago this December, our house burned. We lost almost everything, including a Bible that I had carried for at least 20 years or maybe longer. The pages were stuck together and charred. There was no hope of saving it.

With so much to replace and so much loss from which to recover, I waited several months before looking for a new Bible. When I did, this one almost chose me. From the moment I saw it, I knew this was what I wanted.

Over the years, this Bible has become so familiar. When I can’t seem to find a particular passage, I can see on which side of the page it will be found. The notes in the margin lead me through studies on a variety of subjects, and the outlines of sermons I have heard fill the extra pages in the front and back.

This Bible is indeed my treasured possession. But as I chose another Bible to carry to Bible class, I realized that it is God’s holy word that is the true treasured possession. The cover, the notes, the sermon outlines are all just extras. They are just the product of the real thing.

There should be no greater possession for anyone than the Word of God. Bound in many different colors, textures, and sizes, it is the message from God, the Father, that directs our steps through the pages of this precious book.

The message that I have read from my Bible of 20 years is the same as the message I read in the one that burned in the fire. It is the same as what I can read in the one I have chosen to use on a temporary basis. It is the same as all those that sit on shelves all over the world. It may be written in a different language, but it is still the words written by forty men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

My true treasured possession is not that Bible that has been delivered to the bindery for a new cover. It is the blessed words of faith that inform us, direct us, encourage and bless us every time we read and study it.

Sandra Oliver

Genesis 16:13a “Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees’” NKJV

Our introduction to Hagar in scripture is ambiguous, at best. Here it comes:

             “Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him (Abram); and they escorted him away, with his wife (Sarai) and all that belonged to him.” Genesis 12:20

In case you missed it, the words, “all that belonged to him,” introduce Hagar, for she was a maid-servant, seen as nothing more than a possession. Hagar belonged to Abraham and Sarah and was simply called by them, “the maid.” If it were not for the writer of Genesis, we would never have known she had a name.

As Hagar’s unfortunate story goes, a barren Sarah gave her maid to Abraham so that she might produce their heir. It comes as no surprise that as soon as Hagar became pregnant, the family dynamics turned volatile and Hagar fled to the wilderness.

There in the desperation of the wilderness, Hagar’s life changed forever.

The Angel of God appeared to her, saying, “Hagar, Sarah’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?”

When Hagar explained her plight, the angel instructed her to return to Sarah. But he continued by prophesying of her unborn son: his name would be Ishmael, he would father many descendants, he would be a wild man, and his life would be defined by aggressiveness and war.

What expectant mother in the history of the world would want to hear this said about their child? Maternal instincts render much higher hopes than a wild, aggressive, and fighting offspring!

But Hagar does not panic, nor argue, nor ask for clarification about her baby. (I certainly would have!) Instead, she focused on the fact the angel called her by name.

Perhaps many moons had passed since this woman had heard her name. The fact the angel called her by name assured her she was seen not as a servant, but as a human. She was validated. She was honored. She was a child of God.

So, Hagar returned the honor, assigning God a name: “You-Are-The-God-Who-Sees,” she said.

We too can feel invisible. Our heartbreaks can go unnoticed by others. The words and actions of our family, friends, or co-workers can be insensitive, validating they do not see our struggles. Our efforts can be overlooked. Our name may not be called for recognition.

It is true, the sweetest word in any language is a person’s own name. Although Abraham and Sarah were never recorded in scripture speaking Hagar’s name, God spoke it. If we are to learn anything from this woman’s story, we must know that no matter how much others overlook us, God never does. Our Heavenly Father knows our name. Our Heavenly Father knows our hurts. Our heavenly Father knows how to turn our tragedies into triumphs. He is truly the God Who Sees!

Father God, we are honored that you see us and call us by name.

Blessings,

Rita Cochrane