OUR DAILY BREAD : PENCIL BATTLE

[cimi]

TUESDAY JULY 28


PENCIL BATTLE

READ:
Judges 2:19
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They did not cease
from their own
doings nor from
their stubborn
way.
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As I learned to write my letters, my first-grade teacher insisted that I hold my pencil in a specific way. As she watched me, I held it the way she wanted me to. But when she turned away, I obstinately reverted the pencil to the way I found more comfortable.

I thought I was the secret winner in that battle of the wills, and I still hold my pencil in my own peculiar way. Decades later, however, I realize that my wise teacher knew that my stubborn habit would grow into a bad writing practice that would result in my hand tiring more quickly.

Children rarely understand what is good for them. They operate almost entirely on what they want at the moment. Perhaps the "children of Israel" were aptly named as generation after generation stubbornly insisted on worshiping the gods of the nations around them rather than the one true God. Their actions greatly angered the Lord because He knew what was best, and He removed His blessing from them (JUDG. 2:20-22).

Pastor Rick Warren says, "Obedience and stubbornness are two sides of the same coin. Obedience brings joy, but our stubbornness makes us miserable."

If a rebellious spirit is keeping us from obeying God, it's time for a change of heart. Return to the Lord; He is gracious and merciful. __Cindy Hess Kasper

**Heavenly Father, You are loving and gracious, and eager to forgive when
we return to You. May we pursue you with our whole heart and not cling
to our stubborn tendency to want things our way.
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First we make our habits; then our habits make us.

******************************Today's Bible Reading __ Judges 2:11-22***************************
21 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
LORD, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the LORD
God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the
land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among
the gods of the people who were all around them.... 14 And
the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered
them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them....

15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against
them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had
sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

16 Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered
them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet
they would not listen to their judges, but they played the
harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned
quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying
the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so. 18 and
when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with
the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies
all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by
their groaning because of those who oppressed them and
harassed them. 19 And it came to pass, when the judge was
dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than
their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow
down to them. They did not cease from their own doings
nor from their stubborn way.

20 Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and
He said, "Because this nation has transgressed My covenant
which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My
voice, 21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the
nations which Joshua left when he died, 22 so that through
them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the
LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not."


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