Day 351, 17th August: Ezra, Revelation and Psalms
Prayer and Truth
By Luke Johnson, Soul Survivor:Called to Lead
Todays Readings Are:
Ezra 1:1-2:67
Revelation 8:1-9:12
Psalm 144:9-15
Today’s reading in Revelation is a tricky one, mainly filled with warnings of coming judgement. However, God doesn’t want to bring judgement on people – that is one of the reasons he’s showing us what will happen. He is giving everyone a chance to repent and follow Him and therefore avoid the coming destruction which will be for all who don’t “have the seal of God on their foreheads.” (9:4).
Within the destruction, we see hope shining through, as we are reminded of the importance of our prayers. Revelation 8:4 says “The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God”. Isn’t that exciting?! – we are shown that the God of absolutely everything listens to our prayers! Our prayers matter. In the middle of all the difficulties of today’s passage we are shown prayer and its need. And in the middle of all life’s difficulties for each of us, we should turn to God in prayer too.
If we flick back to the Old Testament reading for today, Ezra starts by telling of how “in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia” (v1). God had promised, through Jeremiah’s prophecies (Jeremiah 25:12, 29:10), that after 70 years of exile he would allow them to return to their land, and here is it happening – God is faithful in what he says. This is a great reminder that God’s promises and plans are always true – he can be trusted and relied upon.
So let’s put our trust in God’s truth today, especially trusting in what Revelation says – as we pray: God hears.
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Today’s picture was taken by…
Hollin. Thanks Hollin!
If you’d like to take your own picture to potentially be featured on the blog, then get your Soul Survivor Bible in One Year, and take a picture of yourself – and your Bible – at some interesting or colourful location. Then email it to us at editor@soulsurvivor.com.
The pictures will need to be a pretty good resolution (we use 640px by 360 px so at least as big as that), landscape photos work best and if you include the day of the reading in the picture then make sure you send it to us a good few days before that reading, so we have time to include it in that day’s post! We’ll credit all photographers!
