The reading for Tuesday is Matthew Chapter 10.
Yesterday I asked if anyone would be interested in sharing their SOAP devotionals here on MomsToolbox. WOW! What an amazing response y’all shared with me! I will be getting in touch with each of you very soon to discuss the specifics. Thank you!
This morning I was wringing my hands over Matthew 10 and just didn’t know what to write. I couldn’t narrow it down and was getting frustrated. And then an email came from Beth. I asked if she could prepare a SOAP in just 3 hours and she agreed to take on the challenge. (It won’t normally be like that, I promise!!)
I wonder if the reason I was so puzzled all morning was because God didn’t want me to wait for help and schedule it later, he wanted me to jump on it NOW.
And, after reading her SOAP, it is clear to me that her message was the one to be shared today.
So, without further adieu, here is what Beth has to share about Matthew 10:
I hope you are getting into the habit of prayer (by thanking then asking), reading with SOAP in mind, using SOAP and then listening. Just this week, I’ve noticed some changes in my prayer life as I’ve become more intentional about this time.
Please start as we have by thanking God for His gifts and provisions.
Next, ask Him about all the prayer requests you have for today. Feel free to ask about the tiniest thing, as well as the boldest.
Then ask His guidance in your reading, so that you will hear the message He has in mind for you today.
If you need to read the passage a few times to narrow it down to one or two verses, that is okay.
What are you hearing? Record it using SOAP.
Such richness. It is indeed difficult to choose ONE verse on which to focus.
S: Scripture-Write the ONE scripture that I feel God is using to speak to me in today’s reading
Matthew 10: 37 – “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.”
O: Observation-What might He be telling me with that scripture?
God deserves, desires, demands, first place in my heart! Putting anything, or anyone, above Him is idolatry and He will not tolerate it!
A: Application-How can I apply it to my life?
I lived with the pain of infertility throughout my twenties. I adopted Hannah’s payer and made it my own.
And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life
I meant it when I prayed it and God has taken me up on my vows. Josiah (named after one of the few good kings of Israel) is now 21 and has a heart to serve the Lord and reach people for Jesus … in the Middle East. I think he was about 12 the first time he told me he thought it would be cool to be a martyr. My son. My only son. He wants to go where it is illegal, and punishable by death, to share the gospel. He has counted the cost and it is one that he is willing to accept. He has told me that he isn’t sure he will marry because it would take a very unusual woman to share his passion for the Islamic people and the call he has heard to reach out to them.
As Josiah’s mom, it is hard for me to let go, to trust him to the care and calling of the God to whom I promised him. There is part of me that wants to hold on. To keep him home. To keep him safe. But God has given me, too, a higher calling. A calling to take my hands off and let my precious son, my only son, go into all the world and share the gospel. And to love God enough to trust Him with Josiah and his safety. To accept that it could be his plan to allow Josiah to, in the words of Jim Elliott, “give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
I pray today, not just for myself, but for all of the mothers who are on this Blogging Through the Gospels journey, that we would love YOU more than we love our children. And that those children would see our passion for you and be drawn to wanting a relationship like that with You! And Lord … because You have asked us, commanded us, to pray for workers to go into the fields, even the dangerous fields, that are ripe unto harvest … I pray that many of us would help instill a desire to serve You in those fields into our children. And that we would plant it in their hearts, from an early age, to know that we have surrendered them, fully and completely, to You and to your service. And then I ask that we would let them go without making them feel guilty for the going!
Didn’t start reading or Blogging Through the Gospels with us? That’s okay, join in anytime. Each Sunday evening I post the reading schedule for the week ahead and each evening I post the next day’s reading assignment and devotional. Feel free to jump in where we are anytime and blog or journal along using the SOAP format.
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