Monday – Psalms 85-89; Psalm 41:1-3; Mark 5:21-24, 35-43. Anna Bartlett Warner. In 1860, Susan Warner asked her sister Anna Bartlett Warner to write a poem to be used in her book Say and Seal. In the novel, a little boy named Johnny Fax is dying. Nothing could be done to ease his pain or give him a second chance at life. As his ultimate fate grew nearer, the novel’s focal character, Mr. Linden, who was Johnny’s Sunday school teacher, attempted to comfort the small boy. Looking into the child’s eyes, he slowly recited a poem that began, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” These simple lines also moved thousands of readers to tears. Hauntingly beautiful, composed straight from Anna’s faithful heart, “Jesus Loves Me” quickly sprang out of her book’s pages and became one of the most beloved poems of the era. Jesus has power to heal us and to lift us up to eternal life. Spend some time praying for children who are struggling with sickness.

 

Tuesday – Read Psalms 90-94; Ephesians 6:10-17. Sunday School at West Point. Anna Bartlett Warner was well aware of the coming of the war between the states. She lived with her father and sister on Constitution Island. Their home was practically next door to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and from her front porch she constantly heard the rumors of war. Yet even in the face of uncertain times, every Sunday Anna taught Bible classes to the cadets. She realized that if the southern states made good on their threat to withdraw from the Union many of the boys she knew could be killed or wounded in the war that would follow. While it broke her heart to consider the dismal fate for those too young to have experienced the many blessings of life, she also comprehended the importance of leading each of them to Jesus now. With an urgency brought about by a nation on the brink of dividing, sharing Christ’s love became her mission in life. Ask Jesus to help you share the Good News of Jesus with the people in your life.

 

Wednesday – Read Psalms 95-102; I John 4:7-12. The Bible Tells Me So. By the beginning of the Civil War, William Bradbury, a voice and organ teacher, had built his own music company to publish and distribute his works. When he read “Jesus Loves Me”  he decided to add a melody to Anna Warner’s poem. William Bradbury also wrote the music for “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” “He Leadeth Me,” “My Hope Is Built,” and “Just As I Am, Without One Plea.” A lover of children’s voices, as well as a proponent of music education in both school and church, Bradbury allowed the child in his own heart to spring forth when writing the simple musical notes for “Jesus Loves Me.” Then, to fully complete the work, he added the following chorus: Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me, The Bible tells me so. How do I know that Jesus loves me? Again and again, the Bible tells me so. As you pray, thank Jesus for the way he loves you.

 

Thursday – Read Psalms 103-104; Mark 10:13-16. Let the Children Come to Me. David Rutherford McGuire was an Anglican priest who wrote the second and third verses in our hymnal. 2. Jesus loves me! This I know, as he loved so long ago, taking children on his knee, saying, “Let them come to me.” In a time when many adults viewed children as the lowest of the low, Jesus elevated children to a place of importance in the kingdom of God. Jesus welcomed children and demonstrated God’s love to them. Tony Campolo recalled working at a Christian junior high camp. One of the campers, a boy with spastic paralysis, was the object of heartless ridicule. One night his cabin group chose this boy to lead the devotion before the entire camp. Unashamedly the spastic boy stood up, and in his strained, slurred manner—each word coming with enormous effort—he said simply, “Jesus loves me, and I love Jesus!” That was all. Conviction fell upon those junior-high campers. Many began to cry. Revival gripped the camp. Pray for children to know that Jesus loves them.

 

Friday – Read Psalms 105-106; Romans 5:3-8; I Corinthians 1:18-31. Karl Barth. Karl Barth delivered one of the closing lectures of his life at the University of Chicago Divinity School. At the end of the lecture, the president of the seminary asked him, “Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?” The students sat with pads and pencils ready. Karl Barth closed his eyes and thought for a while. Then he smiled, opened his eyes, and said to the young seminarians, “The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!”

 

Saturday – Read Psalms 107-110; John 3:16-17. China. “Jesus Loves Me” is one of the first hymns taught to people in the mission field and was titled “China” in some hymnals of the 19th century because it was the favorite hymn of China. The Chinese church endured oppression when Mao Tse Sung tried to crush the church. After years of languish in the early 1970s, a cryptic note was sent to Christians outside the country that said “The this I know people are well.” Pray for Christians who suffer oppression. Pray for the church in China.

​

Monday – Read Proverbs 4-6; I Kings 17:1. Elijah from Tishbe in Gilead. Finally, God said, “Enough is enough!” Do you think God raised up an army to take a stand against the evil king? No, instead, God raised up one person to take a stand… one man. God often raises up one person to make a big difference. When God does this, God humbles this person. God shapes this person. God strengthens this person to do what God is raising that person up to do. What does the name Elijah mean? It comes from three root words: el; i; and jah. El stands for Elohim, or God. I is the personal pronoun for my or mine. Jah comes from Jehovah, and so very literally, the name means: The Lord is Jehovah. My God is Jehovah. The Lord is my God. Elijah announced judgment against King Ahab and the land that there would be no rain. This would bring an economic shutdown, and it required tremendous faith from Elijah. Consider the ways God may be calling you to serve in ministry. Ask God to work through you to make a Christian difference in our community.

 

Tuesday – Read Proverbs 7-9; I Kings 17:2-3. A Season of Isolated Pain. God takes Elijah into a season of hiding. God takes Elijah away, so God can do so much more in him. Why? Because there’s so much more God wants to do through him. God is going to shape Elijah in a very deep season of preparation. It is as if God is saying, “There’s so much more I need to do in you, because there’s so much more I want to do through you.” The Hebrew word, Kerith, means cut off or cut down. It means to be cut off from the source, cut off from the blessings, or cut down like you would chop down a tree. It’s as if God is saying: “I’m going to take you through a season of breaking. I’m going to cut you down. I’m going to humble you. I’m going to teach you to be totally dependent on Me, and I’m going to humble you privately before I use you publicly. I’m going to do something in you that’s very deep, so later on, you can do more than you ever thought possible. I’m going to take you down privately, so I can use you publicly.” As A.W. Tozer puts it, “It’s doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He’s hurt him deeply. Ask God to form you in your season of isolated pain.

 

Wednesday – Read Proverbs 10-12; I Kings 17:4-6. A Season of Total Dependence. Next, we see God shaping Elijah and molding him into a man of God in power through a season of total dependence where Elijah cannot depend on anything at all but God and God alone. In the middle of a drought when there is no water at all, a brook comes up from which he gets to drink. Then, God sends birds to bring bread and meat to Elijah every morning and every evening to provide for his daily needs. What was God doing? God was very clearly saying, “No matter what, I will be faithful. You can count on Me to provide for you.” Elijah learns to depend on God for that day. God is teaching him. God is breaking him. God is cutting him. God is humbling him. God is teaching him total dependence. Consider God’s faithfulness and ask God to help you depend on God to provide for you one day at a time.

 

Thursday - Read Proverbs 13-15; I Kings 17:7-10. A Season of Unconditional Obedience. Elijah is going to learn that the same God who gives water can take water away, because often, God may cause the brook to dry up to give us the courage to leave where we are and go where we are supposed to be. God guides by what God provides, but God also guides by what God does not provide. The brook dried up, and it gave Elijah the courage to be obedient, even when it didn’t make sense. God says, “Go to Zarephath,.” People in Zarephath were starving to death from the effects of the drought, but Elijah unconditionally obeyed the Lord. Because the Lord gave him water to drink during a drought and bread and meat to eat during a famine, he believed the Lord would provide food for him through the widow of Zarephath. How has the Lord provided for you? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you grow through a season of unconditional obedience to God.

 

Friday – Read Proverbs 16-18; I Kings 17:10-16. The Jar of Flour and the Jug of Oil. When Elijah encounters the Widow of Zarephath he asks her for a little water and a piece of bread. She said, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” Elijah looks at an impossible situation and speaks faith into it. He asks her to make a small loaf of bread for him and speaks God’ Word to her: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’” God supernaturally provided for the widow in her unconditional obedience to God. As you pray, consider how you show that you trust God through obeying God’s commands.

 

Saturday – Read Proverbs 19-21; I Kings 17:17-24 A Man of God. Tragedy struck, and the widow’s son died mysteriously. Because God was shaping him, Elijah took the dead boy, carried him to the upper room, put his body on top of him, looked up to Heaven and said, “God, I think You could heal this boy. I’m asking You to do it,” and God raised a dead boy to life. So the widow said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” God used the difficult things to shape Elijah into a true man of God. Ask God to use the difficult experiences in your life to shape you into the man of God or the woman of God that God wants you to be.