Your Nightly Scripture

Evening Scripture Proverbs, Chapter 12 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid. Good people obtain favor from the Lord, but he condemns those who devise wicked schemes. No one can be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted. A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful. The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them. The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm. A person is praised according to their prudence, and one with a warped mind is despised. Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food. The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense. The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers, but the root of the righteous endures. Evildoers are trapped by their sinful talk, and so the innocent escape trouble. From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward. The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult. An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies. The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy. No harm overtakes the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble. The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy. The prudent keep their knowledge to themselves, but a fool’s heart blurts out folly. Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor. Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt. In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality. Evening Reflection Sometimes we may be tempted to only show integrity when others are watching. Yet, when alone, we are tempted to do otherwise. Being tempted isn’t a sin, but following through with the temptation is. Most of us experience this temptation from a very early age. It starts out when we’re as young as toddlers, hiding in a corner with a cookie or taking another’s toy. But as we grow, we learn that even when others aren’t around, our heavenly Father sees us, especially, it seems, when we’re alone. That’s when the real temptation to sin usually takes place. It’s easier to resist it when others are watching us. As adults, we may become better at resisting in public, but still struggle when no one else is around. When we do, we don’t have to resist on our own, but we call on the Lord to help us in choosing what to do. We remember that He sees us, and we want to do what is pleasing to Him, even when He’s the only one looking. A few years ago, a childhood friend returned my classic copy of “Heidi,” a book she “borrowed” from me, as a child, decades ago without my knowledge. Honestly, I don’t know if I ever realized she had taken it or that it was even missing. Yet, years later, she still remembered. Even though I may not have ever found out she had taken it, she knew God knew what she had done, and she chose integrity before Him, letting Him do a work in her heart and mind. Evening Prayer God, Strengthen me today and every day to choose integrity at all times, whether someone is watching me or not, knowing You are always watching. If there are areas where I need to make things right concerning past choices, lead me in integrity to make them right before You and those I may have wronged. Amen Want More? Sign up for our free newsletter, The Good Word, for weekly biblical wisdom and encouragement delivered right to your inbox. Join our community today: https://www.lifeaudio.com/thegoodword/ Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Evening Scripture John, Chapter 4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John — although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you — I am he.” Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there. Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee. Evening Reflection Everything about the Samaritan woman conveys a struggle with loneliness and isolation. She doesn’t come to the well in the early hours of the morning, as would be normal in that time. Instead of making the laborsome journey outside the city when the air was cool and refreshing, she comes in the middle of the day, when the sun is at its hottest. What is more, she also comes alone. In the ancient world at this time, travel outside the city walls was dangerous – particularly for women. Thus, women often travelled as a company when fetching water. There was safety in numbers. But not for the Samaritan woman. She has no one to come with her. We often spend a lot of time trying to identify what kind of woman she was – but the truth is, the only thing that matters is her feeling of emptiness. Her empty bucket, and her empty company, conveys a longing to be filled. And then she meets Jesus. They have an intriguing conversation, but what is most striking is that when she runs back into the city to tell people about the person she met, she leaves her bucket. She is no longer empty. She is no longer alone. In the company of Jesus, she has found the living water that will never be taken away from her. Despite anything that has come before, she has found the one in whom she is accepted and loved. We all have our own empty buckets to some degree. We all have places where we need Jesus to fill us more fully with his love and grace. As you retire for the night, take a moment to name your place of emptiness. And with that emptiness in mind, dare to believe that Jesus will satisfy even your deepest of needs. Evening Prayer Dearest Lord Jesus, I come to you this night, holding my own bucket of emptiness and need. I come to you, knowing that you are the satisfaction to my soul’s desire. Fill me with your life-giving water; feed me with the bread of life. Lord in the face of my sin, speak your word of forgiveness; In light of my own self-rejection, declare your loving acceptance of me. When I am tempted to turn away from you, captivate me with your grace – and give me the strength to know myself as your beloved child. As I sleep, may this night before me be a time of spiritual restoration. And may I wake tomorrow renewed in your Holy Spirit. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Want More? Sign up for our free newsletter, The Good Word, for weekly biblical wisdom and encouragement delivered right to your inbox. Join our community today: https://www.lifeaudio.com/thegoodword/ Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Evening Scripture 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way. Evening Reflection The enemy of our soul seeks to steal, kill, and destroy from our lives. He loves to isolate us, making us feel useless and alone. We cannot let these lies separate us from the body of Christ. When we become a follower of Jesus, we are adopted into his family. We are sons and daughters of the king. He has a plan and a purpose for our lives. He made us with special gifts and talents that we are to use for God’s glory. Whenever you start feeling useless, superfluous, or divided from God’s body of believers, the enemy is at work. You matter in God’s Kingdom. He has a hope, future, plan, and purpose for your life! Busyness can distract us from seeing how valuable we are to God’s Kingdom. When our focus is on the next urgent thing, we can forget that we are part of the body of Christ. God wants to use you every day to show his light and love to this world. If you are struggling with your purpose and role, remember the truth that is laid out in God’s word: you are an integral part of God’s body. We have to do all that we can to live in unity with other Christ followers, keeping our focus on Jesus and sharing his good news with others. How can you be a person who lives and works in unity with others in the body of Christ? How can you encourage those with other gifts and talents? Get excited about how you can be part of what God is doing. Evening Prayer Father, I thank you that you made me with a plan and a purpose. You have called me to be part of your beautiful body. Each of us has a calling and each matters in your kingdom. Silence any lies of the enemy that would lead me to believe that I am alone, useless, and not valuable in God’s Kingdom. Help me to stay focused on how I can live in unity with other believers and point the lost to Jesus. Don’t let me get distracted by life’s demands, but help me live each day with purpose. I thank you that I belong in your family. Amen. Want More? Sign up for our free newsletter, The Good Word, for weekly biblical wisdom and encouragement delivered right to your inbox. Join our community today: https://www.lifeaudio.com/thegoodword/ Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Evening Scripture Psalm, Chapter 131 My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore. Evening Reflection Many of us remember resting safely in our parents’ arms, resting our heads on their shoulders, sitting on their laps, having them hold us close. To many of us, those memories are priceless. As we grew, those moments became less and less. We were becoming too big to be held by our moms and dads, feeling like we weren’t little kids anymore and way too big to be held. Yet now, as adults, we may wish we had stayed longer in our parents’ embrace. We remember how it felt as a child to rest in their arms, trusting them to keep us safe and close, watching over and protecting us from the world around us. Sometimes it’s hard for us to remember what it’s like to have childlike trust, especially if we’ve gone through some hard and painful times. Yet, God wants us to remember what it’s like to be a child, to believe what our parents tell us and to rest in their arms, trusting them to carry us and keep us safe. We also remember the words and promises they made to us, not ever doubting that they would keep them. As we rested with and trusted our parents then, God is calling us to rest and trust in Him now with tender hearts. We believe He is watching over and protecting us, making sure we’re taken care of, keeping His word and promises to us, desiring the best for our lives. When we do, we can rest in childlike trust in His arms, safe and secure, knowing we’re not on our own. Evening Prayer God, Help me to rest in childlike trust in You, believing I’m safe and secure in Your mighty arms. Lead me each day to follow Your ways and do Your will. Let my soul be stilled and quieted, and my hope always be in You. Amen. Want More? Sign up for our free newsletter, The Good Word, for weekly biblical wisdom and encouragement delivered right to your inbox. Join our community today: https://www.lifeaudio.com/thegoodword/ Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Evening Scripture John, Chapter 11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life. Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.” Evening Reflection C.S. Lewis notably wrote in A Grief Observed that, “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” To add my thought to his observation, no one told me that grief could feel like guilt. Only recently have I connected the guilt I too often carry to the sorrow that continues to ache these long years after my mother passed away. Often, during times of loss, whether after the death of a loved one, a terminal diagnosis, or the burial of a dream, we fight against thoughts of “what if.” What if we had done things differently, would our loved ones still be here, alive and well? Or, what if we had chosen a different trajectory for our lives, perhaps our health would not be in the condition it is now? What if … [fill in the blank]. Martha and Mary also struggled with a form of “what if” after their brother, Lazarus, died. Both sisters expressed to Jesus their conviction that if only He had been there, their brother would not have died. Having heard the accounts of Christ’s ability to heal, the sisters likely assumed that He could have rebuked the illness or placed His hands on Lazarus to bring restoration of health. But He hadn’t. In fact, Jesus deliberately delayed His journey to Bethany. What we see in Jesus’ response to the death of his friend, though, shows us that He grieved. He mourned the reality of death that snatches away the breath of those we love. He mourned the effects of sin and what it means to live in a broken world. He wept, and in those tears, we find a love that is great enough to hold all our questions and ponderings. Not only is He the Savior who understands our pain, He is the Lord who called out Lazarus from the tomb. In Jesus, death is undone, and He gives us the promise of restoration and resurrection. But until that day, when all tears will be wiped away, we can trust in the goodness of Christ even as we weep at His feet. For He grieves alongside us. Evening Prayer Lord, I often carry guilt regarding my grief, that I’m not walking in the path of joyfulness, as a good Christian should. Questions continue to come to my mind as I wonder if I could have done something differently – perhaps the situation would have turned out differently. But Your Word never commands me not to grieve. I read of how You wept, Lord Jesus, after Your friend died. Two simple words on the page, yet they carry more comfort than I can express. You understand the ache I feel, the emptiness that gnaws inside me when I remember those I have loved and lost. You do not rebuke me for my lament or tell me to cheer up. Rather, You stand with me and weep. And as I consider the love You show in my season of grief, I remember that You also stand with nail-scarred hands and feet. You are the Resurrection and the Life. In You I will live even though I die. So, I grieve, but not like someone without hope, for You are my living hope, Christ. Amen. Want More? Sign up for our free newsletter, The Good Word, for weekly biblical wisdom and encouragement delivered right to your inbox. Join our community today: https://www.lifeaudio.com/thegoodword/ Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.