Reading: Psalm 10:12-18
Praying for a society that desperately needs the Kingdom of God is a place to start in expanding His Kingdom. We see David cry out for God to come and change the world around him. He prays for the helpless, troubled, grieving, victims, orphans, homeless, and the oppressed specifically. We can relate with David at times when we look around our world and see people of each of these areas. It is tough to see such terror and sadness in our society, but when we pray about it and ask God to come and send His Kingdom, we have a hope of His return and His reign. Keep praying for these areas and ask God to come!
Which one of the groups of people listed above do you feel especially burdened for? Is there something you can do to help these people (outside of praying for them)?
What kind of hope do you feel when you pray for a broken world?
Reading: Matthew 13:18-35
Expanding the Kingdom is like these things Jesus shares with us. It can be tricky, depending on the soil you plant the seed on. Some seeds will hear, but never do anything to keep growing their faith, others will hear, be excited then stop growing their faith because of other worries, troubles and distractions in their lives. But others will grow until they're making huge impacts for the Kingdom as well.
Jesus also gives us a look at what His return will be like here with the wheat growing with the weeds. The enemy will come and plant all kinds of barriers in our lives. He might even turn us, and cause us to stumble in our faith. Jesus says the day of the harvest (His return) will separate the weeds from the wheat.
His Kingdom will indeed expand though, as we see from the parable about the yeast and mustard seeds. One little seed can cause so much growth. Or a little yeast in flour can spread throughout the entire loaf of bread. Just planting those little seeds can change a life in major ways.
When you look at your roots of faith, where would you say you are?
How can you keep planting those seeds for expanding His Kingdom?
Reading: Genesis 36:1-37:36
God will use our lives in bizarre ways for His Kingdom expansion. We will continue to read this crazy, up and down story of Joseph over the next few days. Today, we can learn from Joseph as well though. We read that Joseph tended to give all the details of his dreams to his family, stirring the pot in his brothers' hearts. Though God will speak to us through dreams, as He did with Joseph and many others in the Bible, sometimes it's best to keep them to ourselves and ponder and pray over them.
Even Jesus in His ministry of expanding the Kingdom only told a select few who He actually was and what He was doing there. It took faith to follow and believe, not information.
Expanding the Kingdom can be tricky business, and we should never be ashamed of it. God's work is something we should always take seriously, but to build a relationship, sometimes we just need to keep some information to ourselves and let God's timing do the rest.
Joseph's brothers were definitely in the wrong in "getting rid of" their brother and lying to their father, but Joseph could have kept a little peace as well. Remember this as you encounter different people and relationships as you do God's work.
"People don't care how much you know until the see how much you care."
Have you ever been told something crazy by God? Did you share it? If so, what was the outcome?
How has God's timing done a better job at revealing something than if you would have blurted out something crazy?
Expanding God's Kingdom isn't hard, but it can be tricky. We can continually pray for our broken world and work to plant the seeds, but the soil has to be right for them to stick. Many times, life's distractions can cause people to fall away after hearing about this Good News, but we can continue to plant and let God do the rest. Allow His timing to show His plan, as He is the only One who truly knows the future.
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