DAY 17 - TAKE EVERY TASK CAPTIVE

written by Marshall Segal

The most dangerous thing about tomorrow is the temptation to forget God, to live and talk and act as if God doesn’t exist. It’s the greatest danger any day: to live our daily lives — our daily habits, daily work, daily relationships — overestimating ourselves and overlooking God.

We know God exists, but we just lose track of Him — sometimes for a day, or a month, or longer. It can feel like forgetting to check our favorite website or social stream. We’re glad He’s there when we have time, but He doesn’t seem especially relevant to what we’re up against today at home or tomorrow at work.

How could we — weak, sinful, and redeemed men and women — forget an all-knowing, all-powerful God? Well, because for many of us life feels relatively safe and predictable, not fragile and desperate. The needy know to look for help. Meanwhile, “Those who are well have no need of a physician” (Mark 2:17). Predictable days with predictable outcomes and predictable consequences numb us to the unceasing and unstoppable power of God underneath all our tasks and every result.

And yet, God struck the Syrians, the Egyptians, and even his own chosen people to shake them and remind them of his presence, his power, and his mercy! They were relying on the predictable results of their own work, instead of looking to God to move. The fruit, the vegetables, the fish, all the products of their labor were meant to produce faith and joy in God. Instead, they replaced God and yielded pride, the readily available currency of rebellion and godlessness. So God punished them.  But He did so in love:

“And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.” (Isaiah 19:22)

God spoiled Syria’s soil and dried up the Nile — He ravaged their industries, their to-do lists — so that He could come and heal them when they finally turned to Him in faith. As soon as they surrendered and submitted themselves to Him, His mercy blossomed in the gardens of death and His love flowed to them like a river wide and strong.

PRAYER #17 - Pray for the Predictable

Pray for God’s help and strength in your predictable tasks today. Don’t assume everything will happen like yesterday, or last Thursday, or last September, or last year. God’s grace and mercy are new this morning for every task and routine, whether new or old, familiar or unfamiliar — if you’ll ask Him for it (Matthew 7:7–8). Serve in the strength and time and talents that He supplies (1 Peter 4:11), because the work ahead of you is God’s, given to you for His glory.