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February 21, 2025 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
14 Plays8 months ago
Today's reading is from 1 Samuel Chapters 1-2. We will read about Samuel's mom, Hannah, praying for a child and being so grateful for God's gracious provision that she gives the son back to God to serve him his whole life. We will see God bless her further by giving her 5 more children after Samuel! We will discuss today that we cannot out give God and the importance of giving out of joy and choice rather than obligation.
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-recordings
If you would like to join me LIVE for the daily reading you can register to attend the event on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/schedule
Registration for the live event is a tiered pricing event, so you are not required to pay to attend, only if you feel led. If you do feel led to support this event with either a paid live registration or a monthly membership then I will give back to YOU by sending you a printed copy of the monthly calendar on sugar cane paper along with a set of stickers for the month to keep track of your daily commitment to read the Bible with me every day.
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
Please note, while this FREE online event is a family friendly event and the Bible we are using is suitable for ages 7 and up, you must be 18 or older to support this event by purchasing any monthly membership or by registering for the live event, whether registration for the live event is done with or without supporting the event with a paid registration.
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi there everyone, welcome to Friday, February 21st, 2025. You are here with Robin and Scooby, and we are here for our daily Bible reading.
Bible Reading Plan
00:00:14
Speaker
We are going through the entire Bible in one year, and we are using the Day by Day Kids Bible, which was written by Karen Henley.
00:00:23
Speaker
If you are new to our reading, I want to welcome you.
Starting the Book of Samuel
00:00:26
Speaker
We will be starting the book of Samuel today and hearing about him. And it if you are discouraged by the fact that this says it's a kid's Bible, please don't be.
00:00:36
Speaker
This is just an overview of the Bible in a storybook form in chronological order. And it's a great overview of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It gives us the big story.
00:00:47
Speaker
So while it doesn't have every single detail, you can think of it kind of like a devotional book. where you don't have an entire book in your or an entire chapter in your devotional book for the day, but you do have a verse or two.
Understanding and Applying the Bible
00:01:02
Speaker
And this is a greater context content than just having a verse or two. This will give us an easy to understand story every day. And every day we'll have an application of how you can use today's reading in your life today.
00:01:17
Speaker
That's our big goal this year is to not just make the Bible understandable, but so that you can see how every story we read every day it can be used in your life every day.
00:01:31
Speaker
So I have my daily calendar out here, and if you have yours, it's time to take it out. We are going to mark off our day today. We are towards the end of the month here, so you may not be interested in downloading your own copy of the calendar for this month, but it's still not
Resources for Listeners
00:01:46
Speaker
too late. If you have not downloaded a calendar for this month, please head over to the site. I have a free calendar for you.
00:01:52
Speaker
It is www.inthe.org. that familywaycoaching.com and it's under the tab of read the bible in one year and it's never too late or ah in the month to download that calendar because it does keep track of your days that you have achieved reading the bible today and don't worry if you don't have every single day marked off what matters is that you are doing it when you have time and you are doing your best I'm not here to judge you for not being here every single day.
00:02:24
Speaker
I'm happy to have you whatever day you are here. And that's the beauty of ah having these shorter stories, is that you don't have to feel like you've missed a lot. So um you can just pick up any time. It's a little bit like a soap opera, I was saying yesterday.
00:02:40
Speaker
So that you can just pick up any time and pick up on the story.
Samuel’s Birth and Hannah’s Prayer
00:02:46
Speaker
We are going to be introduced to Samuel today. Now, I don't know if you remember, but we had ah used a big word with ah when we read about um Samson.
00:03:00
Speaker
And he was dedicated to God from birth. And normally when somebody is dedicated to God, it's not the same as when you're born and your mama and daddy take you to church and they dedicate you to God.
00:03:12
Speaker
That is a different type of dedication. A special vow that was made by God's people was called a Nazarite vow. And that was a vow, a promise that anybody could take to serve God for a specific amount of time and to have certain restrictions placed upon them.
00:03:32
Speaker
And it was as though they were a priest. So we have ah only three instances in the Bible where somebody was dedicated by someone other than themselves.
00:03:44
Speaker
And that was the first example we had with Samson, where he was dedicated to God by God before birth. And now we are going to see the book of Samuel, where Samuel's mom, Hannah, takes him and she dedicates him to serve the Lord.
00:04:02
Speaker
And we will see why that happened. So he was considered a Nazarite also. And so he was very special.
00:04:15
Speaker
So let's head up into our Bible today and we will see what happens. We will be introduced to Samuel's parents.
00:04:26
Speaker
Today's first chapter covers 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2. And that will be the chapters that our reading is taken out of today. Now, if you have...
00:04:37
Speaker
and This section entitled, A Sad Prayer and Happy Answer.
00:04:44
Speaker
then go ahead and head up your big bible and check out first samuel chapters one and two and that is where you will find ah more details about today's story
00:04:56
Speaker
this section is entitled a sad prayer and a happy answer There was a man who lived in the hills. He had two wives. One had children and the other didn't.
00:05:10
Speaker
The one who didn't was named Hannah. And every year the man from the hills took a trip. He and his hand the family went to the worship tent. There they would worship God.
00:05:22
Speaker
But the wife with children kept trying to bother Hannah. She would pester Hannah until Hannah cried and then Hannah wouldn't eat. Hannah's husband would say to her, Why are you crying?
00:05:36
Speaker
Why are you so sad? Eat something. Am I not more important to you than ten children? One time after they ate, Hannah got up. She was very sad, so she went to the worship tent to pray.
00:05:52
Speaker
She cried to God, and she asked God for a baby boy. She promised she would let her son serve God. At that time, Eli was the priest, and he was at the door of the worship tent.
00:06:05
Speaker
He was sitting in a chair, and he was watching Hannah. She was thinking her prayer. Her mouth was moving, but she wasn't talking out loud.
00:06:17
Speaker
Eli thought Hannah was drunk. So he said, "'Throw your wine away. How much longer will you go on getting drunk?' "'I'm not drunk, sir,' said Hannah. "'Don't think I'm sinning.
00:06:30
Speaker
I'm just very sad, and I was praying to God.' "'Then you can go home feeling better,' said Eli. "'I pray that God will give you what you asked for.' So Hannah went and ate, and she didn't look sad anymore.
00:06:46
Speaker
The next morning the family got up early, and they worshipped God. Then they went back to their home in the hills." God remembered Hannah's prayer. She had a baby boy.
00:06:58
Speaker
She named him Samuel. In the language of God's people, the name Samuel sounded like some other words. Their words were, I asked God for him.
00:07:12
Speaker
Hannah's husband went to the worship tent that year, but Hannah didn't go with him. I'll go when the baby is older, said Hannah. I'll take him with me and I will give him to God. He can live there and serve God all his life.
00:07:28
Speaker
All right, said her husband, if that's what you think is best. So Hannah stayed home and Samuel grew a little older. Then Hannah took him to the worship tent and she took him to Eli, the priest.
00:07:42
Speaker
I'm the woman who was praying here, said Hannah. I prayed for this boy. God gave me what I asked for, so I'm giving my boy, Samuel, to God now, and my son will serve God all his life.
00:07:58
Speaker
Then Samuel worshipped God at the worship tent. Hannah prayed, My heart is full of joy. I'm strong in God. He saved me.
00:08:10
Speaker
No one is right and good like God. Don't brag, because God knows. He can tell what you do if right or not. The one who had no children now has seven, but the one with lots of children is sad.
00:08:28
Speaker
God makes people die or live, said Hannah. He makes people rich or poor. He makes people great or lowly. He helps people who need help.
00:08:41
Speaker
He lets them sit with princes and other people look up to them.
00:08:47
Speaker
God will take care of his people, said Hannah, but sinful people will live in the dark. People who are against God will be broken. God will judge all the earth.
00:09:00
Speaker
Then the family went back home, but Samuel stayed to serve God at the worship tent.
00:09:07
Speaker
Samuel's mother made him a new robe every year. And she and the boy's father came to the worship tent once a year. And that's when she would brought the robe to Samuel. Eli prayed for good things for Samuel's mother and father.
00:09:24
Speaker
I pray that God will give you children, he said, and they will take Samuel's place because you gave him to God. God was kind and loving to Hannah.
00:09:35
Speaker
She had two, three more boys and two girls.
00:09:41
Speaker
And that's the end of our reading today.
00:09:46
Speaker
Was that a beautiful story today? I was so happy reading this story today.
Reflections on Giving and Joy
00:09:52
Speaker
God is so gracious. And our our daily lesson today is not hard to figure out, that when we give something to God, He gives us back even more, especially when we give the things that are most important to us.
00:10:07
Speaker
And it was important to Hannah to have a baby And did you notice that the other wife, she was not nice to Hannah. She was bragging about the fact that she had children and Hannah did not.
00:10:21
Speaker
She was pestering Hannah and making Hannah very sad.
00:10:26
Speaker
So one of the other things that we can take away is to make sure that if we have something that somebody else doesn't, that we not show it off and brag about it and and make other people feel bad, whether on purpose or on accident, because God is the one who provides everything.
00:10:45
Speaker
And that's what Hannah was saying when after she had her baby. Did you love Hannah's prayer? it was so wonderful.
00:10:56
Speaker
So that's an example of of of a mom taking her child and she dedicated Samuel at the very beginning ah of his life, as soon as he was old enough ah to serve God his whole life.
00:11:10
Speaker
And so ah that is our second example we have in the Bible of of somebody serving God their entire life and being dedicated to God as special. And isn't that beautiful that it was because ah God gave Hannah a baby when she didn't have one.
00:11:27
Speaker
And then God blessed her with even more children to replace the one that she gave to God. Wasn't that wonderful?
00:11:37
Speaker
We cannot out give God. When we give God our best, he always gives us back even more. And we can be like that too. When somebody does something nice for you or gives something nice to you, doesn't it make you feel like you want to do something nice for them or you want to give them something too?
00:11:55
Speaker
God is like that. And he always gives us back more than what we give him. I remember hearing a story in church, though, one time I was i was reminded of this this morning, that and when we give to God, and it's and we we it should not be with the expectation of, if I give this to God, he will give me more back.
00:12:19
Speaker
Because God knows our heart. so it So for people who try to ah intentionally give just so that they can get back, God knows the difference.
00:12:30
Speaker
Remember in the very beginning, if you were with us from the very beginning, where Cain and Abel both brought their offerings to God. And God was happy with Abel's offering, but he was not happy with Cain's offering.
00:12:41
Speaker
Because Cain gave him some, and Abel gave his best. So ah God knows whether we're giving our best or whether we're just giving some, and he knows our heart.
00:12:55
Speaker
So I remember hearing a story in church where one of the pastors was telling a story about a man who was older. and he no longer um came to church and he didn't want to participate.
00:13:10
Speaker
And he had been around for a while and um and he had always ah given a tithe. A tithe means 10%. And so that is one of the things that God asks for us to give him back is 10% of what he gives us.
00:13:27
Speaker
And that is the one thing in the Bible where God says that test me on this. If you give me your 10%, I will give you back more. And nowhere else does God invite us to test him on anything that I'm aware of anyway.
00:13:41
Speaker
um And so I've heard a sermon about that. And so that was probably the sermon there that day. And so a man had um specifically been giving so that he could get back more. So when when the ah pastor talked to them him and said, hey, I haven't seen you in a while. What's going on?
00:14:00
Speaker
We miss you. And he said, well, I'm not going anymore. And he said, well, why? And he said, well, I was giving 10% because I expected God to give me back more. And he didn't.
00:14:13
Speaker
And that's a little bit of a surprise, isn't it? And so ah the pastor ah explained that um and God invites us to to test him, that he will give back more, but not that is different. He had a specific goal, that but like an investment opportunity, that as ah he wanted to invest expecting a high yield return.
00:14:38
Speaker
And that's not what God says. He says that you know when we are to give, we are to give joyfully. We give out of choice. We don't give because we feel like we have to.
00:14:50
Speaker
So when you give something to God, we should give it with the choice that we want to give it because nobody wants to be given something because they feel like you have to give it to them. What if you gave somebody a birthday gift? Well, here's your birthday gift. It's your birthday and you're expecting something. So here it is.
00:15:08
Speaker
That wouldn't feel very good, would it? or Or what if you know we did that for Christmas? Well, I'm supposed to give you something, so I got you something. And we would call that obligatory.
00:15:21
Speaker
ah And so God doesn't want us to give because we have to. God is very big on free will. And Hannah freely chose to give God her baby.
00:15:32
Speaker
And she was happy to do so. And she was rejoicing in the fact that ah her son would be serving him. And she was just so happy that God had blessed her with a child at all, that it was her delight to give him back to God.
00:15:48
Speaker
And so that is the difference we see here is is such is the heart. So I just wanted to encourage us that when we give to God, that we do so with a joyful heart and that we do so out of choice because God doesn't want us to give out of obligation or feeling like we have to.
00:16:05
Speaker
He wants us to be happy when we do so.
00:16:12
Speaker
And I guess that's about it. I don't know how much more I can say on that. So after, I guess the man did start coming back to church, if I remember correctly. he I don't remember exactly, but he probably did.
00:16:24
Speaker
and But he was not, I think he was maybe not alive anymore or something. And that's why that the story was told. I don't really remember those details. It was a long time ago, but it was a story that I thought I would share because it was worth repeating as an actual example of somebody trying to, um,
00:16:42
Speaker
gain profit by giving to god that's not the way it works so i just wanted to put that out there as like a a disqualification of a thing to say make sure we're not doing this and you know one of the things uh that we read earlier as far as the nazarite vow is the vow ah we have our new testament parallel and that's to the choice to give god ourselves so when we give ourselves to god it should be done joyfully and out of a choice because god gave us free will for a reason
00:17:17
Speaker
From the very beginning, Adam and Eve had free will to choose to obey or not obey. And God desires us to come to him with free will out of choice.
00:17:28
Speaker
He's not one who's going to be happy by somebody coming out of obligation. By somebody, by you feeling like, well, I'm only doing this because I have to. but Sometimes we do things out of trusting God that we don't understand what he is asking us to do, but we choose to obey ah knowing that his ways are higher than our ways.
00:17:51
Speaker
But that's not exactly the same as saying, well, I'm doing this on just because I have to. It's like when your mom or dad ask you to do something and and you have a bad attitude about it and you do it because you have to, not because you want to.
00:18:06
Speaker
but because they're bigger than you and you'll get in trouble if you don't. God doesn't want it to be that way. and um And so it's very important that we have that attitude.
Choosing Joyful Obedience
00:18:18
Speaker
I actually learned another technique in my ah training when I was becoming a health and wellness coach, that this is very applicable now. And in life, when I think I've shared this before. it sounds like i I feel like I may have shared this before.
00:18:33
Speaker
When we do something that we feel like we're only doing because we have to do it, we can change our thinking about that because ah it's better to have a better attitude about it.
00:18:46
Speaker
ah That rather than saying, I have to do this, I don't have a choice, we can say, i choose to do this because... And then give the, give the reason.
00:18:58
Speaker
And when you change your mind in thinking, i am choosing to do this because. then it makes a difference in you're in your mind and in your perspective, and it makes you happier.
00:19:14
Speaker
I absolutely can testify to that. there were There are things that, like let's say the example that I i read about or um when I was learning this was, ah I have to cook, I have to do the dishes.
00:19:28
Speaker
Well, we don't have to, you can choose not to. But if you don't, then other things that are less pleasant will happen. So instead of saying, I have to cook dinner tonight, whether I want to or not, because everybody has to eat, we can say, i choose to cook dinner tonight because my family is unable to prepare dinner themselves.
00:19:51
Speaker
Something like that. I am choosing to cook dinner tonight because I need to eat dinner and I need something to eat anyways and I'm going to make enough to share with my family.
00:20:04
Speaker
but Instead of saying, I have to do the dishes, we can say, i choose to do the dishes because I don't like the mess in the kitchen if I don't. I choose to do the dishes because I don't want to have my my plates pile up so that they become more of a chore later because eventually they do have to be done, right?
00:20:26
Speaker
So instead of making it an I have to, we can say I choose to do this. I choose to obey God because I want to be happier in my life.
00:20:39
Speaker
When we choose to obey, even if we don't understand, um then we are submitting to him. We are saying, I don't understand why i need to do this, but I trust you.
00:20:52
Speaker
And that is what faith means is to trust in God.
Living as a Sacrifice
00:20:56
Speaker
And I think I didn't complete my other thought that ah the, remember that parallel in the New Testament is to give ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.
00:21:06
Speaker
That would be applicable here as well, that we may not be giving our children to serve God from the beginning, but we can choose to present ourselves as a living sacrifice every day.
00:21:23
Speaker
And not because we have to, but because we choose to. I choose to obey God and I choose to be different for you, God, because I want to be ah pleasing to you or whatever your reason is. You will have your own personal reason.
00:21:38
Speaker
But whatever it is your whatever it is, your reason is that is what you want to say out loud, because it makes a difference when we say things out loud versus just thinking them in our heads. It just does it. When we say things out loud, they sound different and we process them differently than we do when we're just thinking things.
00:21:57
Speaker
You ever had that happen where you say, well, that sounded great until I said it out loud. that that i thought that was a great idea until I said it out loud. Because once you hear it, you realize, oh, wait, that's not a great idea.
00:22:08
Speaker
Or once you hear it, you go, oh, this is great. I love this. And so it will help you if you speak out loud to yourself. If you are having difficulty ah with making a choice to to do something that you would rather not do, then find why you would want to.
00:22:25
Speaker
And then say that. Well, guess I did have more to say. i always think of more to say after I say, well, I guess that's about it. So thank you for joining me today.
Closing and Audience Engagement
00:22:37
Speaker
Whether you are listening via TikTok or YouTube or on YouTube music or on Spotify or Apple music or Amazon music or whatever your your favorite podcasting app is or how you are choosing to watch the video, thank you so much for being here.
00:22:52
Speaker
And if you feel that God has lit your light inside today, then please click that light button. It looks like a light button with a thumbs up, but it's a light button. And ah it would help get the channel a little bit more attention and a little bit more views. People will be able to see it if YouTube or ah whatever avenue you are watching starts to see that there are likes going on.
00:23:15
Speaker
And if you have not already, please consider subscribing or following the channel. And I appreciate you being here. I will see you everybody tomorrow. And oh, we have a sixth subscriber on my YouTube.
00:23:28
Speaker
Yay. I don't know who you are, but thank you for being out there. You whoever you ah if you just recently subscribed in the last week or two, that is you. And whoever you are, i want to thank you personally for being here with me.
00:23:40
Speaker
And I'm glad you are here. i will see everybody again tomorrow.