Today’s Reading: Isaiah 48:16-50:11

On Sunday we continued our “40 Days in the Word” study by looking at another helpful way of reading the Bible: “Probe it”. John Summerfield reminded us that “probing” means to explore the details and so the idea is to read a short Bible passage through several times, asking yourself the following “probing” questions (summarized with the acrostic “SPACEPETS”!). Note that you may not be able to find an answer to every question,

S – Is there a SIN to confess?
P – Is there a PROMISE to claim?
A – Is there an ATTITUDE to change?
C – Is there a COMMAND to obey?
E – Is there an EXAMPLE to follow?
P – Is there a PRAYER to pray?
E – Is there an ERROR to avoid?
T – Is there a TRUTH to believe?
S – Is there SOMETHING to thank/praise God for?

Take a few minutes, then, to write down what you learned and, most importantly (since each of the questions is action oriented), write down what you are going to do in response.

A shorter version is “SPICE”:

S – Is there a SIN to confess/guard against?
P – Is there a PRAYER to pray?
I – Is there an INSTRUCTION to follow?
C – Is there a COMMITMENT (promise) from God to claim?
E – Is there something EXTRAORDINARY to thank/praise God for.

The suggested verse for today:

This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” (Isaiah 48:17-18)

One thing that caught my attention was the instruction to pay attention to God’s instruction. Paying attention … a simple thing, yes – but there are so many distractions, aren’t there! Where is it that God wants you to pay more attention?