Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You Can Do Hard Things | Historical Books | 1 Kings 20:26-43

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Every night before my kids go to bed, I speak truth over them. I say this to my son. You are my son, and I love you, and I'm proud of you, and you have what it takes. You can do hard things. That last line, you can do hard things.

Starting point is 00:00:30 That might sound a little bit strange to you. You might be thinking I'm a tough dad telling me. my son to toughen up. But that's not the point. The point is that I love him and I want him to know what's true about himself. He can do hard things. And that's important to say for at least three reasons. First of all, this life isn't easy. I wish I could tell him that he'll never face temptations, hurts, or hardships. But that would be a lie. He will. And he can do hard things. The second reason is that this life tells us lies. One of those lies is that we can't survive the hard things.

Starting point is 00:01:08 We can't go and do the hard things required to go forward. And in some senses, this isn't actually quite a lie. I mean, it's actually a half-truth, because the reality is that on our own, we really are quite helpless. Apart from God's love, strength, grace, and mercy, we'd all be crushed by the challenges of this life. And the only way we could cope with hardship would be through substances, addiction, injustice, or idolatry.

Starting point is 00:01:33 but if God is with you, then you can live in a different reality. You can do hard things because he's with you. And perhaps more importantly, it's good to know that because he is with you, he'll call you to do hard things. He'll call you to be faithful to him even when it costs you your job promotion or your reputation or even a relationship. He'll call you to share about him, even when it might cost you some discomfort and awkwardness. He'll call you to trust him and obey him, even when it seems like everything in your life is falling apart.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And I want my son to know that the world is lying to him when it says you can't do hard things. No, you can do hard things because God is with you. So the first reason I say this is because life isn't easy. The second reason I say this is because life tells us lies. But the third reason I say this to him is that God tells us he uses hard things to transform. us. So if my son runs away from the hard things in his life, he'll never fully experience what God wants for his life. Paul wrote this in Romans 5. We also glory in our sufferings. You could call those the hard things because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance,

Starting point is 00:02:50 character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote something similar in James 1, verses 2 to 4. He said, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, hard things, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. why did both of these men come to the same conclusion? I think it's because Jesus taught this and Jesus lived it.

Starting point is 00:03:33 Before his crucifixion, he cried out to God to take away the cross. But then he said this, yet not as I will, but as you will. So when God called him to do the hardest thing in history, to die on the cross, to bear the sins of the world, what did Jesus do? He did the hard thing. How did he do it by the strength? of his father. And what was the result? His resurrection, glorification, and enthronement in heaven. The grain of the universe is cross-shaped. Doing hard things and obedience to God is always the path

Starting point is 00:04:10 to life, even if it feels like death. It's always the path to transformation, to glorification, to character, and to hope. I don't want my son to miss out on what God wants him to do in his life by doing hard things. So I remind him of the truth. In Christ, you, my son, can do hard things. In today's passage, we see the inverse message, that when we refuse to obey God and do hard things, not only stunts our growth,

Starting point is 00:04:40 it ultimately leads to our destruction. Just before the passage we're about to read, we learned that the king of Syria, a man named Ben Haddad, is coming in war against Ahab, who's the king of Israel. And yet, despite Ahab's terrible track record and despite the fact that he is impossibly outnumbered by Syria, God sends a prophet to say this to him. This is what the Lord says. Because the Syrians think the Lord is a God of the hills and not a God of the valleys,

Starting point is 00:05:10 I will deliver this vast army into your hands, Ahab. And you will know that I am the Lord. So God is showing up through Ahab to rescue the people from the Syrians who have been unjustly oppressing them. Ahab's job is simply to fight the fight and to put serious king Ben Haddad to death. So what ends up happening? Well, they fight.

Starting point is 00:05:33 And Israel wins. But when Ben Hadad comes groveling to Ahab, King Ahab doesn't follow through. He doesn't do the hard thing. Instead, he calls Ben Hadad a brother. The man should be brought to justice for all the evils he's committed against Israel. But Ahab says, no, you're a brother of the.

Starting point is 00:05:52 the king. And if you wonder why, the next verse makes it clear. Doing this wasn't just easy. It was financially advantageous for Ahab. This is what Ben Haddad promises Ahab in return. I will return the cities my father took from your father. You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria. So Ahab isn't driven by mercy. He's driven by greed. And that becomes apparent later when a prophet pretends to be injured. And he tells A.m. this made-up story. Catch this. As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him. Your servant, he's talking about himself, went into the thick of battle. And someone came to me with a captive and said, guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, where you must pay a talent of

Starting point is 00:06:38 silver. While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared. This is your sentence, the king of Israel said. You have pronounced it yourself. So did you catch it? Ahab shows this man No mercy. Why does he show him no mercy? Well, because he had nothing to gain from him. I don't want you to miss the irony, because Ahab is condemning this prophet for failing in the exact way Ahab himself failed. He was given Ben Haddad, and he was supposed to enact justice upon him, but he didn't do what he was supposed to do. So Ahab refused to do the hard thing. As a result, God tells Ahab that he will suffer under the sentence that he proclaimed over the prophet. Ahab will die. If we pull back the camera, we can see that what Jesus taught about the cross was true.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Whoever seeks their life will lose it. Whoever loses their life for Jesus will find it. That's because the world is cross-shaped. If you chase after your own comfort, wealth, and reputation, by refusing to obey God, by refusing to do hard things, you won't find life. You'll find an empty life. and eventually you'll find eternal death. But those who give their life to Jesus accept his offer of forgiveness and salvation and enjoy his love by obeying him. Well, those people will find their life. So here Jesus' word to you.

Starting point is 00:08:05 He loves you. He's proud of you. He's given you everything you need so you have what it takes. You can do hard things.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You Can Do Hard Things | Historical Books | 1 Kings 20:26-43

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