Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:
She looked after the king and took care of him.
1 Kings 1:4

Chosen for her youth and beauty, Abishag found
herself one day the live-in nurse of the great but
old King David. Her job was to keep the king warm.
Within months her patient died. We know little
about their relationship except that they never had
sexual intercourse. She offered David uncomplicated
companionship and human closeness without
agenda in his last days. Little did she know how
complicated her own life would soon become.

Almost immediately after David's death, Abishag
became the bargaining chip in a power struggle
between the king's son Solomon and widow Bathsheba,
and another son of David, Adonijah. For Adonijah,
Abishag was probably little more than a possible
leverage point to renew his claim on the throne of David.
Bathsheba, herself acquainted with being treated as an
pawn, may have been trying to do Abishag a favor as
well as to pacify Adonijah. Her ultimate agenda, though,
was to protect her son, Solomon. Solomon gave his
half brother no room for doubt. He assumed Adonijah
was planning to use Abishag to fight for the throne.
These maneuvers make one fact clear: No one cared
what Abishag thought. She might as well have been
listed with the furniture.

Home and work are both settings in which people are
sometimes treated as objects. You may bear the
emotional scars of past encounters with people who
devalued and abused you. You may be hurt today by
such treatment. Family members may withhold
appreciation. Fellow workers may treat you like just
another office machine. Resist these invitations to
hopelessness or resentment by remembering that God
knows. He knows you intimately, and he will always
treat you as a person of value.

OTHER PEOPLE MAY OVERLOOK US, BUT GOD
NEVER DOES!

(from More To Life weekly devotion)

Scripture:

"But will God really live on earth among people?
Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain
you. How much less this Temple I have built!"
2 Chronicles 6:18, NLT

Solomon marveled that God would be willing to
live on this earth among sinful people. We marvel
that God, through his Son, Jesus, lived among us
in human form to reveal his eternal purposes to us.
In doing so, God was reaching out to us in love.

God wants us to reach out to him in return in order
to know him and to love him with all our heart.
Don't simply marvel at his power; take time to get
to know him.

(Life Application Daily Devotion)

The Pig and the Cow

"Why is it," said the rich man to his minister, "that
people call me stingy when everyone knows that
when I die I'm leaving everything to the church?"

"Let me tell you a fable about the pig and the cow,"
said the minister.

"The pig was unpopular while the cow was beloved.
This puzzled the pig. 'People speak warmly of your
gentle nature and your sorrowful eyes,' the pig said
to the cow. 'They think you're generous because
each day you give them milk and cream. But what
about me? I give them everything I have. I give bacon
and ham. I provide bristles for brushes. They even
pickle my feet! Yet not one likes me. Why is that?'
Do you know what the cow answered? " said the
minister. "The cow said, 'Perhaps it is because I
give while I'm still living.'"