I felt the LORD whispering to me to read today’s passages from my One Year Bible. This is a really great devotional. Each day it has four passages of the Bible to read from. One each from the old testament, new testament, Psalms and Proverbs. I am on April 16th as I don’t necessarily read from this version everyday.

Of course the section from the old testament would have to be one of those not-amazing lists of territory boarders… yea. But as I read further, I realized that the passage was on inheritance and remaining focused on what the Almighty has promised. As I read through the rest of the passages it was the opening lines from each section that wove a message together perfectly and I want to share…

Each line is from a different book: Joshua, Luke, Psalms and Proverbs.

“Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess.'” (Joshua)

“And he [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke)

“LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin.” (Psalms)

“One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.” (Proverbs)

Or in everyday person translation (aka my own paraphrase):

“Joshua was super old now and the LORD said to him, “Dude. You’re old. You’ve been doing this thing with me for a srzly long time, BUT we still have work to do.'”

“Jesus told his peeps (and the Pharisees and a bunch of other humans, actually) a tale to remind them even when the request for help has been made a bagillion times already, not to lose heart. Keep bringing it to God. Keep bringing it to God. Keep bringing it to God.”

“Ok, God, for realz. We see you’ve lavished massive blessings on us; you are the master of life resurrection. You bring good times back and have fully forgiven every single one of our black thoughts and actions – you paid the whole bill.”

“One person has a totally sucky life even though surrounded by all of the world’s treasures; another lives a full-on crazy good life with nothing of worldly value.”

For me, these four opening lines, written at different times and from different books, told a short story of God saying, “We’ve been together a long time. High five. Keep moving. Don’t give up hope on the things you are asking me for- keep asking. Remember the deep well of blessings and restoration I’ve already given you. Your life is SO rich compared to what the world says rich is.”

So simple, but I needed to be reminded.

Do you ever forget the simple blessings or find yourself caught up in comparing your life to other people’s?