The Bible Kneecap

Day 235

Jesus, 

We praise You for Your sacrificial love, You gave Your life in a gruesome death, taking on the punishment for our sins, so that we could be pardoned by the Father. Father, thank You for pointing to our righteousness. You know our sins even more than we do, yet You call us righteous because of Jesus. Spirit, You’re the One who prompts us to repent when we sin, so You must see our sin. And we thank You for seeing it and calling us to repent. 

And we do repent, God. Like Kedar and Hazor, we’ve expected trouble and judgment to pass us by. We’ve been shocked at the consequences because we felt like we didn’t deserve them. What we don’t deserve, God, is Your mercy. But You’ve given it nonetheless, so we continue to ask for it: have mercy on me, a sinner.

Thank You that we can come to You in our sins. We experience Your presence to bless. So we ask for Your blessing—bless us with greater knowledge of Yourself, bless us with the gift of obedience, bless us with an increase of the fruit of Your Spirit who lives in us and demonstrates You to the world around us. The greatest blessing we could ever receive is to be conformed more to the image of Your Son than yesterday. 

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every moment of our day, each decision we make, we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. Your ways are perfect.

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 234

God of the Universe,

You are our Father, and You are sovereign over all the lesser gods—the false gods and pagan gods and demon gods. They are no gods at all and the only power they have is what You allow them to have. They are no threat to You and Your plan. We praise You for Your sovereign power and control even over Your enemies. 

Have mercy on me, a sinner. We turn FROM our sins TO You and ask You to make our hearts clean. Like Moab, our hearts have been entitled and arrogant. We’ve put our hope in strength and wealth. We’ve trusted in our best qualities, hoping they’ll help us advance and get what we want in life. We exalt ourselves against You, God. We fail to thank You for Your gifts to us and we neglect to ask what YOU have for our lives, and instead we just forge ahead with our own plans. So we repent. 

We confess that Your way is perfect and ours is not, and we praise You for inviting us to walk with You in Your way. Thank You for the promise of Your nearness and for the peace that comes from remembering that.

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every moment of our day, each decision we make, we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 233

Father, 

Thank You for never giving up on us. Spirit, thank You for convicting us of our sins instead of leaving us to wander off into captivity with hardened hearts. Jesus, thank You for paying our sin-debt fully so that even our future sins can’t separate us from the Father’s love. 

God, we have doubted Your clear instruction. At times, we’ve done what seemed best to us even when Your Spirit prompted us in another direction, like the people of Judah. We’ve brought others along in our sin, like they did with Jeremiah. We’ve blamed our problems on others. And like them, there are probably still areas of our hearts in which we haven’t humbled ourselves to this day. Would You bring those to mind so we can actively and specifically repent? Would You soften our hearts so that we can feel Your conviction when it’s a gentle prod instead of a hammer? 

We don’t want hard hearts, God. We want malleable, soft hearts that respond to You. Because You are merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, and You can be trusted to punish sin.

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every moment of our day, each decision we make, we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 232

Father, 

We pray like the prophet Habakkuk: Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength.

Have mercy on me, a sinner. We repent of our sins and turn to You and we ask You to make our hearts clean. It seems like we’re always putting our hope in something else besides You, even when we’re trying to be intentional. We’re still drawn in by the pull of wealth or security or pleasure or power or control. So here we are, again today, repenting, and asking You to show us the better way—the way of surrender, the way of trust and hope and freedom and joy.  

You are the God of our salvation. You are our strength. 

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every tree, every vine, every stall—we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 231

Father, 

You have Your sights set on restoration, and we praise You for it! We’ve rebelled, like Judah, and we’ve been shackled to our sin, kept in the dungeon—yet You graciously freed us. You speak kindly to us. You seat us at Your table. You provide for us daily according to our needs as long as we live! You are the gracious and merciful King who rescued us. 

Despite Your abundant goodness to us, sometimes we go put back on the orange jumpsuit. We settle into our prison clothes because they’re so familiar to us. Like the Israelites who were carried out of captivity and dropped into the promised land… we choose sin over You and our affections are captured all over again by things that only want to imprison us. Have mercy on me, a sinner. We repent of our sins and we turn to You.

Would You rid us of these orange jumpsuits? They don’t belong at Your table. They carry the stench of death. You’ve clothed us in robes of righteousness, God. We’ve been washed. We’ve been made clean. When You adopted us into Your family forever, You spoke a new name and new future over us. Help us to remember that. Our truest and most eternal identity will always be Your beloved. 

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every moment of our day, each decision we make, we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 230

Father, 

We praise You for delivering us! Jesus, we praise You for atoning for our sins. You were the Father’s great “YES” to the prayer in Psalm 79! They were longing for YOU and now their prayers have been fulfilled! Thank You for that! 

Have mercy on me, a sinner. Like Zedekiah, we’ve been driven by our fears and it seems there’s no way out. We’ve delayed obedience, and it has been costly to us and to others. We repent of our sins and turn to You and we ask You to make our hearts clean.

Where we’ve been misunderstood and accused like Jeremiah, would You bring truth and clarity? Where we’re stuck and our feet are slipping in the mud, would You send miraculous rescue? Where we’re in a famine or on the brink of death, we echo the psalmist’s prayer: “According to Your great power, preserve those doomed to die!” 

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every moment of our day, each decision we make, we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

 

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today! 

Day 229

Father, 

We praise You for vigilantly preserving Your Word. We are so grateful that You’ve spoken to us at all, that You want to be known by us. Heaven and earth will pass away, but Your words will not pass away. 

We don’t always treasure them as we should, God. Like the king, sometimes we want to cut out certain pieces. We don’t want to hear the truth. We repent of our arrogance and willful ignorance, God. Have mercy on me. Have mercy on me, a sinner. Make our hearts clean.

Would You help us to treasure Your Word all the more? Carve out time for us to spend reading it. Give us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Help us know how to live it out in a way that glorifies You, even in prison, like Jeremiah did. Put us in the paths of kings and prisoners alike who need to hear Your truth, and give us the strength to speak it. Give us the faithfulness of the Rechabites, for Your glory. 

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every moment of our day, each decision we make, we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 228

Father, 

We praise You for granting us righteousness through the work of Your Son Jesus. YOU gave it to US.  Yet we still struggle with walking in the righteousness You’ve given us. Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Like Jeremiah when he bought the land, sometimes we have a surface level doubt even of something that deep down, we actually believe is true of You. We need You to remind us of those truths. And like King Zedekiah, sometimes we back down from the things You’ve called us to. We do the thing that serves our own ends instead of Yours. We repent of leaning into our fears and our selfishness and greed. 

Help us to plant our flag in Your Kingdom and nothing else. You are our plot of land. You are our inheritance. And You are our righteousness.

We surrender our lives to You, Lord—every decision, every commitment—we yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 227

Father, 

Your goodness is all-satisfying and we praise You for it! Your goodness shows up in our lives in so many ways, including the fact that You have a plan for us and for all of Your creation! We praise You that Your plans always succeed… what a comfort!

But as comforting as it is, it can sometimes be a challenge to us when it runs contrary to our own plans. Like the people of Judah, sometimes we want to stay in the place of our exile and we need reminders to follow You into freedom instead. But exile can start to feel awfully comfortable when you’ve already built your house and planted your garden, and we hate feeling discomfort. We reject change because it requires effort, even if it’s change for the better. We repent of our apathy and stagnation. We repent of believing it’s better to stay when you’ve called us to freedom or that it’s better to leave when you’ve called us to stay. Have mercy on me, a sinner. 

Fix our hearts, God. Align them with Yours. And when our circumstances aren’t satisfying, remind us that that’s okay… because YOU ARE. We can find our satisfaction in YOU. You are always with us, which means we always have access to the well of eternal joy—even BEFORE we set foot in that New Jerusalem.

We surrender our lives to You, Lord. We yield our will and way to Your perfect will and way. 

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!

Day 226

Father, 

You are the God who knows! You know literally everything. You know the parts of our hearts we don’t yet see or understand. You know the plans You have for us. You know the way You’re working in our hearts to draw them to Yourself. You know all the battles we’ll fight along the way, and You know just how to sustain us through all those trials. And we praise You not only for Your knowledge, but for the way that knowledge is inextricably linked to Your love and Your power. If you knew all about us but were evil and strong, that would be terrifying. Or if You knew all these things but were good and weak, then it wouldn’t matter, because You couldn’t do anything with what You know. So THANK YOU that You are wise, loving, AND powerful. 

Have mercy on me, a sinner. Like nearly everyone in Jeremiah’s life, we’ve resisted Your words. We’ve preferred the slick and encouraging words like Hananiah’s instead of the stark realities of our need for repentance. Even in today’s reading, the most-beloved verse is the one that talks about You blessing Judah, and we neglect to notice that it comes on the heels of You telling them they’re about to begin 70 years of exile under a wicked king. We repent of only wanting You for Your blessings, God. We repent of ignoring Your correction and balking at Your discipline.

And yet, You still have plans to bless. Despite our wickedness, it’s still true. So we ask for it, God. We ask for Your blessing. We ask for You to make Your plans know to us. We ask You make our way prosper to whatever degree honors You, and not one degree more. Only You know how much blessing our souls can handle before our eyes move from the Giver to the gift. Like You did with Jeremiah, make our spirits humble, and make our hearts so fully Yours that nothing can distract our focus.

We love You too. Amen.

SHOW NOTES: 

Host: Tara-Leigh Cobble

Writers: Callie Summers & Tara-Leigh Cobble

Sound Engineer: Allison Congden

Patreon / Show Notes / Transcripts: Courtney Vaughan

Logo: Landon Wade

Patreon: patreon.com/thebiblerecap 

Website: thebiblerecap.com

The Bible Kneecap is brought to you by D-Group, an international network of discipleship and accountability groups that meet weekly in homes and churches: Find or start one near you today!