Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.[Philippians 4:6]
Do you remember when you first got behind the wheel of a car? You had to consciously think about everything you did. Okay, let's see . . . key in the ignition, look over your shoulder, and pull out. You had to think about it. It was challenging at first. But after a while, you got it down, and now it comes naturally. You don't even think about driving anymore. You just get in the car and drive. It's a conditioned reflex.
A conditioned reflex is something you learn. You teach yourself to do it, and through repetition, you find yourself doing it naturally. Then there is a normal reflex, which comes naturally. For instance, if you touch a hot iron, you will pull your hand away quickly because it's hot. A child will do that too.
We also have normal and conditioned reflexes to fear and worry. Our natural tendency when we are in trouble is not to pray but to worry. Something happens, and we begin going through scenarios that stack up in our minds like dominoes. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if this other thing happens? The normal reflex when we are in trouble is to worry.
But what we need to teach ourselves to do is to pray. That is a conditioned reflex. It is not what we naturally want to do. When we get bad news, what should we do? We should stop and pray. That is what the Scriptures tell us to do.
Often when we are facing adversity, our first instinct is to turn to people for help. And there is no question that God can work through people. He can provide through family and friends and help us. But ultimately we should turn to God when trouble comes.
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Today's Bible Reading
Numbers 19:1 Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, 2 “This is the regulation from the Torah which Adonai has commanded. Tell the people of Isra’el to bring you a young red female cow without fault or defect and which has never borne a yoke. 3 You are to give it to El‘azar the cohen; it is to be brought outside the camp and slaughtered in front of him. 4 El‘azar the cohen is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle this blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 The heifer is to be burned to ashes before his eyes — its skin, meat, blood and dung is to be burned to ashes. 6 The cohen is to take cedar-wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the heifer as it is burning up. 7 Then the cohen is to wash his clothes and himself in water, after which he may re-enter the camp; but the cohen will remain unclean until evening. 8 The person who burned up the heifer is to wash his clothes and himself in water, but he will remain unclean until evening. 9 A man who is clean is to collect the ashes of the heifer and store them outside the camp in a clean place. They are to be kept for the community of the people of Isra’el to prepare water for purification from sin. 10 The one who collected the ashes of the heifer is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. For the people of Isra’el and for the foreigner staying with them this will be a permanent regulation.
11 “Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, will be unclean for seven days. 12 He must purify himself with [these ashes] on the third and seventh days; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. 13 Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose dead body it is, and does not purify himself has defiled the tabernacle of Adonai. That person will be cut off from Isra’el, because the water for purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
14 “This is the law: when a person dies in a tent, everyone who enters the tent and everything in the tent will be unclean for seven days. 15 Every open container without a cover closely attached is unclean. 16 Also whoever is in an open field and touches a corpse, whether of someone killed by a weapon or of someone who died naturally, or the bone of a person, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
17 “For the unclean person they are to take some of the ashes of the animal burned up as a purification from sin and add them to fresh water in a container. (LY: ii) 18 A clean person is to take a bunch of hyssop leaves, dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the containers, on the people who were there, and on the person who touched the bone or the person killed or the one who died naturally or the grave. 19 The clean person will sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days. On the seventh day he will purify him; then he will wash his clothes and himself in water; and he will be clean at evening. 20 The person who remains unclean and does not purify himself will be cut off from the community because he has defiled the sanctuary of Adonai. The water for purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. 21 This is to be a permanent regulation for them. The person who sprinkles the water for purification is to wash his clothes. Whoever touches the water for purification will be unclean until evening. 22 Anything the unclean person touches will be unclean, and anyone who touches him will be unclean until evening.”
20:1 The people of Isra’el, the whole community, entered the Tzin Desert in the first month, and they stayed in Kadesh. There Miryam died, and there she was buried.
2 Because the community had no water, they assembled themselves against Moshe and Aharon. 3 The people quarreled with Moshe and said, “We wish we had died when our brothers died before Adonai. 4 Why did you bring Adonai’s community into this desert? To die there, we and our livestock? 5 Why did you make us leave Egypt? To bring us to this terrible place without seed, figs, grapevines, pomegranates or even water to drink?” 6 Moshe and Aharon left the assembly, went to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces; and the glory of Adonai appeared to them.
(RY: ii, LY: iii) 7 Adonai said to Moshe, 8 “Take the staff, assemble the community, you and Aharon your brother; and before their eyes, tell the rock to produce its water. You will bring them water out of the rock and thus enable the community and their livestock to drink.” 9 Moshe took the staff from the presence of Adonai, as he had ordered him. 10 But after Moshe and Aharon had assembled the community in front of the rock, he said to them, “Listen here, you rebels! Are we supposed to bring you water from this rock?” 11 Then Moshe raised his hand and hit the rock twice with his staff. Water flowed out in abundance, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, “Because you did not trust in me, so as to cause me to be regarded as holy by the people of Isra’el, you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” 13 This is M’rivah Spring [Disputation Spring], where the people of Isra’el disputed with Adonai, and he was caused to be regarded as holy by them.
(LY: iv) 14 Moshe sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “This is what your brother Isra’el says: you know all the troubles we have gone through — 15 that our ancestors went down into Egypt, we lived in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly. 16 But when we cried out to Adonai, he heard us, sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Now here we are in Kadesh, a city at the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not go through fields or vineyards, and we won’t drink any water from the wells. We will go along the King’s Highway, not turning aside either to the right or to the left until we have left your territory.”
18 But Edom answered, “You are not to pass through my land; if you do, I will come out against you with the sword.” 19 The people of Isra’el replied, “We will keep to the highway; if we do drink the water, either we or our livestock, we will pay for it. Just let us pass through on foot — it’s nothing.” 20 But he said, “You are not to pass through”; and Edom came out against them with many people and much force. 21 Thus Edom refused to allow Isra’el passage through its territory, so Isra’el turned away.
(RY: iii, LY: v) 22 They traveled on from Kadesh; and the people of Isra’el, the whole community, arrived at Mount Hor. 23 At Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, 24 “Aharon is about to be gathered to his people, because he is not to enter the land I have given to the people of Isra’el, inasmuch as you rebelled against what I said at the M’rivah Spring. 25 Take Aharon and El‘azar his son, bring them up to Mount Hor, 26 remove the garments from Aharon and put them on El‘azar his son. Aharon will be gathered to his people — he will die there.”
27 Moshe did as Adonai had ordered. They went up onto Mount Hor before the eyes of the whole community. 28 Moshe removed the garments from Aharon, and put them on El‘azar his son, and Aharon died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moshe and El‘azar came down the mountain. 29 When the entire community saw that Aharon was dead, they mourned Aharon thirty days, the whole house of Isra’el.
Psalm 28: (0) By David:
(1) Adonai, I am calling to you;
my Rock, don’t be deaf to my cry.
For if you answer me with silence,
I will be like those who fall in a pit.
2 Hear the sound of my prayers
when I cry to you,
when I lift my hands
toward your holy sanctuary.
3 Don’t drag me off with the wicked,
with those whose deeds are evil;
they speak words of peace to their fellowmen,
but evil is in their hearts.
4 Pay them back for their deeds,
as befits their evil acts;
repay them for what they have done,
give them what they deserve.
5 For they don’t understand the deeds of Adonai
or what he has done.
He will break them down;
he will not build them up.
6 Blessed be Adonai,
for he heard my voice as I prayed for mercy.
7 Adonai is my strength and shield;
in him my heart trusted, and I have been helped.
Therefore my heart is filled with joy,
and I will sing praises to him.
8 Adonai is strength for [his people],
a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
9 Save your people! Bless your heritage!
Shepherd them, and carry them forever!
Mark 5:1 Yeshua and his talmidim arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gerasenes’ territory. 2 As soon as he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the burial caves to meet him. 3 He lived in the burial caves; and no one could keep him tied up, not even with a chain. 4 He had often been chained hand and foot, but he would snap the chains and break the irons off his feet, and no one was strong enough to control him. 5 Night and day he wandered among the graves and through the hills, howling and gashing himself with stones.
6 Seeing Yeshua from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him 7 and screamed at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Yeshua, Son of God Ha‘Elyon? I implore you in God’s name! Don’t torture me!” 8 For Yeshua had already begun saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of this man!” 9 Yeshua asked him, “What’s your name?” “My name is Legion,” he answered, “there are so many of us”; 10 and he kept begging Yeshua not to send them out of that region.
11 Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding near the hill, 12 and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so we can go into them.” 13 Yeshua gave them permission. They came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering around two thousand, rushed down the hillside into the lake and were drowned. 14 The swineherds fled and told it in the town and in the surrounding country, and the people went to see what had happened. 15 They came to Yeshua and saw the man who had had the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were frightened. 16 Those who had seen it told what had happened to the man controlled by demons and to the pigs; 17 and the people began begging Yeshua to leave their district.
18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonized begged him to be allowed to go with him. 19 But Yeshua would not permit it. Instead, he said to him, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much Adonai in his mercy has done for you.” 20 He went off and began proclaiming in the Ten Towns how much Yeshua had done for him, and everyone was amazed.
21 Yeshua crossed in the boat to the other side of the lake, and a great crowd gathered around him. 22 There came to him a synagogue official, Ya’ir by name, who fell at his feet 23 and pleaded desperately with him, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please! Come and lay your hands on her, so that she will get well and live!”
24 He went with him; and a large crowd followed, pressing all around him. 25 Among them was a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years 26 and had suffered a great deal under many physicians. She had spent her life savings; yet instead of improving, she had grown worse. 27 She had heard about Yeshua, so she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe; 28 for she said, “If I touch even his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Instantly the hemorrhaging stopped, and she felt in her body that she had been healed from the disease. 30 At the same time, Yeshua, aware that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 His talmidim responded, “You see the people pressing in on you; and still you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But he kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 The woman, frightened and trembling, because she knew what had happened to her, came and fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth. 34 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your trust has healed you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house came, saying, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the rabbi any longer?” 36 Ignoring what they had said, Yeshua told the synagogue official, “Don’t be afraid, just keep trusting.” 37 He let no one follow him except Kefa, Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Ya‘akov’s brother. 38 When they came to the synagogue official’s house, he found a great commotion, with people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 On entering, he said to them, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead, she’s just asleep!” 40 And they jeered at him. But he put them all outside, took the child’s father and mother and those with him, and went in where the child was. 41 Taking her by the hand, he said to her, “Talita, kumi!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 At once the girl got up and began walking around; she was twelve years old. Everybody was utterly amazed. 43 He gave them strict orders to say nothing about this to anyone, and told them to give her something to eat.
Harvest Ministries with Greg LaurieP.O. Box 4000
Riverside, California 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1-800-821-3300
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