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2 Timothy 3:16 – All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. (ESV)
To keep my brain ticking, I use a free language learning program. The app reports that I've been successful in completing the lessons for 730 days in a row. As a result of my competitive nature, maintaining a really long streak actually becomes high motivation to login every day. So, I am really focused to succeed, yet I am not truly the successful doer of 730 consecutive days of lessons.
One of the program's concessions is to make an allowance for missing a day by using what it calls a streak-freeze — a kind of cheat. When a day's input is missed, to avoid the streak being reset to zero, you can automatically use a streak-freeze, if you have saved them up. Initially, they are limited to only three in about three months: not many. I have needed several streak-freeze days to keep the streak going over the previous two years.
So, I ask: why is my desire to keep a streak going sometimes more pressing than my desire to read my Bible every day? Have I been sucked into the challenge of learning over and above hearing from God? As it is, I spend enough time in front of the computer. Surely, the Bible should come first and not be supplanted by a mere program.
For sixty years, through school, and finally, university religious studies training and teaching, I consider myself familiar with the Word of God. However, I have acquired the conceit of thinking I know what God is saying through my previous encounters with His Word and past revelation.
Sadly, if I am not praying, asking for and engaging with the Holy Spirit's illumination to hear from God today and to aid my reading of the Bible, my mind — if not yours — wanders off into the world, because of the absence of God's inspiring influence through the daily reading of His Word.
For me, prayer is just the start of the dialogue with God, where we first become still and wait, wanting to hear His voice, asking for the presence of the Holy Spirit. How else can we expect to hear from God when reading Scripture? The Bible is often God's unpretentious way of speaking truth to us for today! In truth, sometimes, by an act of grace, His Word leaps from the page — no prayers needed — but not every day!
Does it matter if we miss a day? Can we use a streak-freeze to get by until tomorrow without reading? Yes, but there are no cheats to hearing from God, only lessons to be learnt about missing God's voice for the day and prayers for grace later as He looks to our return.
Prayer: Lord, here I am before the throne of Your grace again. Please fan into flame those embers of longing for reading and hearing Your Word to feed my soul for today, for we need You. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
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Child custody: "Update April 26, 2925: T has not yet heard the final decision. April 14, 2025; Today and tomorrow..." 
Although PresbyCan doesn't have a mobile app, you can still have a PresbyCan icon on your mobile phone home screen. 
Amen, Rod.
Thanks Rod, blessings to you and your family.
Hum… Rod! Much to stop … be still …. and ponder…
Relate what God is saying to your relationship with people.
Greetings,
I will miss your message which I have enjoyed these many years.
Thank you.
Good morning, Roderick,
Thank you for the reminder.
I can identify with some of your message.
God bless.
Thank you again for your devotional in the last days of PresbyCan. I also like the hymn for today as it is a favorite of my wife’s family. avfriend went on ahead to heaven shortly after midnight. How great it is to count our eternal promises.
Many thanks Rod for another of your special devotionals. Yes, we sure can get sidetracked with things in a day and must be ever thankful that our Lord does not dismiss us for not giving Him the priority attention at times. He certainly is the one most deserving of our attention and loyalty for all the care He showers upon us. Blessings for your writings.
Rod,
Your devotionals always speak to my heart. Today, I saw the ‘streak-freeze’ as God’s mercy (undeserved favour). Then, the resumption of reading like repentance (turning around and returning). Hearing His voice again is like His grace (God’s riches at Christ’s expense). I will definitely miss your poignant messages when Presbycan ceases!
May God bless you as you bless others with your writing.
Hi Rod,
You are always so honest with sharing about your faith. I really was wondering where you were going with the title “Streak”. I didn’t get anywhere near close to how it was going to fit into your faith journey. Thank you for always looking at your faith in many different ways to encourage me to examine my own habits and lapses. May we both continue to ask God for His guidance in the days to come. Blessings.
Good morning,
Thank you for writing this devotional.
Without reading the title
Streak
Started thoughts going.
The streak
Title of an old country song.
Blessings.
So true. Because The Holy Spirit interprets The Scriptures to us, it is new to us as we meditate on it. Even though my millennium project was to write out the Bible in longhand, it still speaks to me in new ways. Right now I am doing Proverbs.
“But” is an important word. I try to see how the wise and foolish apply before I write it down in my own words. A blessing indeed.
Thank you for insightful words over the years. Bless all of the people involved in this ministry. It will be missed. As a song says, I miss you already and you’re not even gone.
Great devotional!
Especially meaningful, as I slept in yesterday and missed my time with God for the first time in….?
My whole day was discombobulated, and it wasn’t until I had a walk and sat quietly in a park nearby, that I recovered. On the way home, a camellia was lying on the path. (No camellia bushes in sight!)
Thanks so much for your wisdom over the years with Robin’s PresbyCan; it’s sometimes been amusing, always been uplifting, and always right from your heart!
Hi Rod,
I am a church administrator for a church in Toronto, Canada, and I have been receiving the daily devotions to my work inbox since I started here 7+ years ago. I guess the previous administrator had signed up for them. I have enjoyed reading them every day and am sad that they are closing down shortly.
While I enjoyed many of the writers, I was almost always able to guess that it was one of yours before I even checked at the bottom – bit of a game to see if I could guess! You have a sensible, relatable way of sharing important truths, and I will miss that. Thank you for your writing over the years.
Funny that you mentioned the language learning game – I was just out with a friend who told me about these ‘streak-freezes’. God’s timing is perfect!
I hope you keep writing.
Blessings,
(ON)
God speaks to us every day, even when we aren’t listening, and indeed, even then, moves within us and uses us to speak to others.
Thank you, Rod, for this encouragement. In the last ten or so years, I have finally developed the daily habit of time with God’s Word. When I’m on vacation, or my schedule is disrupted, it doesn’t happen and I miss it.