Kristi Burchfiel

VERSE: Micah 1:2–Hear, O peoples, all of you; Listen, O earth and all it contains, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. TRUTH: When we do things, are we realizing that God is there? No matter where we go, or what we do, God sees us. He knows the very thoughts of our mind. The people Micah was speaking to thought they could hide their sins from God. Do we think the same? We must be open and honest with Him and ask for repentance. He sees and knows all we’ve done anyway.RESPONSE: Lord, help me to be honest with You…

VERSE: Jonah 4:2–He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was this not what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I know that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” TRUTH: Jonah was mad because God heard the request for forgiveness from the people of Ninevah and He forgave them. Jonah didn’t want them to be forgiven, He wanted them to be destroyed by God’s wrath. Are there people we won’t share with because we don’t want God to forgive them?…

VERSE: Jonah 3:2–“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” TRUTH: Jonah had repented and God had restored him to where Jonah was before. Now God gave Jonah the exact same command that had caused Jonah to run in the first place. When we’ve been disobedient to God and then ask for forgiveness, God will restore us, but typically the first choice we will face will be extremely similar to the one where we were disobedient before. It’s an opportunity to show others what we’ve learned. When we ask forgiveness and repent, did we mean it? Or will…

VERSE: Jonah 2:7–While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple. TRUTH: After three days inside the great fish, Jonah must have realized that God wasn’t going to let him die so easily. Jonah finally repented for being disobedient. God hears and acknowledges our prayer from anywhere and sometimes, He has to allow us to get to the very end of our rope, the very bottom of our self-made pit, so that we remember Him.The moment we turn to Him, no matter where we are, He is there ready and waiting to bring us back. RESPONSE: Father, than You for…

VERSE: Jonah 1:12–He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” TRUTH: Jonah was being disobedient to God and because of it, other people were feeling the effects. However, when he was confronted by them, instead of repenting and asking God to forgive him, Jonah decided that he’d rather die than do what God had told him to do. When we’re doing something wrong and are confronted about it by others, do we repent and commit to follow God or do we just…

VERSE: Titus 3:3–For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. TRUTH: What’s the difference between a follower of Jesus Christ and the most vile and evil sinner? One has accepted Jesus Christ’s gift of mercy and the other has not. That’s the only difference. Occasionally Christians can get a “holier than you” attitude when comparing themselves with non-Christians, forgetting that the one decision to follow Jesus Christ and receive His forgiveness is truly the only thing separating us from them. RESPONSE: Lord, help me never lose sight of Your mercy in my…

VERSE: Titus 2:1–But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. TRUTH: What words come out of our mouths? In today’s technology age, it seems that everything is reduced down to a sound byte and short clips. If someone were recording you, what would be the sound bytes that would characterize your daily life? Would they be reflective of God’s sound doctrine? Could they be used to teach Godly principles to others? RESPONSE: Lord, I say so many words throughout the day. I want my words to be guided by You so that no matter who hears what I say, they will be drawn to You.

VERSE: Titus 1:16–They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. TRUTH: Reading this verse, often the first things that come to mind are the names of other people we know that we feel this verse describes. While there may be truth in our assessment of others, we have not truly dealt with the verse until we examine ourselves. Do any of our own deeds throughout the day deny Christ? Since we are all sinners, the answer is yes. We must be on our guard and be focused on Jesus so that we see ourselves in comparison to…

VERSE: Malachi 4:2–But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. TRUTH: This book, and with it the Old Testament, ends with such hope and such promise. The Lord will come, He will prevail, and He will reward those who have stayed faithful to Him. The Lord will rise and bring with Him healing and joy. Are we staying steadfast? Are we focusing on the eternal reward for all that we do? RESPONSE: Father, it’s easy to get distracted by the tangible things of this world. I pray…

VERSE: Malachi 3:8–“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.” TRUTH: We often hear about giving 10% or some other such standard number to the church. While that is OK, the real issue is recognizing that everything we have belongs to God. While we will often say this, when it comes to the area of money, we don’t always act like it’s true. We hold on to our money thinking that we own it and can choose how to use it. Any time we don’t spend our money the way God would have us, we are…