Brave Words

I created the mountains and the wind. I let humans know what I am thinking. I bring darkness at dawn and step over hills. I am the Lord God All-Powerful!

Amos 4:13 (CEV)

Amos was a shepherd whom God instructed to speak on his behalf to the people. Every one of the Israelites must have been confused, perhaps even Amos, that God would choose someone who wasn’t a priest, or even a leader of any kind, for this task.

Through Amos, God accused the nation of Israel of terrible sins. They had forgotten who God is, what he expected, and what he could do. Because they ignored him, they were looking out only for themselves. They abused the poor. Their religion was just ritual without heart. They cheated, took bribes, and were unjust. They followed their leaders into all kinds of evil.

God would not ignore this. He would not let them continue to hurt others, and themselves, because he loved them too much. He sent Amos to warn them, and then he carried through with his punishment.

Amos’s message still rings true for us today. When we don’t put God first in our lives—when we don’t worship him with all our heart—we quickly sink into all kinds of sinful behaviors that hurt ourselves and others. We need to keep ourselves in check, and, when God asks us to, we need to be ready to speak out against the evils of our day. We need to love others by redirecting them from a destructive path.

SPIRITUAL FITNESS TRAINING

Think of a time when you acted selfishly recently. How would you have behaved differently had you taken time to reflect on God’s Word and on his love for you? On some paper, draw a symbol representing a part of today’s verse and place it where it will remind you of God’s power and love.

INSPIRATION

“Deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man, myself.”

—Thomas Brooks, Puritan preacher and author in the 1600s

KEEP IT GOING

Related passages: These additional verses will help you expand Scriptural knowledge and place on the armor of God’s Word to tackle each day. Swipe to read the passages today.

1 Chronicles 16:14

Psalm 65:5-7

Acts 17:30-31

2 Timothy 4:1a