In Jonah one, God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach there. Jonah disobeys and gets on a boat to Tarshish. Jonah falls into a deep sleep and when he awakes there is a huge storm. Jonah tells the shipmates to toss him overboard. They eventually do, and the storm immediately stops. Then Jonah gets swallowed by a whale. In chapter two, when Jonah is in the belly of a fish, he prays to the Lord and repents. The Lord causes the fish to vomit Jonah on to the shore. In chapter three, God tells Jonah to go to Ninebeh a second time. Jonah obeys this time and he tells the people they need to repent. To Jonah's surprise, they do and God forgives them. In chapter four,Jonah is mad because he wants the city of Nineveh to die. He tells God to take his life but God doesn't. God provides a plant that Jonah can sit under but a worm chews on it and it dies. Jonah gets really upset about the plant and God asks him how it is okay to be mad about a plant. Jonah gets very angry about the plant and wants to die and God asks how it is right to be concerned over a plant and not concerned about the 120,000 people in Nineveh

Favorite verse: Jonah 4:1, "But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry," This is my favorite verse because Jonah thinks he can determine right from wrong but he can't.

Application: I am like Jonah because sometimes when I'm like mad at my sister I like want her to be punished because I'm so mad at her. Even though wanting the people of Nineveh to go to hell is more extreme than me wanting my sister to get punished its still the same sin. I am going to try to be nicer to my sister and to not always want her to be in trouble.

The first three chapters of Hosea are about how Hosea and his adulteress wife, Gomer, represent God and Israel. God told Hosea to take an unfaithful wife so that he could use him and his wife as an example for the Israelites when they sinned. Every time Gomer sleeps with another man, Hosea always forgives her and takes her back. In the same way, Israel always sins and God never abandons them. Also, God tells Hosea to name his children No Mercy, and Not My People to represent how God will have no mercy for theIsraelites and they will no longer be his people. Israel sins but, of course, God still forgives them and restores them. In chapter four and five it's about how Israel has rejected the Lord so God will punish them and reject them also. Chapter five is more about how God will bring judgment upon them for their sin and rejection. Chapter six is about how God is saying that Israel only acknowledges the Lord when they want to be restored but God is not having it this time. Chapter fourteen is about God saying if the Israelites will repent then he will restore him because his anger has turned away from them.

My favorite verse: Romans 7:19: "19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." In Hosea 14:1 "14 Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!" God understands that the Israelites don't want to sin just like Paul says in Romans so he gives us grace and forgiveness. 

Application: Israel kind of reminds me of myself sometimes. Like, I don't want to sin like it says in Romans 7:19 but I still do and God knows that, so he gives me grace. I always get mad at him when something doesn't go my way but he forgives me anyways and I always go back to the same old sins and I know I'm sinning  and he knows that too. Yet, he still takes me back every time.

Psalm 51

In Psalm 51, David is asking the Lord to cleanse his sin. He committed adultrey and murder so he's asking the Lord for forgiveness and mercy. He says that if the Lord forgives him he'll sing his praises.

My favorite verse is 4, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." This is my favorite verse because I have never thought of the fact that when I sin, I sin against the Lord, not just whoever I lied to or was mean to or whatever. I mean I knew that but I guess I just really didn't process it. 


Application: Everytime I want to watch a movie that I haven't asked my parents about I'll will thin about that I'm not just sinning against my parents... I'm sinning against the Lord. The Holy Spirit lives inside of me and when I sin, it hurts him. Everytime I want to sin, this is what I'll think about. 

In Judges four, the Israelites have been enslaved by Jabin, King of Cannaan for twenty years. They cry out to The Lord for help and Deborah sets up a meeting and sens Barak with 20000 men to attack. While they were attacking, the commander of the army, Sisera, fled to the tent of Jael. He told her to stand by the door and that if anyone asked, she had not seen him. He then laid down and fell asleep. Jael took a tent peg and a hammer and killed Sisera. Then she showed the men who were looking for him his body.

 My favorite verse is verse 21, " But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died." This is my favorite verse because it kind of made me laugh. Like I was reading and totally didn't expect that that woman would do that. It kind makes me think like wow girl power, we can be strong too. 

Actually Jael inspired me to do what is right no matter what the costs. Like, I'm sure she knew that if she killed that man it would always be on her conscience because killing someone is not easy, obviously.  My friends swear a lot and I know it isn't right so even though I know they wouldn't like think I was weird if I didn't swear they will still think of me as different and I need to do what's right no matter what my friends are gonna think. 

Chapter 1: Moses has died so God tell Joshua that he is the new leader. He promise Joshua that everywhere the Israelites walk, the land will be theirs and all nations will fear them. God will be the same with Joshua as he was with Moses. They will meditate on God and be prosperous. God tells them to be strong and courageous. Joshua gives command to the people and they obey.

Chapter 2: Joshua sends two spies into the Promised land and they go to the house of a prostitute named Rahab. She hides them and tells the people who are looking for them that they left through the gates just before dark. She tells the spies that she knows that God has promised the land to them and that she believes in God. She makes them promise to save her and her family because she hid them. They promise and then tell her that when they come to fight, to let the scarlet cord hang out of their window so they know to kill anyone in that house. Then the spies depart.

Chapter 3: Joshua tells the people that as soon as they see the ark of the covenant being carried by the Levitical priests they should follow it but stay 2000 cubits away from it. Joshua tells them to consecrate themselves because the Lord would be doing great things the next day. God tells the people that when the priests come to the Jordan river and stand still, the waters would go in a heap and the Israelites would walk across on dry land.

Favorite verse: Joshua 2:9: and said to the men, "I know that The Lord has given you the land , and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you." This is my favorite verse because the prostitute Rahab who has never heard of God before, heard about him and immediately she believed. If I were her I would've laughed like the others and wouldn't have believed.

Application: Its almost embarrassing that I have known God my whole life and I still don't have as much faith as Rahab. I really want to have faith like Rahab did and I'm going to do that by getting an accountability partner to help me with consistent devotional times so that I can grow in my faith and be like her.