Accept and submit to the word
which has been planted in you
and can save your souls. JM 1:21
1 KINGS 11:4-13
Why is it, My Soul's Beloved, that we are so fickle? When our souls are bereft of suffering, when things do not go our way, when those we love are facing great trials, we cling to You day and night and plead with You to rescue them and us from all our calamities. But, no longer than everything is right again and life becomes serene and joyous again, we forget that we owe You constant obedience and love.
Solomon owed everything to You. His wisdom was God's gift to him, including his fame and his wealth. The hand of God bless him, and yet in his old age, he forgot completely to whom his allegiance was due. All too often, we bend backwards to please people, those with power, influence, or those we love, and we fail in our duty to God and to keeping Your commandments, which are imperative if we are to live fruitful and holy lives pleasing to You.
There is only one God, and Him alone we must fear because You are good and because You first loved us. Have pity and mercy on us, O Lord, for having strayed, either deliberately or through ignorance. Bring us back, O Lord. Wash away our iniquity, cleanse us from our sins, and restore and heal us in every way.
When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with the Lord his God as his father David’s had been. Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination. He did what was displeasing to the Lord, and was not a wholehearted follower of the Lord, as his father David had been. Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.
The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him and who had then forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out the Lord’s order. The Lord therefore said to Solomon, ‘Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. For your father David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands. Even so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son one tribe.’
PSALM 105(106):3-4,35-37,40
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with the Lord his God as his father David’s had been. Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination. He did what was displeasing to the Lord, and was not a wholehearted follower of the Lord, as his father David had been. Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.
The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him and who had then forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out the Lord’s order. The Lord therefore said to Solomon, ‘Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. For your father David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands. Even so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son one tribe.’
PSALM 105(106):3-4,35-37,40
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
They are happy who do what is right,
who at all times do what is just.
O Lord, remember me
out of the love you have for your people.
But instead they mingled with the nations
and learned to act as they did.
They worshipped the idols of the nations
and these became a snare to entrap them.
They even offered their own sons
and their daughters in sacrifice to demons,
till his anger blazed against his people;
he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.
who at all times do what is just.
O Lord, remember me
out of the love you have for your people.
But instead they mingled with the nations
and learned to act as they did.
They worshipped the idols of the nations
and these became a snare to entrap them.
They even offered their own sons
and their daughters in sacrifice to demons,
till his anger blazed against his people;
he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
MARK 7:24-30
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
You had every intention of healing the woman's little daughter who had an unclean spirit. She heard of You. She believed You could do for her daughter what You had done for so many. Her love for her child emboldened her to plead persistently that You do what she asked of You with complete faith and confidence. Soon, before all who were present, You would praise her persistence in not taking no for an answer, and her faith in You would be rewarded. But first, You wanted to teach them and us how we are to approach You when we make our prayers of petition to You.
We ought not to give up when our prayers are not answered immediately. Persistence purifies us as we humbly continue to make our cause known to You who already knows our hearts and desires to give us all that is good for us. We are not to be easily offended, but understand who You are and who we are. You are God; we are not. We keep asking, pleading, praying, even with tears and loud cries, until at a favorable time, at a time of Your choosing, You will give us all we ask for and more. And in the waiting and praying, our faith, hope, and love are strengthened.
Jesus left Gennesaret and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognised. A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.’ And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
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