Keep Looking Up: One Year Bible Reading for February 3

 Today in the One Year Bible, we read from the following passages:

Exodus 17:8-19:15
Matthew 22:34-23:12
Psalm 27:7-14
Proverbs 6:27-35

And in the Exodus story, we're told about Moses holding up his staff. As long as he held his staff up over his head, his army won the war. But if he got tired and his arms drooped, his army started losing. There's nothing in the book to make us think that this wasn't intended as a literal story of Moses literally holding up his arms so his army would literally beat the bad guys.

But.

There is such a powerful metaphor here. So many ways we can apply this to our lives today. As long as mom and dad are lifting up their kids every day in prayer, the enemy won't be able to beat them down. As long as YOU yourself are focusing on Jesus and not on the things of this world, our ancient foe won't be able to drag you down. We can even get super simple with it - as long as we keep looking up, keeping our focus on kindness and being Jesus to other people, we won't be dragged down into selfishness and pride and stupid sin.

So let's keep praying! And keep looking up!

God, thanks for giving us a story that might be literally true but definitely has a powerful meaning.