February 20

Leviticus 9:7-10:20 , Mark 4:26-5:20, Psalm 37:30-40, Proverbs 10:6-7



Pray: Leviticus brings into full view the awesome honor it is to worship God. In His presence Aaron brought meticulous obedience, and he brought blood. Take a moment to praise God for taking action through the obedience and the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus so that you may come into His presence uninhibited today.

Read: Let the nature of Leviticus set the tone for the nature of your reading today. Pay attention to the details and read slowly. Ask God to reveal Himself in the small things as you get into His Word.

Edify: It quite honestly seems so barbaric entering into the sacrificial act of worship with Aaron. It’s so easy to begin getting bogged down in the Old Testament reading about this time of year. However, can you see the beauty amidst all the blood slinging? Can you see how purposeful each action is and what it reveals about the nature of worshiping our God? For instance, the peace offering is not the blood of a sweet, innocent lamb. For Moses and Aaron to call upon God for supernatural peace for his people from heaven, they had to sacrifice two large animals infamous for fighting. Imagine the size and strength of the bull for a moment. Imagine the horns, the look in his eyes as he charges in for a kill, the bucking that comes from a refusal to be tamed. Now, imagine the bull slain. Imagine the core strength of the bull in his breast and his thighs being lifted up and then annihilated by burning.

Practice: The nature of finding peace in our lives as we worship our holy God still looks the same now thousands of years later. What are the bulls and rams in your life and spirit? What is it in you that bucks against the people closest to you refusing to be tamed? What are the strongholds in your life causing quarrels that need to be slain and burned into nothing before the Lord? Today in your prayer time, ask the Spirit of God to help you analyze your last 3 fights (could be verbal or simply fuming with anger inwardly) with a spouse, friend, or coworker and reveal to you a pattern. Then, offer this character defect before the Lord. Lift it high instead of refusing to acknowledge the problem. Ask His all-consuming fire to burn it and take it from you. Your practice is to do the soul searching and bull-sacrificing work that leads to peace in your life.