Obstacles
I"m just flat out excited again! The Fourth of July we had this fun obstacle course set up for our grandchildren and I wanted to use the photos in a devotional today, so I searched The Message translation to find verses with the word "obstacle". The one that really spoke to my heart is in 2 Samuel 7: 11-16 is where he is speaking to David about what is ahead for his son, Solomon. What a great passage of encouragement for those of us praying for our children to be trained up in the ways of the Lord and for them to train up our grandchildren to love the Lord's discipline and to trust Him to see us through the obstacles of life!
Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you're buried with your ancestors, then I'll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, ad I'll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom's rule permanently. I'll be a father to him, and he'll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I'll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I'll never removed my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whim I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I'm keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid.
