Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
Feb 22, 2026, 8:26 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 22 - 1 Kings 1
Meditation Verses: 2 Samuel 22:21-25
Thought
I think I begin to understand this: We talk about being righteous and being perfect, as if one day we could actually attain unto perfection, yet we do not believe that it is possible in this life and won't happen until the next. If I think of perfection as some kind of condition I attain that causes me to always do what is right, then I'll never get there, except by judicial mandate through faith in Christ.
Feb 21, 2026, 8:37 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 18-21
Meditation Verses: 19:5-6
Thought
Absalom hated David. There's no escaping that conclusion. He had grown so bitter against his father for not protecting his sister and not judging his half-brother, that he convinced himself that killing his father was the good and right thing to do. He was determined to destroy his father. In the end, God destroyed him.
Feb 20, 2026, 6:46 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 14-17
Meditation Verses: 17:1-2
Thought
David's life is a testimony against laying hands on the Lord's anointed, but here is the wisest man in the kingdom advocating just that. As wise as Ahithophel is considered to be, he sees nothing wrong with joining in with a rebellious son of the king and planning to kill the king for that son. Two things that should be clearly wrong to the wise.
Feb 19, 2026, 9:24 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 10-13
Meditation Verses: 12:13-14
Thought
The consequence for adultery and for murder were death, but there was no one to judge David. So almost a year after the deeds were committed, God confronted David through Nathan the prophet. David confessed his sin immediately, and Nathan assured him that the Lord had taken away his sin and he would not die.
Feb 18, 2026, 1:59 PM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 6-9
Meditation Verses: 6:21-22
Thought
David didn't think of the people around him and what they thought of him as he worshiped the Lord. David thought of the Lord and all He meant to him and all He'd done for him. David worshiped the Lord alone; he wasn't putting on a show for the people to see and judge him. He didn't care what the people thought; he was fixed on God.
Feb 17, 2026, 10:05 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 2-5
Meditation Verses: 3:9-10
Thought
Abner knew what the Lord intended, but he made Ish-bosheth king anyway. His decision, with the support of the other tribes of Israel, brought much suffering to the nation, to Joab and his family, and ultimately the death of Saul's son. He knew what God wanted but went against it anyway.
Feb 13, 2025, 9:06 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 18-21
Meditation Verses: 18:14-15
Thought
Joab is a hard man, and he is wise in his own eyes. For the most part, he is loyal to David, but when he thinks his idea is better than David's, he will follow his own thoughts.
Feb 12, 2025, 8:08 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 14-17
Meditation Verse: 17:23
Thought
For all his wisdom, Ahithophel didn't see a problem with joining the son in rebellion against his father? Does he not know how greatly God hates rebellion? David's own life is a testimony to that.
Feb 11, 2025, 8:07 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 10-13
Best Verse: 10:12
Thought
Joab's job was to lead the army in battle, wherever the king desired. And because David honored the Lord so greatly, the Lord was pleased to bless the army in all they went to do.
Feb 10, 2025, 8:15 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 6-9
Meditation Verses: 6:5-7
Thought
David loved the Lord and desired Him to be with him in Jerusalem. But there was only one right way to transport the ark: on the shoulders of priests. David put it on a cart, like Philistines who once had captured it and sent it back by cart.