2 Chronicles 6

• 1. Then Solomon prayed, "O LORD, you have said that you would live in thick darkness.
• 2. But I have built a glorious Temple for you, where you can live forever!"
• 3. Then the king turned around to the entire community of Israel standing before him and gave this blessing:
• 4. "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. For he told my father,
• 5. `From the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have never chosen a city among the tribes of Israel as the place where a temple should be built to honor my name. Nor have I chosen a king to lead my people Israel.
• 6. But now I have chosen Jerusalem as that city, and David as that king.'"
• 7. Then Solomon said, "My father, David, wanted to build this Temple to honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
• 8. But the LORD told him, `It is right for you to want to build the Temple to honor my name,
• 9. but you will not be the one to do it. One of your sons will build it instead.'
• 10. "And now the LORD has done what he promised, for I have become king in my father's place. I have built this Temple to honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
• 11. There I have placed the Ark, and in the Ark is the covenant that the LORD made with the people of Israel."
• 12. Then Solomon stood with his hands spread out before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire community of Israel.
• 13. He had made a bronze platform 7 1/2 feet long, 7 1/2 feet wide, and 4 1/2 feet high and had placed it at the center of the Temple's outer courtyard. He stood on the platform before the entire assembly, and then he knelt down and lifted his hands toward heaven.
• 14. He prayed, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your promises and show unfailing love to all who obey you and are eager to do your will.
• 15. You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and today you have fulfilled it with your own hands.
• 16. And now, O LORD, God of Israel, carry out your further promise to your servant David, my father. For you said to him, `If your descendants guard their behavior and obey my law as you have done, they will always reign over Israel.'
• 17. Now, O LORD, God of Israel, fulfill this promise to your servant David.
• 18. "But will God really live on earth among people? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built!
• 19. Listen to my prayer and my request, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you.
• 20. May you watch over this Temple both day and night, this place where you have said you would put your name. May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place.
• 21. May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.
• 22. "If someone wrongs another person and is required to take an oath of innocence in front of the altar at this Temple,
• 23. then hear from heaven and judge between your servants--the accuser and the accused. Punish the guilty party, and acquit the one who is innocent.
• 24. "If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and call on your name and pray to you here in this Temple,
• 25. then hear from heaven and forgive their sins and return them to this land you gave their ancestors.
• 26. "If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and then they pray toward this Temple and confess your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them,
• 27. then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to do what is right, and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession.
• 28. "If there is a famine in the land, or plagues, or crop disease, or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people's enemies are in the land besieging their towns--whatever the trouble is--
• 29. and if your people offer a prayer concerning their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple,
• 30. then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people whatever they deserve, for you alone know the human heart.
• 31. Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.
• 32. "And when foreigners hear of you and your mighty miracles, and they come from distant lands to worship your great name and to pray toward this Temple,
• 33. then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. Then all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built bears your name.
• 34. "If your people go out at your command to fight their enemies, and if they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and toward this Temple that I have built for your name,
• 35. then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause.
• 36. "If they sin against you--and who has never sinned?--you may become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far or near.
• 37. But in that land of exile, they may turn to you again in repentance and pray, `We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.'
• 38. Then if they turn to you with their whole heart and soul and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors, toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name,
• 39. then hear their prayers from heaven where you live. Uphold their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
• 40. "O my God, be attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place.
• 41. And now, O LORD God, arise and enter this resting place of yours, where your magnificent Ark has been placed. May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and may your saints rejoice in your goodness.
• 42. O LORD God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember your unfailing love for your servant David. "

1 John 5

• 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.
• 2. We know we love God's children if we love God and obey his commandments.
• 3. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and really, that isn't difficult.
• 4. For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory.
• 5. And the ones who win this battle against the world are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
• 6. And Jesus Christ was revealed as God's Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross--not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit also gives us the testimony that this is true.
• 7. So we have these three witnesses--
• 8. the Spirit, the water, and the blood--and all three agree.
• 9. Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son.
• 10. All who believe in the Son of God know that this is true. Those who don't believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don't believe what God has testified about his Son.
• 11. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
• 12. So whoever has God's Son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life.
• 13. I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.
• 14. And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will.
• 15. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for.
• 16. If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it.
• 17. Every wrong is sin, but not all sin leads to death.
• 18. We know that those who have become part of God's family do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot get his hands on them.
• 19. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the power and control of the evil one.
• 20. And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we are in God because we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.
• 21. Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts.

Habakkuk 1

• 1. This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received from the LORD in a vision.
• 2. How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! "Violence!" I cry, but you do not come to save.
• 3. Must I forever see this sin and misery all around me? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.
• 4. The law has become paralyzed and useless, and there is no justice given in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, and justice is perverted with bribes and trickery.
• 5. The LORD replied, "Look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it.
• 6. I am raising up the Babylonians to be a new power on the world scene. They are a cruel and violent nation who will march across the world and conquer it.
• 7. They are notorious for their cruelty. They do as they like, and no one can stop them.
• 8. Their horses are swifter than leopards. They are a fierce people, more fierce than wolves at dusk. Their horsemen race forward from distant places. Like eagles they swoop down to pounce on their prey.
• 9. "On they come, all of them bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a wind from the desert, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
• 10. They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their defenses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them!
• 11. They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god."
• 12. O LORD my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal--is your plan in all of this to wipe us out? Surely not! O LORD our Rock, you have decreed the rise of these Babylonians to punish and correct us for our terrible sins.
• 13. You are perfectly just in this. But will you, who cannot allow sin in any form, stand idly by while they swallow us up? Should you be silent while the wicked destroy people who are more righteous than they?
• 14. Are we but fish to be caught and killed? Are we but creeping things that have no leader to defend them from their enemies?
• 15. Must we be strung up on their hooks and dragged out in their nets while they rejoice?
• 16. Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. "These nets are the gods who have made us rich!" they will claim.
• 17. Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?

New Living Translation: 340 of 365 days.