Your Daily Dose

Theme: Sometimes, You Gotta Take It Personal

Scripture : II Samuel 23:11-12

And after him was Shammah, the son of Agree, the Hararite. And the Philistines

were gathered together into a troop, where there was a piece of ground full of

lentils: and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the

ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines; the Lord wrought a great

victory!

Points To Ponder

This is one of my favorite short stories in the Old Testament. Shammah only got

mentioned once in the Scriptures, but this story just screams that he deserves to

be known. Here is a man who had had enough. Every year, the Philistines came

through their country and—took their Lentiles! It got to the point that the people

just ran, knowing they could not do anything to stop them. But at some point, my

boy Shammah had had enough!

He declared “Not on MY property you won’t!” and he stood his ground. He

defended what was his!

Shammah took it personal!

When’s the last time you took it personal!

I will tell you that the first time I preached this message, I told the congregation

that we needed to quit praying for souls. We needed to call them by name!

I yelled out that night “Lord, I am standing up for Joe! I will not let the Philistines

have him—It’s personal!”

Joe was my older brother who had lost his only child to a drunk driver. He was

angry at God and he didn’t want anything to do with church or us because we

were in church, serving the Lord!

As God is my witness…

One week after I preached this sermon, Joe showed up at our church, in the back

row…and he kept coming, until one day, he asked if he could work with the

children…he came alive and started an outreach program called NITRO

(Neighbors Involved Thru Reaching Out). It was a Saturday Sunday School in the

underprivileged neighborhoods around our church.

Joe thrived in NITRO.

NITRO was blessed by Joe.

It helped him heal.

All because I declared that day “You’re not taking my brother! I claim JOE for

JESUS!”

Who do you want to make it personal for?

Take a minute and think “specific” and claim “personal!”

It can make a difference in a life!

Let’s Pray Together

Dear Jesus…remind me that I need to take it personal. Like Shammah, I need to

stand my ground, fight the enemy for my lentils and show the enemy that I will

not let them have my loved ones. I take a moment right now to declare that (name

the person) is claimed for Jesus—I take it personal! I will stand in the gap for this

specific soul because you know them by name!

Thank you for hearing my prayer,

Amen