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Comfort Fruit

08 Aug

Comfort Fruit

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I am struggling, in many ways, on many fronts. I can’t and don’t need to unpack all the details, and my struggles are not above yours I am sure. I have a struggling business that is in the center of my attention, and a school assignment that has brought about a huge case of humility. I am regretting the decisions of my youth, and the lack of education that came as a result. I have never felt so dumb. Where can I turn in these anxiety filled days? Now there is only one thing in my life that brings me comfort and that is seeking God and His Word daily. No substance abuse to numb the pain, but a cure to heal the pain.

Paul in these scriptures was speaking to the Philippians with a heart of thanksgiving and contentment. He found his contentment in Christ, not “stuff” that was held in high regard back then and even today. He was content wherever Christ had him, and he sought to serve Him well there. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. He was truly a focused man, one with eyes only for Christ; and as a result of that realization, every day he sought to draw glory to Christ wherever God had placed him.

Much of my study recently has been on the “fruit” of being a disciple of Christ. This morning as I went to Philippians for a word to encourage me, and I read through the scriptures, I came upon this verse. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. God gave me an encouraging word I did not even know was there, that spoke again of what I had studied last night. That is how He works when you seek your comfort from Him and His Word. He will place just the right words before you, and open your heart and your mind with them as only He can in the only Living Word. These things are only gained by a humble heart that opens the book looking for them. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…..”

 
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Posted by on August 8, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Side Tracked

16 May

Side Tracked

2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I was reading this morning in 2 Timothy and feeling the weight of school. Yesterday was rough at work and left me physically and even mentally drained. I came home exhausted and unable to do homework. Satan smiled at the distraction. In these versed above Paul is encouraging Timothy to keep his focus on the things of God and His Word. It is the only time in the New Testament that “rightly divided” is used and which means to ‘cut straight’. A straight path has no distractions that tug it off course. We all learned early in school that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and our course with God should keep that principle also.

How do we go about the keeping the straight course and our focus on God? Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. If we truly begin to seek God with all our heart, soul, and strength; keeping the straight course will naturally come. With a true heart for God comes a desire to follow His Will, and remain on that path. Satan will provide all the distractions in many forms along the way, but a heart truly seeking God in everything will discern those distractions. Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. That straight line to follow God may take you through many trials in your life that you would have never taken on your own. You would have taken the side track and possibly gotten off course, and missed the blessing God had planned for you if you remained focused on Him.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. This verse is a lifestyle of focusing on God and keeping the course.

 
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Posted by on May 16, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Don’t Go

10 Apr

I have been asked about my testimony recently, and the reflections of my 44 years have been flooding my mind. A life full of sin, a poster child for many great sins, for I even sinned to the best of my ability I presume. But now it sickens me and I strive to live a better life, to walk in the Light as He is in the Light (1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.)  This has become a daily pursuit, a life seeking to abide in Christ. It does not come from Sunday’s alone, but from putting God first in all things. It means that Satan is making my life real hard trying to steer me off God’s path. But it means that I also have the power and plan of God to use these trials of life for His glory and my understanding of that. His Will be done, not mine.

Don’t go

Romans 13:11-12    And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

You have accepted Christ and the gift of Salvation, and you are back to work on Monday morning. Life goes on and you wonder what is next on the to do list. You know something has changed inside you, but yet the world leaps out at you and presents all those old sins that seem much more enticing than before. Satan seems to have wrapped them up as gifts and hopes to draw you away from your new found life. That is a spiritual battle that you now have entered but you have the assurance through Christ you are playing in a game that is already won through Him. He defeated Satan and sin at the cross for eternity, but Satan wants to convince you otherwise. You must seek God and His Word for the His strength to fight this battle. Galatians 5:16-17  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Your old life and your old sins will try to tempt you to come back to them. Satan is the author of all that temptation for God will never tempt you to sin and God will provide you a means of escape. 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. That means of escape can simply be a conscious move on your part to remove yourself from the possibility of the sin. Remove yourself from that person or place where that sin has a opening to your soul.. Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Escaping from that sin can be very simple for there is a place where the sin takes place. Do not go there.

 
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Posted by on April 10, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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