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T.G.I.F. > Today God Is First

14 Jun

T.G.I.F. > Today God Is First

Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the LORD hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

T: Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the LORD hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

My every morning prayer has one certain repetition: Thank you Lord for today. He grants me the breath for the day, and allows or designs all that will be in the day. He is the creator and sustainer of all of life to the smallest detail. He has granted me breath for another day to serve a purpose for that day. I seek to be in the center of his Will for each day.

G: Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

He is the creator, sustainer, judge, jury, and ruler of all. He will return to judge all of our lives in a holy court for how we have lived our lives according to his good Word. We must give account for all our thoughts, deeds, spoken and unspoken words. We must give account of how we treated the sacrifice He made for us at Calvary. Did we live the life of a disciple?

I: Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.

What is He really to you? Where does your daily life reflect your relationship with your Lord and Savior? Do those around you know that your are a Christian? Do they want to be a Christian because of you? If you have Christ at the center of your life because of the love you feel for him, you will naturally be an outpouring of his Spirit that lives inside of you. The love that you have will be known to all that come in contact with you.

F: Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Start your day out with God and all your day will be better. A heart for God seeks him early in the day, before the pressures of the day, try to take your eyes off Him. A heart for God spends time in his Word and prayer, seeking to abide with him for the day. A heart for God comes to the understanding that all the trials of life can draw you closer to Him, not take you away from Him as Satan desires to do. Preparing your day with God is the key to all you desire. Your life will not change until you start your day with God. In that effort is found all that you desire each and every day. It starts with today.

 
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Posted by on June 14, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Indifference found in religion

11 Jun

Indifference found in religion

Revelation 3:17-18   For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. (ESV)

I live in the land of excess; the country I live in, right down to the community I live in. The banking industry and wealth surround me. People that are consumed with all the worldly possessions they can attain; excess to a high degree, working to impress all those they do no know. I lived that life in the pursuit of happiness through “stuff” for most of my life. I grabbed for all I could attain; the temporal pleasure wore off, I moved to the next conquest. The cycle is endless, for just as the Laodecians are described here, I was spiritually blind to my lostness. That desire I was trying to fill, was a hole in my soul that could not be filled by anything found here. “The riches of the body will not enrich the soul; the sight of the body will not enlighten the soul; the most convenient house for the body will not afford rest nor safety to the soul. The soul is a different thing from the body, and must have accommodation suitable to its nature, or else in the midst of bodily prosperity it will be wretched and miserable.” (Matthew Henry)

The Laodecian’s thought they were at the peak of their lives in so many ways. They felt rich, and blessed by God in so many ways to a point that pride had creeped into their religion. Their chests were puffed out to the point their hearts were hardened and indifferent to God. They thought they had all they needed; they felt as though they had attained, forgetting about the power of God through provision and grace. They just became indifferent and seemingly numb to all that came to a true heart for God. Pride and humbleness are polar opposites; pride can creep into your religion and close the door to God. Christ saw their hearts and knew how far they were from him. He sees your heart and knows the level of your true religion; is it religion or is it relationship with Him? Religion kills the soul for it produces the acts that lead to works that save. Those works that save are built on pride in accomplishment; that pride grows indifference, a false security found in religion. The false security of religion found in weekly pew attendance, will become a south bound bus seat for your soul.

Have your eyes been opened? Do you desire to know that He has what you need for your soul? Do you understand that a true heart for him leads to paradise, and is only found with a humble repentant heart? “Doubtless there are many in hell that once thought themselves to be in the way to heaven. Let us daily beg of God that we may not be left to flatter and deceive ourselves in the concerns of our souls.” (Matthew Henry). Is Christ tugging at your heart? He provides the key in the next passage: 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. He can take your indifferent heart and save your soul eternally. He can provide you what you will never find in the pursuit of stuff, or the indifference found in religion. He can give you what truly satisfies your soul, and use you to draw others to Himself,  with your testimony of a changed life found in Him.

 
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Posted by on June 11, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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It should make you squirm

10 Jun

It should make you squirm

Revelation 3:14-16    Write to Laodicea, to the Angel of the church. God’s Yes, the Faithful and Accurate Witness, the First of God’s creation, says: 15 “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot – far better to be either cold or hot! 16 You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. (The Message)

Those in the church of Laodicea are the worst of all; they are indifferent to all that is religion; they are content and stale in themselves and have no passion about them. The analogy of lukewarm water here; lukewarm serves no purpose of any kind. Cold water soothes from the heat, and warm water soothes from the cold; lukewarm does neither, it has no effect. Matthew Henry states, “Lukewarmness or indifference in religion is the worst temper in the world. If religion is a real thing, it is the most excellent thing, and therefore we should be in good earnest in it; if it is not a real thing, it is the vilest imposture, and we should be earnest against it. If religion is worth any thing, it is worth every thing; an indifference here is inexcusable: Why halt you between two opinions? If God be God, follow him; if Baal (be God), follow him. Here is no room for neutrality. An open enemy shall have a fairer quarter than a perfidious neuter; and there is more hope of a heathen than of such. Christ expects that men should declare themselves in earnest either for him or against him.” He is quoting from 1 Kings 18:21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. Elijah had challenged the followers of the satanic god Baal to an act of his supposed power; understandably their god failed; Elijah called down fire from heaven before everyone and consumed all the sacrifice in the power of the only true God.

A ho-hum attitude to all that is religion disgust God. The indifference to the One who created, sustained, and sacrificed all, is to spit in the face of Him. This is an elevation of pride that comes in the next passages; the feeling that oneself has attained all that they have. These hearts have not been humbled by the Lord. Are they so indecisive that they simply cannot make a decision? Are they so weak they are not able to make a stand for Baal or the Lord God? Do you have that attitude of indifference towards religion? Do you feel nothing either way; do you say “What does it matter anyhow?” This sicken’s the Lord; even those that take a stand against him have a better chance of being changed by the grace found through Him than a person who simply drifts.

There is much more to unpack in the half-hearted Christian found in this church. This is where many of us find ourselves today; I found myself living for the world but thinking I was just good enough to get into heaven. I felt my good deeds outweighed my bad; I felt that my upbringing and my sporadic church attendance would pay my way. The scariest passage in the Bible grabbed me; Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!‘ A glimpse of that understanding awoke me; a glimpse of reverent fear found there put a passion in me. These two passages should spark that same fear and produce a changed life that is far from indifferent to all that is religion; they should produce the life of a disciple; a life dedicated to the One who gives it eternally. Do they stir your soul too?

 
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Posted by on June 10, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Holy Mirror

09 Jun

Holy Mirror

Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

In the midst of all the letters to the seven churches, Christ is proving that He knows the heart. Here He is speaking to the church at Thyatira, where a seductress is leading the church and leading the men of the church into sexual sin with her. She has been called to repent, but turned her back on God. 21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Christ is pronouncing the judgement due for the un-repented hearts that live in this great sin. What must be seen in all of these pronouncements to the churches, is that only God knows our true hearts, which drives our motives and actions in all that we do; Pslam 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. There should be a reverent fear in us with the understanding that there are no secrets with God. These letters to the seven churches reveal the evidences of that Sovereignty, and with it should come holy fear.

When you look at your life in the mirror, what evidence do you see of Christ? These letters to the churches are a mirror to the churches of their good, bad, false, and true traits only known by God. This is a holy mirror that will reveal all is known of their hearts. When you look at your life as a student; what was the assignment of the teacher? Christ called you to be a disciple, to spread the hope found in him to all that would hear. Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. These were Christ’s last words as he ascended into heaven; when he returns he will ask (and already know), how did you do with the assignment. What evidences are in your life of the price He paid for your life?

Only two of the seven churches received no condemnation; Smyrna and Philadelphia. They exhibited grace and endured persecution all while keeping His Word and and honoring His name. They lived lives focused on eternity, and the promises found in the price He had paid for that eternity for them. They endured the trials of life for their short time here; they sought to keep true to the faith in the face of evil and persecution. As the faithful in Smyrna were told, they understood the promise to those that lived their lives faithfully to Him. They understood that this life was temporary, but what awaited them was eternal paradise after this one. Revelation 2:11b :He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. A life that truly grasps this temporal, and the coming eternal, is a life that will reflect Christ. If you understand the price that was paid with a Holy sacrifice, you will do all that you can to live your life to honor that sacrifice. Anything less is found in these letters to the seven churches.

 
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Posted by on June 9, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Even kings take notice

31 May

Even kings take notice

Genesis 26:3-5    Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

Someone close to me pointed me to Genesis last night, primarily the story of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Isaac had followed in his fathers footsteps in so many ways. He had fled the land when there was famine; he had feared for his life like Abraham had with Sarah and lied about it; but just like Abraham he had sought God in all of it. He spent his life listening to God and working all his life for God. He repeatedly dug wells to provide water, and avoided confrontations over the wells; he simply moved to anther until he felt God tell him all was ok, and this one was his. He continually sought God’s direction, and listened and obeyed when God spoke. His life drew the attention of those that noticed the anointing he had, and even pagan kings let him pass freely in fear of Isaac’s God.

God is not slack on his promises. God told Abraham he would bless him, and He reminded Isaac of that covenant with his father. Isaac would seek to remain in the center of God’s will in all that he did. He would fail at times, but his heart was after God and the things of God, and he was a testimony to those he came in contact with. How hard do you try to live your life for God? How much time do you invest in seeking God in prayer and his Word? There is a direct relation to that time and the anointing that you have in your life. How will you hear the voice of God; bigger question is how will you discern it is the voice of God? Only a heart for God? 1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Abimelech, the pagan king who told Isaac to flee his land after Isaac lied to him, was so impacted by Isaac that he wanted peace with him. He sought Isaac out in another land to form an oath of peace. Genesis 26:28 But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ “ You can be just as Isaac; you can become a disciple of Christ, with the anointing of Christ for all to see in this world far from God. He can use you to attest to the power He has, and use you to reach others with your life. All you must do is to seek God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul; listen and obey Him when he speaks to you, and others will take notice of your love of your Lord just as the pagan king saw in Isaac.

 
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Posted by on May 31, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Soldier disciples

27 May

Soldier disciples

John 15:8-17    By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another. 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

It’s Memorial Day, the day when we solemnly remember those who have paid the ultimate price, sacrificing their lives for ours. Those who have died fighting for our freedom, paying the ultimate price for those who may not even appreciate the price that they have paid. We take time to remember those who were the good soldiers; fighting for a cause they believed in to the point of death. Can you see the similarity in what Christ has done for you? Can you see that He paid the ultimate price to pay for your freedom from the eternal pain of sin? The One who created you, died to save you, to give his life for yours; I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10b).

The apostle Paul in his final letter to Timothy, uses the analogy of a soldier; Timothy must understand that the road as a disciple of Christ will be as a soldier for Christ. 2 Timothy 2:3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. I am reading an incredibly powerful book, The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that goes into detail the call of discipleship that is placed by Christ on those he calls. Of the conscious act of making that commitment to follow His call. To place that effort in the act of obedience to what He lays on our heart. In this act of free will, is the heart of a disciple; a heart that desires to draw nearer to Christ in these acts of immediate obedience to what He calls us to do. This intimacy is found, cultivated, and continually sought in the life of a soldier, a disciple of Christ’s.

Do you claim the promises of Christ, but yet fail to live for Him? Do you in your mind see yourself in heaven since you signed a paper, or prayed a prayer? Do you have any evidences in your heart that something changed; is there evidences in your external of the internal change? Will you obey or delay that call He placed on you? Will you become a disciple of His even if it means to the point of death; dying to yourself and the false needs wrapped up in the ideal of sin from your enemy? Your enemy lurks behind your front lines placing doubt and false desire. A good soldier for Christ only seeks to please the One who enlisted him, who called him out to be a soldier for the heavenly army. Place your life’s focus, trust, and obedience in the commander of the heavenly army that will have assured victory over Satan and sin in the end; the beginning of eternal paradise for His soldiers.

 
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Posted by on May 27, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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It all works out

25 May

It all works out

Jeremiah 29:11-13    For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

The prophet Jeremiah was speaking to Judah, telling them to hang in there and not forsake God in their captivity. God was promising to deliver them from their captivity at the end of seventy years. There was hope that lied in Jeremiah’s prophecy for those that kept the eyes and hearts on God. God’s sovereignty is something we simply cannot grasp in our limited understanding; He is all knowing, past, present, and future. He holds everything in control, and he is not limited by time. We come to question the events in our lives, but this is doubt planted by Satan, and a small grasp of sovereignty will secure that hope in our hearts. Matthew Henry put it well, “We are sometimes ready to fear that God’s designs concerning us are all against us; but he knows the contrary concerning his own people, that they are thoughts of good and not of evil; even that which seems evil is designed for good. His thoughts are all working towards the expected end, which he will give in due time.”

Everything in your life, good or bad, is either allowed, or designed by God. All of it can either draw you closer to Him, or take your eyes off of him. When you know that you under His sovereignty, you will rest in it. You will seek Him to understand, or better yet to just draw closer to Him in it. The understanding may not come on your timetable, but the trial produces intimacy only found during them. James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. When you are getting knocked down, and those 1 2 3 blows seem to come, go to your knees, in prayer. Pour your heart out to God for strength found only in Him.

I am speaking to myself, for I have had a couple weeks full of punches. I have had “Murphy’s Law” two weeks at work, almost to the point of being comical to keep from crying. I have seen my oldest son get sick, when I thought he was ok and passed it off. I have had a rough couple of weeks while my wife has been on a mission trip abroad in many ways. She is out spreading the Good News of the hope that lies within her, and Satan has tried to take our eyes at home off the One she is speaking about. Spiritual warfare is fought on a heavenly plain; one that we cannot see, but we can feel. Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. In the great trial of Job, he did not understand that God meant if for good, but Job ultimately came to that understanding in God’s timing when he did not let his faith fail.

 
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Posted by on May 25, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Rough week

19 May

Rough week

Ephesians 4:22-24    that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

It has been an incredibly long, stressful week. The demands at work have simply been more than I could keep up with alone; I could have tripled my work force with the demand. It has been one of those Murphy’s Law weeks; every thing that could go wrong did, and three times on a large scale. Anger, anxiety, depression, and temptation seemed to have been at every turn. I seemed to have been tempted to return to my old self, over and over again in so many ways. Satan has been after me this week with a gun blazn’ assault. I failed myself and my Lord in the heat of battle a few times. Conviction set in, and I am thankful for it. That steep conviction of sin in my gut is an assurance of Salvation to me; I know that I have grieved the Holy Spirit living inside me, for I know that Christ lives there. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Ephesians tells us of these struggles that we will face for our time here. Paul wrote to those in Ephesus to encourage them of how to live in their faith as believers in Christ; of how to face all the troubles before them with the hope that lived in them. My study Bible titles Ephesians 4:17-24 “The New Man.” I and you are a new person in Christ. We will still face the troubles and temptations of this world, many times direct attacks from our enemy to take our eyes off Christ. Throughout Ephesians Paul points us to how to face them; not alone but in the likeness of Christ. Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. The ultimate goal of God for you is to make you more like His Son.

Ephesians 5:8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. (ESV). This week has been a week to remind me of how far I was from God for so much of my life. This week has been a week to make me realize God’s grace given to me, an undeserving soul. This week has been a week to make me realize I am a work in progress; I will fail and I will seek forgiveness for all my life. Ephesians is a great place to go spend time when you need a reminder of who you are, and how you are to live your life as a Christian. Even when you have a week like mine, you are still a child of His.

 
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Posted by on May 19, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Get on the plane(of discipleship)

16 May

Get on the plane(of discipleship)

Matthew 28:18-20    And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

My wife leaves this morning on her first mission trip to Romania for almost two weeks. She knew very early she was called to go on this trip; she felt that call on her heart and responded to that tug in obedience. She heard and felt that tug because she had been seeking God with all her heart after the life changing experience of loosing her job. She felt as though she had hit bottom, but God had ordained it to pick her up. Her life has incredibly changed, and I have seen incredible spiritual growth since her world was rocked. She is now about to experience God as never before, way out of her comfort zone, where He lives. A mission trip is a life changing experience, for you see God do what you cannot; you see God orchestrate situations that only He can; your eyes are opened through your heart with the removal of the distractions of this world, and a life dedicated to God during that trip. Many times it breeds a life changed to that focus for much more than just the trip.

There are those going on this flight halfway around the world that are terrified of flying! Do you love your God enough to face your fears? Do you trust your God enough to place your life in His hands; to do what you are terrified of doing? That is where He lives, in accomplishing what you cannot. Look at the promise found in verse 18, that proceeds the Great Commission to go and become disciples in verses 19 & 20. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. The power and the promise that God is in control of all circumstances should bring peace. The enemy is the author of fear and doubt. The enemy does not want you to rest on the promise of verse 18. When God tells you to GO, he is with you for the journey. He may allow tribulation before and during that journey, but it is all under his control, and it is all designed to draw you near, and to draw glory to Him.

How do you exemplify a disciple, one who follows the Great Commission? One who spreads the Good News that Jesus Christ has come to save a dying world. That there is an eternal hope for a heart placed in Him that the world cannot steal away. That all the troubles that you face in this life are but temporary, and paradise promised with Him is eternal. You cannot become a disciple until you truly possess that hope; you must have such a heart for Christ that you seek him every day. Psalm 63:1 A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. The heart of a disciple is an image created by God. The heart of disciple is one that seeks, finds, and simply cannot contain their joy of finding Him. Once you begin to experience God in prayer, his Word, and your life daily, keeping him to yourself is simply not a possibility any longer. You will talk to your friends, neighbors, co-workers, strangers, or maybe, just maybe, face your fears and get on a plane to go halfway around the world.

 
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Posted by on May 16, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Heart Measurement

11 May

Heart Measurement

1 John 3:7-9    Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

Sometimes I wish I could really open up about my struggles, but then it would become personal and all about me, and not about encouraging you in what you battle also. We all have them; we live in the snare of sin, trapped there for this time, but we have the ability in Christ to be rescued eternally. God in his grace, sent his Son to rescue us eternally from Satan. 8b For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Satan wanted to be God to the point of being cast out of heaven, and God foreknew he would cause trouble for the paradise God had created for us on earth. God knew that He must provide us a way out of the snare of the devil, a way to become right with God for eternity. It was accomplished by the sacrifice in Christ at Calvary.

When I am struggling, or when I fail, I feel terrible for the sins I have committed. A friend of mine had a great quote recently of how Satan plants that feeling that we are alone in our sin. He even goes as far as to plant doubt in our Salvation. He is the author of lies and his greatest tool can be doubt. You are gonna fail, but how hard are you trying not to? Your heart is measured by the pursuit of righteousness found in it. It is that heart for God, that only God sees and knows the truths found in our heart. Psalm 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. In my times of struggles and failures I look back on King David. Of how God blessed him, and how miserably he failed God. Of how there were consequences for his actions, but in all of it he had a heart for God. He pled for forgiveness, and God gave; God knew that David truly loved him, and regretted all his failures.

In my study Bible there is a reference to James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. I believe this is the evidence of our lives in sin, we cannot control that unruly beast of our speech. We have the ability to tear down what we try to build up in one comment. We with the same mouth curse and bless. It is the habitual sins that are those which are not evident of a righteous life. You can’t claim the promise of Christ, and continue to live for the world and its temporal pleasures of sin. Where is your heart? That question and answer lie before the only One who hears your response.

 
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Posted by on May 11, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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