All in Daily Devotion
How often we view the strife and tumult of daily life as an encumbrance to our abiding in Jesus Christ, in God, but that should not be so. In the vineyard the wind blows, the leaves rustle loud, and the sound of the storm grows intense, but at the root, the vine never moves, and the nourishment continues unabated. Every storm provides rain that is drawn into us as strength from the wet ground, and what appears as a raging flood becomes the watering can of our faith.
There are times in our lives when we are self-assured and as we study the scripture we say to ourselves “Ah Ha! This is the truth, and I will base my faith on it!” but who are we to be so arrogant? Who are we to interpret scripture without the direction of He whose hand guided the pen? Yet, this is what we are inclined to do, and we build the castles of our faith out of sand on shores strewn with stone... we silence those into whose hand God has placed stone, and cover our ears.
How do you behave at home? I am not talking simply about your physical home on earth, but your spiritual home in heaven. We concentrate a great deal on what a good Father God is, but what kind of daughter or son are you? Do you love Him with all your heart? Do you serve Him and do His will? Do you honor Him, or do you expect Him to honor your prayers and requests without reciprocation? Do you feel that He is obligated to provide all your desires while you do nothing? Are you a spoiled child?
One of the questions that I am asked all of the time is about the Holy Spirit. Everyday Christian believers ask me this because they desire to know about who He is, and what He means to them and their faith, and many Pastors ask to determine what side of the fence I am on. Like Jesus He fascinates and enthralls us, brings us to a place where we feel the coolness of the inhale, and the warmth of the exhale as God Himself breathes, and yes, He scares us, and that fear often separates us from one another.
Are you suffering through something today and as a child of God find yourself wondering if it is because you have failed God in some way? Do you find yourself asking Him why He would allow you to feel such pain, humiliation, illness, deformity, grief, mourning, or other unpleasant form of distress? Well there is a mystery and a revelation in our suffering that brings us where happiness can’t, in it we find the reflection of Christ, and we find holiness.
If you recall the parable of the prodigal Son it is easy to forget that there were two sons, the one who squandered his inheritance and yet was welcomed home, and the son who remained steadfastly at his father’s side. Which one of these best describes you? The prodigal son gives us hope in our Father’s love when we are lost, or are frivolous with our faith, but the dependable son never lost his inheritance and never left his father’s side. Who would you rather be? Who would the prodigal son have wanted to be as he travelled the road home?
Our prayers don’t just fade from the memory of God, they have substance, and can be held in the hand, placed in a bowl, and offered up with incense to Jesus, and God. Have you ever thought of that simple prayer you spoke as being worthy of saving? How about the ones you prayed in anger, or heartbreak, remorse, praise, or Thanksgiving? They are all borne in the hands of angels before the throne of God, and He values each one... they are your life, and they are the heart of your relationship with Him.
Where do you spend your time each day? Do you waste it on frivolous pursuits, or in prayer? Do you read magazines about worldly subjects, or the Bible and other spiritually uplifting material? Do you seek out those places God wills you to visit, or do you wile away your time in ungodly places for no good purpose? How we apportion our time, the activities we pursue, and places we frequent, determines how our faith will grow, and the fruit it will bear. Do we waste our treasure of time, or spend it wisely?
There are many who study the Bible, and upon reading of the healings and other miracles come to the conclusion that those days must have been the “times of miracles”, and convince themselves that we are not living in such times today. Friends, there is no biblical foundation for such thought, as a matter of fact Jesus taught by using miracles, just as we see in the Old Testament, and He teaches us that we too will perform and receive miracles today.
There is not a day that goes by that I don’t recognize myself to be a sinner. If this is not a humbling realization then I am not in the presence of God, and Jesus. Are you conscious of your sinful nature as well? Do you too work daily to live a life free of sin only to pray repetitively for forgiveness? Then like millions before us you are on the road to perfection.
When we are young we have a certain amount of confidence in our bodies, and lean more on their ability to perform, but as we age our faith in them wanes, and our trust shifts more and more towards God. When we are sick and have access to a doctor our confidence is in the practice of medicine, but when we do not, then our cry is to God. The challenge for the young is to have the faith of the old, and the hardship of the patient in hospital is to deliver the prayer of the poor and unfortunate. Is your hope and faith in God strong... always?
Every day I begin my prayers with an expression of love for God, then a plea for my forgiveness of sin, followed by my thanks for His many blessings, and next I ask for three things I would like to talk about today... wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence. Do you ask the Lord for these things? Not that you should receive them in a worldly sense, but more-so in a spiritual sense... Do you desire supernatural enlightenment in understanding God’s will for you this day?
Are you purified as a Heavenly thing? Do you acknowledge in communion that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you of sin, but also that it purified you in preparation for a heavenly existence? How often do we take communion and casually remember Jesus? Even worse, how many times do we take communion without thinking at all? This is the danger of repetition, but if repetition is performed with the proper preparation, it strengthens our memory, and makes an act so natural to us that we can perform it, believe it, perfectly each time.
Is God’s Word at work in you? This is a question that challenges us because inevitably we ask ourselves, “what does that actually mean?” Does it mean that we ask, and the work is in His giving? Does it mean that His Word is an expression of His will, and that the work is our striving to complete it? Is His Word a promise to us, and the work how that promise comes alive? Or perhaps His Word is a lesson in life, and the work is in it being taught us. Each of these are examples of God giving His Word and it working with and in us. Do you believe His Word is His Bond? Do you believe?