All in Daily Devotion
Jesus laid down his life for all of us collectively, but to a much finer point, he died for each of us individually. It is easy to disavow personal ownership in the ramifications of something when you are part of a crowd, but it becomes very clearly an individual matter when we form a personal attachment, or take a leadership role. Jesus died to save each of us individually, and we are each responsible for our own actions, and covenant with Him.
Prayer and living make up a two lane road. When we pray we know enough to listen for God to answer, but that conversation isn’t the two lane road we will speak of today... we will consider the impact our life is having on our faith, and prayers. How we pray influences how we live, and how we live has an incredible affect on how we pray. Can you have a terrible fight with someone, and then pray a sweet prayer? What we do in life each day sets the tone for our relationship with the Lord.
This morning I am contemplating the humility and love I have for my fellow man. I ask myself a simple question to get at the heart of it... “do I humble myself before God in prayer, only to leave that humility in my prayer closet when I leave it?” So often I see someone perform a single act of love or kindness for another and think that by doing this one thing it defines them, but it takes more than that... loving your neighbor should be the rule of your life, not the one-off exception. Be loving always and to all people.
When you enter your time of devotion and reading the scriptures, is your intention to study the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and God, like a scientist would study a specimen in a lab? If you are a pastor are you looking for eloquence and inspiration that can be used in your sermons? If so then you are treating your relationship and faith as if they were something you might own, and not the love of your life that you should be immersed in, and changed by.
As a Christian, are you meant to be sick? What does the Bible tell us about what we should do if we are ill? Well it isn’t a mystery, and is spelled out very clearly. We are meant to be healed. Yet, so many of us think that although Jesus and the disciples healed, that this is a dead practice today... well it isn’t. The gift of healing is just as alive today as it was in the time of Jesus, and it continues to happen in the Church today.
Are you a wanderer in Christ? Did you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, go down in the waters and spirit of baptism and then walk off into a spiritual desert? Well it is time to come back from where you have been and rejoin the house, and the kingdom, of God. Like our savior, we are not meant to remain alone in the desert... are your 40 days up?
Do you think that you are too far gone to be salvaged? Are you too embarrassed to come before Jesus and ask for forgiveness and a new life? When you look at your past do you think it is too filthy and torn to ever be made new once more? Well think again because the blood of Jesus Christ can wash away any stain, and mend the holes in every garment in life.
Reading and remembering the Word of God is very important, but unless we actually do those things we have read then we have gathered nothing but useless knowledge. To be enamored by the words contained in the Bible without putting them to good use by doing God’s will in them is sheer foolishness. Do you live the life you read? Do you not only hear God’s voice, but obey it?
As you move through your day do you feel as if God is there with you? As you work to obey and perfect the character of Jesus, can you sense Him inside you as well? Does the Holy Spirit speak to you of their closeness? Is your fear relieved at the very thought that they are with you now? These questions should guide you, and this one thought of closeness should change how you live your life today, causing you to refocus your priorities, and life.
Giving God the glory for those things He does through us can be a difficult thing to accomplish, and has been the undoing of many... including pastors. It seems the more gifts we have been given, and especially the more our natural gifts are, the harder it becomes for us to reflect the fullness of light back to its rightful star. You see, no matter how brightly a planet shines in the night sky, it is never truly the origin of the light... and likewise, no matter how great God’s will is manifest in us... we are just His reflection.
The most uncertain of victories will be won by the Lord because He is great beyond measure. How patient is our faith in this; His victory? Are we waiting in total confidence for Him to act? When those around us challenge our patience in God we can be moved to take matters into our own hands, and to abandon our assurance in His promise. In such times I look to scripture and hold tight to it.
When you look at who you are in a mirror you probably see a family resemblance that confirms you to be part of your earthly family, but when you look at the reflection of yourself that is being returned to you by those around you... who do you see? Do you see a similarity to Jesus Christ? How about your Heavenly Father?
We begin our journey with Jesus by believing in God because if we have no faith in the Father then how could we possibly believe in His Son? Then, as our faith in God increases, and we believe the scripture is His Word regarding our existence with Him, we see the prophesy of the coming Messiah and find the promise of Christ. Every Jew in the day of Jesus made it this far, but it is here that they were separated; some believing that the scriptures were alive, and some that they were at best stagnant, and that they would remain in eternal expectation of a Messiah who, although prophesied, would never be accepted by them to have come. In what state is your faith? How far has your belief come? Where is it going?
Do you pray, and when you pray, does God meet you there? When He does, people have a great deal to ask of Him and begin doing so immediately, but the most important moment in our prayers is not what we say to Him, but when God speaks to us. The most powerful moments in most biblical accounts begins with the Lord speaking, but do we hear Him when He speaks to us? Are we listening? How do we answer Him? Do we acknowledge Him at all, or just sit dumb in silence? Then, if we do hear, how do we respond? Do we say “Here am I Lord.”?
As Christians, do we love one another, or do we divide ourselves so completely in our perceived love of Jesus, that we distance ourselves from each other? I look around Christendom and see one head and many bodies, one bread, and one table, being bitterly contested and claimed by each to the point of refusing to serve another family member at the table they prepare. Is this the way Jesus meant us to behave?