All in Daily Devotional
I will not be afraid today. My God stands with me, and in trusting this, I fear nothing. Are you facing the world alone? Do you only seek God when you come up against trouble? Do you only turn to Jesus in the midst of life’s storms? Try walking with Them before hardship arrives!
It is true that God never forsakes us, but this morning we will contemplate the fear that we can have of being abandoned by Him. Let’s look back in our lives to identify a particular time of doubt we have encountered, and look into how such times are often associated with the quiet times in our faith, and the routine nature of our Christian lives.
Today I am mulling over what it means to really know God. What should a life be like that is fully engaged with the will of God? I am considering that place in faith where our struggle is less and a comfort has settled over us.
So many time I have felt the hands of Jesus as He washed my feet. I have come to Him for forgiveness only to find that His response would be “Sit down.”, and He would proceed to wash my feet as He spoke with me of life, death, forgiveness, and eternity.
If left to our own devices, what would we be like? If God was withdrawn from the equation of our lives what would the solution then become? I don't know if I really want to contemplate this or not because something tells me I won't like what I find.
Trusting solely in God, this is my contemplation this morning. There is none but Him who is true and always dependable. He is worthy of our trust and His Word never wavers. Yet, despite this knowledge, we have a tendency to place our confidence in our own ability to resist temptation, and each other’s loyalty and selflessness. By doing this we find ourselves disappointed over and over again, and yet we persist in this behavior. We are fallible, and in being such we have the propensity to let others down that have put their trust in us, but God never fails us and His Word is forever true. Even Jesus acknowledged the inability of man to be trusted.
Do you only commit a portion of yourself before God when He asks something of you? Do you use such language as "I will but", or, "just let me do this first", or perhaps you ask "what about this?" Do you place certain conditions on when, or whether, you will follow God's will for you? Maybe it's time we should just respond "here I am."
Yesterday we discussed being one with Jesus and the fact that this promise is for today and not some future time. We talked about knowing God's will for us and being in submission to Christ. Today let's ask ourselves why we have been offered this relationship. We will discuss this further, but the simple answer to why God would offer us the same access to Himself that He gave Jesus was summed up in one sentence. Jesus told us directly why, and it is all about love and a single belief...
I want to live the resurrection life of Jesus. I want to be one with Him and abide in Him as He abides in God. My heart is set on this occurring now... not that it would happen sometime in the distant future, but now. Are you living this life, and if not, are you striving for it every day, and with each breath you take? Do you long for the day when you will ask nothing of Jesus, but ask everything directly of the Father in Jesus’ name?
Have you received the Holy Spirit? Do you really understand what this means to us? Why did the apostles have to wait for this filling and what did they do as they waited? The answers to these questions might just surprise you. So let's have a brief lesson.
Am I praying continuously and without ceasing? How can I possibly do this with all of the happenings in my life every day? Yet this is precisely what Jesus is telling me to do and he never asks of me those things I am incapable of.
This morning we consider the decisions in our lives. Who makes our choices; are we making them based on logic and reasoning, or is God making them for us out of His wisdom? Have we turned our lives over to God, or are we still holding tight to the tiller of our lives and plotting our own course?
God is indescribably great and we are so utterly lost without His love and grace. We realize our faults and shortcomings, but are we bold enough to compare ourselves with the magnificence of His glory, or the perfection of Jesus? Would we faint at the very sight of them?
Does God visit with us day and night? Do we allow Him full reign over both our waking and sleeping hours? Have we ever had a divine visitation while sleeping, and if so, did we consider it real? This is the subject of my thought today.
Jesus wants more than a casual relationship with us, and in this desire of His, He is exhibiting the will of the Father. They don't want to just know us and have us know them, they desire for us to become one with them. To join in a relationship that is far beyond a spiritual acknowledgement...