Today Devotional

Devotion

1 Timothy 4:13 – Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

These words written by Timothy still hold true for believers today. While our hope is in Jesus Christ and it is for Him that we are waiting, while we do so, devotion to scripture, exhortation and teaching is our duty. To take our eye off of our savior and His precepts is to become distracted from our obligations.

The path to righteous living and close fellowship with Jesus Christ and His followers is to understand the desires He has for our lives. Such can not be understood without regular reading of God’s precious letters to the faithful.

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Obedience

Galatians 5:1-7 -1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Who can say that they have never strayed from the path of good intentions and a desire for righteous living? God was certainly not deceived into thinking that mankind could ever live up to His standards. Had God thought otherwise, there would never been the gift of Jesus Christ in which we could place our hope and our trust.

Only remember to continually seek to live in righteousness and to realize that there are those who can, and will, seek to lead believers astray. Sometimes these decievers come in apparent packages, but more often they are disguised in a cloak of good intention. Believers are members of the world by birth, but in their spiritual rebirth, they are invited to surround themselves with the body of Jesus Christ in order to achieve the goals of the Father.

Tags: grace, Obedience, obey, truth
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Thanksgiving

Ephesians 5: 1- 5 -1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

The word of God is filled with straightforward speech that today is often received with two extremes. On the one hand, these truths and guidelines are rejected as outdated, old-fashioned and out of touch with today’s modern world. On the other hand, such sayings as these are taken to their legalistic extreme and enforced by the hand of a cruel overlord spirit.

To fully reject these precepts outright upon the perception if invalidity is a drastic failure for the lives of people and nations. Contrary to popular opinion, moral degradation has been the cause of more calamity than by those standing up for their faith. In fact, the second position of adhering and subjecting others to these precepts as the ultimate command of an unforgiving master is actually a moral degradation in itself.

Love typically seeks the middle ground and searches for a balance between righteousness and the reality of the human condition. As believers, such precepts serve as warnings and guides to aid in acheiving a better way of life. Believers in Jesus Christ are not perfect beings, but should always acknowledge their shortcomings and maintain a thankfulness to the Savior for His willingness to guide and to forgive.

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Yearning

Matthew 6: 25-33 – 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

No matter what a person’s situation, there is no better place to start than this. During times of both peaks and valleys, the person who seeks the kingdom of God first will have their eyes and mind in proper alignment to receive God’s direction and leading. God does care for His people, even when they are in periods of despair and disbelief. Continue to yearn for God and you will find the path of righteousness

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Adoration

Numbers 14:18 – The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.

It is not uncommon to forget just how much we are loved by God, even so much as to not ignore when we transgress His will. Being chastised for a wrong is not punishment in the cruel sense of the word. Instead, we should acknowledge that it is right for God to train us up in His ways and to show us when we have tracked off the right path.

Whenever you find yourself in a situation that feels like you can’t find a way out, look to God and ask Him to help you. Doing so will typically lead you back to the path of righteousness and grace.

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