Take It! (and other devotionals)

Take It!

The seventh and final key to regaining your cutting edge is found in verse 7 of 2 Kings 6, the passage we have been looking at over the last several days.  Here is what that verse says,

Therefore he said, "Pick it up for yourself."  So he reached out his hand and took it.

The sixth key was something that only God could do, and that is to make the ax head float; that is, to restore your cutting edge.

Now we see what we must do in response.  You and I must receive what God is offering.  Unless you take hold of what God is offering, your spiritual edge will never be restored. 

Perhaps over the last several days, as we have looked at how to restore your spiritual edge, God has been speaking to you.  Maybe you have come to realize that you are not where you should be in your relationship with God.

Maybe you have lost that sensitivity.  Maybe you have lost your cutting edge.  I am telling you, you can reach out and take what God is doing to restore your cutting edge.

I want to challenge you to take some time today to search your heart.  If you have lost your cutting edge, stop swinging an empty handle and just going through the motions. 

Be honest and admit you have lost that edge, determine where it fell, look to the Master, listen to His voice, take responsibility, know that the cross of Christ is completely sufficient to restore you, and then take hold of what God is doing to restore your edge.

God can work that miracle in your life if you will only do your part! 

~Bayless Conley~

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"And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise" (Heb. 6:15).

Abraham was long tried, but he was richly rewarded. The Lord tried him by delaying to fulfill His promise. Satan tried him by temptation; men tried him by jealousy, distrust, and opposition; Sarah tried him by her peevishness. But he patiently endured. He did not question God's veracity, nor limit His power, nor doubt His faithfulness, nor grieve His love; but he bowed to Divine Sovereignty, submitted to Infinite Wisdom, and was silent under delays, waiting the Lord's time. And so, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

God's promises cannot fail of their accomplishment. Patient waiters cannot be disappointed. Believing expectation shall be realized. Beloved, Abraham's conduct condemns a hasty spirit, reproves a murmuring one, commends a patient one, and encourages quiet submission to God's will and way.

Remember, Abraham was tried; he patiently waited; he received the promise, and was satisfied. Imitate his example, and you will share the same blessing.

~L. B. Cowman~

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Those twelve stones did Joshua set up in Gilgal - Joshua 4:20

Not content with pitching a cairn of stones on the river's bank, Joshua, at God's command, set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant stood. And often, as he came hack to Gilgal, he must have gone out by himself to walk and muse beside the river, turning the outward and the inner gaze to the spot where beneath the flow of the current those stones lay hidden. They were a perpetual memorial of where the people had been, of the grace which had brought them forth, and of the position to which God had conducted them. Children in after days would gather round those mighty boulders and be instructed, and it is a great matter that the deliverances of God should be graven as with a pen of iron on the soft and yielding surface of the child's heart; thus the coming generation shall revere and love the name of Jehovah.

The story of these stones is told again by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2. We were dead in trespasses and sins, and lay hopelessly in the grave, like stones in the heart of the river of death. But we were brought forth by God's mighty hand and outstretched arm. We were raised up together with Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is the memorial stone of our position in the sight of God; from this we should never recede. How those old stones would have cried out, if Israel had gone back over the Jordan! And does not Christ's empty grave protest against our living amid the pleasures and cares of the world from which He has gone, and going, has taken us also? This is not our rest; let us make good our standing in the risen Christ.

~F. B. Meyer~

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God’s Vision in God’s Land

by Max Lucado

Joshua 21:45 says, “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.”  Joshua and his men went from dry land to the Promised Land, from manna to feasts, from arid deserts to fertile fields. They inherited their inheritance: the glory days of Israel. This is God’s vision for your life. You, at full throttle. You, as victor over the Jerichos and giants.
Paul describes it as a life in which “Christ’s love has the first and last word in everything we do” (2 Corinthians 5:14).  A life in which Paul says, “we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:16). A life defined by grace, refined by challenge, and aligned with a heavenly call. In God’s plan, in God’s land…God’s promises outweigh personal problems. Victory becomes a way of life! Your glory days await you!

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Because He Said So

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:45

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Are you a parent? Then, you’ve probably told your children to do something and they asked why. And what did you say? “Because I told you. Period.”

I believe there are times when parents want their children to do things and they need to explain their rationale. It’s important to teach principles for living instead of mere commands and rules. But sometimes children are not able to understand, so the answer I just mentioned is one that simply communicates parental authority to a child.

ACTION POINT:

Leviticus is a book full of laws that no one understood logically. And yet did God stop to explain the law? No. He simply said, “I am the Lord your God.” He is above our need for explanations and deserving of our full obedience.

~Adrian Rogers~