Devoted Things (and other devotionals)

Devoted Things 

But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.    Joshua 6:18

Devoted things are sacred to our Savior Jesus. Things devoted to Him cannot be tampered with for our own selfish desires. We may have devoted money or relationships to Him. A meaningful routine or a worshipful ritual may represent our devotion to Him. We need to respect as His, those things in our lives we have devoted to Him. God is honored by our devotion. We hold Him in high esteem when we devote our marriage, our children, and our friends to Him. He delights in devoted things, and is jealous over their ownership. We trust Him with devoted things because He can be trusted. Devoted things are not ours, but His.

Think about things in your life that need to be devoted to the Lord. He desires devoted things, especially those things that bring Him the most glory. A good starting point is to devote your entire being to God. This does not mean you have to move to a foreign land and live in poverty (though it might); this does not mean you have to quit everything you are doing and go to seminary (though it might); this does not mean you have to speak religious gibber jabber, act strangely, or draw attention to yourself.  But it does mean you glorify God in your speech, attitude, and actions. Your devotion is a reflection of Him.
           
Devote your home to Christ. Use it for Him openly and freely. Create a home that exudes warmth and hospitality. See your living quarters as a sanctuary for seeking souls. People long to be in an environment that extinguishes loneliness. He has blessed you with a place that illustrates God’s provision. Use it so you don’t lose it. A devoted home is a shelter from the storms of life, though it is not a conflict-free zone. There is still plenty that goes on in a home dedicated to God that needs His grace. Devote your home to the Lord, and watch Him work. He takes what is devoted to Him and uses it far beyond what you can imagine. Refrain from only using your home for yourself; see it as a God-spot for weary wanderers. Encouragement explodes in a home dedicated to the Almighty.
           
Lastly, devote your family and work to your heavenly Father. There is so much you cannot control as it relates to family and work. Your best strategy is to lay them both at the feet of our Savior. Jesus takes your devotion to family and sets you free from having to make them into something that you think is best. You can trust your spouse and children to Christ. They are His devoted possessions, so you can trust the Lord with your loved ones. Even in their struggles, you can trust them, because you trust Him. If you do not trust them, they have a hard time trusting you. It is easier to extend trust to those you have devoted to the Lord.
           
Moreover, devote your work and career to Christ. Give your job to Jesus. When you hand over your occupation to Him in sweet surrender and devotion, you are freed from preoccupation with “what ifs?”, “What if I lose my job?”, and “How will I take care of my family?” Someone who has devoted their career to Christ knows the Almighty has the answers before we ask. Therefore, do not hold onto for yourselves what you devote to heaven. Your Savior secures devoted things. The Bible says, “Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you” (Psalm 86:2).

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I devote my life and all that I am and want to be to You.

Application: What area of my life do I need to devote to God?

~Wisdom Hunters Devotional~
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Daniel 10:11

A man greatly beloved.

Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah! has your unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved too? Must you not have been greatly beloved, to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God smote His only begotten Son for you, what was this but being greatly beloved? You lived in sin, and rioted in it, must you not have been greatly beloved for God to have borne so patiently with you? You were called by grace and led to a Saviour, and made a child of God and an heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very great and super abounding love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough with troubles, or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger; if He has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the more evidence have you that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more demerit you feel, the clearer is the display of the abounding love of God in having chosen you, and called you, and made you an heir of bliss. Now, if there be such love between God and us let us live in the influence and sweetness of it, and use the privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as though we were strangers, or as though He were unwilling to hear us-for we are greatly beloved by our loving Father. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this evening, and so go to thy bed in peace.

~Charles Spurgeon~

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After a while, the stream dried up because there had been no rain in the land. (1 Kgs 17:7)

The education of our faith is incomplete if we have not learned that there is a providence of loss, a ministry of failing and of fading things, a gift of emptiness. The material insecurities of life make for its spiritual establishment. The dwindling stream by which Elijah sat and mused is a true picture of the life of each of us. “It came to pass … that the brook dried up”—that is the history of our yesterday, and a prophecy of our morrows.

In some way or other we will have to learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may be good for a while, but the Giver is the Eternal Love.

Cherith was a difficult problem to Elijah until he got to Zarephath, and then it was all as clear as daylight. God’s hard words are never His last words. The woe and the waste and the tears of life belong to the interlude and not to the finale.

Had Elijah been led straight to Zarephath he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man. He lived by faith at Cherith. And whensoever in your life and mine some spring of earthly and outward resource has dried up, it has been that we might learn that our hope and help are in God who made Heaven and earth.
—F. B. Meyer

Perchance thou, too, hast camped by such sweet waters, 

And quenched with joy thy weary, parched soul’s thirst; 

To find, as time goes on, thy streamlet alters 

From what it was at first.

Hearts that have cheered, or soothed, or blest, or strengthened; 

Loves that have lavished so unstintedly;

Joys, treasured joys—have passed, as time hath lengthened, 

Into obscurity.

If thus, ah soul, the brook thy heart hath cherished 

Doth fail thee now—no more thy thirst assuage—

If its once glad refreshing streams have perished, 

Let HIM thy heart engage.

He will not fail, nor mock, nor disappoint thee; 

His consolations change not with the years; 

With oil of joy He surely will anoint thee, 

And wipe away thy tears.

~L. B. Cowman~

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God's Provision for Your Failure

Psalm 37:23-24 states,

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way.  Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand.

When you first read these verses, it is easy to focus on the truth that God orders the steps of a good man, someone who is following God.  That is certainly a comforting, motivating, and powerful truth.

But I want to point you to the second sentence,  Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand.

What an amazing statement!  Even when your steps are being ordered by the Lord, you can still goof up!  God affirms that you may be seeking to walk with Him and you can still mess up, there is always that human factor.

Our flesh gets in the way.  Sometimes we make wrong decisions.  Sometimes we can be a bit stubborn.  And sometimes we blow it, even when that is the last thing we want to do!

Here is what I want you to grasp today:  Even if you mess things up, even if you stumble and fall, God will not utterly abandon you.  He will support you, and He will lift you up with His hand.

The Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy that God is our refuge and our strength and that underneath us are His everlasting arms.  That brings me a lot of comfort.

You and I may stumble, you and I may fall, but we are not going to stay down, because God's arms and His hands are underneath us, and they will uphold us.
Thank God for that!

~Bayless Conley~
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God Works Within Us

Ephesians 3:20-21

Let these words slowly sink into your understanding: “able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (v. 20). What an amazing description of God’s ability to work within us.

Yet so often our focus is mainly on what we want Him to do around us: If He would change this situation or fix that problem, then my life would be better. But He invites us to think and ask bigger—He wants to change us!

The Holy Spirit has more than enough power to transform lives from the inside out, but working change within is usually a slow process. Spiritual fruit takes time to grow and mature. That’s why we need patience and faith to believe He is working even when we don’t see the results right away. God is never in a hurry and will never give up on us.

The Lord has a purpose for your life, and He is constantly working to achieve it. Although He has an individualized plan for each one of His children, He also has an overarching goal—to conform every believer to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. In order to accomplish this, He may have to bring us through some struggles and heartaches. It might make no sense to us, but God knows exactly what He’s doing.

What would you like to see the Lord do within you? As you read the Scriptures, look for qualities that God considers precious, and ask Him to work them out in your life. Then rely on His wonderful promise to do even more than you have asked or imagined.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~