Here is your Bible Devotional! Welcome to Day Twenty-One!
A little Bible Devotional tip–Fill your quiet time room/nook/corner with beauty and inspiration!
Day Twenty-One
Deuteronomy 13:4
Bible Devotional Thoughts
God wants your undivided loyalty. False prophets abound who will try to trick you into leaving the path. You have to be stalwart, like the pilgrim in Pilgrim’s Progress.
So what do you have to do to have this undivided heart?
1) Walk after Him. That means search after Him. Practice His presence. Be in His Word. Abide in Him as in John 15.
2) Fear Him. This is a reverent fear, a trembling, an awe that we modern Americans don’t understand. It’s a fealty owed to a great King, an honor rightly placed on a benevolent Sovereign.
God is not “safe” by any means nor is He merely a buddy buddy. He is KING of the UNIVERSE! HE has authority, the ULTIMATE AUTHORITY. Our lives and daily decisions need to reflect that.
3) Keep His commandments. I keep going back to Jesus’ Greatest Commandment because all the law and prophets are summed up in it–Love the Lord with all you heart and mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.
Yes, that means God wants your whole-hearted devotion and that He wants you to love others–those you are close to, those who are different from you, to love your enemies. Jesus’ disciples will be known by their love.
I’m not talking about a permissive love in the name of tolerance that the world teaches, which is really tyranny. That if you don’t agree with someone, you are hating. Love, according to the gospel, is laying down your life for others and speaking the truth in love, not being ashamed of the gospel.
Lastly, we are to love ourselves. Why do I say that? Because as someone who rejected herself for many years and didn’t love herself, I could not truly love others and I could not truly love God without loving MYSELF.
I’m not talking about a self-love that’s selfish. Or thinking of yourself as better than others. I’m talking about a realization that God made you and as such on that basis alone you are worthy. And as His child, as one who has accepted His son as Lord and Savior, you are worthy in Him. (Have you not made that decision? I invite you to do so TODAY, while you may be FOUND. Life is short! Here’s a resource that helped me understand what the gospel means. And if you need a tool to help share God’s love, this is simple and effective.)
4) Obey His voice. First of all, how do we hear His voice? By keeping His commandments. By being in His Word, by spending time with Him in abiding (two-way) prayer.
Here’s the deal–the more time we spend with Him the more we fall in love with Him and the more we want to obey Him. This is a beautiful expression of freedom as Romans describes, of living by the Spirit, not the flesh, because He writes His laws in our hearts.
5) Serve Him. What does that mean? It means first of all serving Him wherever you are, even if it’s “just washing dishes.” After all, Brother Lawrence, a monk who wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, had his best prayer times when he was doing dishes!
Do you feel uninspired? First, ask the Holy Spirit to join you and literally picture where Jesus is. And if you need more, you know that smart device everyone is chained to nowadays? Use it for good! Listen to praise music while you work!
Now the second way to serve Him is through your life’s vocation. Do you know that you are a priest? In God’s Kingdom, we all have our parts to play. Do you sell real estate? Do that to God’s glory! Are you a housewife and mother? Then you are definitely serving as you are responsible for training up your children into becoming disciples. Are you a business owner or artist? You have great influence!
Whether you are directly or indirectly involved in ministry, we all need to be in ministry! The Great Commision’s not just for your pastor! You are more than a job or a task to do and life ultimately is so much more than surviving.
We all have a mission to fulfill so find out what it is and work on it!
6) Hold fast to Him. Take it from me, this journey of walking in your callings is not by any means easy. I have been avidly pursuing and practicing God’s callings in my life since 1995 and I have had many, many challenges that have seemed to me like Goliaths. My family and I still have mountains in our way after all these years, but God has grown me as a person and that is a direct result from clinging to Him day by day, hour by hour as I pursue relentlessly my callings.
Application of Bible Devotional
Do quiet times with family. Listen to music while you do mundane chores. Listen to the Word while you eat. Keep trusting, refusing to limit God.
Prayer
Lord, we shall follow you and fear you, keeping your commandments, listening to your voice, serving you, and clinging to you. Help us in these important endeavors. Amen.
Call to Action
One of the reasons I’m starting this Bible Devotional is to ask for others to intentionally pray for our business, AngelArts.
Pray for strength and energy for my team and I as we work on the various components and projects for AngelArts.
Would you like prayer? Please respond with a prayer request and our team will pray for you in our next staff meeting! And join the group so we can be reminded to pray for you on a regular basis!
And new! If you join the Prayer Team, we have created a private Discord channel where we can pray together! Discord is a great tool for connecting and much more secure than FB Messenger.
Would you like to be even more involved? Join our AngelArts Support Prayer Team! Click here to join today!
Has this message touched you today? Leave a comment and share what God is doing in your life and then share this blog to someone who needs this special touch by God!
