Here is your Bible Devotional! Welcome to Day Thirty-Eight!
A little Bible Devotional tip–There are times when it’s necessary to curl up with God like Psalm 131. He is your Abba, your Daddy God. Climb into His lap and surrender all your problems, hopes, desires, pains, disappointments. Give it all to Him.
Day Thirty-Eight
1 Samuel 7:3
Bible Devotional Thoughts
Put away your foreign gods and serve Him only. Return to the Lord with all your heart.
What does that mean in today’s reality?
I think of the parallel. Israel had lost her way. The enemy had taken over Israelite territory. There was blatant disrespect for the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and the Israelites were punished.
So Samuel facilitates the returning to the Lord.
First step is to return to the Lord with all your heart. That requires a second step: demolishing strongholds.
Then comes victory over the enemy and taking back their inheritance.
So in these our own perilous times, the Enemy of our Souls has taken over and is blatantly running the world. He’s not hiding anymore. We live in record times of Christian persecution. And in our own country the spirit of the anti-Christ runs rampant. So many Christians are in hiding. Or completely mixed up in the world.
Because whatever masters you is what you serve.
Whether it’s entertainment, the love of money, food, perversion… we have by and large forgotten the fear of the Lord. This pervasive attitude brings destruction and it brings defeat. The consequences is oppression.
We need to return to the Lord with our whole hearts and serve Him only.
Find out what that means to you and do it.
For me personally, one of my biggest strongholds has been emotional eating. It’s led to the destruction of my body as I am now 90 pounds overweight. It’s a viscous cycle–I have sleep apnea, heal spurs, plantar fasciitis and very little energy.
Instead of running to diet after diet which has been a lifelong habit, I went back to God and asked Him what I should do. Eating to glorify Him is crucial. Getting rid of these strongholds like not treating my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit is something I’m working on. At the core is a soul wound because long ago I rejected myself. I have to repent from that!
The more I practice this repentance, the more victory I will have!
That’s just on my own personal level. You have your own story, your own struggle. We all do.
On the national level and throughout the world (though interestingly enough those who are the most persecuted are the closest to Jesus) we need to do this, too.
We need to stop hiding and band together in prayer. Prayer is too often dismissed as a “nicety” and therefore only given a perfunctory usage of our time.
Instead, we need to dedicate ourselves to the Lord with our whole hearts and then destroy the idols in our lives. Serve Him only.
Then victory will come and we will live in peace.
Application of Bible Devotional
1) Have time with the Lord. 2) Ask Him, “What are the idols in my life?” 3) Determine to serve Him only with your whole heart. 4) Do whatever it takes to get rid of your idols.
In the meantime, spend some serious time in prayer with other believers.
Prayer
Dear Lord, help us to direct our hearts to you and serve you alone. When we have turned away, bring us back to you and deliver us. 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 that I would once and for all break the stronghold of overeating and obesity in my life. It feels to me like a monster that I’m trapped in. I embraced it as a coping mechanism years ago. Now it is in my way of achieving what I want–mainly the energy to do and be what God has called me to be and do. I want my body to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, as indeed it is.
Would you like prayer? Please respond with a prayer request and our team will pray for you in our next staff meeting! We did this last night and it was such a blessing to us! 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!
