Tag Archives: Devotional

Intentional Holiness

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
1 Corinthians 9:25, NIV*

I’m challenged by how seriously the Apostle Paul takes spiritual growth and development, compared with how casually it’s often treated these days. Even when we know it’s important and we try our best, it’s easy to wish ourselves more spiritually mature and then forget to actually practise the spiritual disciplines that will help us grow.

A quick search of BibleGateway.com turned up six variations on the command to “be holy because God is holy.” We know it’s not so we can earn His love, nor for legalistic purposes. It’s spiritual training, where outward acts deepen inner devotion.

Part of the call to holiness is so barriers won’t grow between us and God after Jesus took them all down. The repeated act of recognizing and confessing our sins of commission or omission keeps the barriers broken down and sensitizes our spirits to God’s way.

I wonder if the main reason, though, is so our devotion to God will show others how incredibly worthy we know Him to be: worthy of our obedience, worship and love. After all, if we don’t seem very captivated by Him, what will attract them to consider Him?

Living and Holy God, You’ve saved us and called us to be a people set apart for Yourself, and You’ve promised to grow us into Your Son’s image. Help us take this seriously, with the right motivation, and teach us to live holy lives that worship You. Thank You for the privilege of being restored to relationship with You.

∞

Let Kathryn Scott’s “Search Me, Know Me” be our prayer today.

Thought Adjustment

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Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
1 Corinthians 6:15b, NIV*

Talk about an odd verse for God to use to correct me! This is not exactly on my list of temptations. But I knew what He meant.

I’ve been thinking lately about Oswald Chambers’ challenge to “keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit” (Nov. 7 reading, My Utmost for His Highest, updated edition edited by James Reimann) and about the challenge to practice the presence of God throughout the day.

I need the peace of Christ to rule in my heart (instead of allowing anxiety to reign); the mind of Christ to rule my thoughts (to make them obedient to Him instead of dwelling where they shouldn’t) and the grace of Christ to be a guard on my lips (to keep errant thoughts from slipping out in irretrievable words). I’ve made it into a prayer of sorts.

On this particular day I was driving to work, listening to a favourite worship CD and remembering the need to stay close to God. The biggest challenge at that moment was in the thought department: I was tired and a bit on the cranky side.

Zing went the prostitute verse through my thoughts. I hadn’t even read it recently! But God’s message was clear: what about expecting the mind of Christ to unite with the cranky mind? Was that any different?

The surprise factor did in the cranky nature, and the day came into much better focus.

Holy and merciful God, if I want to cultivate a sacred space for the Holy Spirit to work and rule in my life, I can’t expect Him to share it with the offensive things I bring in. Thank You for Your grace and patience to teach me your ways, and please open my ears to hear and my heart to learn.

∞

“Refiner’s Fire” makes a good prayer for us all. This is Brian Doerksen’s rendition.

Our God is With Us

Love, Listen, Hold… Live

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“Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life…”
Deuteronomy 30:19b-20a, NIV*

Moses is winding up his recitation to the Israelites of God’s faithfulness in their journey. Their choices will shape their future. He’s previewed the blessings and warned of the curses. He leaves them with a motto for life.

Love the LORD Your God

it’s a heart and spirit response
it has active implications – don’t just feel it, do it

Listen to His voice

be diligent to hear
be diligent to obey

Hold fast to Him

cling to Him
rely on Him as an anchor and fortress

Why?

We always need a reason why, even if it’s just that God says so and we choose to trust Him. Moses answers the question: “The LORD is your life.”

Holy and eternal God, You are our life. We’re not whole when we’re not close to You. Help us love You, help us listen to You, help us cling to You, so we can live. Thank You for such grace that gives us this gift!

∞

Here’s John Waller’s “The Blessing.”

Enticed Away?

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Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.
Deuteronomy 11:16, NIV*

This is part of Moses’ warning to the people of Israel as they’re getting ready to enter the Promised Land. Idol worship is rampant among the nations they’re to evict, and they need to stay set apart for God.

There’s much to entice us away too: possessions, problems, pleasures…. With multi-tasking and constant communication and noise, our thoughts scatter like seed in the wind.

We forget.

Being careful takes intentional effort. Moses had some suggestions for the people that will help us too:

Talk about God, with our family and friends. Not to preach, in this context, but to teach our children and to encourage and remind our believing peers.
Visual reminders… we may not tie them to our foreheads or write them on our doorposts as Moses said, but art, jewellery, symbols are all good reminders as long as we don’t tune them out.
Keep God as part of each day, all day long and wherever we are. One thing I’m learning is to notice the beauty of creation around me and to remember to thank God for His gifts.

Sovereign Lord, You have called us to be a people belonging to You, and we want to be faithful. You know how easily distracted we are. We need help! Please teach us to be careful not to be enticed away. And when our focus slips, please draw us quickly back. There is no one like our God, none other worthy of worship and adoration.

∞

Here’s a classic Keith Green song: “Draw Me.”

Careful to Remember

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Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied … then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 8:11, 12a, 14, NIV*

A quick search of Bible Gateway turns up 31 instances in Deuteronomy when the Israelites are warned to be careful not to forget Him and His decrees.

After everything Israel saw God do to rescue them from Egypt and bring them to the Promised Land, someone from another planet might ask how they could be in danger of forgetting Him.

As humans, we know better. We still do the same thing.

We start off well, depending on God and walking closely with Him. Especially when times are hard and we see the need.

But it’s so easy over time to rely more and more on our own strength and understanding. We slip into trusting what we do instead of trusting He who made us. We start fighting our own battles with the universe. We forget to pray and to do our battle in His name and strength.

Father God, our Saviour and Deliverer, forgive our forgetfulness and draw our spirits nearer to Your Spirit. Grow us in dependence on You, teach us to walk closely with You and to be careful to stay near Your side. Help us remember how You brought us out of slavery to sin. Help us to love, honour and worship You and live in Your light.

∞

The Newsboys’ “We Remember” is a good song to get stuck in our heads.

When God Says No

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At that time I pleaded with the LORD: “Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”
But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.”
Deuteronomy 3:23-26, NIV*

This is part of Moses’ final address to the Israelites, and he’s referring to the incident where he lost his temper with disastrous results.

Moses is blaming the people, who surely tried his patience, but he was the one who acted in a way that didn’t honour God.

He tells them he asked God to relent and let him into the Promised Land. But God said no.

Not just “no”. “Don’t ask Me again.” Period.

There are other times in the Bible where God gives the people what they want when they insist on it, even though it’s not in their best interests. Psalm 106:15 says in the King James Version, “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”

Romans 1 talks about people continually turning away from God until He “gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts” to all manner of wicked living.

We’re called to persist in prayer. I think it comes down to trust: God is good, and He knows best. And He has the right to make choices—from His greater wisdom—that we may not like.

It’s about persisting until we get an answer—not until we get the answer we want.

Silence may be a sign to keep praying. “No” is an answer.

Mighty and holy God, You are all-wise and You love us. Help us to pray with praise that You listen and answer. And help us to hear Your answers, be they yes or no. Grant us faith to trust Your goodness, and obedience to not push for our own ways when You reveal them to be against Yours.

∞

I love this song from David Meece: “Things You Never Gave Me”

Feelings and Emotions

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He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Isaiah 53:3, NIV*

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the deceptiveness of feelings and how we need to trust God instead of ourselves. I’m still learning, thinking it through on-screen, discovering what it means in my own life.

For me, the emphasis has been on not believing false feelings: the vague unease, dissatisfaction or sadness that can have me living “in the dumps” instead of in the confidence in my heritage in Christ.

Then there are true feelings, and I’ll call them emotions to help me see this clearer. Things like grief, fear, loneliness. Anger. Happiness—why does that one not come around as much as the others?

Jesus experienced emotions. There’s nothing wrong with them, and I think they’re a key ingredient in what makes us human. It’s not healthy to suppress or deny them, but we still can’t let them rule us.

Recognizing them can help us rely on God’s sustaining grace in our daily lives. In the words of author/speaker Grace Fox, if we feel fear over something God calls us to do, we need obey anyway—to “do it afraid.” Or sad, or whatever.

And He is calling us to do things. If angry, we’re still responsible to refrain from delivering a sinful response. Grieving, to treat others in love.

God our Maker, You know our weakness and You promise to give wisdom when we ask. Teach us to discern between deceptive feelings and genuine emotions. Teach us to rely on Your truth and to reject the lies. And help us rightly handle our emotions so we’ll live as genuine humans who trust Your care, neither denying what we feel nor being ruled by it.

∞

There aren’t a lot of songs about true emotions and about the lie that we shouldn’t express them. Here’s Don Francisco’s “It Ain’t No Sin to Get the Blues.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17cnMkBcTCA

Fear and Lies

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You grumbled in your tents and said, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.”
Deuteronomy 1:27, NIV*

It seems we have a propensity for believing lies over the truth.

I’ve been working through the study material with Robert S. McGee’s book, Search for Significance. This week’s lesson included listing some of the lies the devil has told us. Identifying them is the first step in replacing them with truth.

With that in mind, Moses’ words above struck a chord. He’s referring to the people’s reaction to the spies’ report of the Promised Land, when instead of entering the land they ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years. (See Deuteronomy 1)

Wow. We’re not usually so open in articulating the issue, or at least I’m not. I’ll feel anxious or put upon, maybe discouraged or even resentful, and in the past I haven’t investigated the feeling’s origin to root out the lie.

You can hear the fear in the Israelites’ words. And there were indeed giants in them-thar hills. But instead of bringing their fear to God, remembering that He’s bigger, relying on His promises, they went the other way with it and accused Him.

We may be more subtle, but don’t we do the same? Too often we listen to the doubts and believe the lies instead of standing on the truth.

Holy and sovereign God in whom is no lie or shadow, if not for Your grace, patience and love, we’d be doomed. Teach us to recognize the enemy’s lies and to rely on Your word and Your character. Thank You for setting us free; now help us learn to live in that freedom and in confidence in You.

∞

This week’s song is Casting Crowns’ “Voice of Truth.”

Janet Sketchley

Writing Christian Mysteries & Suspense

Tag Archives: Devotional

Intentional Holiness

Thought Adjustment

Our God is With Us

Love, Listen, Hold… Live

Enticed Away?

Careful to Remember

When God Says No

Feelings and Emotions

Fear and Lies

To Praise the Lord