Daily Devotional Day & Night

HAPPY TUESDAY!

I pray all is well with everyone, and you're enjoying your day. I'm doing well, a little tired but blessed. I need to start managing my time better. Once I get in the house, it's so hard to get back out to go to the gym. I need to take my friend's advice, and pack my bag, and go directly from work. That'll get me in and out in by reasonable time. The yard sale turned out really nice at the church, from what I heard (I didn't stay), and the burgers I made were a huge success. The jury is still out on the banana bread, but I wasn't impressed with it myself. I don't like to bake, because I'm too impatient, and it showed in the finished product for Saturday's event. I have to bake a little more to get accustomed to it. The best thing is, the event itself was very successful, and our church needed the funds, and it allowed the community to know that we're there. I've come to love the Fairfax Christian Church, please keep them (us) in your prayers.

Today's scriptures are filled with God's promises to help us avoid fear and worry. This verse sums up questions about answered prayers (in my opinion): No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly (Psalms 84:11). Notice the part that I highlighted? I think we get the entire process twisted around. Now that we have Jesus as our Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our Helper, walking upright is not that difficult to do. Yes we're here on earth with temptations and a weak flesh, however, we're made righteous through Jesus, and we're expected to live as such. We have control over what we do. We could choose good or evil, but out of our love and respect for God, we should try to always choose “good”. God is a good God, and He treats us with a love greater than our parents. We're taught to fear Him, what does that mean to you? To me, I fear what He may think of me, as well as my punishments for the things I do wrong. I know that He destroyed all of mankind at one time; I also know He sacrificed His only son, and I could only imagine how passionate He is about what He wants me to do in this life. So thus, I fear stepping out of line, and disappointing Him. I fear the hurt and pain that I'll put myself through, because of disobedience. It's written that God answers those who fear Him, it’s because our fear is out of love for Him. I feared my mother, because I always wanted to make her proud, and I didn't want the punishment that came with disobeying her, that's similar to my feelings about God. As long as we have that type of attitude, we'll try our best to live an upright life. We'll go the extra mile to repent when we sin, because we're remorseful for breaking God's trust. Jesus gave up a lot for us; God blesses us everyday, even though we sometimes don't do anything for Him. He's always there for us, so there's no need to worry or fear anything. The worry and the fear come from guilt, and feelings of inadequacy. Why do we believe it when the devil feed us those lies? It's because of a lack of knowledge, and sin, that clouds the use of our Holy Spirit. A friend of mind just summed up this entire devotional in one sentence without even knowing it, she said, "Whatever you believe you will receive, you will receive; God is that simple, He's not a secret". Hallelujah! When the enemy gets us to believe that we're inadequate, and feeling guilty about our past sins, it makes us shy away from God, and we lose Faith in His promises. We stop Him asking for things, we walk around filled with shame and sin, and we become just as any other lost soul. I'm begging you today to snap out of it, if that's your attitude or mindset. God loves you, because you're His child! He'll never leave you because you've made mistakes in the past. He'll never condemn you, and He's waiting to bless the upright. Once you confess your sins and repent, you're then upright! The only thing that holds us back from having whatever right things we ask from God is sin. My friend is right, He's that simple, some people will have you believe that Christianity if so hard. That’s the thing with different organized religions. God's main goal is to have us walk the life that He's setup for us, and complete the tasks at hand. Jesus walks with us the entire way, so we should never want for anything. I urge you to stop listening to the lies of the world, and start living by the promises of God. We have a role to play in it, we could somewhat control the amount of blessings we receive, and the suffering we endure. Ask not, receive not, oh ye of little Faith! Do you understand how much God loves you? If you don't know Jesus, get to know Him today, so you could start on the journey of your Faith walk. If you've accepted Jesus as your Savior, but don't quite know what that means, grab the bible, and ask your Holy Spirit to lead you along the way, or find a Faith filled, bible based church. Life is what you make it, you get out of it what you put in, and you are whatever you think you are. Allow God to be gracious to you. My favorite verse today is: Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? Have faith in God. (Mark 11:22)

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2454957&dtype=Scripture
http://www.intouch.org/site/c.cnKBIPNuEoG/b.4943197/k.9362/Today_on_Radio.htm
http://www.intouch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=cnKBIPNuEoG&b=5131179&ct=6959615

I love you!