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 sleepy, but that's how it usually is during the week. I'm grateful that I made it into work this morning, and am looking forward to another busy week. Tomorrow I get to go do a cooking demonstration at my little cousin's school, that's going to be fun. We're going to make some fruit kebobs, and bake some play snails, and chocolate chip cookies. My brother has his basketball banquet on Thursday, hopefully that’ll be fun. Right now, I'm having trouble holding my head up, 4 hours of sleep just isn't enough, I see people do it all the time, but I value my sleep too much. I'm working on it; God knows what's best. Please pray for my Pastor Laura Swett, she was taken to the hospital this morning and diagnosed with pneumonia. She’s supposed to be discharged by this evening, so please pray for her. Have a wonderful day!

Today's scriptures are about girding our loins. I read this expression all the time in the bible, and never really knew what it meant. Reading through all of today's scriptures, I'm learning that it's all about staying prepared to work for God. Gird is defined: To prepare (oneself) for action. The loin is the region of the hips, groin, and lower abdomen (a very strong part of the body, sometimes known as the reproductive organ). When it is written to gird up your loins, it’s advising us to always have our mind and body in a position to react and produce. I always say that "I'll rest when I'm dead", in a joking manner, because that's a very popular saying. I’m learning today that this saying is somewhat true. The work of a Christian is never complete, because there are many lost souls, and God uses us to do His work. We're "servants of the Lord", which means that we should be constantly in motion strengthening the kingdom of God through service. When I read the book of Acts, I was astounded by the lives of Jesus' disciples. Even after He was resurrected, they kept working as hard, or even harder than did when they walked side by side with Him. We're to take on the attitude of a servant or a Disciple, because our time is limited and precious here on earth. We have all of eternity to rest in the House of the Lord, however the amount of good works we do here on earth will determine position in Heaven. If you look at the life of a prominent leader, especially in the Church, you’ll notice they wear many hats. They're constantly being pulled different ways, and they always take on their duties with joy and sentiment, because that’s what God called them to do. He’s constantly telling me to go here, do this, read that, study this, work on that, and the list goes on. I used to think that I was just being a busybody, but I'm learning that this is the work of a servant of the Lord. We have to completely rest on the Sabbath, but the other 6 days of the week are to be spent doing His work. There's so much we could do to help each other, and to build up ourselves. Whether it's a phone call to tell someone you love them, or a visit to a sick and shut in. Sometimes it may be going to help a friend move, or giving money to help someone out of a jam. All of these selfless acts, allows God to be shown through us. It's so important for us to stay connected with Him, so we could hear His voice clearly, as well on rely on His strength to get us through. When we read stories about the main bible characters like Paul, Job, Moses, John the Baptist, Samuel, or Peter, we'll find that these men were constantly moving. They were traveling across countries, freeing slaves, preaching the word, and helping people in need. Noah had to build a ship with is bear hands, that was large enough to fit his family, and two of every animal on the earth. He never complained because He knew the work of the Lord had to be done, and His reward would come. Most of us want to be influential at some point in our lives, we want wealth, prestige, and a better life for our family, and are willing to work hard to accomplish these goals. However, there are some people that don't know hard work, and think that success is going to knock on their door in the form of a lottery ticket, or through someone else’s hard work. It is written in Proverbs 13:4: The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. When God calls us to work, He'll make sure we have all the tools to complete that job to perfection, and not what we see as perfect, but to His perfection. We must trust Him, and seek out His will, because just by our handbook to life [the bible] alone, we see examples of hard working men and women, who went on to accomplish great things for God. In the worlds eyes an excruciating death nailed to a cross, or being stoned to death isn't very glamorous, and doesn't seem like a reward, however, these men currently live in Eternal bliss, and are treated as kings in Heaven, and will continually be rewarded forever. Have peace in knowing the Jesus is in you, and its time to get busy. Some of you may feel like your life is at a total standstill, and that God hasn't moved you to do anything "great". What is greatness? It is completing God's will for our lives and strengthening the kingdom of Heaven, sometimes that starts with working on us. It's making someone smile, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. It's raising responsible and loving children, and leading a righteous life. Just be ye also ready, you are a key player, maybe God has you sitting on the bench so you’ll be completely rested and ready when your job is assigned, but rest assured that He does use you in many different ways. If you don't know who Jesus is, I urge you to get to know Him today. He's our example of how to live a life for others, but without Him we could do nothing, but with Him we could do all things! My Favorite verse today is: Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:13)

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2454985&dtype=Scripture
http://www.intouch.org/site/pp.aspx?c=cnKBIPNuEoG&b=4943197
http://www.intouch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=cnKBIPNuEoG&b=5200573&ct=7047945

I love you!