Daily Devotional Day & Night

HAPPY TUESDAY!

I pray all is well with everyone, and you're enjoying your day. I'm doing well, but really, really sleepy. I had to breakdown and have a cup of tea today, but I'm still sleepy, just fidgety. I'm seriously going to need to figure out how to get to bed at a reasonable time. I've been talking about this for the last few months, but I still haven't figured it out, pray for me. I'm sitting here wondering what I'm going to do for my birthday. I want to take a nice trip, but I'm afraid to go to the Caribbean, because my birthday falls in the heart of hurricane season. I was thinking Italy, if I could find a nice deal, or Las Vegas. The hardest part will be finding someone to go with me, so who's in? I'm going to start planning now. My birthday is September 20th by the way, so check and see if your weekend will be open, I've already put in my vacation for a long weekend. If you have any suggestions let me know. Have a wonderful day!

Today's scriptures are about circumcising our hearts. When we begin our Faith walk, our hearts are filled with sin. Over the years, we've picked up bad habits, and evil ways of thinking. You ever know someone who's always trying to beat the system, or get over? Well most of us are, or were, like that before we were saved. We learn today that we're supposed to start a circumcision on our hearts. We know that God starts the refinement process, but He needs our participation. We have to conscientiously make efforts to change our ways. It’s been studied that if we keep doing things a certain way, for 21 days, they becomes a habit (good or bad) that we must work to break. Just imagine if you've been living in sin your entire life, then you have a lot of work to do to break that habit, and start forming better, more Spiritual habits. Circumcision started with a covenant between God and Abraham found in Genesis 17, and verses 10-11 say: This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. As we know the male organ is really sensitive, and to voluntarily endure such pain to remove skin that serves no purpose, shows great commitment to God. He wants us to do the same with our hearts. We have a lot of evil, sadness, un-forgiveness, anger, etc, built up in our hearts. That pain is there for a number of reasons, yet so unnecessary to have, and could cause pointless heartache and pain. It's written in Deuteronomy 30:6: And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. When we focus on God, He'll start to circumcise our hearts, and cut away all of the unnecessary pain we endure. Through the blood of Jesus, we have access to go to God anytime we need to, and ask for anything we want. Not just material things but help to overcome our burdens. We're growing, and some of the things we go through are out of ignorance, or things that we cannot control. Just as men are born with extra foreskin that could be removed, we're born into sin. There's nothing we could do about being born into sin, however, Jesus has been sacrificed to give us freedom from sin. When we're growing, we still have the urge to sin. We still have a carnal mind, and it takes some time for us to shed the sin that was so prevalent when we were lost. It's up to us be open to the circumcision God is performing on our hearts. It's up to us to circumcise our lifestyle, by eliminating the things or people that will hinder our growth. We must turn away from our old habits, by letting go of worldly attitudes and ideals. At the present time being a Christian isn't the status quo. In today's society it's cool to be bad, as we see in most movies, televisions programs, and hear in the most popular music. According to the world, it's okay to dress provocatively, fornicate, get drunk, commit adultery, worship money, lie, and anything else that you could think of; it's actually promoted. This is why it's so important for us to cut certain things out of our lives, to avoid the temptation. The only way to become perfect is to practice at it. We must learn how to overcome peer pressure and temptation, by saying no to certain people, and committing to learning the ways of the Lord. According to scripture physical circumcision is no longer required to be close to God (Acts 15), but circumcising our hearts is most important in building a strong relationship with Him. To start your circumcision process you have to admit that you're a sinner, then pray and ask God for forgiveness, and ask Jesus to come into your heart as Lord and Savior. After that, be proactive instead of reactive. Start praying without ceasing, studying the word regularly, and making some sound changes in your life. Get rid of all of the darkness, and focus on God's light. We have a lot of unnecessary mess in our lives, which need to be cleaned up, so we could live a peaceful life. My favorite verse today is: Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart. (Jeremiah 4:4)

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2455034&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=5283727&ct=7162587

I love you!