Daily Devotional Day & Night

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

I pray all is well with everyone, and you're enjoying this rainy hump day. I'm doing well, a little tired, but overall feeling pretty good. I’m in a bit of a sullen mood today, after hearing the news of the John Mohammed’s execution. I know the punishment fit the crime, but I can't help but feel sad for the lost of yet another life. I agree with his ex-wife when she said that someone should've listened to her, and offered some help when she complained about the abuse and her fears of him. There are more harsh punishments for theft and robbery, then domestic abuse. Our system needs to be overhauled, and we need to spend more time being proactive when women and their families complain about domestic violence. It's something that I'm really passionate about, and I pray that she will be able to build a strong campaign, and make some real changes in the lives of the victims, as well as bring light to mental illnesses of the offenders. Please pray for his family, and the family of the victims, because everyone is mourning. Have a wonderful evening, and be blessed family!

Today's scriptures are about God's guidance. We're all created for a reason, God laid out a plan for our lives. How do you determine what God's will is for your life? He promised to lead us every step of the way. He's given us The Holy Spirit as our Helper and personal guide through life, a GPS of sorts. However, with any tool, we must learn how to properly use it, before it'll be any use to us. With our Holy Spirit, we must learn to listen to His quiet still voice, because if we're not careful we'll miss the warning signs. On earth, we have leadership in place that's called the Government, but it's up to us to follow that leadership. If we don't follow what’s set in place, then our Country would in disarray and chaos. We elect Government Officials because we think that they could lead us in the right direction. God is our Spiritual "Government", and wants us to have the best out of life, and has laid the paths that we should follow to get it. When we're stuck in the darkness of sin, it's hard to stay on the road of righteousness and follow His lead. In a lot of cases we hear the warning signs, but choose to ignore them. I'm personally learning how to wholly follow His lead. I still stray, even at this level in my Faith walk, but I'm learning how to "listen to God" more everyday. At one time, my prayer life consisted of reciting my wish list, as if He was Santa Claus, but I had a hard time listening to His answers. As I learned more about Him, and started to spend more time studying and meditating, I learned how to recognize the "gut-feelings', and discern between the good and bad voices in my head. I'm starting to learn from those "I told you so moments" as well. For example, I had a business meeting recently, and before this meeting, I had a horrible gut feeling. However, this meeting was an opportunity to do some great things for the Kingdom of God. The closer I got to the place of the meeting, my Holy Spirit started actively yelling don't do it, but in my excitement, I convinced myself that it was "the right thing to do". After all I wasn't sinning against God, I was actually doing something that He told me to do. I was following His leadership, but I had slightly moved ahead of Him. Now, I'm about to face some legal issues, because I followed what “I” wanted. I temporarily stopped following God's leadership. Here's my warning to you, "Everything that glitters isn't gold". When the enemy knows you're about to hit a major breakthrough for God, he'll do whatever it takes to get you off of the path. It is so important to seek God in prayer and through His Word, but it's equally important to intently listen, meditate and look for His guidance. Heed the warning signs, because when God leads you, everything will work out perfectly. He doesn't work on the world's system, so everything may not make sense at that moment, but trust and believe that He will never steer you wrong. He expects us to take some wrong turns, so He equipped us with our "Spiritual GPS" to help us get back on the right path, as well as forgiveness by the blood of the Lamb. Pray and ask for wisdom and discernment, because those are the two most important things needed to adequately follow God's leadership. Some of our mistakes are costly, but it's nothing that He can't handle. Proverbs 2 teaches us the "Value of Wisdom", take a few moments to read it, and apply it to your life. Search for God in all things, and He will show up. Pray without ceasing, and He will answer your prayer. Walk as if He's walking right next to you, because He is. If you don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you're traveling through life without a Spiritual GPS, and that’s very, very dangerous. We so often run into tough times and say to ourselves "If I had only listened..." God speaks to us in so many different ways, but when we don't "abide in Him and He in us" we will miss each one. Say a prayer inviting Jesus into your life, and then get to know God on a personal basis. My favorite verse today is: Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face. (Psalms 5:8)

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2455147&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=5569835&ct=7613819

I love you!