Jesus is willing! Are you willing to receive?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.
(Matthew 8:1-3 (NIV))

Sometimes I think that we tend to look at this story and see the severity of the unclean man. We look at him and then we compare ourselves to him and we draw conclusions. I honestly think that these conclusions are sadly weighted in our minds to hurt us. We see the severity of the affliction of leprosy and then we look at our own lives and we think that we aren’t as bad off so why would Jesus be willing to help me. My affliction is something that I can live with. I have grown accustom to it and it is not that important that I receive healing for my affliction.

We have a tendency to think that we are not as bad off as others and therefore, we don’t think of ourselves as worthy of the time and effort that Jesus would need to put into our lives.

I have a question for you? Do you honestly believe the following passage?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
(John 10:10 (NIV))

If Jesus came to give us life to the full, what makes you think that He is not willing to take whatever affliction that you carry and free you from it?

Jesus is willing! Are you willing to receive?

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you clean from the inside or the outside?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
(Matthew 23:25-26 (NIV))

Sadly, too many people believe that they must get their lives in order before they come to Jesus or start attending a church. They are focused on the outside. They are focused on the appearances.

They are focused on the symptoms and not the cure!

It is not what is seen on the outside, but what God sees on the inside. Too many focus on the symptoms and overlook the root cause. They overlook the simple fact that they need Jesus!

Don’t focus on the symptoms, which are what is visible. Focus on what is inside. Focus on allowing Jesus to clean your heart!

Woe is an expression of grief, regret or distress. I find it interesting that we are told that those who focus on the outward are subject to woe. We could not have a clearer message that it is not the outward things that are the problem. When you go to a doctor with a health concern, do you want the doctor to give you medicine to mask the symptoms or do you want the doctor to get to the inner root cause of the problem?

Your spiritual life should be the same as your concerns when you have scheduled a doctor’s visit. You must allow the Great Physician to treat the inner sin and then the outer appearance of that sin will disappear.

Do you clean the inside or do you simply mask the outward appearance?

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Our physician makes heart calls!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
(Luke 5:31-32 (NIV))

Are you arrogant enough to believe that you are righteous without Jesus?

Sadly, there are people in this world who believe that they are good enough to go to heaven on their own merits. We know better.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Romans 3:23 (NIV))

If all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, then everyone is a sinner in need of repentance. In other words, Jesus came to call everyone to repent, and not just your friends and people like you.

We are all sick and in need of a doctor. This doctor can heal anything. This doctor can even bring eternal life. All that any of us have to do is call upon the name of Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and turn away from the sin that has claimed you.

You may think that you are healthy, but we all know better than to believe this false claim. All have sinned. All are in need of a Savior.

This doctor makes heart calls. There are no lines, no waiting and no payment is expected. Jesus already paid everything for us.

Don’t wait to get healthy!

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Would you have the audacity to tell God how to run the world?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV))

Humility is a trait that God desires from us. Look at Moses.

Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.
(Numbers 12:3)

How hard is it to NOT be humble after you have an experience like the burning bush. Let’s face it, the closer to God we get, the more humble we become. We realize that we are nothing in the grand scheme of things. God is everything.

Humility is not a desirable trait in the eyes of the world, but remember who is the prince of this world. We do not belong to the world. We belong to God, and therefore, we must possess a humility beyond the world’s understanding.

If you met God in a burning bush, would you be so presumptuous as to tell Him how to run the world?

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Are you in harmony with Jesus?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
(Matthew 9:12 (NIV))

Do you consider yourself to be a good person?

Do you consider yourself to be a healthy member of the body of Christ? Are you someone who never has any difficulties and always does what a member of the body of Christ should do? Are you in harmony with the rest of the body of Christ? Are you in harmony with the head, which is Jesus?

Using what we take as common knowledge about someone being healthy, we know that a healthy person is considered to have all parts of their body working in harmony with each other. For example, the lungs breathe in the air and the blood carries the oxygen to the different parts of the body. An unhealthy body would have difficulty breathing through the lungs and could not pass the oxygen to the blood.

As such, do you ever have times when you are not in the perfect will of God and you do something that causes another part of the body of Christ to stumble? Is this considered being a healthy part of the body? Think about your last twenty-four hours. I would venture to say that each of us has had several moments when we did not function as a member of the body of Christ.

Fortunately, we have the Great Physician to help us become healthy. He has sent His Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us in what a healthy life in Christ is all about.

When you are sick and go to the doctor, do you always take his or her advise? What about when it comes to spiritual health? Do you always take the gentle proddings of the Holy Spirit and put them into action? We are only human. We will always need doctors in this physical world just as we will need healing in the spiritual world. Thankfully, we have grace and mercy through Jesus.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
(John 10:10 (NIV))

Open up your life to the healing that is yours through Jesus Christ.

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What do you want me to do for you?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.
Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.
(Luke 18:35-42 (NIV))

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Jesus asked the blind man these very words. Is He asking you these same words today?

Take a look at what the blind man said. He knew exactly what he wanted Jesus to do for him. He had faced the ridicule and difficulties of his blindness every day of his life. He wanted God’s touch on his life. He wanted to be whole. He wanted to be the way that God created man to be.

Why do we not see these type of results?

You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
(James 4:2 (NIV))

Are we too timid when we approach the throne of God? Do we think that what we ask for is too trivial and unimportant in the eyes of God? Think about the following parable.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, `Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, `Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ”
(Luke 18:1-5 (NIV))

Everything points to the idea that we are to not fear asking God for what we truly want. I believe that our true desires are there by design. God will grant what He has placed within us.

All we have to do is ask !

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Hostility toward God!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
(Romans 8:5-8 (NIV))

Hostility toward God!

Those three words seem to sum up much of what is going on in the world, and, in my opinion, much of what is going wrong. We have become polar opposites and the chasm seems to be getting wider. On one side you have those who faithfully cling to the Word of God as truth and life and on the other side you have those who mock God and all things associated with Him. They relentlessly cling to what they desire and boldly mock the truth.

They live for their desires and most pay a very high price for it in this lifetime, and all pay a very high price for it throughout eternity.

What is it about their desires that are so appealing to them? Most lead to poor health and premature death. Rebellion has its costs and as written in Romans, the mind of sinful man is death.

Think about that.

Have you noticed that many who seek their sinful ways live on the edge. One slip and they are gone. It is almost as if they hate the very gift of life that God has given them. They are controlled, consumed by their sinful nature.

Consumed.

What do you think of when you hear this word? There are many definitions, yet the one that stands out the most also applies here. The word literally means destroyed. Those who are controlled by their sinful nature are destroyed by it.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
(Galatians 5:22-24 (NIV))

Those who are controlled by sin do not know any of these things. Sin literally steals love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Without these, life is not worth living. Imagine your life with all of these removed. How would you cope? How would you respond to life?

I find it saddening that the world is making choices every day that are based on the sinful nature. We truly have come to a time when good is considered evil and evil is considered good.

What controls you?

Copyright 1998 – 2012 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Allow your faith to grow!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
(Mark 10:52 (NIV))

Could Jesus say these words to you?

It only takes a little seed of faith to grow into a faith that Jesus is speaking of.

He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
(Luke 17:6 (NIV))

Faith is an amazing thing. It is truly like the mustard seed in that it only takes a very small amount of faith in your life and soon you will find that it has taken root and grown into something much larger. If you allow faith to take root, you will find yourself growing more and more reliant upon what it produces in your life. The fruits of faith are bountiful. In fact, the fruits of faith can be referred to also as the Fruits of the Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
(Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV))

Has your faith born fruit? Could Jesus say to you that your faith has healed you?

Faith is an amazing thing. Follow Jesus and allow it to grow!

Copyright 1998 – 2012 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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A very special house call

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and `sinners’?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
(Mark 2:15-17 (NIV))

Do you remember a time when doctors used top make house calls? This usually meant that the patient was too sick to go into the doctor’s office and the doctor had to go to the patient’s home. This meant that the doctor would go directly to the point of greatest need.

Consider Jesus as the ultimate physician on earth. He was sent by God the Father to call the dying to Himself. Does a doctor stand in the street and call to those who are in need of his healing knowledge? He goes directly to the point of need. Does a doctor visit places of athletic ability and physical health if he is determined to bring healing to those in need? He goes where his knowledge and abilities can be utilized to the benefit of those in need.

Jesus, as the great physician, came to those who are in need.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Romans 3:23 (NIV))

We are all sinners. We are all sick to the point of death. Jesus came for those who are sick from sin.

He came for all of us!

Have you allowed Jesus to make a house call?

Copyright 1998 – 2012 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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