Do your thoughts and words please the Lord?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
(Psalms 19:14 (NIV))

Reading this passage reminded me of something that I think most people forget to take into consideration, and that is the simple fact that God knows us better than we know ourselves. He sees straight into our hearts and knows our innermost desires. He sees the things that we try to hide even from ourselves.

Are you willing to ask God to search your heart?

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
(Psalms 139:23 (NIV))

Better yet, are you willing to respond to God when He reveals to you things that are not pleasing in His sight? All of us have thoughts and desires that are less than righteous. We all say things that are less than pleasing to God and to ourselves. Are you willing to repent? Are you willing to change? It is human nature to rebel against correction. It is human nature to fall into prideful arrogance because we simply don’t want to change.

In short, we don’t want to please the Lord. We want to please ourselves?

Do your thoughts and words please the Lord?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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How is your body and your mind?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:1-2 (NIV))

We like to think that we are the ones in charge, that we are the masters of our own destiny, but in all honesty, are we?

It is human nature to rebel against submission to others, for it sounds too much like slavery to us.

Think about those statements and then think about the fallen, sinful nature that we, as humanity, have inherited. We believed a lie from the father of lies, and now, if God says one thing, our deceived nature automatically tells us to believe the opposite. In order to break this trend, we must make a conscious effort to do so. We must decide to not follow the world, but follow God. We must decide to offer God all of ourselves. That means physically and spiritually. We must deliberately make a choice to go against the world for the world has become the domain of the enemy. The world is very good at calling good evil and evil good. In order to break out of this mindset, we must transform our minds. We must spend time in God’s Word. We must seek God in all things and break the bonds that hold us captive to the lies of the enemy.

We must be willing to sacrifice our natural selves and offer up ourselves to God in humility and sincerity. We must humble ourselves and admit that we are nothing without God. We must seek only what makes us righteous in the eyes of God. That means removing anything that tempts us in body or in mind.

How is your body and your mind?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you have the faith to please God?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
(Hebrews 11:6 (NIV))

Reflect on those words for a moment.

Nothing could be more true. It requires faith to believe that God exists. It requires faith to want to please someone that you cannot see and many people say doesn’t exist. I have a question for you. Which shows more faith – believing in a God that you cannot see, or not believing in Him because you cannot see Him? Can you see the air? Do you believe that it exists? Do your lungs still fill up with each breath?

Just because you cannot see it does not mean that it is not there. Those who claim that there is no God have faith in their convictions, but who stands to lose the most when their faith is overturned by the truth? The only difference in their faith and in the faith of a believer is that they place their faith in themselves. They are not willing to admit that there is someone greater than they are. As believers, we place our faith in the fact that the Bible is true and that God exists. We know by faith that we are sinners in need of a Savior. We know by faith that we can claim salvation through the atoning blood of Jesus. We know by faith that as we claim this salvation, God will draw us closer to Him and that as we draw closer to God, we long to please Him.

Faith can take us down different paths. One path leads to pleasing ourselves. One path leads to wanting to please God. Who do you want to please?

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What do your actions show?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
(Romans 12:1 (NIV))

We are God’s creation. We have been bought by the Blood of Jesus Christ, therefore, we are not our own. God has paid the price for us twice, yet, we continue to act as if we are solely responsible and accountable only for and to ourselves.

This “ownership” is not one of servitude, but one of faith and salvation. In many societies, if someone saves another person’s life, the person who was saved “belongs” to the person who saved them. This is a “belonging” of gratitude and thankfulness, and not a “belonging” of bondage. If these societies can claim such an act as rightful, how can we, who have been saved far beyond the capabilities of any human savior, do any less for the One who has saved us? This is accomplished through the instructions that Paul wrote to the Romans.

We ARE living sacrifices. People see our daily sacrifices. What do you show to God and to the world on a daily basis?

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