Do you find God’s Word to be great riches?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
(Psalms 119:14 (NIV))

What single thing is it that you truly rejoice over?

Is it money? Is it your job? Is it your family? Is it your possessions? Is it your bank account?

I hate to say this, but we are all guilty of having things that we rejoice over more than we rejoice over God’s Word. It is human nature. We are physical beings who live in a physical world so our desires are often physical in nature. We like to see it, feel it, touch it, hold it, and taste it. If we can’t do these things, then all too often we don’t truly see the value in something.

We desire to store up physical treasures for ourselves.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV))

It is a matter of priorities. Each of us have set them for ourselves or we have let the world set them for us. We must stop and take the time to listen to God. We must take the time, according to Psalms 46:10, to “Be still, and know that I am God.”

We should rejoice in what delights our heart. Our heart will find comfort in the familiar. If we spend all of our time thinking about money, then our heart will delight in riches.

If we desire to delight ourselves in God, what should we spend our time thinking about?

Do you find God’s Word to be great riches?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Can we claim to have such faith?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
(Matthew 9:18-19 (NIV))

What faith this man had! Even when, according to all human knowledge, he had no hope for his daughter, he stepped out in faith. Some people say that he took that step of faith because he had no other options and that he was desperate.

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Would you have a need to take such a step of faith if there was no pressing circumstance that gave you no other option? Would you take that option or would you simply give up and accept what the world says must happen?

What if this man had not gone to Jesus?

What if this man had not boldly approached the Son of God with the faith that Jesus could give him what he longed for? What if he simply gave up and accepted the fact that his daughter was dead?

Instead of rejoicing, there would be mourning. Instead of grace, there would be grief. Instead of life, there would be death.

Isn’t it in our desperation that we reach out to God?

Desperation!

The loss of all hope!

I love the way that God works. When we lose all worldly hope, we have the hope that overcomes the world. This hope comes from faith, and faith from knowing that Jesus is the Son of God.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
(Hebrews 11:1 (NIV))

This man had faith. Can we claim to have such faith?

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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God is the God of the living!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
(Luke 20:37-38 (NIV))

God is the God of the living!

We have a tendancy to associate God with people who have died, but is that really an accurate association?

He is called the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. We know that these poeple died, but, exactly what is death?

When we think of death, we think of the cessation of physical life. We think of only what we can see. To be honest, we have a tendancy to think that death is not reversable. I am sure that each of us can think of a few instances where this is not the case, however, physical death eventually wins out.

Are we simply the sum of our physical bodies and nothing more?

Think about that from this perspective.

If someone is in an accident and lose an arm or a leg, they are still alive. What makes them the unique and indiviual creation is not the physical body. It is the unique spark of life that God has placed in them. That unique spark is the human soul.

Can a person who has been dealt a tremendous physical condition still have a lively soul?

Can a person who has a perfect body have a dead soul?

Life is not simply about breathing! Life is about rejoicing in the blessings of God. It is about rejoicing in the fact that God has created us to be eternal beings. Our bodies are frail. They are temporary. Long after they have gone, we will be. For those who profess that Jesus is Lord and Savior, we willbe rejoicing in the presence of God. We will be living as God intended. We will not be dead in His presence. We will be more alive than we can possibly imagine in our current, limited understanding.

All that you have to do is read the accounts that we are given in Revelation of the things that are going on in the presence of God to know that God is a God of the living. Just look at the elders. Look at the great multitudes. Death is not what God is God of.

God is the God of the living!

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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