May 20, 2020
Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©
The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded.
(Exodus 17:1a (NIV))
I hope that I am not the only one who finds the intricacies within God’s Word to be fascinating. I love the little things like the way God uses and reinforces meanings. He paints word pictures in order for us to understand Him better. One example is how Jesus is the Bread of Life and that He was born in Bethlehem, the place of bread.
Consider this passage from Exodus.
The Desert of Sin is another great example. Sinning is missing the mark. It is falling short of what God expects. It often leaves us barren and desolate. If you look up the word desert in a dictionary, it will probably be defined as a barren and desolate place. When we are trapped, when we are lost in sin, we are not capable of finding our way out of our desert. We cannot save ourselves. We need the Lord to guide us. What is described in this passage from Exodus is a perfect picture of how humanity is lost in a desert of sin and the only way out is to trust and follow the Lord. This is true collectively as well as individually.
Have you taken the steps to trust the Lord to lead you out of your desert? Have you turned your eyes upon Jesus and repented of the sins that left you barren and desolate? Have you recognized the meaning of the word picture that God has shown us? Without Jesus, each of us are left stranded and dying in the desert. With Jesus, we are lead to safety and righteousness.
Have you left your Desert of Sin?
Are you following the Lord?
Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook
Like this:
Like Loading...
Leave a Comment » | 
are you following His lead, commit to following Jesus, following God should be our first priority, following Jesus, God calls sinners to repent, Godly priorities, it is a matter of priorities, priorities, repent, sinners repent, Uncategorized, we must repent, what are you following, what are your priorities, why are you following Jesus | Tagged: barren, Be still, Bethlehem, bread of life, collectively, commanded, community, desert, desolate, dying, Exodus, expects, eyes, falling, fascinating, follow, following, God, God's Word, guide, humanity, individually, intricacies, Israelite, Jesus, Lord, lost, mark, meaning, missing, need, paints, perfect, picture, pictures, place, place of bread, recognized, repented, righteousness, safety, save, short, sin, sinning, steps, stranded, trapped, traveling, Trust, turned, Word | 
Permalink
Posted by dailylivingministries
September 1, 2017
Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
(Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV))
What time do you think that it is?
We are told there are many different times that God has planned for.
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 (NIV))
I realize that some of these are not very pleasant. I realize that we experience all of them to some extent in our individual lives. Collectively, we seem to experience them as well. With all that is going on in the world right now, it seems as though we experience many of these on a daily basis. I have often wondered if there was any particular reason for the order of these events in these verses. I have also wondered how I am expected to react in each of these pairings of events. Each element in each pairing is the polar opposite from the other element in the pairing. Is God telling us that we will experience every possible situation in our lives and this is how He explained it by giving us many extremes of the same thing?
Life is precious!
Sadly, due to the fall from grace, we will experience life’s extremes. We will see things that will give us unimaginable joy and the very next minute, we will see things that bring us unimaginable pain.
I love the outlook that a friend has about life. He says that “I have never had a bad day. I have had some bad things happen on a good day, but I have never had a bad day!” If you believe that life is precious, then I pray that you see the wisdom in these words the next time that you face some of life’s extremes.
Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook
Like this:
Like Loading...
Leave a Comment » | God's timing, God's timing is perfect, life is precious even with the extremes, Uncategorized, we fail to see God's timing, what time is it | Tagged: activity, Be still, born, build, collectively, dance, die, different, embrace, everything, experience, gather, give up, God, hate, heal, heavens, keep, kill, laugh, lives, Love, mend, mourn, outlook, peace, planned, plant, pleasant, precious, refrain, scatter, search, season, silent, speak, tear, tear down, throw away, time, uproiot, war, weep, wisdom | Permalink
Posted by dailylivingministries
Daily Living Ministries 