How are you doing on your journey?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
(Proverbs 4:27 (NIV))

How good are you at staying the course?

Let’s take a look at that question as if you were going to the grocery store for milk and bread. How often are you sidetracked and find yourself buying much more than you went in for? How many times are you able to stay focused and get only what you had previously decided that you need? How often do these extra expenditures end up being for something that indulge your personal appetites and desires?

Do I dare to say that many of us approach our walk with Jesus in much the same way? We know that we want to follow Jesus but along the way we see things that indulge our personal appetites and sinful desires. If we are not careful, we soon find ourselves following those desires. We then find ourselves so far off of the path that we should be on that we don’t know how we got there in the first place.

It takes constant corrections to maintain a course. It is not possible to reach any destination without making many corrections and adjustments, and that is if we follow the path that we have laid out before us. Even the straightest road and the best tire alignment will have you going off of the road if you do not make continual course corrections. Professing a faith in Jesus does not mean that everything will be perfect from that moment on, and that you will start off and have a smooth journey along the way. What it does mean is that a new destination has been selected and you are going down a road that will require some very serious course adjustments in order to reach your destination. Along your journey, the enemy will try to distract you, to tempt you to take a detour. We must be prepared to keep our eyes on Jesus and not to turn from the path that leads us to Him as our final destination.

It is a known fact that when someone focuses on one thing, the other things soon become less important. If we continually focus on Jesus, the distractions, the evil that is vying for our attention, will fade from our sight. We will know that it is there, but it will be a faded relic of what the enemy intended, for we have Jesus clearly within our vision. Human nature is interesting. We go in the direction that we see. If we are driving and take our eyes off of the road, we have a tendency to drive in that direction. The same thing is true spiritually. We go where we have placed our focus, where we have set our priority.

How are you doing on your journey?

Copyright 1998 – 2022 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Is it your desire to persevere?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
(Hebrews 10:36 (NIV))

There is never a good time to give in to the ways of the world!

It is imperative that everyone who professes a faith in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior persevere to finish strongly. Do not let the sins of the world sneak up on you, distract you and make you lose sight of Jesus and what He has called you to. Accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior does not prevent you from sinning. It also doesn’t give you permission to continue in your sin. Accepting Jesus means that you realize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. Accepting Jesus means that you realize that you cannot escape the consequences of your sin on your own. Accepting Jesus means that you recognize the grace and mercy that God has freely given to those who will simply profess that Jesus is Lord! Accepting Jesus means that you recognize the authority that Jesus has as Lord of your life. Accepting Jesus means that you surrender to that authority. Accepting Jesus means that you turn away from your sin and follow Him!

That is the will of God!

Are you able to accept these conditions? Are you able to persevere in these conditions?

It might be easy to say that you believe, but do your actions reflect your words? Do you thoughts reflect your actions? If you are like me, human nature creeps in and we all do things that we wish we wouldn’t do. When these things happen, do you feel remorse? Do you regret the decisions that lead you to those actions? Do you fall on your knees in repentance?

Have you ever stopped to think about the relationship of repentance to perseverance?

I honestly believe that they go hand in hand, for without true repentance we would never be able to persevere. When we repent, we make a decision to make a course correction and get back to following Jesus. When we persevere, we simply repent and make course corrections all along the way until we get where the Lord leads. We don’t give up. We don’t give in to the sin. We keep our eyes focused on Jesus!

Is it your desire to persevere?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you earnestly seek Godly discipline?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
(Revelation 3:19 (NIV))

We are told that we will pass through the refiners fire to burn away all of the dross from our lives. Godly discipline is a preparation for that refinement. Without discipline, we do not know what we are doing wrong or what we are doing right.

Consider driving a car. You do not get into a car and press on the accelerator and expect to get to your destination without making constant adjustments in your direction with the steering wheel. The steering wheel is similar to Godly discipline. If you are focused on your goal and God is in control of your life, then He will steer you to where He wants you to go. You may hit the occasional pothole and stray close to the white line, or, sometimes, you may even cross the line or run off of the road. Even when this happens, God is directing you to where He is calling you to go just as a good driver does not allow the car to control where he goes. He controls the car. The driver knows where he is going to take the car and how he is going to get there. The car doesn’t have a clue as to what lies ahead.

Does that sound familiar? We are the cars. God is the driver. He knows where we are going and He will make disciplinary corrections in our course to arrive at the destination. The only difference is that we have a choice in whether we allow God to direct and discipline our lives. We make that decision when we ask Jesus to be our personal Lord and Savior. When we do this, we relinquish control of our lives to God.

Let’s take the car analogy one step further. The word “repent” means a turning away or a change of course. If we repent, then we are allowing God to discipline us and prepare us for what He desires for us.

Do you earnestly seek Godly discipline in your life, or do you wander aimlessly through this world?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Have you gotten off course?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
(Galatians 5:7 (NIV))

We all face distractions in our lives. The key is to not allow the distractions to make us change course!

Think about that in relationship to your walk with Jesus. Paul often referred to this as a race where the winner gets the prize.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
(1 Corinthians 9:24 (NIV))

The only difference is that we are all in our own race and if we win, we get the prize. That prize is eternal life with the Lord in heaven. If we are running for such a valuable prize, why do we get distracted by things that have no eternal value? Why do we get off course chasing after things that don’t matter? We must keep our eyes upon Jesus. We must stay focused on the prize!

Have you gotten off course?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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We expect God to do His part, but are we doing ours?

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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV))

This has become a standard passage for many believers over the last several years. We see the direction in which many aspects of our country are going and we long for a reversal of course to happen. We long for a nationwide revival and repentance to happen. We long for the days when good was not called evil and evil was not called good. We long for the times when groups of people would not call for a state to be boycotted because the state government chose to legally recognize the sanctity of life.

We are in a battle. We see the camps drawing up the battle lines. It is getting easier to distinguish which side is which. It is becoming very easy to distinguish the wheat from the weeds.

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
“the owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'”
(Matthew 13:24-30 (NIV))

We, as the Body of Christ, are given many instructions with respect to the world and its state. We are to be humble before God. We are to pray. We are to seek God. We are to understand that evil will grow. We are to stand firm during this time.

And, we are called to be workers in the harvest.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
(Matthew 9:37-38 (NIV))

We are to share the Gospel. We are to reach out to the lost. We are to pray like we have never prayed before!

Sadly, I feel that I don’t do this enough. Do you ever feel like that in your walk with the Lord? We see things in this world and then we look again and wonder why.

We expect God to do His part, but are we doing ours?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Are you unswerving?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
(Hebrews 10:23 (NIV))

Are you a person who likes to set goals in your life? Perhaps you have even gone so far as to develop a roadmap of the steps required to achieve your goals. Let’s face the facts. If you want something badly enough, you hold fast to the plan, you maintain a steady course, and you never take your eyes off of the prize!

If we are capable of doing this for a worldly treasure, why do we so often fail to do this very same thing for a treasure of eternal value? Why do we focus so much on this world when we claim to desire God’s will and His desires?

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-20 (NKJV))

Perhaps it is related to our human nature and our limited ability to comprehend what we do not see, after all, all of human history has been a struggle about desiring the things that we can see. When we desire what we cannot see, we are ridiculed. We are made fun of. We are told to grow up. We are told that if we can’t see it then it doesn’t exist!

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
(Hebrews 11:1 (NIV))

Have you ever seen God? I’m not talking about seeing His presence manifested in His creation. I am talking about actually seeing God. Let’s face facts. We cannot even begin to fathom His greatness. We cannot even begin to understand His omnipotence and His omnipresence. We cannot even begin to comprehend the awesomeness of heaven, yet we all have hope in these things. We have faith to proclaim that Jesus is Lord. We have faith to hold fast to His Word, yet, so many of us falter. So many of us are not unswerving in our hope and our faith. Thankfully, when we are not capable of doing this, our Lord is faithful. We must remember that it is not by our power that we hold unswervingly to Him, but it is His faithfulness that holds unswervingly to us. When we place our hope in Jesus, we have an unswerving guide who will never leave us, and because He will never leave us, we can be held unswervingly in His love.

Are you unswerving?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Don’t get caught up in the moment!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
(Romans 8:18 (NIV))

Have you ever faced ridicule or suffering because you proclaim a faith in Jesus?

How did you react?

Did you hold your head up high and proud because the enemy has identified you as a follower of Jesus or did you turn tail and try to hide? Did you stay true to your beliefs or did you change course with the slightest sign of trouble? Do you hate the idea of any type of discomfort in this life and simply hope that an hour on an occasional Sunday will not come up on the enemy’s radar?

If these questions didn’t make you stop and think about the sincerity of your faith, then perhaps these will!

Do you possess a bold faith in Jesus? Are you willing to stand your ground on the behalf of Jesus when confronted by the enemy? Think about that for a moment. Jesus was more than willing to stand His ground on your behalf when confronted by the enemy. He was willing to step out of heaven and face a few years of suffering so that each of us could have an opportunity to experience salvation. Shouldn’t we be willing to face ridicule and suffering from the enemy because we have accepted this? If you truly stop to think about this, the attacks make sense. Before Jesus came into the world to bring grace and mercy, legally all of us belonged to the enemy due to sin. We have been redeemed! In essence, the legal claim that the enemy had over us has been made null and void. He is angry. He will do anything and everything to make us reject God’s grace and mercy! He will attack anyone who professes a faith in Jesus in an effort to make us change our mind.

In the grand scheme of God’s plan, these attacks are only momentary in comparison to all of eternity that we will gain. Don’t be so focused on the things of this world that you trade eternity in heaven for comfort in this world!

In other words, don’t get caught up in the moment!

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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If we cherish sin

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened
and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!
(Psalms 66:17-20 (NIV))

If we cherish sin, God will not listen!

It can’t get any simpler than that profound statement. If we turn to Him we are turning away from our sin. God and sin are diametrically opposed and cannot exist around each other. If we cherish sin, then we cannot cherish God. If we cherish God, then sin will have no place in our lives. All it takes is a choice on our part to turn towards God and away from our sin.

Wait a minute! What about all the times that we think or do things that we shouldn’t after we have turned towards God?

Turning towards God is not a one-time event. We must look at daily repentance in a manner similar to driving a car. When you get behind the wheel of a car, you do not simply point the car in the direction that you wish to go and then never touch the steering wheel. We need to make continuous midcourse adjustments to our direction if we are to achieve our ultimate destination. Life lived for God is the same way. We will hit bumps in the road that will throw us slightly off-course. It is our reaction to these “bumps” that will determine whether they have more than a minor impact on our lives. Just as a small bump in the road can slightly alter your course, and, if left uncorrected, can put you in a ditch, so too can the bumps in life if you do not make daily course corrections. We must strive to not cherish sin and to place God above all else. If we can do this, then God will not withhold His love. Even if we allow the “bumps” to completely throw us off course, we can correct and return to God.

How is your course?

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