Can you do these things?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Rejoice always,
(1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NIV))

I am the first to admit that this is not always the easiest thing to do. God didn’t stop there!

pray continually,
(1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV))

Am I the only one who has trouble doing this even though I long to be able to say that I do pray continually?

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV))

Third strike!

If this were a baseball game, I am sure that my batting average is far less than perfect.

Have you ever wondered why the easiest sounding instructions that God has given us are always the most difficult to carry through with? Sadly, because of our fallen, sinful human nature, it usually just gets worse from here. Thankfully, even when we are at our worst, God’s love for us is at His best.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16 (NIV))

Do you believe?

I realize that this is another seemingly easy thing to answer, but God realized that He needed to make things simple for us. We will still mess up on the easy things, but we have a simple way to be restored and be embraced by God’s love. We must believe. We may not always be able to say that we are able to rejoice. We may not be able to pray continually, and we definitely will have problems giving thanks in all circumstances, but we can rest assured that our belief in Jesus as God’s one and only Son will redeem us.

Can you do these things?

Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What does your face show?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.
(Proverbs 15:13 (NIV))

Why do so many people who profess a faith in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior walk around with such doom and gloom on their faces?

It just doesn’t make sense!

We have been given the greatest gift that could ever be given. We have been given salvation and grace when we deserve death due to our sinful nature. Our death sentence has been commuted. We are free from the bondage of sin and death, yet so many who profess a faith in Jesus don’t seem happy and joyful at all.

Are you happy?

Do you wake up every day and give thanks to the Lord for what He has done for you? Do you give thanks to the Lord because you woke up? Do you find joy in God’s Word and in His promises? Are you thankful for the sun on your face and the wind in your hair? Are you joyful at the site of family and friends, and are you truly joyful to gather with the Body of Christ to worship and praise the Lord? In other words, do you have joy deep within your heart because you are His?

What does your face show?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Who is your strength and your shield?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
(Psalms 28:7 (NIV))

It is December and Christmas is rapidly approaching. It is the time that we think of Jesus coming to earth. It is a time of great joy, for Christmas symbolizes the birth of our hope and the birth of our faith.

It is also the time that people show just how much that they misunderstand just what Christmas means.

They see the baby Jesus and the gifts. They see the love that God has for His creation as it is wrapped in the joy of a new baby. People marvel at this and become filled with visions of heart warming activities surrounded by family and friends. What these people fail to realize is that this heart warming activity is about so much more than decorations, presents, family and friends.

It is about salvation.

It is about grace.

It is about the birth of a hope that cannot be taken from us.

It is about the strength of the one who shields us from the consequences of the sins of this world.

You can look upon Christmas as something nice and sweet and heart warming, which it is, or you can look upon Christmas with power and might, for it holds the strength of God’s promises to His creation. Christmas is powerful. The birth of Jesus made heaven rejoice and Satan cower. Would the birth of any other person have such an impact?

It is time that we show the world the strength of Christmas and the true joy of which we sing.

I have written about this before, but I think it is appropriate once again. The words “Merry Christmas” can be traced back a long way. They can be traced back to a time when “Merry” did not mean joyous and festive. The word “Merry” originally meant mighty. The festive greeting that we know as “Merry Christmas” originally was a greeting in which people wished for each other to have a “Mighty Christ’s Mass.” They were wishing for each other to have a powerful encounter with Jesus.

Strength and power!

May you have a Merry Christmas in every sense of the meaning.

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you give thanks where thanks are due?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
(1 Corinthians 10:16 (NIV))

Most of us just finished a meal, a feast, in which we gathered together with family and friends to give thanks for the blessings that we have. It is good to be thankful, especially when you consider that whatever you are thankful for can be gone in an instant. Loved ones can be taken from us. Health can be good one minute and forever a problem the very next. The homes that we have can go up in smoke and the finances that we store away for our future can be worthless the very next day.

No matter the state of the things of this world, there is one thing that we should be eternally thankful for. There is a treasure that lasts forever! That treasure is Jesus.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
(Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV))

We celebrate an earthly thanksgiving with a meal. We also celebrate an eternal thanksgiving by partaking of a holy meal, a holy communion. This participation in the cup and in the bread is a special symbol of our thanksgiving for what we have been given, but we should not limit our thankfulness to the Lord to just this particular moment. Every meal should be a reflection, a moment of thankfulness to God, for what we have been given. Not only every meal, but everything that is good should cause us to give thanks to the true source of all that is good.

Do you give thanks where thanks are due?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Is eternity long enough to give our thanks and praise?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
(Psalms 100:4 (NIV))

It is that time of year when we, as a nation, have set aside a day to give thanks. When I read the passage above, I realized a few things that jump right out at me. The first thing that I notice is that we, as the Body of Christ, should have a perpetual attitude of thanksgiving for it is tied directly to our desire to be in His presence. It should not be limited to a single day and a single meal.

Thanksgiving should be a believer’s way of life!

We should give thanks for our lives. We should give thanks for the air that we breathe. We should give thanks for our family and friends. We should give thanks for the roof over our heads. We should give thanks for the food that gives us energy. Most importantly, we should give thanks for the gift of grace and mercy that was freely given to us at the cross.

The second thing that I noticed is that when we are thankful, we should praise the Lord.

We should give praise to God for our lives. We should lift up praise to God for the air that we breathe. We should praise God for the blessings of family and friends. We should praise God for the shelter that we have been given. Our praises should be lifted to the Lord for the food that we have been given. Most importantly, we should praise and glorify the Lord for the gift of grace and mercy that was freely given to us at the cross.

Taking a long and serious look at all that we should be thankful for, one day is not enough. One life is not enough!

Is eternity long enough to give our thanks and praise?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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How well do you follow these instructions?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.
(1 Chronicles 16:8 (NIV))

Pretty straight forward instructions, but how well do we follow them?

Let’s run through a quick checklist.

How often do we give thanks to the Lord? Do we take things for granted when we should be thankful for what we have been given?

How often do we call upon His name? It is common to say things every once in a while such as “Lord, help me,” but do we really cry to out to God? Do we open up our hearts and tell Him our inner most desires?

How often do we make God known among the nations? This is probably the one where we fail the most. If you stop and think about these three points, giving thanks is probably the easiest. Calling upon His name is a little more difficult since we like to think that we can handle things ourselves, and proclaiming God to the nations is the most difficult. It is with this point where we must verbalize, where we must get outside of our comfort zone and loudly profess our faith in God and proclaim what He has done.

If you had to fill out a check list, or rate these three points on a scale of 1 to 10, how well would each of us do at the end of each day? Would we find that we have responded as we should or would we find that a majority of events during the day would go completely unrecorded? Do we miss opportunities in our daily lives to give thanks, to call upon God’s name, and to proclaim Him to the world?

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Are you thankful for unmerited divine favor?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
(1 Chronicles 16:34 (NIV))

What do you have in your life that you consider to be good?

Where did it come from?

If you are honest with yourself, you will realize that everything that you have that you consider to be good did not come from anything that you may have done. You did not cause your life. You did not create your salvation. You did not earn your family. You did not earn God’s love.

It is so interesting and sad that too many people still feel that they can earn God’s love and salvation. They see God as someone that they have to impress and work to earn whatever He gives to them. They simply do not understand grace.

Grace has been defined as unmerited divine assistance.

Unmerited – unearned. In other words, we can do nothing to earn God’s grace and mercy. All that we have to do is accept it. It is free!

Once we realize that God’s grace is free, we begin to realize that all things that are good come from God. God is the creator of life. Life is good. God is the creator of love. Love is good. You never hear of someone who is dying say that they wish they could have a new car. It is not important. You never hear them say that they wished they could have lived life alone. They long for love. Love is important.

This Thanksgiving, reflect upon your life and count your blessings. Give thanks to the one who gave you those blessings. Let those around you know of your thankfulness.

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Give thanks to him and praise his name

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
(Psalms 100:4 (NIV))

Thanksgiving!

It is much more than a single day in which we have a tendency to overeat and watch football. It is a lifestyle of praise in which we glorify God and thank Him for all that He has given us. It should be a year round choice instead of an event that is limited to a single day.

What do we truly give to God?

Do we willingly give all that we should?

Do we acknowledge God as the source of all of our blessings?

Do we offer up our praise and thanksgiving to God in a manner that will please Him?

It is so easy to stop giving God the praise and the thanksgiving and simply give up a few hours a week sitting in a church. This is not what God wants.

I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
This will please the LORD more than an ox,
more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.
(Psalms 69:30-31 (NIV))

Is God pleased with your thanksgiving and your praise?

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Give thanks to the LORD

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
(Psalms 118:1 (NIV))

Give thanks when things are good.

Give thanks when things are not so good.

Give thanks when things are not good at all.

We must give thanks in all things for God is with us. He never leaves us. We may leave Him, but He will never leave us. God does not cause the pain and the suffering, but He is there in the middle of it. He is longing to take us and comfort us. He is waiting for us to turn to Him in these times.

I recently had the honor of meeting an extraordinary group of young men. These young men had all done something bad. They had fallen for the lies of the enemy and had fallen into traps of addiction and even worse things. During my time with them they taught me something. Even though they were seeking and learning, they taught everyone around them something wonderful. It is probably the best lesson that I have learned in a long time. I had professed to know this, but it took seeing these young men in action to realize just how good God is. In the eyes of society, these young men had done great wrongs, but in the eyes of God, we all have done great wrongs. In God’s eyes, I am no different from them. His love for all of us is great.

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
(Isaiah 64:6 (NIV))

God had taken these young men whom society would shun and turned them into models of God’s love for us. Not only where they examples of God’s grace and mercy within their lives, they also reflected God’s grace and mercy to all whom they came in contact with. I expect great things from this group of young men, for God has done great things in their lives. These young men taught me to give thanks in a whole new light, for God truly is good.

God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

Give thanks !

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Praise Him all the more!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Praise the LORD.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
(Psalms 106:1 (NIV))

Sometimes we just simply need to praise God.

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
(Habbakuk 3:17-18 (NIV))

When things are going our way, we give thanks and praise to God for His blessings. We are eager to lift up praises when we are joyous. It seems to come so much easier when our hearts are light. Turn that joy into sadness and it becomes more difficult to praise God.

Why do we find it difficult to praise God when things are tough? Does He love us any less? Perhaps it is we who have slipped in our faith and affection.

Do you think that the Biblical writers did not have the same stresses that we do today? What if we put Habbakuk into perspective. Today we see a fig tree and we see a plant that offers a hobby for the owner. The same thing with grapes. Most of us in today’s society do not have sheep and cattle so the association is also missed. Consider that when this was written, if any of these things failed to produce or the sheep and the cattle were gone, it was equivalent to someone losing their job in today’s society. It may even be the same as someone losing their home.

I reiterate that sometimes we just simply need to praise God. If we can raise our voices in praise even when things are not good, we will grow stronger in our faith. We will grow closer to God and then when things do turn around, we will praise Him all the more!

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