Has the new you arrived?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
(2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV))

What were you like before you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?

Now that I have asked that question, and hopefully you have given it some thought, I have another question to ask.

Is there any difference in you before you accepted Jesus and after you accepted Jesus?

Let that question sink in. Accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior is supposed to be made at the point where you realize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. It is supposed to be the acknowledgment of the fact that you cannot change yourself. It is the point at which you fully understand the following passages.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(Romans 3:23 (NIV))

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 (NIV))

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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
(John 3:16-18 (NIV))

I realize that for many who read this, it is a truth that you have already accepted and embraced as part of your new life in Christ, but there are those who profess a faith in Jesus and still continue to do the very things that they did before that confession. They just can’t seem to let go of the old. Not only do some refuse to let go, they choose to embrace the old even when they profess that they are a new creation in Christ. They fail to realize the one important thing that Jesus told the woman caught in adultery that still applies to us today.

Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
(John 8:11b (NIV))

We must repent. We must turn from our sins. We must deliberately choose to leave the old behind so that the new grace and mercy freely given through the cross may manifest itself in our lives.

Has the new you arrived?

Copyright 1998 – 2022 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Support Daily Living Ministries
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook

How will you be remembered?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
(Psalms 103:15-16 (NIV))

Human endeavors sometimes can make you laugh, especially when the endeavors are all geared towards what an individual can attain. Some people simply do not grasp the concept that they are only here for a short time and then they will be gone. All of their selfish striving will mean nothing one hundred years from now. It may even be sooner than that.

What do we do with the number of days that we have been given?

We cannot take any of the worldly possessions with us when we die. These possessions often rust and deteriorate even before we die. There is only one thing that is ours that we will be able to take with us when we die. Our soul is that one thing. Where we take it is up to us. If we recognize our mortality and accept the grace and mercy offered to us through the atoning blood of Jesus, then our soul will be taken to spend eternity with God. If we do not accept Jesus, then our soul will be cast into the lake of fire and eternal separation from God.

You cannot put a price tag on a soul, yet, a single soul is worth far more than all of the treasures that this world has to offer. What is the worth of all of the souls that have ever lived? What would be the price for all of these souls? I cannot begin to fathom the cost, yet, Jesus willingly paid the price for all of us!

Our days may be like grass, but our memory will be eternal through Jesus!

How will you be remembered?

Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Support Daily Living Ministries
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook

Are you diligently keeping watch?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’
(Mark 13:37 (NIV))

Are you diligently watching and waiting for the Lord’s return?

These words from Mark are recorded as the last words in a brief story about a man leaving his servants in charge while he is gone. In this example, the man did not tell his servants when he would return. He simply told them to watch and be prepared.

Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.
(Mark 13:33-36 (NIV))

If Jesus were to return for His church today, how would He find you? Would He catch you off guard or would you recognize that He is coming and would you be prepared to meet Him? Sadly, too many people who profess a faith in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior simply go about their daily lives with no thought to the question of “What if Jesus returned today?” It is the farthest thing from their minds, yet it should be the most important thing on their mind at all times.

Think about that in terms of a job. You are employed to do a certain task and when the boss is there, you perform the task as expected. But, when the boss is away for a day or two, do you perform your duties as you would if your boss were there?

Absence makes us lose sight of the importance of what we have been assigned to do! I’ll let you in on a little secret, though, with respect to the Lord. Unlike your boss, Jesus still knows your every thought and action. He knows who is diligently watching and waiting for Him.

We are to watch and wait for the Lord to return. Are you diligently keeping watch?

Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook

Are you a new creation?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
(2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV))

Anyone who has accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior has a tremendous reason to celebrate!

We like to celebrate the passage of time by having a major event at the transition from the last day of one year to the first day of a new year. In all honesty, this celebration is nothing more than a time to celebrate the fact that we made it through another year. For this simple fact, the whole world celebrates and then within just a few hours, we are back to the very same things as before the celebration.

What if we could celebrate something that would leave us completely different? What if we could celebrate receiving a gift so magnificent that it changes our eternal destiny? What if we could discard our sinful nature and replace it with the very nature of God through the gift of His Son, Jesus?

Each one of us was physically born into a sinful world and we inherited a sinful nature. That nature has condemned us. That nature has destined us for eternal separation from God. Through the gift that God gave us in Jesus, we can replace that condemnation and that destiny with a grace filled rebirth. We can be made new! We can repent and take hold of the promises of God. We can be made better than new! We can be made new in the image of Christ!

Are you a new creation?

Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook

Are you a new creation in Christ?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
(2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV))

Everyone wants a clean start. We have all done things that we are not proud of. Quite often, we wish that we could simply forget our past and start again with a clean slate. Perhaps that is why so many people love to celebrate the beginning of a new year. It is as if you get a reset on the things that you wish you could have done differently. Sadly, too many people resolve to do things differently, but end up giving up on their plans after only a few days.

There is a reset that we can take advantage of that has so much more probability of lasting more than a few days. In fact, it has the ability to last for all eternity!

Think about that and what it truly means. Man’s religion can’t change you. Only by accepting God’s offer of a reset through the acceptance of Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior can you change for all eternity! Only through the process of being born again, can the new creation come.

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
(John 3:1-6 (NIV))

Are you a new creation in Christ?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook

Can you truthfully proclaim that God is your strength?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(Psalms 73:26 (NIV))

When we are young, we feel that we are invincible. As we age, we start to experience things that we would have never expected when we were younger. We soon find that our physical bodies start to slow down. We experience aches and pains that we used to not have. In other words, our flesh starts to fail. We find that we have changed as does everything in this physical world.

The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
(Psalms 103:15-16 (NIV))

Where do you turn when your heart is failing?

Where do you turn when your flesh is aging?

When do you turn when your eyes grow dim?

There is only one place to turn. Turn to Him!

God should be our strength when we are young. He should be our strength when we are growing old and gray. We should learn to trust in God in all circumstances no matter where we are in life, for He is the one who gave us life.

Can you truthfully proclaim that God is your strength?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery
Visit us on facebook

Are you ready to offer the sacrifice that God seeks?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Psalms 51:17 (NLT))

Have you ever found yourself asking why God would want us to have a broken spirit?

Think about that question for a minute. It may come to you.

Most of the time, a person’s spirit is driven be ego and pride. It is always about them. It is about what they can get and what they can do.

Does this sound like an attitude that God wants us to have?

To God, a broken spirit means that the individual realizes that they can do nothing without God’s guidance and grace.

I can hear the thoughts, Many of you are thinking things like, “What about my career? God has had nothing to do with that.” Or you may be thinking something like, “I pulled myself out of poverty by hard work. God had nothing to do with that.”

In other words, many of you are thinking that you accomplished these things.

Who gave you the talents?

Who gave you the personality?

Who gave you the determination?

And, who gave you life?

We, as part of creation, have no control over many things. In fact, we have control of far fewer things than we may like to admit. When we come to realize that whatever we have in this life could be gone in an instant, that our very lives could be gone in an instant, it puts a whole new perspective on things.

When we stop trying to place ourselves at the center of the universe we quickly realize just how small and insignificant we are. Once we realize this, our hearts are ripe for the harvest. We become a part of God’s plan and not the center of our own.

Are you ready to offer the sacrifice that God seeks?

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery

We are of great value to God

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
(Luke 12:27 (NIV))

All of us are guilty of it. We all worry about what we will wear, what we will eat, where we will live, and many other things that consume us on a daily basis.

Jesus’ words tell us not to worry about such things, for God cares for the lilies, and they are of less importance than us. God clothes them in such splendor that nothing we do can match them, yet God loves us and cares for us more than the lilies. They are fleeting and are gone in a very short period of time. Once they are gone, there is no trace of them. They do not leave this world and have the opportunity to spend eternity with God. Only one created being has that opportunity.

Would God allow us to go beyond His grace and mercy. It is true that humanity must work for food. Look at the Garden of Eden and the aftermath. Jesus was not saying that we did not need to not work, for God said that we would toil for our food. What is implied is that we are of far greater value to God than the lilies, and that God has a far greater reward for us.

Calling upon the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, will allow us to be clothed in righteousness, something that no other created being can achieve. Being righteous before God is far more spectacular than anything that the lilies may show.

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery