How is your heart of wisdom?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

The length of our days is seventy years–
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
(Psalms 90:10-12 (NIV))

How many people do you know, or maybe you, yourself, who feel that they are immortal. Many people feel that they have all the time in the world. We are as grass in the eyes of God. We are fleeting in the grand scheme of things. Yet, God still wishes for us the things that He has promised. This life is but a short time when compared to eternity. How can we compare this brief existence with the eternal life that God has promised through His grace and mercy? We must realize that this brief time that we have is not the important part of our existence. It is only a small grain of sand on the beach of time. It is how we spend our “sand” that determines where we will spend our “beach!”

Our days our limited. We must act as they really are, and not let the rush of everyday life blind us from the fact that in one hundred years from now, will it really matter if we had a big house, a fancy car, or a big bank account? What will matter is the account that we have invested in in God’s eternal “bank.”

How is that account doing? How is your heart of wisdom?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Amen! Amen, and Amen!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
(1 Timothy 1:17 (NIV))

Does this describe your attitude toward God?

Think about that question with how you see your place in respect to God. Do you see yourself in charge of your life? Do you see all of creation existing in order to provide what you feel that you need and want? Do you see God as some mythical, magical genie who is there to grant you every whim and wish?

Or is your attitude toward God more Biblical in nature? Do you see yourself as grass that is here today and gone tomorrow? Do you see God as eternal? Do you see God in all glory while you see yourself as filthy rags? Do you see a God who loves you so much that He didn’t want to spend eternity separated from you?

Just how do you see God?

It is common knowledge that the word “Amen” means so let it be, but since we are frail humanity, I am sure that we lose focus of this just as we lose focus of other things in our lives. With that in mind, it is my prayer that all of us keep God in His only rightful place and we keep ourselves in respective proximity at His feet in worship.

So let it be!

Amen! Amen, and Amen!

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Is the strength of your pride keeping you from Jesus?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
(Revelation 1:8 (NIV))

People have a strange sense of themselves. Young people think that they are immortal, or at least they will be around for a long, long time. As people get older, they still have a tendency to think of themselves as in control. Many people go to their grave thinking that they are their own masters.

Isn’t it a shame that people’s pride is so strong that they do not want to admit that there is a God and that He has always been and will always be?

God created us to have a relationship with Him not as a servant but as a child to a loving father. The church is based on this principle. Jesus is the head of the church, and each of us are members of the body.

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
(John 14:9-10)

This means that God is the head of the church. He has always been and will always be, constant, never changing and always loving.

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Have we become modern Pharisees?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
(1 Timothy 1:15-17 (NIV))

Paul was probably the worst person in the eyes of the church before his Damascus Road experience. Even afterwards, many believers did not trust him or want to associate with him.

Does this sound familiar? How many of us today do not want to accept people whom we consider to be worse than ourselves? We claim to want sinners to turn from their sin and to turn to God, yet, if they try to do it in our “church,” we feel uneasy and do not want them to be a part of us. This is not Godly.

We never know what God has in mind for those whom He has called out of their sin through Jesus Christ. God may have a plan for those whom we do not want, and through our un-acceptance of these people, we are actually standing in God’s way. When we stand before God, do we want to have to answer the question asking us why we did not accept someone whom God has called? I know that I don’t.

People need to realize that all of us are sinners, and in the eyes of God, no sin is greater than another, for all sin leads to death. It is our human nature that has labeled some sins more sinful than others. If we fall into this way of thinking, then we have become modern Pharisees in the eyes of God.

Before you dismiss this, remember how Jesus treated the Pharisees of His day!

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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How is that account doing?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

The length of our days is seventy years–
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
(Psalms 90:10-12 (NIV))

How many people do you know, or maybe you, yourself, who feel that they are immortal. Many people feel that they have all the time in the world. We are as grass in the eyes of God. We are fleeting in the grand scheme of things. Yet, God still wishes for us the things that He has promised. This life is but a short time when compared to eternity. How can we compare this brief existence with the eternal life that God has promised through His grace and mercy? We must realize that this brief time that we have is not the important part of our existence. It is only a small grain of sand on the beach of time. It is how we spend our “sand” that determines where we will spend our “beach!”

Our days our limited. We must act as they really are, and not let the rush of everyday life blind us from the fact that in one hundred years from now, will it really matter if we had a big house, a fancy car, or a big bank account? What will matter is the account that we have invested in in God’s eternal “bank.”

How is that account doing?

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