Whom have you been asking?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it.
(James 4:2 (NLT))

Jesus came into this world in order to allow us direct access to God, yet, how many of us never approach Him?

Don’t think that I am only talking about those who are not believers. How many of the body of believers go to God in prayer on a regular basis? I hate to say it, but the number of us who approach God on a daily basis is probably a lot smaller than God desires for it to be.

People have a tendency to think that what they desire is insignificant and far less important to God than everyone else’s problems. We are too timid to approach God and reveal our hearts to Him. What we fail to remember is that He knows us better than we know ourselves. Perhaps we are afraid to approach God because we will actually discover the true person that God created us to be. He gave each of us a unique life, a life that He created. Each of us is precious in the eyes of God, yet we treat ourselves as trash. We have become more comfortable believing the lies of the enemy and living within these lies than we are with opening up to God, the Father, the Creator of each of us. We believe a liar and a thief. We do not believe our Lord.

The body of believers needs to firmly and boldly take possession of what God has for us, for if we don’t take possession of it, the enemy will rob us of it. All we have to do is ask God to give us what He has planned for us from the beginning of time.

I don’t proclaim that God wishes to financially bless us, for each person is unique and each person will be blessed by God according to God’s desires. What I do profess is that each of us is living well below what God has created for us. We do not have all that He desires for us because we have accepted the lies of the enemy. We have not asked God for His full truth. In other words, we get what we ask for! Perhaps we aren’t even asking the right person.

Whom have you been asking?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Does God consider you to be His enemy? Repent!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
and maintains his wrath against his enemies.
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.
(Nahum 1:2-3 (NIV))

We don’t hear this side of God preached very often in society today. We hear that God is love. We hear statements like if God loves me, why would He condemn me to hell? We hear people claim that this is Old Testament and that God is no longer like that since Jesus came to this earth.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8 (NIV))

God never changes.

In an effort to offer salvation to a lost and dying world, God sent His only begotten Son to bring us back to Himself.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:14 (NIV))

Just to clarify, God is love, but His love is a just love. He cannot associate with sin. He cannot bring imperfection into His perfect presence. In essence, anyone who sins is a foe, is an enemy of God. That is why Jesus came to walk this earth. He came to freely take our sin upon Himself so that we could have a way to be sin free. He came so that we could transfer God’s wrath away from our sinful lives. He came that we can be sin free in the eyes of God.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God, yet He has offered each of us a way to escape His vengeance. He has transferred that vengeance and wrath onto a perfect life. A life that was and is fully God and fully man.

God offered us grace.

Don’t throw away God’s gift of grace. Don’t find yourself being labeled as an enemy of God!

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What is your idol? What is your sin?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
(Exodus 20:4-6 (NIV))

Did you ever have a car that you were protective of? Did you ever play a sport in high school and thought that you could not live if you didn’t play? Did you ever have a musical instrument that meant everything in the world to you? What about your spouse? Your children? Any of these could be idols if you get your priorities wrong.

An idol does not have to be a statue of someone or something that represents a false god. An idol could be something that takes the place of God. Money, possessions, a car, a big house, any of these can be an idol. In today’s society, it is common for people to focus on an idol. Even if this is a “small” idol, it is a sin.

Sin is anything that separates us form God. Idols block our focus and our relationship with God. Have you removed all of your idols from your life?

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