Do you truly understand the fullness of God’s love?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
(Ephesians 3:17b-19 (NIV))

How many times do we need to be told about the depth and breadth of God’s love for us?

Sometimes I feel that we could be told every second of our lives and we would still find times that we forget what is so prevalent in God’s message to us. Face the truth of our sinful existence. There have undoubtedly been times within the last twenty four hours that God’s love for you was forgotten.

Do you think that God is trying to tell us something?

Paul wrote about how wide and long and high and deep, and in the very next thought he tells us that God’s love surpasses knowledge. In other words, we cannot comprehend it because it is so vast. Perhaps that is why we constantly need to be reminded about the magnitude of God’s love for us. It is simply beyond human capacity to understand.

God’s love passes our ability to understand. God’s peace is also beyond our understanding.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:7 (NIV))

Even with all of the sinful things in our lives, God loves us. All we have to do is accept it. Once we accept it, embrace it and embrace God’s peace so that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness of God.

Do you truly understand the fullness of God’s love?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Are you a doer of the Word?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
(James 1:19-27 (NIV))

Perhaps the best way to say what these words say is simply the phrase “Be doers of the Word.”

We cannot honestly expect to “give lip service” to God and then go about our business ignoring Him! When you take wedding vows, do you expect to be able to say “I Do,” and then go about your life as if you were still single? When you accept a job from someone, can you do what you please and not show up when you agreed to? What is different with our promise to God and our acceptance of His only son, Jesus Christ, as our personal Lord and Savior? Is it because we do not see them that we “give lip service” and do not do what we should be doing?

Honesty and integrity of faith are what God seeks in us. When we accept Jesus, we also accept the rules of the gift of grace. Some people claim the gift, but deny the rules. God wishes for us to be faithful to Him, and to keep all other “gods” in there places. Anything can become a “god” if we place it above anything else. If money is so important that you would cheat to get more, then money has become your “god.”

Be doers of the Word. Remember, actions always speak louder than words. Do not let other “gods” keep you from God.

Are you a doer of the Word?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Grace does not mean that you can continue sinning!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
(Galatians 5:13 (NIV))

What does freedom mean to you?

Many people believe that it means that they have the right to do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. This attitude is even prevalent in the church. Too many people who attend church falsely believe that since they are covered by grace, they can do anything that they want to do. Do you remember the woman who was caught in adultery? Do you remember what Jesus said to her?

“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
(John 8:11 (NIV))

Does this sound anything like the false belief that people have about grace? Jesus did not tell the woman to embrace the sin. We are to turn away from our sinful nature, no matter what it may be.

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
(1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV))

Do you know the difference between the word “are” and the word “were?”

Paul addressed the members of the church in Corinth by saying that some of them had been these things. Nowhere does it sound like Paul was implying that we could still cling to our favorite sins while claiming freedom, grace and mercy through Jesus. We are to leave the old behind and hold fast to the truth that is before us. If we could cling to our sins and still have salvation, then why did Jesus have to come to the earth? Jesus offers us a way out of our sins and a way to receive the true freedom from sin.

Focus on following Jesus and the indulgences of the flesh will fade!

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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