Don't allow busyness to crowd out alone time with God

There are many things in our lives that envelope our time. Some are needs, some seem to be needs and some fall into the just for enjoyment category. But, with all sorts of things competing for our time,  it is important to keep things in balance. This is especially true when it come to our relationship with God.

In the following passage we will see Jesus keeping a balance between ministering to people and maintaining His relationship with God. The passage is Luke 5:15-16

¹⁵ But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

¹⁶ But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

Notice that there were large crowds gathering. And large crowds meant a lot of needs. They wanted to press in close to Him so they could hear His teaching and be healed of their sickness. And having a compassionate heart towards the needs of people is a good thing. 

Under such circumstances it could be easy to develop a certain mindset. One that thinks,  "I can't pull away from these people and spend alone time with God. There is so much to be done."  But Jesus didn't allow Himself to get out of balance. He did pull away to pray and verse 16 says He did it often.

Your maximum  effectiveness with people flows out of your personal relationship with God. If you don't guard your alone time with Him then your effectiveness will decrease.  And worse yet your walk could suffer too.

Take time right now and ask God to help you guard your alone time with Him. And make a decision today that you won't allow busyness to keep you from the one that truly loves you. 

Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)

Failing from lack of prayer

Matthew 26 - Shortly before Peter denied the Lord Peter was asked by Jesus to spend time both watching and praying. But, Peter did not devote himself to prayer but instead fell asleep. Peter did not want to deny Jesus. But his failure to pray contributed to his failure. Each of us must be committed to prayer so we can be our best for God.

Obedience and sin impacts our mental state

Practicing obedience leads to a positive mental state. When we practice what is right our conscience is at peace and even feels good about pleasing the Lord and blessing others. When we practice sin our conscience disturbs us and we are not settled mentally. Our mental state drops lower and we can feel bad the we havehurt the Lord and have done harm to our fellow man.

The lifestyle we practice also effects our expectations. When we practice obedience we develop a positive expectation of God being with us, blessings pursuing us here on earth and an eager confidence that we will be with God forever after we die (Psalm 23). When we practice sin we can begin to doubt that God is with us. Instead of having an expectation of blessings we grow concerned that painful discipline will head our way. We can begin to doubt that we are saved and that Heaven will be our future home.

The knowledge that our mental state can be raised due to obedience or lowered due to disobedience gives us yet one more good reason to walk in God's ways.

Treasure hunting

David knew that there was wonderful treasures hidden in the Bible. He meditated on God's Word and made diligent effort to find these treasures. But he also recognized his dependence on God. As he made his effort he asked God to open his eyes so that he would be able to see the wonderful things hidden in the Bible. David's prayer is in Psalm 119:18

One way to find your spiritual gift(s)

Do you want to find out what spiritual gifts you possess? One way to find out is by paying attention to unsolicited compliments. When someone, on their own initiative, tells you that you are good at something then this can be direction from God. If you have heard these compliments repeatedly over the years then that can be further confirmation. Take those compliments to prayer and ask if God has been directing you through these people. Also ask Him how He wants you to use that gift to serve Him and bless others.

We need one another.

Don't be proud in heart and think to yourself that you are so strong in your walk that you don't need others. Each one of us has the capacity to become hardened by sin's  deceitfulness. We need the encouragement our brothers and sisters in Christ to keep walking in God's ways. And it needs to be both ways. We need receive and also give encouragement from one another on a daily basis. Idea taken from Hebrews 3:13. 

Your belief must effect your tongue

There are people that think they are religious but do not exercise control over the use of their tongue. These people have deceived their own hearts and their religion is worthless. This idea found in James 1:26

Idea that may help motivate your obedience. 

Write down things that motivate you to obey. A few stater suggestions are reward, discipline, joy, better relationships with family and friends, God's love, Jesus going to the Cross for me, etc... 

Now put that list at the end of your prayer list. When you finish praying then read your personal list of motivators. This can help you finish prayer with an added willingness to walk in His will. 

Also try to put this list in strategic places so they will be in front of you as encouraging reminders to serve God and others. Perhaps you could put it inside of your coffee cup cabinet so when you reach for your morning drink you see your motivators. Or perhaps in the medicine cabinet when you reach for your toothpaste. Just some thoughts - God bless. (If you find my devotions helpful consider subscribing to my wall posts)

Got joy?

Got joy? Reread Genesis chapter 1. Look at how often God looked at the work of his hands and " .... saw that it was good". God's hands were active in doing good and then He observed the good He had done and rejoiced over that good. So one secret to our own joy is to be actively doing good and then to look upon the good that was accomplished and then we need to rejoice in the good that we brought. 

How is your spiritual diet?

Many of us have several Bible Teachers / Preachers to which we listen. To make sure that we are getting a well balance spiritual diet I recommend doing something. Pay attention to the words in the messages over the next month or so. See if at some point you are instructed to turn from sin. If week after week there is no reference to repentance then your spiritual diet is lacking. We all stray and from time to time. As a result we need times when someone speaks words to us that turn us back into right paths. 

Additionally in our personal time of getting into the Word we must not get in an unbalance diet of verses that are only encouraging. All of God's Word is good for us. Even the uncomfortable ones that correct and discipline us.  God bless

Changing ordinary tasks into expressions of love

There are many ways in which we serve the Lord and express love to Him. We can do this by using our gifts at church. We can do it by feeding the hungry, clothing those in need of garments, visiting the sick and so on.  We also can go to work and express love to the Lord by doing our work unto HIm and not by way of eye service before man. In the few examples given we can easily see this as service before God. 

But I'd like to challenge you with this idea. Convert even ordinary daily tasks into service before your King. Before you do any task do some self talk and set your motive to express love to Him in that task. That's right anything. Okay the buzzer just went off on the dryer. Technically you are not serving anyone since it is your own wash that is in the machine. You pause and set your motives. You choose to do each step as unto the Lord in order to show Him kindness. You say to yourself I'm unloading the dryer in order to serve the Lord. I am folding these clothes to bless you Lord. I am removing these wrinkles to make you smile God. I am putting them in the closet to bring you good. Yes I bring you good Lord and not harm. 

I'm not giving you fixed things to say or a specific way to do them. I am just point you in a general direction of serving the Lord at all times and in all places and in all actions. Serving the Lord is not just on Sundays or at the soup kitchen or at your job. It can be in every action that you do. Furthermore this general mindset can take the monotony out of some tasks. It changes a boring task into something that has life attached to it. It can actually make the task joyful. 

Now whatever you do when you rise from your computer set you mind to do it as unto the Lord. Go forth and bless the Lord. And may the Lord bless you as you do. My love to all of you. 

Reward!

There are many motivators that encourage obedience and produce endurance. Of those motivators don't neglect "Reward." In Hebrews 11:24-26 we see that one of the things that motivated Moses to obey was reward. If Moses considered reward as an important motivator so should we.

Seeking praise from man - A source of emotional instability

Seeking praise from man - A source of emotional instability

In this devotion we will contrast two things. One is an emotional instability and an inconsistent happiness that comes by trying to find fulfillment through an external source. In this case seeking praise from man. And the second is increasing emotional stability and joy through an internal method. In this case acting in love and then making a conscious decision to rejoice over the good we brought. This is helped by self talk. 

Seeking after praise from man can cause some mental instability. When we seek fulfillment based on the praise of man we are allowing external forces to control our mental state. If we obtain that praise then we may have a momentary elevated emotional state. But sadly our mental state is dependent on something external. It is dependent on man's praise. 

But if our mental state can be uplifted from seeking man's praise then the opposite can be true too. A lack of praise or man's disapproval can bring us low and make us feel lousy. This can put us on an emotional roller coster ride. We are up and then down based on what man thinks about us. 

Here is a way to bring both stability and joy. First, whatever we do we need to do it out of love. Then we need to make a conscious decision to rejoice over our actions. This is an internal source of rejoicing as we will see here in Ecclesiastes. 

Ecclesiastes 2:24
24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.

Notice in this verse there is self-talk. The verse says "... and tell himself that his labor is good....." Self-talk is internal. He does what is good in God's eyes and then tells himself that his labor is good. He rejoices without being dependent on an external source. By doing what is good and then rejoicing in that good he increases stability. He is no longer on an emotional roller-coaster ride that is controlled by others. Walking in God's ways and then rejoicing in those ways is one thing that brings us stability and joy.

One last thing just to add some balance. Man may praise us for our upright conduct. So praise for walking in God's ways is a good thing. It is when we selfishly pursue it that it becomes a problem. Additionally it can be a positive thing to receive disapproval from man as a result of our sinful conduct. This can stimulate us to repentance. 

Important note: This is not a comprehensive teaching. And it is not intended to be a substitute for Professional Counseling or Doctor directed medicines

Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)

Ever been so busy serving others that you neglect time with God?

The Bible clearly teaches that we are to love and serve one another. But we need to make sure that we don't get so busy serving that it distracts us from our first love. As busy as Jesus was in His ministry to others He would often pull away and spend time with God the Father - Luke 5:15-16. Another passage that contains some of these thoughts is Luke 10:38-42.

Blessed in spite of your faults

Did you ever get blessed by God and you said to yourself, "I didn't deserve this blessing." Let His kindness towards you stir you up to repentance. Let it motivate you to greater love and obedience towards Him.

God's help during trouble

God's help during trouble God's benefits towards us in times of trouble are many. Here are just two to think about. He is a fortress to us and He is also our source of strength and help. Being inside of a fortress can keep us away from the trouble that is outside. We can be safe and secure while trouble is prevented from reaching us. But there are other times when the trouble is not prevented from reaching us. During these times God can help and strengthen us right in the midst of the trouble. He can equip us with everything we need to endure it. (This page has a lot of activity. And posts can quickly be pushed down the page and missed. If you don't want to miss my devotions consider subscribing to my wall posts.) View or comment on Bible Devotional's post »

Restored to favor again.

God is slow to anger. But God does not wink at sin and can grow angry. But even when He grows angry at His children we can encourage ourselves with this thought. God meets our repentance and confession with mercy and forgiveness. His anger towards His children is brief but His favor lasts a lifetime. View or comment on Bible Devotional's post »

Apply the truth in love.

Apply the truth in love. Ephesians 4:15 tells us that truth must be spoken in love. When the truth is not spoken is love it can be the difference between spreading softened butter on bread or using butter right from the refrigerator. Cold butter tears the bread and does damage. Likewise applying truth in a cold manner does damage to people and it misrepresents God too. View or comment on Bible Devotional's post »

Expectations bringing you turmoil?

Expectations bringing you turmoil? It is important to do good with pure motives. When we, knowingly or unknowingly, attach an expectation of getting something in return for the good we show to others it can set us up for disappointment, unhappiness and anger. It can lead to an attitude of being unwilling to do good to people in the future. Rather do good without an expectation of return. Don't allow your joy to be dependent on being praised, thanked or blessed in return. Choose to rejoice within. Choose to rejoice over the good you have done to people and to God Himself. Even if nobody else shows up have a rejoicing party all by yourself. Rejoice always!! If you like my devotions consider subscribing to my wall posts. View or comment on Bible Devotional's post »