God is not impressed by the same things that impress our friends.
Lord, help me to find important what You find important.
"Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Genesis 6:8
God is not impressed by the same things that impress our friends. Lord, help me to find important what You find important.
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"When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and knew that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13
Being prepared is a noble trait. We respect those who are prepared and we strive to be prepared ourselves. However, sometimes we limit ourselves and what we can do by feeling as if we need to be more prepared before starting a task. NIKE made a lot of money by telling the world to "Just Do It". Not only do we just need to do it, but we also need to realize that when it comes to God's work, we aren't doing "it" at all. He is doing all of it through us. Lord, thank you that I don't actually need to do anything other than make myself available for You to do Your work through me. "Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature-for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil." Hebrews 5:13-14
Working out every day is better than not working out at all. But if you do the same thing every day, at some point, your body adapts and then doesn't improve. If you do 3 sets of 10 on the bench press with 100 lbs every other day for a year, you will get really good at bench pressing 100 lbs but not necessarily get stronger. If you run 2 hours a day every day for a year, you won't get better at running a fast timed mile, you will just get really good at running 2 hours slow. After establishing a routine, we need to then begin to challenge ourselves by adding more and doing different. Lord, help me to get out of my ruts and help me to not be satisfied with where I am and with what I am doing. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:1-2
The good news is that we have choice. We are able to choose between a wide array of behaviors. The bad news is that not all of those choices are good choices. They are not good for us and/or good in general. Even though we are called to be "living sacrifices" (and you know what they say about the problem with "living sacrifices" is that they "have the ability (choice) to crawl off the alter), the great news is that God made the ultimate choice that saves us from our poor choices. Lord, thank you for always saving me from myself and help me to show my thankfulness by making better choices. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. Psalm 25:9
No one likes to hear the phrase, "You don't know". It may be accurate but it is an attack on our pride and our self-worth. And that is the problem. God wants us to be humble and not prideful. He also desires our self-worth to be found in Him and not in what we think we know or in the talents we believe we have. Lord, I am not going to pray for humility because I know you will answer my prayer and I don't want to go through what I need to in order to be humble so please allow me to recognize when I am failing to be humble and when my identity is linked to things it shouldn't be. "Yet not as I will, but as You will." Matthew 26:39c
Most people aspire to be more than they are. Then there are the few who actually do what it takes to be more than they currently are. Lord, help me to see You as the standard and not myself as the standard as my standard is much lower than yours. Differing weights and varying measures-both are detestable to the Lord. Proverbs 20:10
If we are in the poor habit of having double standards towards others, it is better to error with our habit to have a higher standards for ourselves, and not a lower standard. Unfortunately, that is not typically the case. Lord, I am sorry for holding myself to lower standards than I hold others as it isn't right to them, me or You. For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. Titus 2:11
We can try to imagine what it is like to be in another person's shoes but the truth of the matter is that until we are in that specific situation, we will truly never know. We would like to think we are aware enough and highly evolved to be able to empathize with and fully understand the pain or challenge or even mindset that someone is in when they are going through something tough or when they make a tough decision. However, until we are there ourselves, it is merely speculation. And that is why God asks us to show grace to others. Until we show grace to others, we truly won't be able to understand the Grace that God has given us. And until we have received Grace from God, we won't know how freeing and beneficial it is to the recipient of our grace to others. Lord, thank you for Your Grace and help me to extend that same grace to others. |
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November 2023
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