7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
~1 Samuel 16:7
I want to start this Devo with a Prayer:
Father God,
I just thank you for your power and your infinite patience in us
Lord, that at times we falter and break, but Lord you do not crumble
However, you sit there with arms open asking us to return back to you.
How amazing, that we KNOW that we have this gift of free salvation.
How your love for us,spurs us on, even in the bleakest of nights
God, Give us the heart of service, and just fill it with your Godly Joy.
Amen
So in the last few Devos we've hit a couple of topics. We started with the importance of keeping God at the head, so that God can guide you. We then tackled Trusting God (having faith), praying for power and then going out with courage to do the work. Which leads us to today.
Often there are times we procrasinate God's work. we pray weak prayers before we go to bed, and just give him whatever is left over of our week or our day, and then we feel relieved of our duty to serve. It is like we hit some spiritual quota we needed to meet or just to get his work out of the way, so that we can move on with our lives. I want you to consider today, if these offerings are pleasing to God.
In the verse provided today, it gives us great insight into what God sees in us. Is God more interested in what we do outwardly, or the inward processes that take place to why we do it? Does God want our duty or does God want our heart? I cannot think of a man who serves God by duty, that truly knows and understands the amazing power of his salvation. However, I have known many men who serve the Lord wholeheartly, and see and experience God daily.
What kind of relationship are you striving to have with God? One where the Master's face is always shrouded because you've never met him, or one where he shares his table with you and calls you friend. I strongly ask you to answer this question today. If you decide today that you want to know your Creator personally, then I encourage to make that prayer that I began with.
Lastly, I wanted to leave you with something John Piper wrote in his book "Desiring God", he writes: "I find the bible a divine command to be a pleasure seeker that is, to forsake the two bit, low yield, short term, never satisfying, person destroying God-belitting pleasures of the world and to sell everything "with joy" (Matt 13:44) in order to have the kingdom of heaven and "enter the joy of your master"(Matt 25:21,33).
May this bring you my brothers infinitly closer to God
~Allan
message of the day:
-Serve the God with your heart, not out of duty
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3 comments:
for me i'm striving to be more obedient cause i know God's telling me not do some of the things i do.
howard (0,0) :(
Yo, constant prayer for the win. :D
I can't wait for retreat, we'll talk about stuffs...everyone ^___^;
similar to howard, but striving to be more patient in certain areas of my life. I've always thought i was a patient person with many things, but then lately i've realized that my patience is starting to grow short, and there are some things that i'm starting to get really impulsive about. So striving for patience, and waiting for God's right timing, is what i'm working on
-Jon (1,1)
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