“Our Daily Bread” http://odb.org/
The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie
http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht
“Homily Grits Devotional” http://www.homilygrits.com/
Hebrews 10:23… Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (NKJV)
I often write about the “big 3” (love, joy, and peace), from the 9 fruit of the Spirit that God gives all new believers, at the moment God deems them righteous in His sight…Galatians 5:22-23… All of this spiritual fruit starts out much like a seed; and these “Christ like” attributes should grow, produce fruit and ripen, right along with the spiritual maturity of the believer… But for the Christian to grow in their lifelong quest to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), they must be fed on a regular basis (hopefully daily) with the Word of God…
Jesus tells believers this very thing, when He spoke these words as recorded, in…Matthew 4:4… But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (NKJV)
A steady diet of spending time feeding on God’s words from the Bible, will not only provide spiritual wisdom for the Christian, on how best to live their lives for the Lord…it will over time, cloth the Christian in God’s whole set of spiritual armor, to protect the Christian from Satan’s attacks… The apostle Paul writes about this armor,which the Christian must put on piece by piece, in…Ephesians 6:10-20… Here is the link for this important scripture… http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=eph6:10-20&version=NKJV
Understanding what these 6 pieces of spiritual armor are all about, comes from the Word of God… God’s Word is the sword of the Spirit, as written in…Ephesians 6:17b… And this spiritual sword is the only offensive piece of God’s whole set of spiritual armor…
The apostle Paul writes this, in…Romans 13:14… But puton the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill itslusts. (NKJV) In our own flesh, the Christian is powerless against the forces of evil in this world… The apostle Paul knew this all too well, when he penned the introduction to his writing on “The Whole Armor of God”… We see where our power to fight Satan comes from, in the apostle Paul’s first verse…
Ephesians 6:10-12… Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (NKJV)
For me…putting “on the Lord Jesus Christ”, is a combination of being “strong in the Lord” by being filled with (controlled by) the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-20)…and putting on “the whole armor of God” each and every day… I consider prayer, the glue that holds all of God’s armor firmly in place…
God promises us several times in the Bible, that He will be faithful to His children…like the opening scripture tells us…“He who promised is faithful”… Here is a link I found, listing scripture that proclaims God’s promise of help and support, given to all of God’s children… http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Bible-Verses-About-I-Will-Never-Leave-You-Nor-Forsake-You/
But the Christian’s obligation to the Lord, is to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering”… The Christian should start each new day with a prayer seeking the Lord, asking for His strength to combat the forces of evil and their own flesh… Unfortunately, I have come to believe that almost all new Christians (myself included for over 7 years), will go through a process of “wavering”, and of being like children…who will hopefully find out sooner, rather than later…that their way is hard way…
God has the only right way, because God doesn’t make mistakes (Proverbs 3:5-6)… When we believe we know more than God…and we as Christians fail to yield to the urgings of the Holy Spirit…I would have to believe God just sits back and says to Himself… “OK…do it your way, and you are bound to fail !!”
Lord, I mean no disrespect by suggesting that I know what You are thinking… But my own shortcomings have proven to me personally…that the Holy Spirit will allow our own free will and fleshly desires to take back control from Him… And when this happens…the peace and the joy that walking with the Lord as a Spirit filled Christian, will disappear as quickly as God gave them to us, on the day that God filled us with the Holy Spirit as a lifelong Helper and Comforter…John 14:26…
The apostle Paul warns the believers in Ephesus (and us), when he pens this, in…Ephesians 4:14-15… that we should nolonger be children, tossedto and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may growup in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— (NKJV)
For a Christian to truly be conformed into the image of Christ…they must learn and apply the right biblical doctrine (not man made doctrine), of what will please the Lord… I believe this requires going to a Bible believing, preaching and teaching church…as I have consistently written about, for some time now… I spent a day back on 2/13/2013, which was titled… “Dig Deeper”… This day’s writing goes into detail about how to go from being a child in spiritual maturity, to the next level…with links to my writing on “The Right Church” and “The Right Church Doctrine”… This writing can be found by going to… www.Godsmanforever.wordpress.com and typing 2/13/2013, into the search window…
Without consistent, ongoing faith in the Lord…and a steady diet of wisdom from reading God’s Word…I believe Christians will be like a fish out of water; and easy targets for Satan and the lusts of their own flesh and the world (1 John 2:15-16)… Un-confessed sins will keep the Christian from living a life filled with God’s richest blessings, that God reserves for His obedient children who diligently seek Him…Hebrews 11:6…
Heavenly Father, I pray that all of us can go from children being tossed to and fro, to Spirit filled children of Your kingdom…who are living their lives as obedient Christians who are living in Your will and Your ways… Urge all of Your children to “puton the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill itslusts.” I pray for this fullness of Christ for all of us, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…
written by bruce r mills
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