Devotional 270109

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It is a great pleasure to serve Christ and to enjoy His love each day. No matter where you are today, I hope you will pause and enjoy His presence. Again, this is for our own good to draw close to the Almighty God. He is the lover of our soul. He cares for us more than He cares for what we can do for Him.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?" (Matthew 6:25). A warning which needs to be reiterated is that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this intrusion. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady intrusion all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood.

"Do not worry about your life... No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money," says our Lord - "concern your relationship to Me more than all others." Common sense shouts loud and says - "That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink." Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first.

"Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt 6:34b). How much trouble has begun to threaten you today? What kind of mean little devils have been looking in and saying to you: “Now what are you going to do next month - this summer?” “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself…” Jesus says in Matthew 6:34a. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the "much more" of your heavenly Father. Or else, you will be tempted to worry; look inward to rely on your own strength and resources.

Paul said in Ephesians 5:16, "Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." The evil temptation tries to stop us from doing great things for the Lord, from experiencing His greatness in our lives, from investing our lives for His purpose. Do not give Satan the foothold to lure us away from God’s wonderful plan for our lives. We only have ONE Master to please; it is definitely not the world or our earthly boss. We are called to be faithful servants. By faithfully exercising our God given gifts and talents, we desire to please our Heavenly Father, who will provide all our needs on earth today.

Love you by His strength,
Lawrence