We welcome you to another amazing devotional edition where powerful and inspiring topics are being treated. Experts have devoted their time to preparing this devotional edition for individual, family and fellowship use. It is our prayer that this edition will bless and impact many lives in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. We implore all the children of God to read all four topics of this edition for fresh impartations. Not only this, all the accompanied prayers must be prayed seriously for quick answers. Our prayer is that you not remain the same spiritually, physically and materially after this ministration in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. We have written a lot of impactful devotional editions. You can locate them here for more impartation and fresh anointing. Read further here.
Right or Wrong Motives?
Read 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
Often many Christians when considering this issue of developing godliness mistakenly think it depends upon rapturous spiritual experiences. Others believe we must depend on disciplined effort. Replying solely on either is wrong. Though spiritual experiences are to be enjoyed. It is a mistake to use them as the basis for spiritual growth. Then, to regard disciplined self-advancing effort as the secret to becoming a godly person is also an error. You see, it is possible to do right but for the wrong reason.
I have known many Christians who were meticulous in reading two or three chapters of the Bible daily, working through a prayer list, and so on. However, they practised these disciplined disciplines not out of gratitude for the grace that saved them but to advance themselves. In other words, they came to depend more on their spiritual exercises for progress in godliness than they did on the grace of God. This is the worst kind of legalism. I think it is safe to say the apostle Paul was one of the most disciplined disciples in history, yet in the text before us today he gave the credit for his spiritual progress not to his disciplined living but to the grace of god: by the grace of God I am what I am.”
One of the things we must guard against continually is the tendency to place greater emphasis on what we do for God than on what He has done for us. A question I regularly put to students who are training is this: Where is your dependency? I ask them this because I am aware that the more we learn and the more we understand, the more likely it is that we will depend on our knowledge rather than the grace of God.
Prayer: Father, although it is right to appreciate what I am taught and then understand, help me not to rely on this, but may I depend on You. By grace, I am sustained. Thank You, my Father. Amen.
Discipline without direction
Romans 8: 28-39
It is hard to be in training unless one sees the point of the discipline. “Discipline without direction,” says Donald Whitney, “is drudgery.” A story I heard tells her friends were playing out in the street. She found the task tiresome. Then, suddenly she was visited by an angel who whisked her away to a concert hall. There she watched a young woman playing to a packed hall and holding the audience enthralled by her virtuoso performance. “Who is that amazing pianist?’ the young girl asked the angel. “That,” came the reply, “is you in a few years.” From that moment on, as the story goes, the young girl had an entirely different attitude to her daily piano practice.
When it comes to discipline in the Christian life, many feel like that young girl – that practice is tiresome. But how different when we see the direction in which discipline takes us? Our reading today informs us that God’s great goal for us is to make us like Christ. We are predestined for that – God’s grace is working in our lives to make us like Christ.
But if we are predestined to be conformed to Christ’s image, what need is there for discipline? It is through discipline that we assent to God’s purposes for our lives. Just as Zacchaeus put himself in a position where he could see Jesus, so spiritual discipline puts us in a position where we will receive the grace that flows from the heart of our Saviour. C. H Spurgeon put it well when he says, “I must take care about all that I cultivate communion with Christ, for though that can never be the basis for my peace….it will be the channel of it. Do you know that God warns against indiscipline?
Prayer: O Father, thank You for reminding me again that Your biggest single purpose for my life is to make me like Jesus. I am predestined for this and I will cooperate with You. You will do Your part, help me do mine. Amen.
Read less – meditate more
Read Psalm 39: 1-13
The final “college” we look at is that of biblical meditation. No principle of Scripture is more important than that of meditation, meditating on what God has written in the Bible. People often ask me how I can come up with so many themes in the Every Day with Jesus Series. Meditation is the answer. The more I meditate on Scripture the more I become conscious of important themes.
One of the tragedies of our day is that meditation is linked more to non-Christian systems of belief than it is to biblical Christianity. I have heard Christians warn: “Keep away from meditation; it has its roots in Eastern mysticism.” The world has adapted the principle of meditation for its purposes, but there is a vast difference between, say, transcendental meditation and biblical meditation. Meditation is deep, focused thinking. It involves taking a text, putting it like a sweet on your tongue and holding it there until you have sucked every precious drop of spiritual liquid from it. Only about 1 per cent of Christians engage in this spiritual exercise. We read the Word and study it – both good spiritual exercises – but we will never really get the best out of it until we know how to meditate on it.
The added exercise of meditation acts like bellows on a little flame and transforms it into a blazing fire. Thomas Warson, a Puritan pastor said, “Why does the Word of God so often leave us cold, and why don’t we have more success in our spiritual life? We can discover the reason we come away so cold from reading the Word is that we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation, which can be our target. Here’s one of the most helpful pieces of advice I can give: read less and meditate more.
Prayer: I love Your Word. I love to read it daily, but forgive me that I fail to meditate on it enough. Help me to re-establish my priorities so that I give less time to other matters and more to this in Christ’s name. Amen.
An Important Secret
Read Philippians 4: 1-9
If you are feeling somewhat discouraged by your disinclination to follow Jesus’ advice on prayer, let me share with you a way of overcoming this reluctance. I warn you it will take a little discipline, but the rewards will far outweigh the effort.
The secret is to begin your prayer time with meditation. I learned this many years ago from the writings of George Muller, who said that the practice of meditating on Scripture before beginning his prayer time transformed his relationship with the Lord. “For the first ten years of my Christian life,: he wrote, “my habit was to wash and dress myself, then turn to prayer.” But often he felt his prayer time was tedious and boring. Then, as he changed his approach to prayer by first reading the Word of God and meditating on it, he found his heart would leap towards prayer almost of its own accord. He would speak to God about the things he had discouraged in the Word and never again did he find prayer wearisome. Those who must have discovered this secret also were the Puritans who lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Richard Baxter advocated this method. John Owen (Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell) made the same recommendation, as did Matthew Henry, the famous Bible Commentator.
Permit me now to lay this challenge before you: as Jesus expects us to pray, and to pray often, are you prepared to look at your prayer life and make a fresh evaluation of it? Jesus prayed much. Do you want to be like Him? Then, discipline yourself to be a person of prayer. One thing is sure: after hearing, reading and studying God’s Word, prayer is the next most important spiritual exercise.
Prayer: Gracious Father, I cannot pray as I ought unless Your Spirit inspires me, so that I may more and more pray according to Your Will. I would live a Spirit-inspired life, hence a Spirit-empowered life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Writer: Rev Dr. Selwyn Hughes (Everyday with Jesus: Daily Devotional)
