Day 35 End of the road? This is not the end of the road. Your journey has just begun. Take a few minutes to review what you have learned these last 5 weeks. Talk to the Lord about it and ask him to clarify anything you are unsure about. Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Ask and He will make you holy/sanctify you. Seek to know him more and you will find him. Knock and He will open the doors of heaven and pour his Spirit out upon you. Enough said… 1Thessalonias 5:23-24 “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” Pray: Lord, I offer myself up to you now, please sanctify me, fill me up with your Holy Spirit and make me holy. Remove the sin from my life, give me your heart, restore in me your image Lord. Help me to seek you with all of me and to know you and your love more every day. Help me to trust you with all of me from this day forth. Thank you for your perfect plan.
Day 34 HOPE and a Future If we could just understand that He never, ever, ever, ever, wants anything but the best for us, we would not hesitate to surrender all. Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” He knows us more than we know ourselves and he knows what tomorrow holds; -and we don’t, so we can trust His will and His decisions. We forget that he wants the best, that his plan is good (the best) and so we hesitate or even outright fight him on it, or just run the other way. We didn’t learn anything from Jonah, did we? When we realize that he only wants the best and he knows us better than we know ourselves, maybe then we can let go of our own ideas and plans and walk in his. Many times, we discover that we end up loving his plan better. When we let Him take us on His journey instead of ours, we find out more about ourselves than we ever knew. Plus, often His plan would have saved us heartache or disaster because He knows what is ahead. This doesn’t mean that we won’t have hard times, Jesus told us we would, but he is with us always and he overcame the world, so our victory is coming. See John 16:33. It is not at all about what we lose or give up, in time we will always gain more than we lose. Pray: Lord, I get caught up in what I have to give up, or get fixated on what I think is best, or what I think I want. Help me to remember your perfect love that ALWAYS wants what is best for me. Help me to surrender my desires and will into your perfect loving hands. Help me to embrace your plan for me, for my life, and for my future.
Day 33 If You Only Knew… Romans 8:31-35, 37-39 “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” IF WE REALLY KNEW HOW MUCH HE LOVED US WE WOULD NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT GIVING UP EVERYTHING. He loves us, -not just so much that he gave his life, but he loves us enough to: • Want to spend time with us • Want the best for us • Intercede for us • Protect us • Be patient with us • Offer us more than just salvation • He loves us so much he wants a relationship with us • He wants to restore us to Imago Dei, -even though we messed that up If We Only Knew… Pray: Lord, as you teach me about the depths of your love, help me to know it, down in my heart and soul, in my being, not just in my head. Help me to know it so much that it changes me. And help me to love you back the best that I can, -with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Day 32 Room for more? Paul repeatedly prays that we could fathom the extent of God’s love for us: Ephesians 3:14-19 “... For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Remember Paul was writing this to people who were already believers -who were already Christians, -not to unbelievers. This must mean there is more to grasp than just salvation. -Not more to get you into heaven, just more to the relationship, more to know of His love. Do we have room for more? In our lives, our hearts, our minds, our schedules, our beings, do we have room for more of God’s love? Can we possibly wrap our heads around that? Can we possibly learn all there is of God’s love? -Probably not in this life, but there is always room for more. We can never get to the end of His love and so our life’s journey should be to seek to know more of His love every day than we did the day before. Now that’s a journey that will bless us beyond imagination! Pray: Lord, take me on a journey to discover the depths of your love. Help me to make room in my life to seek more of your love every day. Overwhelm me with you, Jesus.
Day 31 Trust issues? We have asked Jesus into our hearts and believe, now we are Christians/Christ followers. Why do we hesitate to surrender every decision, every part of ourselves, to Him? We want what we want; some things/plans/desires/relationships/habits we don’t want to give up. Why are we less than excited about surrender? • Because we don’t trust him. Sure, we trust him for salvation, but we don’t trust him with our lives, - the lives we live. We don’t really. Why don’t we trust him? • Because we really don’t understand/comprehend his love -Not really. Maybe we haven’t spent enough time with him to feel known and to know him well. We can’t possibly fathom the extent of His love for us when we know him well, let alone when we barely know him. Let’s get to know his love for us, beyond the magnificent sacrifice of his life for us, let’s get to know his everyday love for us after salvation: Matthew 7:9-12 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” If you know how to give good gifts, how much more does your heavenly father. He gives good gifts. Pray: Lord, remind me that you only want the best for me and that I can trust you. Help me let go of what I am afraid of and what may be keeping me from you. I want to be changed by your perfect sovereign love.
Day 30 Now What? So, we have learned that Holiness is not the absence of sin but the presence of Holy God. We learned that God makes us holy through sanctification. We learned that sanctification involves our whole being: mind, body, heart and soul. We learned that we must just surrender ourselves. Now what? We surrender, he sanctifies us, then…we lean into him. We must “grow in grace”: • We nurture our relationship with Christ by prayer, study, worship, communion • Our outward person is transformed to reflect the sanctification that has taken place within. • When we make Jesus our all, our life radically changes as we are transformed into the sanctified, holy person that God has made us. Remember, our goal/focus should not be to sin less or get rid of the bad in our lives, our goal/our focus should be to get closer to God. So, • We invest ourselves and our time in the things that do that. • Then we see the fruit of it. Jeremiah 29:12-13 “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” As we lean in to him, He promises to lean in to us. Pray: Lord, help me to stay surrendered and help me to seek you with all of me. Teach me how to seek you and what it means to lean in to you more every day. Show me anything that may be keeping me from more of you. Thank you for this promise!
Day 29 Christian or Christ Follower? We are “Christians” but are we Christ-followers? Are we simply believers or are we disciples? Have we stalled-out after our salvation? Well, we are saved so we are going to heaven, so what does it matter? Actually, God wants more: • He wants to know us and be known by us, • He wants us to love Him and feel loved by him, • He wants to communicate with us, -through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit • He wants us to communicate with Him, -through prayer and worship Prayer is how we feel known. Sure God knows us more than we know ourselves but through prayer (talking to God, expressing our thoughts, feelings, frustrations, etc.) we FEEL known. Why is that important? It is hard to trust someone that you hardly know and someone who hardly knows you (or when you don’t feel known.) You can’t be confident that they would make the right choices for you. You are afraid to trust someone if you don’t know them. So, if you are going to trust Him with your life you have to know Him and feel like He knows you. John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 14:7 “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well…” Jesus prays in John 17:26 “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 4:16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.” Pray: Lord, I help me to discover the rest of the plan, help me to seek more than just the safety net. Help me to grow in my relationship with you. Help me to know your voice so that I can follow you. Help me to be a disciple rather than just a believer. Show me what that means in my life. Thank you for not leaving it all up to me to find out on my own.
We tend to not recognize or at the very least we underemphasize the effect that our physical choices/actions and minds/thoughts have on our spiritual being. But nothing could be further from the truth. God made us as whole beings, not disjointed, separated pieces. That is likely one reason why our minds and bodies are included in the sanctification process along with our hearts and souls. There is more of a ripple effect than we realize. 1 Peter 2:11 “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” So, what we do in the flesh affects our souls. The ripple effect in full force, waging war. That does not sound like little ripples from a pebble, it sounds more like crashing waves from the wake of a reckless speedboat. 1 Peter 4: 7 “The end of all things in at hand: therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” For the sake of our prayers…there is definitely a spiritual effect. Our actions, ingestions, etc. affect our prayers! Imagine that! I am totally sure that when we get to heaven and we have all knowledge, we will see things that totally explain these verses in ways that our earthly minds and bodies can’t comprehend now. For now, we will have to trust him, take His word for it. And in light of these verses, we will need to be willing to stay surrendered to him completely so that every affection, every thought, every word and every action will be in step with his perfect love. Prayer: Lord, help me be mindful of the fact that my choices, my actions, my thoughts, all of what my earthly body and mind attend to, have a serious impact on my spiritual being. Help me to continually surrender all to you. Help me walk in the new direction that you are leading me and thank you that you did not leave me to my own ways.
2 Cor 10:5 - “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Our thoughts can get away from us and it can be a chore to get control of them if they are headed down the wrong path. And, what we think matters. Our thoughts can take us from anger to rage, concern to fear/worry, hurt to bitterness, sadness to depression, attraction to lust, and cravings to sin. It is no wonder that the verse is worded so forcefully. We take captive every thought. We don’t just make polite suggestions; we handcuff them and make them obey Jesus. If not, we find ourselves in a very bad place. In addition, our minds affect our physical health, emotional health and spiritual health, so not one part of us escapes the effects of our thinking. BUT, the same is true when we have good thoughts. Col 3:2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Phil 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” If we can keep our minds on things above, the fact that we are surrounded by warrior angels fighting for our good, and that God never ever lets us out of his reach we can see our earthly circumstances in light of the Truth rather than the illusions presented us on this earth. When we are discouraged if we will only start thinking of the goodness of God and all that we can thank him for, then we will be lifted up and be able to rejoice in the joy of our salvation. Prayer: Lord, there are so many distractions in this world, good and bad, help me to keep my eyes on you and my thoughts surrendered to you. Help me to recognize what each wrong thought means about my heart and help me surrender that to you.
It is not that Christians are not able to sin, it is that Christians are able to NOT sin. 1 Cor 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” We must recognize that even as we are sanctified and made holy we will continue to face temptation because we are not above our Master, Jesus. However, when we look at the Gospels that tell us the details of Jesus and his temptations when he was fasting in the wilderness, what do we see that Jesus used as a weapon against the enemy? Did he use his almighty divine power, or flashy miracles? No, he used the “sword of the Spirit” -the Word of God! This just so happens to be the same weapon that we possess! Jesus, himself demonstrated for us tactical use of the Word! This should infuse us with confidence! He defeated the temptation of the enemy with no more and no less than the exact weapon that He left us with!! Wrap your head around that! We hear people say, “Oh but it was easy for him to be perfect, He is God!” He IS God and because of that He knew defeating temptation with anything more than a weapon that we could also use, would leave US no hope of success in defeating temptation this side of Heaven. So rather than throwing Satan out to space or something else that we can’t do, He used the Most Powerful Tool that we have- His Word! Do we recognize the power in the Word? Do we hold it as precious as we should? Have we learned from his example? Prayer: Lord, thank you for making it possible to defeat the temptations that I face. Help me to recognize them immediately and rely on your Word as my mighty weapon. Holy Spirit teach me and help me to remember the Word and show me what parts I need to memorize now to fight future temptations that I will face.
1 Tim. 4: 8 “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” He didn’t say that physical training is of no value, he recognizes that it is of some value. How often do we use this verse to blow off exercise? 1 Cor. 10: 31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” All of our choices should honor God. Eating right, exercise, getting enough sleep, resting and having fun. These are all important steps in our life to take care of ourselves. We must take good care of ourselves because we are the Temple of God, but also because we are supposed to be loving ourselves. If we are commanded to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, how can we if we don’t love ourselves?! Neglecting or abusing our body is not loving ourselves. We need to be healthy to carry out God’s will, we have to be full, not empty, so that we have something to give others. If you have ever been on a plane, you will remember that the flight attendants always tell us in the event of an emergency to -secure your own oxygen mask first…before trying to help children or other passengers. This is essential because if we pass out due to lack of oxygen, we will not be able to help them. We have to care for ourselves first to be able to care for others. Making our health a priority is being a good steward of the body God gave us but it is also an act of gratitude and worship to Him. We need to know that -taking care of me is an act of worship. We need to realize if done in the right means and motives as acts of worship then these things are as important as prayer and worship and devotions. God gave us amazing bodies that need good food, rest, sleep, exercise, and fun. Let us honor our Creator with our bodies by caring for this wonderful vessel that we call home here on earth. Prayer: Lord, help me to remember that I am fearfully and wonderfully made and help me to respect what you created and honor you by taking care of myself. Help me to be mindful of you every moment of every day so that I can make good choices. You know what I need most, teach me how to care for this gift the best way that I can. Thank you Jesus.
You have heard it said, “You do you.” Sorry, not exactly biblical. “But it’s my body!” Is it? Too often we have left God out of our physical decisions (our food choices, health, exercise, sleep, etc.) as if it were irrelevant to our walk with Jesus. Not that we should get ourselves tangled up in a legalistic list of do’s and don’ts. But we need to be good stewards of our bodies because they are His temple and he needs our body to be healthy so that we are able to carry out His will. Really, they are not ours anyway, so it is simply giving him back what is already his. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” Col. 3:17 “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Whatever we do, is to be for His glory, even eating and drinking. Whatever, -not some things, -all things. When we neglect or abuse our bodies we dishonor our Creator. This does not mean that we can never enjoy ice cream or a burger. Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. 1Cor 10:23-24 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.” If we lived to honor him in ALL of our choices, we would be healthy and the occasional treat would be well tolerated by our bodies and quite permissible. Prayer: Lord, it is a new way of thinking to involve you in all of my simple health decisions like eating and exercise so I need your help in this matter. I want to honor you with everything I do and I want to be healthy. I don’t want to be controlled by cravings and I don’t want to be too busy to exercise or get enough sleep. Help me to surrender my will in these areas and help me to honor you in all of my choices. Show me ways that I can do this even in my current situation.
Romans 12: 1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” This can’t be any clearer. Bodies and mind. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, and not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds… How do we sacrifice our bodies? By letting go of anything that we hold more dear than Jesus (including Oreos). By taking care of our health. By walking as Jesus walked (lived) and involving Jesus in our physical decisions. Instead of walking in a comfortable, anything goes lifestyle where we sit on our couches for hours of TV entertainment and eat however much we want of whatever we want to eat with no regard for our health, we have to be mindful of our health. Ouch! What does it mean to be transformed by the renewing of our minds? -Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus.” This is a return to Imago Dei. We give up thinking the way that the rest of the world does and take on the mind of Christ, which changes how we think about God, ourselves, everything around us, everyone around us, our choices, etc. -Then we will know the will of God. We have to sacrifice our will/desires/way of thinking, to be able to know his will. I don’t know about you, but I can convince myself that just about anything is God’s will if it is something I want to do. So, I definitely have to have myself out of the way to be able to really hear the Spirit speaking His will. This goes along with Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Prayer: Lord, I need you to show me how I can be a living sacrifice in this world. I need you to transform my mind to your image so that I can love you and others the way you do. Help me to surrender everything into your loving hands and receive this amazing gift that you have for me.
Luke 10:27-28 He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Jesus said “Do this and you will live” -not just get by, not just make it into heaven, not even make it through ok. He said you will “live!” I suspect we do not know what really living is until we do this. So, we should love the Lord our God with every part of us and our neighbor as ourselves, and then we will know what it means to “live.” If we love the Lord with all of us, then we can’t help but love others because God’s love will be overflowing from us. So what does it mean to love the Lord with all of us? -With all our heart, soul, strength and mind? This means we include our body (strength.) And since they are all so interwoven, I would venture to say that we can’t love the Lord with “all our heart” unless we also love him with all our strength and mind, and vice versa. This verse definitely does not let us off the hook with respect to our bodies. When is the last time, if ever, that you loved the Lord with all your strength? But not only is it impossible to love him with all our heart if we don’t include loving him with all of our strength and mind and soul but it is also commanded. -AND it is THE commandment, the first and the most important. I wonder if this is really what Jesus meant when he said he gives us full life/abundant life? John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Prayer: Lord, Help me to reach for you to receive your full, abundant life-giving life. Help me love you with my whole being and love others. Show me what I have placed in the way of this total surrender to you and help me let it go. I need your perfect love to help me love you.
Day 21 Daily Surrender Perhaps you were determined many times before that you would follow God, and then wandered. But at those times did you consider yourself dead to sin and alive through Jesus with respect to all of your choices in your life? Did you fully surrender your will? Did you resolve to no longer be your own, but to be totally Christ’s in every respect of your life for all time? Did you consider all things loss for Him? Phil 3:8 “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” In Luke 9:23 Jesus tells us that if we want to be his disciple we must deny ourselves and “take up our cross” daily. There is a reason he put the word daily in there. You know how we humans are. But we should put ourselves on the altar daily as Romans 12:1 says to offer selves as living sacrifices. If we keep ourselves on the altar, He continues the work of sanctification. But we have a free will and if we choose to remove ourselves from the altar then we can easily start losing the battle to sin, idols, and the distractions of the world. When we yield our will to His, we get His results. We need to stay upon the altar and not let ourselves be slaves to sin again. Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” It is a matter of surrender, not effort. But it is a matter of entire surrender. Partial sacrifice would not be acceptable (and is partial really a sacrifice?) There are many who desire holiness but refuse to come to the altar on God’s terms. When we insist on coming to the altar on our own terms, we can’t experience God’s way. The only way to holiness is complete surrender to Jesus of our entire being in faith so that He may sanctify, and this surrender is a continuous act. Lord, help me to entirely surrender to you. I want to want to completely be yours but I need your help with letting go of every part of me, every day between now and heaven. I can’t do it alone, help me to remember that I just need to let go and let you do it. *In this devotional series some content may be summarized from the following sources: Becoming A Holy People -Course offered at Northwest Nazarene University under Professor Weldon Shuman A Plain Account of Christian Perfection -Rev John Wesley 1777 Healthy. Happy. Holy. 7 Practices toward a Holistic Life -By Joe Gorman; 2018 The Foundry. Anatomy of the Soul -Curt Thompson, MD; 2010 Tyndale Beliefs that Matter Most -W.T. Purkiser; 1959 Beacon Hill *All Scripture quoted is NIV unless otherwise specified.
