This Devotional was written in January of 2006. This week our pastor Joe Skiles spoke on Make Room for Faith! I thought this was perfect to add in to a 21 days of devos for this year! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Oh wow, we have a whole year ahead of us still, so much can go wrong it in! How can we keep up with all the things we have to do, the goals set, the ideals we have placed before us?
Lets look—In His Word!
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also
for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." Romans
1:16-17
For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. Romans 1:11-12
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin." Romans 4:5-8
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected;
but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also
laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to
those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in
anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless,
to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let
us be of the same mind. Philippians 3:12-16
Some people are already overwhelmed with the plans they
have for the year ahead. Even if it is laid out befor them in organized fashion
they do not know where to start. It reminds me of cleaning one of my kids rooms
when he had been sick.
As a small child my mother used to clean our rooms when we
had a flu or cold and had to stay in bed. While we were asleep she would slip
in and totally clean and I am sure disinfect our room. I recall waking to roses
in a vase on my dresser as a child. The smell of freshness filling the room and
not a speck of dust to be seen.
Being one of those moms who is blessed to stay home with her
children, I also have tried to do this. When my child was sleeping, no not in
the same room, unfortunately I am not as quiet as my mother was! The child was
on the couch, where he had zonked out with fever. I entered the room with
garbage bag in hand, and ready to pick up a few items… little did I know a
hurricane had hit in this child’s room and I could barely get in the door!
When this happened I had no idea as I knew it was clean just
last week!
So I stool there wondering, where do I begin? How do I get
through this mess? Is it even possible? There is so little space to put all
these toys and papers and books…. How can I do it?
Looking back on this situation I remember that I just dove
in and began removing trash papers first. Then looked for water glasses, then
certain toys etc etc.
In other words I tackled it one step at a time.
That is how we can tackle any situation that the enemy throws
at us!
We take the time to do things step by step, we press on
towards the goal!
I had to have faith to get through that battle of the mess,
just as we have to have faith to get through the trials of the year to come!
F-Forgiving,
forgetting the things which are behind us.
I could have been mad, and I probably was! I could have said
forget it this kid could clean his room when he got better himself! But I
didn’t. I chose to forgive his messiness and forget the past.
I could have allowed myself to stress over the mess, instead
I chose to bless my child with freshness and a clean room. That is how God is,
when we allow Him to cleans us, and refresh us with His Word, He can encourage us and help us to grow stronger! If my
child were stronger at the moment I would have made him do it himself, but when
he was weak, I was strong and could clean for him. God does that too, but we
have to allow Him to. When we are weak He will be strong for us if we allow Him
to be, and have faith in Him!
A- Allowing God
to do something
I stepped in when he could not do it. As I cleaned I prayed for him as well. My focus was not on myself but on the child, and how excited he would be when he found his room was clean! I also thought of how much easier it would be to heal in a clean room
Remember 'faith
without works is dead'. We have to show that we have faith by stepping
out into it.
I -Involved-Faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, Faith is a doing thing, we
have to step out into it at times! It takes involvement on our part met with
trust in God!
As I cleaned his room, I knew I was working against time. I
only had so many minutes until he would wake up and be ready to go back to his
room. I needed to get it done now! I had to trust God to help me complete the
task at hand. At times we have to trust God to do what He said, even when it
looks like an impossible thing to do!
T-Trusting God to do what He said
I had to have hope! I had to hope for the time to be
stretched and for my cleaning to be complete and also that the room would not
be destroyed as soon as the child was well!
Often times we trust God to do something but when it takes longer than
we thought we give up hope of ever seeing the dream come to pass, or the event
happen, or the promise get fulfilled.
We have to have hope. With out hope, we have no purpose. And hope is achieved by encouraging ourselves
in His Word, in Worshiping Him, and in fellowshipping with others who may
encourage us! My hope was for an earthly
achievement at that time, but even as I achieved the clean room and the cut
flowers on the dresser… I hoped for my child to be well that much faster
because of the cleaning up I did!
H- hope
When we have faith, we can truly move mountains in our
lives. Jesus said that faith ‘as a mustard seed’ would cause a mountain to get
up and move itself! The mountain of mess didn’t move it self but I managed to
get through it in time for my child to rest and get well!
Jesus said many times that the person’s faith had made him
or her, whole. Though my cleaning a
room may seem trivial to some of you who are going through major trials in life,
it is a simplistic vision of faith. As you think on it a bit you will see that
I followed an example set before me, I
pursued to accomplish it, and I that is what we need to do with faith. Jesus
gave us many examples of faith in the Word. Hebrews 11 and 12 are full of
these. Sometimes we make something harder than it really is, faith is simple.
You simply believe!
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of
things which are visible. Hebrews
11:1-3
Suggested
Readings for this week;
Monday:
Hebrews 11:1-40
Tuesday:
Titus 1:1-2:1
Wednesday:
1 Timothy 1:1-19
Thursday:
Luke 17:1-19
Friday:
Acts 14:1-28
Weekend readings: Matthew 8&9