Daily Archives: July 29, 2024

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – The Unseen King

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Bible in a Year :

I have come in answer to your prayer.

Daniel 10:12 nlt

 

Today’s Scripture & Insight :

Daniel 10:10-19

Pilgrim is a musical based on The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory of the life of a believer in Jesus. In the story, all the unseen forces of the spiritual world are made visible to the audience. The character of the King, representing God, is present onstage for almost the entire show. He’s dressed in white and actively blocks attacks from the enemy, tenderly holds those who are in pain, and nudges others to good works. Despite his indispensable role, the main human characters can’t physically see the King, only the effects of what He does.

Do we live as if the true King is active in our lives, even when we can’t physically see Him? In a time of need, the prophet Daniel received a vision from a heavenly messenger (Daniel 10:7) who’d been sent in direct response to his faithful prayers (v. 12). The messenger explained that spiritual warfare had delayed his coming and angelic backup had to be dispatched (v. 13). Daniel was reminded that even though he couldn’t see God, he was surrounded by evidence of His care and attention. “Do not be afraid, you are highly esteemed,” the messenger encouraged him (v. 19). At the end of Pilgrim, when the main character reaches heaven’s door after many tribulations, he joyfully cries out for the first time, “I can see the King!” Until we see Him with our new eyes in heaven, we look for His action in our lives today.

By:  Karen Pimpo

Reflect & Pray

How do you see God’s work in your life? Where do you struggle to believe that He’s with you?

King Jesus, please help me remember that You’re near.

 

 

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Becoming the Righteousness of God

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For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become…the righteousness of God….

2 Corinthians 5:21 (AMPC)

This verse gives you cause for great rejoicing, but the enemy tries to undermine your joy by pointing out you don’t measure up to God’s standard. That’s when you must boldly declare that God has done a good work in you and you are in the process of change.

When you accept salvation there is nothing you can do to make God love you any more or less than He already does. This doesn’t mean you don’t sin anymore or that when you do sin you can just dismiss it. It simply means God loves you even while you are in the process of becoming like Christ. You have not arrived yet, but you are making progress.

God understands that growing and learning is a process, and He wants you to enjoy yourself while you’re on the way to reaching the goal.

Prayer of the Day: Father God, thank You for Your unconditional love. Help me to find joy in the progress I’m making and to trust You in everything You are doing in me. I love You, Lord, amen.

 

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – The Self Life

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by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24)

This despondent cry follows Paul’s disturbing monologue on the inner strife between his two natures (Romans 7:13-24). Here the apostle describes the conflict that goes on in the life of every Christian until the self-life is completely subjugated and the will of Christ reigns supreme. The ascendancy of self is indicated in these verses by the fact that the personal pronouns “I,” “me,” and “my” are used no less than 35 times in verses 15-24 alone as Paul records his inner thoughts and feelings (e.g., “that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I”—v. 15). Such a testimony is pervaded with introspection, relating everything to self instead of to Christ. No wonder the conclusion is so miserable: “O wretched man that I am!”

Unfortunately, this is the status of most Christians whose interests are almost completely self-centered. Most Christian books and sermons are designed to appeal to such personal interests, and the explosive modern growth of Christian professional “counseling” likewise reflects the existence of multitudes of self-centered Christians.

But the happy and useful Christian is the one whose concerns and activities center around others and who earnestly seeks to follow and honor Christ and His Word. And this is exactly the conclusion to which the apostle Paul comes in his melancholy soliloquy. “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” he cries. Immediately the answer comes: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25).

We do still have to battle the old nature, but in Christ we have both the incentive and power to “put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9) and to “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). HMM

 

 

 

 

https://www.icr.org/articles/type/6

My Utmost for His Highest

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers – What Do You See in Your Clouds?

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Look, he is coming with the clouds. —Revelation 1:7

In the Bible, clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or twists of providence that seem to challenge his rule. Seen apart from God, clouds look like accidents. But by these very clouds the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. Without clouds, we would not need faith.

“Look, he is coming with the clouds.” Clouds are nothing more than the dust of our Father’s feet; they are the sign that he is here. God never comes in clear shining. What a revelation it is to know that sadness and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come along with God!

It isn’t true that God wants us to learn something in our trials. Through every cloud he brings, he wants us to unlearn the things that are keeping us from a simple relationship to him. Sometimes we have to leave certain forms of religious activity and testimony alone until our relationship to God is simplified—until we have learned to turn to God, not to other people, for all our needs. The thought I should have is, “God and my own soul; other people are shadows.” Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is my relationship to God getting simpler than it ever has been?

There is a connection between the strange providences of God and what we know of him. We have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Unless we can look the darkest, most atrocious fact in the face without questioning God’s character, we do not yet know him. “They were afraid as they entered the cloud” (Luke 9:34). Is there anyone besides Jesus in your cloud? If so, it will only get darker. You must get to the place where there is no one besides him.

Psalms 49-50; Romans 1

 

 

 

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from.The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R

 

 

https://utmost.org/

Billy Graham

Billy Graham – Faith Pleases God

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You can never please God without faith, without depending on him. Anyone who wants to come to God must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely look for him.
—Hebrews 11:6 (TLB)

Faith pleases God more than anything else. The Christian life is dependent upon faith. We stand on faith; we live on faith. Faith is loved and honored by God more than any other single thing. The Bible teaches that faith is the only approach that we have to God. No man has sins forgiven, no man goes to heaven, no man has assurance of peace and happiness, until he has faith in Jesus Christ. You may be saying, “God, I believe you are a great person, but I do not believe your Word; I do not believe what you say.” In order to please God, you must believe Him. Perhaps your faith is small and weak. It does not matter how big your faith is, but rather, where your faith is. Is it in Christ, the Son of God, who died on the cross for your sins?

Read this short article on living daily with God.

Lea este devocional en español en es.billygraham.org.

Prayer for the day

Lord Jesus, may my faith in You and Your abundant promises be ever increasing each day.

 

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GuidePosts

Guideposts – Devotions for Women – Your Best Response

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God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.—2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)

How do you respond to emergencies? Is your gut reaction to panic? The more you commit to spending devotional time with God, the more likely you are to stay calm during a crisis. You will keep a level head and feel His strength, rather than your fear.

Lord, the more time I spend with You, the more likely I am to respond to fearful situations with Your power and love.

 

 

https://guideposts.org/daily-devotions/devotions-for-women/devotions-for-faith-prayer-devotions-for-women/

Every Man Ministry

Every Man Ministry – Kenny Luck -Love and Duty

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Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  ––1 John 3:18

 

I met Malik at church and he wanted to talk about his marriage. He told me he’d been married 11 years, and that he and his wife had three kids ages 1, 4, and 6. Malik was great at his job, was a good provider as they’d made the decision that Alissa, his wife, would take a break from her sales job to stay home with the kids.

 

It wasn’t that Malik didn’t love Alissa, or even that he wanted to cheat on her. He was just … tired. Tired of the day in and day out of going to work, coming home to semi-chaos (even though Alissa was a great mom), and the whole … routine. I could tell he felt guilty about how he felt. He wasn’t giving up on his life or his wife, but he was struggling to stay engaged as a husband and father.

 

This reminded me of the novel The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham. In the story English bacteriologist Walter Fane and his wife, Kitty, move to a remote region of 1920s China to combat a cholera outbreak. The wife is drifting in the midst of a life crisis and on the heels of an affair, unsure of her love for Walter.

 

Toward the end of the novel, when Kitty realizes that she actually does love her husband, and in response to Kitty’s claim that sticking with her husband has to do with duty, the mother superior of the local French convent says,

“Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.”

 

Like the lines from Maugham’s powerful novel, I do believe that when love and duty are one, then grace is in us and we will enjoy a happiness that passes all understanding. I encouraged Malik to see his wife as God sees her—in all her glory. The more we can see our loved ones through God’s eyes, the more we find that grace which emerges when love and duty converge.

 

Father, help me see my loved ones as You do, and help me love them in the spirit of Christ. 

 

 

Every Man Ministries