This devotion begins a review of the year. We are going to focus on the nuggets that show what our actions and habits are supposed to be.
Main Nugget
What we sometimes don’t want to think about is that being in Christ means being forged by the fire. The Sanctification Road isn’t some beautiful country path loaded with flowers and butterflies. It is the potters’ wheel and the kiln.
Making the Connections to Form Our Habits to Grow Our Relationship with God
- We get that we can’t see God because He is spirit, but that makes us question if He is real. God is a spirit, but He is also a Person.
- God has no problem coming to us. He has always come down to us. He was face to face with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, leading the Wilderness Wanderers to the Promised Land. Most importantly, God came down in the form of Jesus. He willingly came down, died, and rose again so that the penalty for our sins could be paid.
- Mankind was created to worship God, making it an obligation and duty to worship God in spirit. Worshiping God in spirit and truth means we worship God for Who He is.
- True spiritual worship focuses on God, not us. He gives us specific instructions regarding what is and isn’t acceptable ways to worship Him. God will only accept genuine spiritual worship. We do not want to deviate from them. We can’t focus solely on how we want worship and what we see as truth. We have to worship God’s way. God doesn’t want us to go to church because that is just what we do every Sunday morning. He especially doesn’t want us to go just to have fellowship with the other attendees. God wants us to go to church to meet Him.
- We must praise God with honor and reverence. He is still God whether we worship Him or not, but it is for our benefit that we do.
- While we are communing with Him, we are to be worshiping Him. We can confidently worship God because He is holy and unchanging. We don’t have to fear that we are worshiping the wrong One or that He will go off on a tangent and pull us away from what is good.
- Our worship of God will lead us to perfection. We are called to be holy as He is. We don’t want to worship based on earthly things. But we must worship. That is the foundation of all the covenants God has made with us. Our worship must stem from God’s worthiness.
- No part of this world is exempt from God’s power. Neither earth’s most intelligent being, nor its most powerful leader, is absolved from God’s power. All the Church, along with Satan and his demons, will all bow before Jesus.
- We are not our own because the God Who created us paid the price to redeem us after we became corrupted. He had to purchase us to restore us. It cost Him big time to do that. God really wants us restored to Him. It is God’s desire that everyone be saved. Unfortunately, not everyone will.
- Redemption has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God and Jesus. We are cleansed through God’s love and mercy. We are made whole again because He chooses to allow us to be.
- Don’t think forgiveness happens because we repent — even though non-repentance doesn’t bring forgiveness. Don’t think we earn the forgiveness in any way. Honor God because He extends forgiveness to us through His grace. God forgives us time and time again — when we sincerely ask.
- Since we have free will to make our own decisions, He makes every effort to convincing us to accept His gift of salvation.
- God doesn’t need us for any reason. He unselfishly wants to give us what we cannot give ourselves. We can only rely on His gifts. We don’t want to get the mistaken impression that God needs our glory to be God. He is God whether or not we worship Him. The main point is God wants us to worship Him. We worship Him because of His greatness. A lot of times we get the praise wrong. We give thanks to God for what He has done for us. We may even paise Him for the spiritual graces He has given us. But we don’t always praise God for Who He is. We miss the most important part. We have to acknowledge that it is only God’s alone — Thine. We have to be thankful for God’s kingdom. We have to be thankful for the spiritual aspects
- We glorify God when we understand His character. That means we have read His Word enough to know Who He is. Our sanctification is all about growing our character to be like God’s. God intended that each of us change from what we were to be more like Him. That includes being merciful as He is. Sanctification is about growth. That means change — being transitory.
- Our relationship with God does not depend on what we have or not any more than it is dependent on our circumstances. Our relationship with God depends on who we are — our character, our integrity. If we have the character of God, we are obedient to Him. Blessings are in the obedience.
- We have to be more than made in His image. We have to be His image. Our getting it right and getting it wrong is all a part of sanctification. We learn from our past mistakes. We grow through figuring out how to follow God’s Will.
- We generally think of living sacrifice as it being a life-long commitment to God. Since the body is described as a temple, it is a place of worship. God lives in a regenerated heart. The sacrifice required is our obedience. It has to be a holy and acceptable sacrifice to God.
- The original sin was committed because of selfishness. Sacrifice, therefore, is a renunciation of the selfishness. Instead, it is giving our best and first to God.
- We are communicating with the One Who is above all others, created all things, and requires all from us. God is our Father because He created us in His image. To access God’s provision, we have to come to Him in prayer. We can only come into God’s presence to ask of Him when we are submitting ourselves to His Will. We have to submit our lives to God in order to access His choicest blessings. He wants us to acknowledge that we are dependent on Him to supply our needs.
- Prayer is an important indicator of the sincerity of our spiritual worship. We have to be in communion with God to genuinely worship Him.
- The goats thought they were sheep. The Matthew 7: 21 people thought they were, too. We can’t just give lip service to God and think that is going to buy us fire insurance. We can’t even just change some of our outward behaviors and this we’ve got it covered. Our inmost places have to be transformed. We can’t do this. Only God can.
- Many like to think of God only as a God of love. He isn’t. All His laws and commandments have a consequence if broken.
- Even though we are not to be of the world, we must serve God in it. If we isolate ourselves from the world, they will not learn of Jesus, their Savior and Redeemer. We don’t want them to not give their lives to Jesus. They need us.
- God chooses us based on our faithfulness to Him. Then He equips us for service. God knows we will be weak. He uses us despite our weaknesses. No, God uses us because of our weaknesses.
- God knows our limitations because He is the one Who gave us our skills and abilities. He expects what He has given us be used for Him. Having specific responsibilities takes the focus off us and puts it onto God — where it should be. When we perform those responsibilities, our trust in God grows.
- Everything we do for God is considered preaching. Every song we sing, every child we teach, every benevolent gift we give should be preaching Jesus’s Gospel. Yes, there are times when we need to speak informally with people one on one. Other times, trained Pastor-Steve types must be telling a multitude in a church service. Both can be termed as preaching.
- The deciding factor for our service being acceptable to God is the presence of moral character in our lives. That moral character is only present in our lives when we are initiating Him. This only comes through regeneration. Only God can regenerate us. Regeneration only occurs through a genuine salvation experience
- God wants us to yield our will to His. What we don’t always think about is that, if we are not submitting to God, we are submitting to Satan.
- It is understandable why God wants our hearts. If we give Him that, in essence, we are giving Him all of us — our will, strength, and love. We need to commit all our heart – all of our life – every part of it – to God. Jesus said the burden of doing that is light when we totally submit our hearts to God (Mt. 11: 30). In other words, we want to walk with God.
- We have to know what God has promised in His Word so that we can trust and hope in them. If we don’t have even an elementary knowledge of His promises, there is no way we are going to trust them to be true. We read God’s Word to gain an introductory knowledge of Him. After we become His children, He reveals Himself to us through the Holy Spirit and His creation.
- We have to be diligent in trusting God. We can’t pick and choose the times we will or won’t trust Him. We have to totally trust God 24/7/365/eternity. We are to fully love God and not doubt. However much we process/reason, we have do it in faith, not doubt. We have to totally trust God.
- Our message isn’t about us, it is about Jesus. What we are preaching is how too apply Jesus’ message in our lives. We don’t get to adapt Jesus’ message to the worldview. We have to take Jesus’ message and apply it to circumstances in our lives so that we can follow Him, not the worldview. We aren’t doing this on our own. We are being sent by the Rabbi.
- If we are going to have the mind of Christ — the same attitude — we have to be humble as Jesus was. We also need to be righteous, content, meek, merciful, and sincere. Humbleness looks at our own inadequacy in light of God’s greatness. We take the focus off us and put it on God
- Purity is shown by having a renewed mind. That means we are confirming to the image of God. Relying on being made in His image isn’t going to cut it. Our attitudes and actions have to show we are reflecting Him. Knowing of Jesus isn’t enough. He has to change us. We need to divest ourselves of what used to be.
- Since we were created in God’s image, we are drawn toward good. When we choose evil, we feel the guilt created by our disobedience. This isn’t telling us we shouldn’t feel remorse for our disobedience. Feeling remorse is one of the ways we can know we did wrong. It will help us to repent and do things right. We can’t let the guilt take our hope. Our hope is in Jesus, Who has brought us salvation. The guilt helps us get to the repentance needed for salvation.
Glossary
How Do We Apply What We Learned This Year?
- Accept the whole package of salvation.
- Repent and turn away from our sins. Don’t feel guilt over repented sins.
- Sincerely submit our whole beings to God – our hearts, our minds, our lives – everything – rather than just declaring to know Him. Have a heart that is right with God. God has to have top priority.
- Completely submit to Him. Don’t think God should compromise with our opinions.·
- Rely on God, not ourselves, and be obedient.
- Diligently trust Him.
- Walk with God daily, listening to the Holy Spirit.
- Switch our focus from us and our sin to God. Be as laser focused as Jesus was. Keep our focus on God by being godly and content.
- Give up our understanding and take it on faith. Worship God even if we don’t understand the totality of His plan for us.
- Find our purpose in God’s Kingdom and do things intentionally and habitually. Delight in God’s Will.
- Build our character to imitate God’s character.
- Choose integrity, which fosters steadfastness.
- Enjoy what God gives us.
- Praise God for Who He is, not what He has done for us.
- Serve a risen Savior, not a crucified one.
- Boldly do what God calls us to do.
- Learn God’s laws and commandments to learn His character.
- Don’t replace ritual for our relationship.
- Spend worship as time with our Heavenly Father.
- Serve God as the result of our salvation.
- Replace sinful activities with those that glorify God.
Glossary
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
