God is Sovereign God, but He is also our Creator. He doesn’t create us and leave us. He is a hands-on God. This daily devotional reviews how God created us and makes us His people.
Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series
All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at self-discipline as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.
We are reviewing everything and hopefully putting all of the building blocks together. What I am doing is going through all of the devotions for the year and pulling out the nuggets.
I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.
God interacts with us in love. Sovereign God wants us to have a relationship with Him.
God Made Us
God loves us — even worldview people. He wants to bless His disciples. He wants worldview people to become His disciples so He can bless them (Who Is God?).
We are nothing without God. We only have these abilities and attributes because God gave them to us (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
It is only through God’s love are we made perfect (Out with the Old; In with the New).
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
God’s Take on His People
When we ABCD, we enter into a covenant agreement with God. A benefit is eternal life.
We didn’t do anything to earn this covenant. We did not become perfect, so God would say, “Ooo. Tom, Sally, and Elaine look good, so I am going to let them into the covenant.” God looked at us and saw we would be open to Him making us holy — eventually (How Do We Benefit from Being God’s People?).
God loves us enough to get us on the right track (How Do We Benefit from Being God’s People?).
It not only gave us unlimited opportunity to be in God’s presence, it also gives us hope in this life (How Do We Benefit from Being God’s People?).
While the New Testament disciples were generally called children of God, they — and we — are still God’s people. We are still covenant people (How Do We Benefit from Being God’s People?).
God’s Take on Trials
- When I had my rose garden, I didn’t just put them in the ground and say, “Go forth and grow.” While the roses were in bloom, I would pull off all of the dead blooms. Then in the fall, I would take my trusty shears and cut them back. That way the bushes would grow in the way I wanted them to grow. Oh, yes. God wants us to be deadheaded and pruned. He wants to show us the way He wants us to grow (What Is Self-Discipline?).
- We battle, but God is on our side when we are battling for righteousness (The Battle between Flesh and Spirit).
- God through His Holy Spirit will have to bring about any changes in us that come from the victories we experience (The Battle between Flesh and Spirit).
Losing our love in our relationship with God is a huge problem. God does not want the honeymoon period to end with our relationships with Him (How Do We Lose Our First Love?).
Having a damaged relationship with God is going to steal our joy. It is going to open us up for correction (How Do We Lose Our First Love?).
Losing our first love shows we have a damaged relationship with God (Have We Lost Our First Love?).
We are to love God with all our hearts — not a worldly love, but a godly love. We are to give God the top spot in our hearts and lives. He doesn’t want to share us with things of this world (Have We Lost Our First Love?).
We know we learn in the struggle of trying to be obedient. I wonder if it saddens God that we so many times ask Him to take away those struggles (God Teaches Us Obedience).
God’s Take on Rewards
When we are self-disciplined, God blesses us with His glory (What Is Self-Discipline?).
God will reward those who are loyal to Him (How Did Moses Say Goodbye?).
God didn’t just open the storehouse and lavish on them blessing after blessing (How Did Moses Say Goodbye?).
God uses the Holy Spirit to impart His wisdom to us (What is the Spirit of Wisdom?). The Holy Spirit will teach us what God has instructed Him to say. His promptings influence us to seek God and learn more of Him. The promptings urge us to learn more deeply of Him (The Correlation between Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, and Obedience).
Because we revere God, we not only want to serve Him and be devoted to Him, but we also want to be like Him. Being like Him is being good and virtuous. Our hearts are exactly right (The Correlation between Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, and Obedience).
God and the Churchy Words
The Plan of Salvation is offered to us through God’s grace (Sins against God).
Knowledge of God shows us how we are to live our lives. We are called to imitate Him (God Teaches Us Obedience).
We build that faith by spending time with God in prayer (What Is Prayer?).
Devotion comes out in attitude, not length. We can say a super long prayer – and not really include God in it.We can say a short prayer – and it totally be focused on God (Devoted to Prayer).
God’s peace, mercy and love is at our center. That is our foundation. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind (Thankfulness in Praying).
Wisdom comes from God, but we can ask Him for it (The Correlation among Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, and Obedience).
Our Response to God
Life will be better when we discipline ourselves to follow God’s laws and commandments (What Is Self-Discipline?).
We do have to build our characters in the ways God wants (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
We need to make changes — and those changes need to be consistent. They need to be consistent with God’s word. We can’t pick and choose which laws and commandments we are going to follow — and which ones we aren’t. We can’t follow them only when it is convenient for us. Or advantageous for us. Or when we think people are looking — people are always looking (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
God wants the obedience, but even more, He wants the relationship. He wants us to be His (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
God puts the insights in our hearts so we can use that, rather than our own understanding, to determine what He is telling us (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
It doesn’t work if we don’t subordinate ourselves — if we don’t submit ourselves to God’s Will (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
God calls us to different ministries. He needs to prepare us differently (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
The Spirit has to work on us in the very core of our being. God doesn’t want a surface clean. He wants a deep cleaning. That is one reason why we can’t keep anything back from God. He has to have control of all of us (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
We are supposed to respond in faith and do God’s Will. In other words, hearing alone is not good enough. We have to put into practice what God is telling us. This is one way we worship God (What Is Obedience?).
Because we love God and want to obey Him, we are accountable to Him (The Correlation among Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, and Obedience).
David taught us how to approach God. We come to Him humbly and sincerely (God Teaches Us Obedience).
God is not only the Teacher, but He is also teaching us about Himself and His ways. David asked to learn His Will (God Teaches Us Obedience).
God’s Will is for us to follow His laws and commandments. His Will is for us to be obedient (God Teaches Us Obedience).
We keep alert by calling on God to guard us. We have to use our minds to pay attention to what is happening to us. When Satan tries something, we need to call on God to protect us (Watching while Praying).
It isn’t all just watching for the bad stuff. It is watching for God (Watching while Praying).
We don’t watch closely enough to see when God is taking us down a different fork in the road. We think we know what He has plan, so we go full steam ahead. Oops. God is on a parallel or intersecting road. And we didn’t see it (Watching while Praying).
Growing in knowledge of God helps us to bring the sin to light so that we can get rid of it (What Is Sin?).
Examples of Relationships with God
We can’t build the type of relationship Abraham had with God in one sitting (What Is Prayer?).
Look what Moses is asking in Exodus 33: 12-13. “You’ve promised that You know me and that I am doing okay. I just feel there is so much more I need to know. So, teach me your ways. We want to be Your people” (What Is Prayer?).
David was described as a man after God’s own heart (I Sam. 13: 14). We don’t get that title by not knowing God (What Is Prayer?).
Jesus would scoot off by Himself to pray. He knew the value of keeping in close contact with God (What Is Prayer?).
Father God. You are a loving God. We thank You that You are mindful of us. We pray that we imitate You by having Your character. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
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Prayer
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.