Doing God’s Will is more than just not sinning. This devotional looks at making our habits to follow God consistent.
Nuggets
We must follow through with any oath we make to God.
We must submit our lives to God rather than just declaring to know Him.
Well doing has nothing to do with our feelings.
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study
When we think about committing our ways to God, one of the first things we think about is consistency. There is no true commitment unless we are engaged daily.
But it is also more than that. We have to be engaged in well doing.
We said in Committing the End to God that commitment to the end in the form of perseverance, endurance, and diligence is nothing if we aren’t acting on principles. Our beliefs have to be focused on God.
We have to be doing our utmost in performing all He requires of us. We have to be submitting to God to do all He has called us to do for His glory and honor alone.
The good is doing God’s Will. Losing our commitment to our purpose — growing weary in doing good — allows Satan to tempt us into disobedience.
So, it is about attitude. Even though we might to grow weary doing God’s Will, we don’t because we love God and want to be obedient to Him. We have to be content even when we have the pull to discontentment.
How do we keep our attitude consistent in well doing? Burns said, “It cannot be confounded with evil doing.” Let’s see what he meant.
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Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this devotion is built on Burns’ Constancy in Well-Doing and Punshon’s Perseverence in Well-Doing.
Resolving Is not Doing
“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin” (Deut. 23: 21 ESV)
We must follow through with any oath we make to God.
How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions?
Yeah, most of the times we don’t follow through on them for the whole year. Sometimes, we don’t even get through the first month, and we are breaking them.
But when we make a vow to God, we need to follow through with it. How are we consistent with our vows to God?
God must be able to count on us to do what we say.
We shouldn’t delay is doing what we say we are going to do. Our words must count for something. If we say we are going to do it, we do. If we say we aren’t going to do it, we don’t.
If we do it right away, we won’t forget what we said. Something else won’t get in the way. We won’t change our minds.
That is really important when we are exercising our free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
We’ve talked about vows and oaths before. Cross also equated it to a covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two parties.
Glossary
Whatever terminology we use to describe it, it is a pretty big deal. We are solemnly pledging to serve God in a specific way. We are pleading an irrevocable oath.
Many times, we make secret pledges to God. Still, we must show to others that we do pledge to follow God’s Will. This is the outward manifestation of the inward resolve.
It is the putting feet to the doing.
Professing Is not Doing
“They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work” (Ti. 1: 16 ESV)
We must submit our lives to God rather than just declaring to know Him.
We talked before about how the Homilist called nominal disciples professional and practical atheists. Nominal disciples are those boasting they love God without even trying to imitate Him — those who dig on religion and its rituals without having a change in heart.
Aren’t nominal disciples having trouble with commitment? The Homilist wrote, “But they practically declare that self-interests are supreme, that every man should work for himself, regardless of the common good. He teaches to [honor] all men on account of what they are. They declare that those only are to be [honored] who are endowed with wealth, and move in the pageantry of worldly pomp and power.”
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
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That lack of commitment while proclaiming to be disciples makes them hypocrites. Their denial of God’s laws and commandments make them ungodly.
Bottom line is that nominal disciples did not make a true conversion. Their words may say they have submitted their lives to God, but their lives do not back up the claim. They cannot be committed to God if they deny God by their works.
We’ve talked, also, about believing but not going the any farther toward committing our lives to God. We are not disciples until we submit our lives to God.
Feeling Is not Doing
“The one who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe” (Prov. 28: 26 ESV)
Well doing has nothing to do with our feelings.
How many times have we said it? “I don’t feel God near.” “But it doesn’t feel like my prayers are going above the ceiling!”
Or worse — “I feel like the Scriptures are outdated.” “I don’t feel like a God of love would tell us we can’t marry someone of the same sex.”
What are we doing when we say things like that?
- It is based on us — our opinions, our experiences, our beliefs, our thoughts — everything that makes us us.
- God should be subjugated to a position beneath us.
- We don’t have to follow God’s written Word.
- We can rely on our own wisdom and what we understand to be true.
- We should be able to determine what our worship (therefore, religion) should look like.
- We can rely on our own self-sufficiency, skills, and power.
- We can rely on our own goodness.
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WRONG!
Manning explains why we shouldn’t trust ourselves. He wrote, “If we knew ourselves, we should not trust ourselves; we do so because we do not know what we are. We are by nature, and still more by personal act, sinners. And sin blinds the heart: so that the more sinful the less it knows its sinfulness; for like death, which is most evidently perceived by the living, not at all by the dead, and by the dying only in the measure in which their living consciousness is still retained, so it is with sin dwelling in us.”
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In other words, our hearts are delusional. That delusion is fostered by the sin in them.
We can’t trust ourselves because we are sinful. We have to trust God because He isn’t. Trust is assurance that the promises of God are true.
Our feelings have nothing to do with it. We have to choose to rely on God’s Word and His promises.
Remember, we just said that trusting God means we know Him. Knowledge, faith, and trust are interconnected.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
South said that we have to trust three things to God.
- The integrity of our character because we are imitating His character.
- Our happiness and delight in the Lord.
- Our eternal soul.
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Let’s look at it this way. We can’t guide off ourselves. Think about a ballet dancer.
When a ballet dancer does a pirouette, they aren’t looking at their feet. They aren’t even looking where they are turning.
During the turn, the eyes are fixed on a predetermined spot. It doesn’t change through the movement.
We should have that same laser focus on God.
We should commit our conduct to a guide — but to THE Guide and His Word.
Making the Connections #1
We can’t just believe we can stop sinning, and everything will be okay. It isn’t about us being a good person.
Being a good person is in terms of good and evil.
Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people through His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
We have to be using God’s definitions and priorities.
Making the Connections #2
Let’s address habits. Manning did.
Manning called habits deliberate motives. Wow!
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We can have different motives. They can be a need, a drive, or an aim.
Whatever they are is deliberate. We do them because we have programmed ourselves to react a certain way to specific stimuli.
When someone presses our buttons, it is usually because we have a history of those buttons being pushed that way. We have learned to react that way.
That is what a habit is. It is a practice or a routine.
It is something that is ingrained so we do without thinking. Habits are how we are consistent.
How Do We Apply This?
- We have to reform our habits to follow God’s character, laws, and commandments.
- Don’t deceive ourselves about who we are (i.e., the Beatitudes).
- Pray more, even when we feel we have prayed often, enough, earnestly, and devoutly.
- Truly love God.
- Be humble.
- Trust God instead of our own hearts.
- Keep our consciences focused on the Holy Spirit.
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Father God. We want to be consistent in all that You call us to do. We want our reactions as You want to be our habits and character. Sanctify us so that we are maturing in our faith. Amen.
What do you think?
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