Devotions for Dieters

Matthew 5:8
'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.'

Denise wanted to do what was right. She was a good person, and it never occurred to her that her weight problem might be displeasing to God. Her friend tried to tell her that it didn't mean God didn't love her. What she meant was that God likes it best when we take the best care of ourselves possible, and that extra weight wasn't doing that. Denise pondered what her friend said to her for a long while, then resolved to try her best to lose weight. Apologetically, she prayed to God and asked Him to help her as she tried to set things right. The prayer of a person pure in heart and full of kindness speaks loudest into the ear of the Lord.

Today's thought: I wish my heart could teach my mouth to say 'no'!

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Many popular preachers are teaching that if you have faith, nothing bad can befall you. You can be healed of all your diseases; delivered from all your financial woes and be blessed with every good thing.

But is that what the Bible teaches? Let's look at some "men of faith" to find out.

What Does God Say?

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, ESV).

What did God permit to keep Paul humble?

What was Paul's response?

What did God provide instead of healing?

What was Paul's response when God chose not to heal him?

"And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head'" (Matthew 8:20, ESV).

What did Jesus lack?

How is this contrary to popular teaching today?

My Thoughts

When we look at the examples of people of faith in the Bible, we find their lives were filled with hardships and difficulties like everyone else. In addition to Paul and Jesus, there was Abraham who left his friends and family to live in the desert. Moses spent 40 years herding sheep and then 40 years leading a ragtag group of rebellious grumblers. David lost one son in infancy and two adult sons by murder. Timothy suffered stomach problems (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditus became so ill he almost died (Philippians 2:27). Trophimus had to be left behind at Miletus because he was too sick to travel (2 Timothy 4:20).

If you are having difficulties, don't blame your lack of faith. Faith doesn't prevent problems; it helps you survive them.

My Part

What are you doing to increase your faith? Based on your study today, indicate one step that you are going to take in this next week to increase your faith.

Bible Study from Back to the Bible Copyright © 1996-2008 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.bibleminute.org/

The Following Devotionals are from: Back to the Bible Copyright © 1996-2008 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.backtothebible.org/

Repent, Part 2

Hosea 9-11, Revelation 3
Key Verse: Revelation 3:19

About the time we start to think that repentance is only an Old Testament idea, along come verses like this one from the New Testament: "'Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent'" (v. 19). There is an interesting blend of two contrasting actions-love and rebuke.

We may not understand how love and rebuke go together, but they do. It is vital to our understanding of God and the development of our spiritual life to understand that they are both a part of our relationship with Him.

God loves us. That is a comforting thought. We do not typically draw as much comfort from the thought that God rebukes us-until we realize that His rebuke is an act of love. He cares for us enough to correct us, and His desire is to help us change.

Several times in these letters to the churches, the message of Jesus includes a call to repentance. It is a message that we must not miss nor misunderstand. Do not misunderstand it as being anything but an expression of God's love for us. And do not miss the need for change, removing from your life those things that God says are wrong. We are saved from the penalty and power of sin. God desires that we turn from those sins and determine to do that which is right in His sight. Repent truly is a word for us today.

Do you need to change something in your life? Repent is still a word for today!

1 Kings 8:5

No Sacrifice Too Great

Japanese folklore tells of a rice farmer whose land overlooked the village where his friends lived. While working in his rice paddies one day, he felt a quake and saw the distant ocean swiftly withdraw from the shoreline. He knew there would soon be a devastating tidal wave. In the valley below, he saw his neighbors working fields that soon would be flooded. They would have to run to his hilltop or die. His rice barns were dry as tinder. To get the people quickly to higher ground, the farmer set fire to his barns and then rang the fire gong. His neighbors saw the smoke and rushed up the hill to help him. When they looked back from their place of safety, they saw the tidal wave wash over the fields they had just left. Instantly they understood. The farmer had made a great sacrifice that they might be saved.

Solomon and the people of Israel were equally generous in their sacrifices. They were so enthused about the new temple and the blessings that God was giving them that no sacrifice was withheld. They brought so many sheep and oxen for offerings that they couldn't be counted. They loved God so much that no sacrifice was too great.

Jesus felt the same way about you and me. Being crucified was a terrible way to die; to be separated from His Father was even worse (Matt. 27:46). Yet He loved us so much that no sacrifice was too great. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus endured the cross for "the joy that was set before Him" (12:2). Our salvation made it all worthwhile.

Knowing how Jesus Christ feels about you, how does that make you feel about Him? Since no sacrifice was too great for Him to make for you, what should your response be? Is there any sacrifice too great to make for Him? Jesus gave His all. What do you have that you need to give to Him today?

God's Thoughts: Part 1

A. W. Tozer used to say, "The only real world is the Bible world." Nothing is more unsure than the world, for it is passing away. But the will and Word of God will abide forever (see Mark 13:31). As we consider the character of God's thoughts, we will want to do His will.

God's thoughts are personal (v. 17). They concern you and me. He makes the individual and then plans for him. He knows all about us. Paradoxically, the sovereignty of God is the basis for our freedom. If He were not on the throne, this world would be run by chance. But the psalmist tells us that life is not a gamble. God put your substance together and ordained your genetic structure (vv. 13,14). We must use what He has given us for His glory. And our obedience to His will reaches beyond this life, for our future is wrapped up in God's plan for us (Jer. 29:11).

God's thoughts are precious (v. 17). Precious means "weighty, valuable." His thoughts toward us are unique, tailor-made, and that makes them valuable. When we accept God's plan for us and exercise believing faith, then He can work out His perfect will in our lives. Remember, His thoughts are deep (Ps. 92:5); they are higher than ours (Isa. 55:8).

* * *

God's thoughts about you are more than mere "thoughts." They include His purposes and His care. As you meditate on His thoughts, renew your commitment to know and do His will for your life.

The Law of Liberty

Galatians 5:1-7

The law of Christ is a law of liberty, a law of freedom made operative through the Spirit of God within us.

Nothing in our sin nature could produce a godly life. Indeed, it is opposed to righteousness. It is void of all power to do what pleases God.

Though we may know what the right standard of righteousness is because we have God's Law, we do not have in ourselves the ability to meet the Law's righteous demands. All the Law can do under such circumstances is to demand death as a penalty.

But since Jesus Christ paid the death penalty the Law required and has provided life and liberty, we are free to let Christ live His life in us. This is done through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:2: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

The word "law" does not refer to Old Testament Law but to a principle, a new method God has provided whereby the Holy Spirit produces the life of Christ in us. This is referred to in the Bible as the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:21).

The Mosaic Law did not provide freedom from sin for us, nor could it produce righteousness in us because we were spiritually incapable of obeying it.

God, however, sent His own Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3). Christ judged, or dethroned, the power of sin and set us free so that it is possible for us to please God with lives of righteousness.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).

Ingredients for Service

And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai and present thyself there to Me in the top of the mount.

The man who bows the lowest in the presence of God stands the straightest in the presence of sin. If this truth was known by anyone in the Old Testament, it was known by Moses. Time after time he had to stand straight and tall in the face of Israel's sin. Once even while Moses was communing with God on the top of Sinai, Israel was brewing a pot of sin. Upon his descent from the mount, viewing the golden calf and the licentious behavior of Israel, Moses' righteous indignation caused him to cast the tables of God's Law to the ground, crushing them to pieces (Exodus 32:19). The people were rebuked for their sin, 3,000 men were capitally punished, Moses interceded for the lives of the rest and the golden calf crisis was over.

But there would be more sin, and the tables of stone had to be replaced. Thus the Lord issued Moses another summons to Sinai with these instructions: "And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to Me in the top of the mount" (Exodus 34:2). Note the words, "be ready," "come up," and "present thyself." Moses' renewed call to service contained these three essential ingredients found in every call to service that God issues.

Be ready. The man God uses is the man who is ready, willing, and able to be used. If we are not ready, God will bypass us for someone who is; and we will miss the blessing that could have been ours. The apostle Paul was a man who was ready. In Romans 1:15 he was "ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." With Paul, preaching was a passion: "For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 21:13). After a long life of service to his Lord, Paul exclaimed, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:6-7). Paul was ready to preach, ready to suffer, even ready to die in the service of the Lord.

Come up. We cannot be of service to God until we first come to Him in salvation. But Jehovah's call to Moses was not to salvation, but to communion and service. Once the Lord has called us to be saved, He then calls us to "come and dine" (John 21:12). In other words, as Moses, we are called to fellowship with the Lord. We "come up" to the Lord God in prayer. Like salvation, prayer and communion with God precede service (Ephesians 6:18-20).

Present thyself. The final ingredient in preparing for service to God and standing in the face of sin is to present ourselves to Him. Paul begged the Roman believers to "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). Being ready to serve God is necessary. Coming up to God in prayer is likewise necessary in preparing for useful service. But unless we are willing to present ourselves to God body, mind, and soul as Moses did, there is little chance that He will use us or that we will successfully stand straight and tall in the presence of sin.

When the call of God came, Moses prepared a second pair of stone tablets for the law of God and "rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him" (Exodus 34:4). Moses was ready for service, early in the morning, for he knew that there was a lot of sin yet to be dealt with in the camp of Israel. Moses must stand straight and tall in the presence of that sin, as each believer must. Are you ready to rise early each morning and come to God in prayer, presenting yourself in service to Him? Your day will go much better if you are.

MORNING HYMN
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
Ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner,
It must not suffer loss:
From vict'ry unto vict'ry
His army shall He lead,
Till ev'ry foe is vanquished,
And Christ is Lord indeed.