Bible League: Living His Word Come close to God, and God will come close to you.— James 4:8 NLT It's so easy to drift away from God. It's so easy to neglect your relationship to Him. After all, life happens. Things get busy. Concerns that you put on the back burner must be brought forward to the front burner. Can you be blamed for taking care of business? Can anyone find fault with you for being responsible? It takes time to come close to God and time is a precious commodity. There's never enough of it to go around. Something has to give. God is always there. He'll be there when you have the time, won't He? He is kind and compassionate. He'll understand that you've been busy. There is, however, a problem with that philosophy. The problem is that when you drift away from God you tend also to drift away from your love and service to God. Instead of going to Him for the guidance and help you need, you go at it alone. You take on the burden yourself, doing what you think is right. It doesn't take long and you're a good distance from the will and ways of God. If that was all there was to the problem, it would be bad enough. But it gets worse. When you turn away from God, sometimes He stands back and lets you suffer the consequences of your poor choices. The Bible says, "The LORD will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you" (2 Chronicles 15:2). Is there anything worse than being abandoned by God? He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. To be abandoned by Him is to be abandoned by the one you need more than anyone or anything else. You thought you'd be fine going at it alone. Nothing could be further from the truth. You need God more than you'll ever know. If this scenario describes you, come back to God today. Come close to Him again. Spend some time in prayer and ask Him to forgive you for drifting away. Ask Him to guide you again and help you do what He wants you to do. If you will humble yourself in this way, He will come close to you and you will enjoy fellowship with Him again. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingIsaiah 10, 11, 12 Isaiah 10 -- Judgment on Assyria; A Remnant to Return NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 11 -- The Root of Jesse NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 12 -- Joyful Thanksgiving NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Galatians 5 Galatians 5 -- Standing Firm; Walking by the Spirit NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all the churches.Insight Apparently the Corinthians were ready to make wholesale changes without thinking through the ramifications. Paul was writing to say that people should be Christians where they are. Challenge You can do God's work and demonstrate your faith anywhere. If you became a Christian after marriage, and your spouse is not a believer, remember that you don't have to be married to a Christian to live for Christ. Don't assume that you are in the wrong place, or stuck with the wrong person. You may be just where God wants you. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Deuteronomy 33:29 Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord!He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it. It were strange indeed, if it made us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us! It makes us sons of God. Suppose you that God will give all the happiness to his enemies, and reserve all the mourning for his own family? Shall his foes have mirth and joy, and shall his home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Shall the sinner, who has no part in Christ, call himself rich in happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars? No, we will rejoice in the Lord always, and glory in our inheritance, for we "have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." The rod of chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable fruits of righteousness; and therefore by the aid of the divine Comforter, we, the "people saved of the Lord," will joy in the God of our salvation. We are married unto Christ; and shall our great Bridegroom permit his spouse to linger in constant grief? Our hearts are knit unto him: we are his members, and though for a while we may suffer as our Head once suffered, yet we are even now blessed with heavenly blessings in him. We have the earnest of our inheritance in the comforts of the Spirit, which are neither few nor small. Inheritors of joy forever, we have foretastes of our portion. There are streaks of the light of joy to herald our eternal sunrising. Our riches are beyond the sea; our city with firm foundations lies on the other side the river; gleams of glory from the spirit-world cheer our hearts, and urge us onward. Truly is it said of us, "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord?" Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Peter 5:6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,Proverbs 16:5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. Isaiah 64:8,9 But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. • Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Behold, look now, all of us are Your people. Jeremiah 31:18,19 "I have surely heard Ephraim grieving, 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like an untrained calf; Bring me back that I may be restored, For You are the LORD my God. • For after I turned back, I repented; And after I was instructed, I smote on my thigh; I was ashamed and also humiliated Because I bore the reproach of my youth.' Lamentations 3:27 It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth. Job 5:6,7, "For affliction does not come from the dust, Nor does trouble sprout from the ground, • For man is born for trouble, As sparks fly upward. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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