1 Timothy 2:7 – The Christian Consumer

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:7ESV)

Our lives today have become pretty easy. We don’t know what it means to wait for something anymore. If you want food, simply go to a fast food joint. If you want a new record, click a link on your computer instead of waiting in line at a record store. If you want to know what a friend is doing, text them instead of calling or check out their facebook/twitter page. We have became a people who consume food, entertainment, news, and so on.

Unfortunately we have brought this into the church as well. We go to church because we know we can consume a great worship experience. We don’t have to do anything on our part because the lights are set low, the music is excellently performed, and we don’t have to think about the Bible because we are told precisely what to believe. This can foster a consumerist mentality in the body of Christ.

The consumerist mentality not only deals with our experience at church, but our personal experience as we read the Bible individually. We have a study Bible which gives us the answer right away, or we are one click away from a Bible site to explain to us the meaning of a given text. Or even the daily devotion in the email every morning (yes we know). These are not bad resources, but can cause us to be dependent on them instead of God.

Paul is giving instructions to Timothy. Some of these instructions were hard to understand and Paul didn’t want Timothy to just depend on him. Instead, he knew Timothy should depend on God and the Holy Spirit that was dwelling in Him. We must be careful that we don’t become a simple consumer, but learn to think over what we have read and ask God to give us understanding. There tends to be much greater joy in God’s word when we think and pray over it than just read what others have said of it.

Do you put forth effort in the hard work of study and praise, or do you rely solely on others?

Genesis 16:2 – Obsessing Over Promises and Not God

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. (Genesis 16:2 ESV)

From Ryan,

A good friend of mine adopted a boy who has been through some traumatic events in his life. He is a great kid and is full of life. One of his quirks, however, is that he becomes obsessed with things; it might be as simple as a card game or video game. Once, our families were together at a local minor league baseball game, and everyone was having a good time. A player randomly threw a ball to my friend’s son and he became completely obsessed with getting another one. He no longer cared about baseball, who won, or his friends around him. He just yelled for a ball every time a player had one by the bench, and he would race to beat the other kids for foul balls. He became obsessed with getting another ball and forgot why he was at the game in the first place. He was upset when we left because he didn’t get another ball.

I was reading today’s verse and the story I just told came to my mind. Abraham had been promised by God that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 12:1-3). Unfortunately, he and his wife were getting old and didn’t have any kids yet, so how could this promise from God ever come to pass?

Instead of trusting in God and His promise, they grew impatient when He didn’t fulfill His promise in the time they expected Him. They decided to make things happen themselves because they didn’t believe could happen any other way. This caused much pain and hurt in their family as you continue to read the rest of the story. Of course, God does eventually & miraculously fulfill His promise and they have a child (Genesis 21:1-2).

Have you become so obsessed with a promise from God that you forget to actually trust Him for it? Instead of relying on God, are your thoughts and time so consumed with chasing this promise that you forget everything else around you, even God?

Remember that God’s promises to us through His word and Spirit are meant to bring us closer to Him through trust and reliance. Take comfort in that truth, and spend some time today praying for patience, strength and grace.

Titus 1:12-13 – Comfort, Convenience, and Accountability

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith (Titus 1:12-13 ESV)

A sharp rebuke is the sort of conversation most of us don’t want to have. But the harsh reality is that is just the talk many of us need. We live in an age where many things come easily to us, with little effort or thought required. For example, a person finds he or she is in the mood for chicken, simple. Swing by the grocery store on the way home from work and pick up some chicken already baked and breaded, ready to eat! In short, our lives are permeated by comfort and convenience.

Comfort and convenience are not evil things, but can become detrimental. Even more so when we consider that the Cretans of Paul and Titus’ day didn’t have near the creature comforts we are surrounded by in our modern age.

When things come easily in our physical lives, we often allow that “comfort with ease” mentality to slip into to our spiritual walk. In fact, often times it can even dominate as the physical realm is intricately intertwined with the spiritual.

In order for us to keep a guard against comfort and ease dictating our spiritual and even physical well being we need accountability. Those same “lazy gluttons” in Crete were under the supervision and leadership of Titus, and therefore accountable to him as he was to them. But accountability doesn’t do a beneficial thing for us if we don’t receive rebukes along with praise. Find trustworthy accountability for your life, and once found, submit to it understanding that God uses rebukes that we may “be sound in the faith.”

Is your life lived in accordance first and foremost with comfort and convenience affecting your spiritual walk?

Luke 6:47-48 – Weathering The Storms

Daily Devotional Bible Verses

Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. (Luke 6:47-48 ESV)

If you grew up in the church, you probably heard the parable of the man building his house on the rock and the man who built his house on the sand when you were in Sunday school. We can often focus on the foundation of the man whose house was built on the rock. He obeys the words of Jesus and his house stays up. We often tend to ignore that this man also goes through the storm. Both of these men go through the same storm, but there is a different outcome for these men. The only difference is their foundation

We can learn a little nugget of truth from this parable. We learn that the Christian life isn’t about escaping the storms that come our way. The Christian life is about weathering the storms with Jesus as our foundation. Jesus never said that the man who does his words won’t have any problems in life. He says that the man who does his words will be able to make it through these problems because he has Jesus as his foundation.

What or Who is your foundation during the storms of life?

Luke 4:42-43 – Bigger is Better, Right?

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” (Luke 4:42-43 ESV)

As Jesus preached in Judea’s synagogues, the people were captivated because he taught “as one with authority,” (Mark 1:22) like no one they had ever heard. He would preach to thousands, heal the sick, and engage the destitute. In fact, at one point, his renown had so grown that the people sought to make him king by force (John 6:15).

Jesus could have easily stayed where he was and regularly had a large crowd gather in his presence. But what did Jesus do with this seeming success; did he set up headquarters and signs, pass out flyers, and increase seating capacity? Did he remain with those who begged him to stay and enjoy the fame and their adoration? Absolutely not, Jesus was blameless even in this and focused on his God ordained purpose.

We can look at success as a numbers game. The more people that come to my church or ministry, the more successful I am in the kingdom. Jesus is a great example for what success looks like as his followers. Jesus teaches us that success is not merely defined by popularity or crowds, but by obedience to God and his purpose for our life.

Find where you’ve remained when you should have pressed on in pursuing the Father’s purpose for your life, and then run after it.

Matthew 22:20-22 – Rendering to Caesar

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s,” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. (Matthew 22:20-22 ESV)

The Pharisees were plotting against Jesus, attempting to “entangle him in his talk” (Matthew 22:15). The Pharisees, being cowards like many overly religious people, sent their disciples to Jesus with a controversial question, hoping to provoke a condemnable response. The Pharisees’ lackeys approached Jesus and prefaced their question with flattery to deceive him, and then asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Matthew records here that, “Jesus, aware of their malice” (Matthew 22:18) asked the hypocrites why they put him to the test, and proceeded to give a gospel answer that encompasses all of life.

He held up a coin and it was plain that Caesar’s image was upon it, stamped as a sign of ownership, validating Jesus’ response to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”. That answered the deceitful question, but Jesus went one phrase further saying, “and to God the things that are God’s.”

These men each would have been well acquainted with the Old Testament, and given the context, would have understood the implication of Jesus’ statement. It was an unstated question, “Whose likeness and inscription is on you?” It was a gospel answer to a sinful question, encompassing the whole of life. We bear the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), and we are to render unto God, that which is God’s; our life. Marvel at the brilliance of Jesus today, knowing that we bear his image and likeness, and are made alive through the Holy Spirit who lives within us (I Peter 3:18).

What have you not rendered to God today?

Micah 6:6-8 – Walking With God

Daily Devotional Bible Verses

“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8 ESV)

God does not want just our sacrifices or our good deeds. He will not share us with our ambitions or hobbies. He wants all of us. Sunday mornings and a few quick prayers said before we lay down to sleep are not enough. He wants us to relentlessly pursue him. Not because he needs us, but because we need him.

We were created for worship and to bring honor and glory to his name. When we don’t give ourselves fully to God, we are the ones who suffer. The endless pursuits of personal pleasure always lead to emptiness. God is jealous, not because our rejection hurts his ego, but because it hurts his heart. He knows our greatest needs and that he can only truly fill us with joy.

When Jesus said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt6:33). He made it clear that everything we needed would be given if we would simply put him first. This is in no way a prosperity gospel. Jesus made no allusions that the Christian life would be easy. He meant that He is all we truly need. Paul got this. He learned to be content no matter what his circumstances. He learned the secret of true happiness. When he said “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:9). He was essentially saying Jesus is enough.

Jesus is not one of many great things, He is the only great thing. I am tired of serving the god of self. I am tired of giving Christ only part of my heart. I want to do the will of my Lord. I will seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with my God!

Are you walking humbly with God, or are you serving the god of self?