Sunday, October 12, 2008

Serving God Wholeheartedly

This Week's Combined Readings
from "The One Year Devotional Guide":
Genesis 1:1-19:38
Matthew 1:1-7:14
Psalm 1:1-8:9
Proverbs 1:1-2:15
Next Week's Combined Readings
from "The One Year Devotional Guide":
Genesis 20:1-32:12
Matthew 7:15-11:6
Psalm 9:1-13:6
Proverbs 2:16-3:18

Focus Verse(s) for this week's thoughts: Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches)."

It is a very personal and spiritual decision to want to serve God through our daily lives. I know for myself it is one I must prayerfully reaffirm every morning or I fall away a little at a time. If we choose to serve God then we must decide to make this a wholehearted decision. Jesus warns in Matthew 6:24 that we cannot serve both God and money. We cannot fully love God and love earthly posessions. We must realign our perspective to focus soley on God and all else needs to fall under the category of blessings we are thankful for rather than treasures we are striving for. God has blessed us all in different ways, with different talents, families, friends and material things and when we are serving God wholly we will not be looking to our neighbor to see what they have that we do not or what we have that they do not. Rather, we will fall to our knees in humble prayer and thank God for all He has blessed us with through His grace that we do not deserve. We have to let go of the media hype for "more, better, different" things that "everyone must have" and we need to place our lives in God's hands asking Him that His great and perfect will be done in our lives and through us. The more we focus on serving God and on praising and thanking Him for what we do have, then the more we will step toward true peace and happiness. I tell you from experience that it is difficult to praise God through your tears, fears and pain but I can also tell you it is worth it because then you can truly feel His presence through all of life's storms. Please join me in prayer:
Heavenly Father,
We ask You to open our hearts to Your Spirit that You may dwell within us and we may serve You and You alone. Please help us keep You as our daily focus as we strive to serve You in all that we do. We thank You for the many blessings you have granted to us and we praise Your holy name for Your grace is more than we deserve. Lord, we know many need Your healing touch, spiritually, mentally and physically. We ask that as our great Healer You please grant Your grace, mercy and divine healing comfort to those most in need of it and especially to Lee, Pam, Helen, Larry, George, Karen, Mark & Lynn. We thank You that You never leave us and are always with us until the end of days even through our valleys. We ask Your guidance to our leaders, both political and theological. Grant them You wisdom that they may lead us all in the right direction, towards You. Father, we especially thank You for those who serve You and us in every arm of the military. Please grant Your extraordinary favor, protection and deliverance to all the soldiers and their families. We thank You for the blessing of prayer and the connection to You that it brings. We ask that this prayer please be carried out not according to our will but to thine. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

I pray you each have a blessed and awesome week!!!
Love through Christ,
Niki

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