Thursday, February 9, 2017

 

 

 
Devotional for Thursday, February 9, 2017
 
“Don’t Let It Get Inside You…”
 
by Dona Hake
 
 
 
 
 
It is in my heart to go back over a quote that I shared with you last Monday and Tuesday. My heart has been stirred as I have meditated upon this from time to time since I have shared it. Let us read it together again:
 
“Ships do not sink because of the water around them;
ships sink because of the water that gets in them.
Do not let what is happening around you
get inside you and weigh you down.”
 
First I would like to share with you from the book of First Kings.  
 
1 Kings 18:21  Living Bible (TLB)
“…How long are you going to waver between two opinions?” he asked the people. “If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”
 
I encourage you to go to 1 Kings Chapter 18 and read the whole story for yourself.   What I want to focus on is the question he asked the people.   “How long are you going to waver between two opinions?”    Many times we may wonder why it is that people are not strong in faith or perhaps you too may be struggling in your faith. I would like you to ponder a thought as we look at this  scripture. Many times the fact of the matter is we are trying to serve two masters or we choose to be indecisive rather than standing firm in the that which we know to be true.    I believe the devil has deceived many in this area and this deception serves to weaken our faith.    It is so wrong to think we can embrace truth one minute and then be changing our mind according to circumstance.  God wants our hearts to be wholly toward Him in all things and all times.
 
Oh we may insist that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul, yet may I share this challenging thought today?      I believe that there may be times that there are things in this world that tug at our hearts more than we realize. When we find ourselves thinking about certain things more than we do our loving God we need to stop and evaluate where our heart is at.  May we ask our self if that thing has a grip on our hearts more than we realize.    God wants us to want all of Him and only Him.
 
God created each of us to make choices.  He will not make our choices for us but He desires greatly that we choose Him above any thing this world has to offer.His greatest desire is that we choose Him and love Him with all of our heart. As we love Him with our whole heart and I repeat our whole heart, we will be single minded and wavering will not even be a thought.   Now let us look at the book of James.
 
James 1:6-8
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a
wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
 
The man or woman with a wavering faith is surely a candidate for a ship capable of being affected by the storms of this life.   It is the weakening and wavering in our faith that could cause our ship to begin to fill up with water and no longer float with the ease the Lord desires it to. Our Lord desires that we rise up and not be brought down by the winds of the sea or the pressures of this life.
 
Today my encouragement to you is to think about and purpose yourself to serve the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul.  May we ever live to guard our hearts and minds that we do not waver and be tossed around by the wind and waves.    I pray that the Holy Spirit will help you to be discerning over your heart and your thoughts. May we serve our living God with everything that is in our being!