Daily Devotional

Have you ever had one of those weeks that have been a roller coaster of emotions?  Anger, frustration, grief, trust. This was one of those for me. That's why when I read this I felt such great love and assurance from the Lord. All of those emotions stemmed from areas in my heart that he wanted to test my faith in and to grow His attributes in me. As I was wrestling through the situations that were bringing out all these emotions I saw that He wanted me to seek Him. He wanted to break up the ground in my heart that was lying untilled. He wanted me to be more merciful and let Him sow His righteousness in me.

No matter how long I have been a believer and been coming to His Word, I am still a sinner saved by grace… like I was the first time I prayed for Him to come into my life.

I can usually find someone to compare myself with and feel pretty good about myself. But my comparisons are based on my own sense or righteousness. The Lord isn't satisfied with mediocrity. When comparing myself to Him I always come up short. And because He cares for me, He will continue to prune me so that it is His fruit of righteousness that gets produced.

Some day, we will be with the Lord with new bodies that will be pure and completely righteous. But until then we will continue dealing with the battle between our old and new natures. That's why we need to keep seeking Him daily and believing Him.

Have you heard His Word today? Just encouraging you to eat His bread for yourself; otherwise you are living on regurgitated food. We need to eat regular meals to live a healthy physical life. We must eat from the Bread of Life to live a spiritual life that will grow spiritual fruit pleasing to the Lord!

Titus 3:5 – "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…"
 
Isaiah 64:6 – "But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."
 
Ephesians 2:8-9 – "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."
 
John 6:32-35 – "Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.'...And Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."
 
John 14:36 – "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.