Daily Devotional

I am captivated! Walking in Northern Israel in a Nature Reserve, I am surrounded by luxuriant foliage.  This tunnel of trees shelters beautiful ferns and delicate flowers.  I wish this ancient pathway of stones, the size of dinner plates, could talk of all the people who have traveled this way.  All too soon, I break through the tunnel to stone stairs embedded in the hillside.  Up I go wondering where this path is going.

Then I see it!  Even before the guide opens his mouth to teach us, I realize this beautiful path leads to a place of horror…an ancient platform used for idol worship and sacrifice. The evil performed here in the past is unspeakable.

My mind jumps to how the world offers many attractive, pleasurable pathways that ultimately lead to destruction. God, give me eyes to see! As I move past the massive alter, and continue on to the next site, I am humbled and drawn into prayer. Reveal to me dear God, the things I have worshipped instead of you, most holy God? What are the things I have put as a priority over my devotion to God? Guard me from the pleasurable but deceitful paths!  I crave to put you first in my life! To be so captivated by you that the World and all its’ deceitful pleasures fade from my eyes. I desire to worship only you, my glorious God!

Leviticus 26:1 “You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.”

My thoughts come to a crescendo with the song by Helen H. Lemmel.  “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” I am captivated by God!

PARENTS:

• Have a conversation with your kids about the meaning of the words of the song, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”
• Talk about why it is so easy to sin.  Sin can be pleasurable.  
• Help your kids memorize I John 1:9
• Explain why not everything that is “fun” is good for them.  They can’t eat only candy the rest of their life! 
• Explain to your kids why God should be first in their life…to be captivated by God! What does that look like in their life? (Prayer, fruit of the Spirit, service, obedience, etc.)