Category: Priority

What’s Stopping You?

On By Ed AlgreenIn Draw Me Close to You, Priorities, PriorityLeave a comment

Friday, 2016-09-02

Scripture

Bible Reference: Mark 10:20–22

Bible Text: 20 “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” 21 Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take

I believe that you will find where this rich young man who approached Jesus is a lot like many of us today. Our conscience is often pricked by God into the need for more in our relationship with Him, however we often  hesitate in committing to anything until we are sure that there is nothing better in store for us. I remember not being able to get a commitment out of a young friend, because they would often cancel their plans with me when something better arose! I believe that the big difference with making a commitment to God is that although we may want to commit to something more substantial with Him, He knows our hangups long before we recognize and acknowledge them ourselves. In the verses preceding the above, Jesus listed a number of commandments that would be important for this young man to follow, and sure enough, the young man admitted that because of his upbringing, he was already following all of them. Don’t we hear that all the time today with folk we are trying to help? They are ‘good’ people and they are good law keepers, plus they may even go to church a few times per year, however we must always remember that although this ‘fluff’ might fool the pastor, or most of our family and friends, yet there is One who knows our heart – our priorities; our hangups; our ulterior motives; and our hidden sin. In the case of this young man, Jesus went straight to his hangup, for Jesus knew that he was very proud of his financial worth. This often proves success for us, so many of us may really have a heavy emphasis in life on our financial well being as well. In fact, we become very self confident when we are in a good financial position. However, this becomes a major part of the problem with us learning to trust in Jesus. The scripture says that the young man was immediately reluctant to do as Jesus commanded. I believe this only showed that this must have been an ‘idol’ for the young man, which made it virtually impossible for him to truly follow Christ and trust wholeheartedly in Him. Friends, this devotional is not to place an emphasis on one’s financial worth, as there may be other idols that interfere in your total surrender to God. May I suggest that you ask God to open your eyes to reveal any ‘idols’ that may be hindering your surrender to Him or preventing you from totally dedicating yourself to Him? Do you honestly have an open, sincere relationship with Your Savior, or is there something that is stopping you? Don’t follow what the rich young man did and walk away saddened, instead open your heart to accept what Jesus would direct you to do today. Draw close to God, and He will draw close to you.

Prayer

Father, open our eyes so that we can see. Yes, we are not physically blind, but unfortunately we are often blinded by our own self will and selfish desires – our sin, that so easily separates us from a sincere, open relationship with You. Like the rich young ruler, we want more out of our relationship with You, so please help us to see our sin, our shortcomings and our other priorities that stand in our way. We will be eternally thankful oh Lord, AMEN!

Footnote

If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

Priority–Seek God First

On By Ed AlgreenIn Believe, Priority, Seek God FirstLeave a comment

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: Luke 12:29-31
Today’s Bible Text: 29 “And don’t be concerned about what to eat and what to drink. Don’t worry about such things. 30 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. 31 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.
The Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT),

My Take Away: Friends this is a very logical thing, but none the less, Jesus emphasized this with His disciples, to stop worrying as children of the most high God. Let’s think this through: If we are foolish and never seek God for anything in our life, then we are probably unbelievers and feel like we have everything in this life under control. When things fail to materialize, or may not happen the way we want them to, then we start to panic and worry, because we quickly run out of options, resulting in worry over how our needs will be met. On the other hand, when we surrender our lives to our Lord Jesus, we acknowledge before Him that He is most worthy and deserving of our praise. We are convinced from His wonderful book, the Bible, that He is the author of all things and the provider for His precious children. We develop a faith, based on everything that we read about all throughout the Bible. Also, knowing the love promised by our Maker, we develop a confidence that our Master will take care of our every need. This all begins with a relationship with our Savior, friend. As part of this relationship, as sons and daughter of the King of all kings, we develop a strong sense of faith, trust, love and contentment, knowing that He cares for us and that He watches out for His own. Unlike anyone else that we have ever known, our Savior loved us so much that He willingly gave up His life so that we might live eternally with Him. If He loved us enough to do that friend, don’t you know without a doubt that the words of these verses are also true? AS totally surrendered
children of God, we can be assured that He will give us everything we need.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I believe in You. I claim You as my Savior and Lord, because of a decision many years ago when I invited You into my heart. Thank You for the reminder today that You have given to my readers and I, that in knowing You, we can place our faith and trust in You for all things. Please help us to develop such a trust that we will learn to not worry about anything material here on this earth. Please open our hearts to be children of constant praise to our King for Your precious gifts to us on a daily and consistent basis. There is no need to worry when we place our faith and trust in the One who holds the key to all areas of our life. In deepest love and appreciation Lord, I ask these things, AMEN!

Let Nothing Take God’s Place in Your Heart

On By Ed AlgreenIn Awesome God, Priority, SacrificeLeave a comment

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: 1 John 5:18-21
Today’s Bible Text: No one who has become part of God’s family makes a practice of sinning, for Christ, God’s Son, holds him securely, and the devil cannot get his hands on him. We know that we are children of God and that all the rest of the world around us is under Satan’s power and control. And we know that Christ, God’s Son, has come to help us understand and find the true God. And now we are in God because we are in Jesus Christ his Son, who is the only true God; and he is eternal Life. Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts. Amen.
The Bible Translation: The Living Bible (TLB)

My Take Away: I was immediately drawn to the first part of this scripture that says that if we are truly a child of the King, we are held securely in His hand and under His protection from the Evil One. Then John clearly delineates who truly is controlled by Satan, and I pray that each one reading this devotional have made a firm commitment to graduate from that dark, sinful world, into the welcoming, loving, forgiving hands of our Lord and Savior. If you are still struggling with sin dear friend, then I would recommend that you go back to step one and check your son-ship with the Father. Was that an automatic thing you assumed because you were attending church every time the doors were opened? Was it something you felt pressured into making a decision, or did you ever feel drawn by God’s Holy Spirit to surrender your old life of sin and accept Him as Your personal Savior? May I encourage you to use the place, date or time of your adoption into the kingdom of Light, especially the next time that Satan tries to cause you doubt about whose you are? But friends, in spite of all the great insight already mentioned, the very last sentence is a powerful statement. When I think of what might take God’s place in our hearts, I tend to think of anything that might interrupt our personal time with the Lord. These are the times where you are spiritually refueled to go on stronger in the faith. And if anything steps into that space, or disrupts the time you had set aside to be with God, then I wonder if perhaps that’s what John was cautioning us about? For any relationship to flourish, I feel it is important for daily time together. When you are not meeting those committed times, then obviously something else is taking priority over your time alone with God. Perhaps another area might be church attendance. I know, just as staying in your garage overnight will not turn you into a car, so church attendance will not save you! However, I believe that a true child of God would want to be with God’s people at every opportunity. In fact, the Word infers this to be a characteristic of a believer. Furthermore, church attendance gives you the opportunity to praise and worship our Creator – the giver of all good things in this life; you also have the opportunity to be blessed by hearing how God has blessed others and answered their prayers; plus you have the opportunity to minister to others by sharing your God experiences with them. So if you’re not there, will someone go lacking that night, or that day? Will God understand what took priority over Your time with Him? Is another god slipping into the picture?

Prayer: It seems like I may have run on a bit long this morning, but Lord I pray that You might use this devotional to awaken me to the desires of Your heart and Your relationship with me. May I be found faithful in all things oh God, and may You have prominence in all that I am. Touch the hearts of my readers dear Lord. May each of us be reminded of the priority You placed on making sure that our sins are forgiven, forever. With that same determination, commitment and priority may we be extra careful to not let anything interfere with the overwhelming and powerful role that You play in our lives. I believe that others will see and believe! Thank You gracious and loving God for loving us so much. AMEN!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

2016

Stop, Listen and Consider

On By Ed AlgreenIn Commitment, Listen, PriorityLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (Good News Translation – Job 37:14-16): 14Pause a moment, Job, and listen; consider the wonderful things God does. 15 Do you know how God gives the command and makes lightning flash from the clouds? 16 Do you know how clouds float in the sky, the work of God’s amazing skill?

THOUGHTS: I’ve often said around my house that if my family could move to the garden in quiet solitude, without any electronics, including the house phone, and just listen to the birds sing, catch a glimpse of the beautiful creation that God has put in place for us, and after a period of quietness before God, just chat with each other, I believe we would draw closer to God and to each other – if we don’t go totally insane through withdrawal symptoms!!! Ever noticed how we must always be attached to a device of some sort, or have background noise to seemingly block out the quiet? It ‘kills’ me to call someone and compete with the loudness of their television set while trying to speak to them! Like Job, I believe that often someone may try to comfort us or share a message with us, and our minds are so busy that we hardly remember they were in the same room with us. Can this happen with God? Of course it could, for often it’s not until we are laid out on our backs, that we stop, listen, and look up to God to consider how helpless we are without Him. Unfortunately, it’s often not until we have tried everything and failed, before we finally decide to call on God and seek His help. Friends, I believe that it is critical that we make time in our day to get alone with God. We need time in His Word so that we can listen for His voice through the written Word, but we need to stop the busyness of our lives for a few minutes each day to stop and gaze into the wonderful face of our Lord and give welcoming time for Him to just minister to us. Please don’t try to convince me, or God, that you just don’t have time for one more thing in your already busy schedule. When challenged by your accountability partner about your time with the Lord, try saying that it was just not a priority for you that day. For not having time for something directly relates to those things you gave priority to, or didn’t make priority for. I believe that if you respond in this way, you will be quickly challenged by God to reconcile who really is first in your life!

PRAYER: Father, ashamedly I come before You recognizing that the above sermon was first preached to myself, for I allow my day to be filled with so much that I often fail to step away from all of the modern day devices and distractions to truly look into Your wonderful face and savor time with You. I thank You for Your Word, and Your help in giving me energy to meet with you very early each morning to hear You speak through the written Word, but I would love to have time alone, with no other activities or time constraints, so that I might hear You speak through Your creation. Like Job, I have deliberately imposed upon myself very tight and busy schedules. In fact, it may even appear that I have scheduled You right out of my life, and for that I must apologize and seek Your forgiveness. I believe that many of my friends reading this devotional may have developed the same bad habits, so I beg You to patiently speak with each of Your children today and remind us of the importance of our time with You. I could only imagine how You must wait for us each day, and wind up disappointed at how we’ve scheduled You out of our lives yet another day. Please forgive us Lord, and please don’t give up on us. We need Your powerful touch upon our lives, so that we might be revived in our spirits and return to making the ‘main thing’ the ‘main thing’ once again. I ask all this in the patient, yet all-powerful name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior, AMEN!

 

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or read through Biblical truths on How To Know Jesus, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!