Tag: Blameless

Rewards For Seeking Righteousness and Purity

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Purity, Recognize God, Righteous, Righteous Living, Righteousness, Worship1 Comment

DATE POSTED Monday, 2022-09-12
WRITTEN AT: Okeechobee, FL

SCRIPTURE FROM: 2 Samuel 22:21-25
TRANSLATION: The Voice (VOICE)

BIBLE TEXT: 21     The Eternal One rewarded me because I sought righteousness;
        He rewarded me because I kept my hands clean.
22     He rewarded me because I kept the ways of the Eternal
        and have not walked away from my True God in wickedness.
23     For all His laws were there before me,
        and I did not push His statutes away.
24     I made myself blameless before Him;
        I kept myself from guilt and shame.
25     That’s why the Eternal has rewarded me for seeking righteousness;
        He’s rewarded me because He sees I have remained pure.

APPLICATION: Standing before the righteous God of this universe and presenting yourself as innocent, pure and righteous is a bold step. For God knows: every word we speak, and the underlying thoughts while saying those words; every action we perform and the, often, ulterior motives we sometimes have for our actions; and every thought that we have, whether acted upon or not. Many of us have pretty much perfected the way that we present ourselves to the public, for we have a certain image that we want them to see in us, but God knows our heart, soul and mind. In fact, the closer we get to God, the more we become aware of how far we have drifted away from Him; how our attitudes suck; how many of our actions are probably frowned upon by God. But Satan is good at promoting these reasons right in our face whenever we even think we are righteous, innocent or pure in the sight of God. This is where we could then do like Jesus did on the mountain when tempted by Satan, we could quote 2 Corinthians 5:21 or Revelation 12:10, that assures us that we are righteous because of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who was perfect in every way. Friends, I don’t believe that we could ever be used wholeheartedly by God in this world until we have developed a deep relationship with God and acknowledge that it is only because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we could ever be righteous. So whenever you are questioned about your claim to righteousness, say what David taught us in verse 22 above: Praise God, I have not walked away from the true righteousness of God! I believe it is more important today than ever before that we determine in our hearts who we will follow for the rest of our days on earth, then seek the help of God to carry out our desire to serve Him faithfully throughout all eternity. As stated above, God knows all about us, but of equal importance is that others here on earth are watching. Your actions will help them decide their course of action for their lives. I pray that they will see enough of Jesus in you, and they will determine in their heart to surrender lordship of their life to Jesus and seek to serve Him until the end of time here.

BLESSING(S) NOTED: It is only because of Jesus that we could ever be considered righteous in the sight of God! Praise God for getting my attention and drawing me to His Son for forgiveness of my sin! Praise God, I’m redeemed, saved and considered righteous by Him!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, You opened the doors of heaven for us, and we are forever thankful for that. We praise You for such awesome examples as David, to whom You portrayed Yourself powerfully. Like David, I pray that we will stop for a few minutes of our busy lives each day to commune with You, through intake from Bible study, and through output in prayer and communication with You. We have so much to praise You for Lord, but living in this world gives us urgency of need, encouragement, reassurance, wisdom and love from You each and every day. Lord, we want to be just like You in our speech, attitude, thought and actions, and we can only do that by fully acknowledging the source of our power and righteousness on a regular basis. We humble ourselves at Your feet, Lord, and we stand ready and willing to accept Your direction, so that the lost will see Jesus in action every time they make contact with us. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please 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 might 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 Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

A Blameless Life

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

DATE POSTED Thursday, 2022-08-04
WRITTEN AT: O Brien, FL

SCRIPTURE FROM: Psalm 101:1-2
TRANSLATION: New Living Translation (NLT)

BIBLE TEXT: 1 I will sing of your love and justice, Lord. I will praise you with songs. 2 I will be careful to live a blameless life – when will you come to help me? I will lead a life of integrity in my own home.

APPLICATION: As I read the Psalm this morning, God directed my attention to, what I believe to be, several important things that He wanted me to derive, apply to my life, and sets my sights on, for His glory. I pray that as I share my insight from God, you will also be looking for what God has to say to you today:
-*- Lift up the name of Jesus above everything else and all other circumstances (vs 1) – We already know that God loves us, and because of that love, He desires to see us succeed in everything He assigns to us. So, we should willingly lift up the name of Jesus before we approach Him with our petitions, AND after we receive our marching orders, or our instructions;
-*- Live a blameless life (vs 2) – I believe this is a life so filled with obedience, and imitating the life exampled before us by Jesus, that no one – not even Jesus, would see the need to correct us or call us hypocritical. Can we achieve this on our own? No, for the forces of evil become stronger around us when we seek to follow our Lord. Therefore, we must do like the Psalmist did in vs 2, plead with God to help us be the man/woman that He desires to work miraculously through;
-*- Start in your home (vs 2)- We should remember that Jesus found that He was not accepted in His own hometown. We too might find this as our greatest challenge. The reason for this is that we could easily fool those on the outside, but our family sees the good, bad, and indifferent about us through various phases of our life and/or circumstances that challenge us. Let’s strive for perfection in Jesus’ name among our close family first. As we succeed in our homes, our family will be more apt to support our efforts in the world;
-*- Avoid those things that tend to trip us up (vs 3-5) – David listed some things that really affected him and caused lingering effects, and I bet you and I could probably add a number of things to David’s list. Perhaps we too should decide in ourselves that we WILL refuse to go certain places, see certain things, hear persistent filthy and negative things, etc, etc. David used great suggestive words that would help us in our determination – refuse, hate, reject, not tolerate.
Let’s be determined in our heart to live a blameless life. I am convinced that when we decide to turn things around in our life for the good of the kingdom, the Holy Spirit will kick into high gear in helping us, strengthening our determination, all to help us live up to our desire to be more like Jesus. In using the theme of Romans 12:18, determine in yourself that ‘In as much as it depends on me, each day I will live a blameless life for Christ, God being my helper’!

BLESSING(S) NOTED: Although impossible through our own power, the Holy Spirit can help us live a blameless life – one that is approved and pleasing to our Master!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I thank You for miraculously touching my life and drawing me unto Yourself. My readers and listeners are fighting the evil one on every side as he strives to pull Your children away from the righteous life You have demonstrated before us. Please embolden us to stand firm in our faith and determined in our heart to live our lives like we discern from Your teachings and Your example while here on earth. Please allow our lives to be affirmation to our unsaved loved ones, that greater is He that in in us, than he that is in the world. Use us for Your glory oh Lord! AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please 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 might 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 Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!