Daily Devotional for Saturday January 21, 2017
How Committed Are You To Jesus?
(John 15:19-21; John 16:2-3; 1 John 5:19; Matthew 24:9; Acts 20:24)
***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, I have strayed from you and want to come home. I have allowed the daily life in this world to lead me astray, to allow me to drift from you, and I miss you dear Lord! Today, I recommit my heart and life to you and to serve you. Use me for your glory Lord. Make my life count for your Kingdom. Above all, bring to me your PEACE and JOY! Give me the joy of my salvation again as I walk close to you each moment of each day. In Jesus name I pray...AMEN!
How committed are you to Jesus? I think that is a fair question to ask since if you are saved, when you made that commitment to Christ, you literally gave Him your life. The Bible says that we have been bought with a price and that it is no longer our life. So I ask you again, how committed are you to Jesus? I would never ask you a question like that if I wasn't willing to ask myself that same question. The fact is, each morning when I wake up, I go through the process of surrendering my life afresh to the Lord. Even so, I have to check myself at times during the day by asking myself how committed I really am to the Lord?
I think about John the Baptist. He was called by God to prepare the way for the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Remember how his life ended? He had has head cut off for having the audacity to call sin sin. Think about Stephen in Acts 7. Remember how he died? He was literally stoned to death for simply sharing the Gospel, and may I remind you that he was speaking to the religious leaders of his day!
Of course there is Jesus. I remember when he preached and people left because of what He taught. In John 6:66 the Bible says, "As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore." Why? PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO BE REMINDED OF THEIR SIN, OF THEIR REBELLION TO GOD! Of course, our Lord was ultimately crucified for simply stating the fact that He was God!
I asked you today how committed you are to Jesus? Are you committed enough to be laughed at, scorned, ridiculed, and called every nasty name there is because you take a stand for Christ? Are you committed enough to be persecuted by family, friends, and strangers because you take a stand for Christ? Are you committed enough to die because you take a stand for Christ?
This has been a challenging few weeks for me personally, in my own journey of faith. I am no different than you. I am tempted by the things of this world like everyone is. I doubt God at times like we all do. I fail God too often. I try to do my best each day, but when the day is over I know I could have done more. Something is happening right now in the heavenlies regarding Liveprayer.
I can only tell you it is my spiritual discernment telling me this, but something big is happening. I always know because when the battles are being waged in the heavenlies (Ephesians 6) because I get indications through the daily events that unfold in this world we live in and here at Liveprayer.
ALL of this is happening along with our daily work in ministering to over 2.5 million people worldwide every day through the Daily Devotional, responding each day to over 40,000 emails for prayer, and the return of the Liveprayer TV program 5 days a week. Through those daily efforts we are seeing thousands of praise reports each week from people God has touched and several hundred people every week giving their hearts and lives to Jesus by faith! I see enough happening in the natural to know there are some incredible battles over Liveprayer being waged right now in the heavenlies. God is up to something!!!
As I have answered God's challenge in my own life regarding my commitment to Christ, today I pass on that challenge to you. I am challenging those in the Liveprayer family to make an even greater commitment to Christ each day. This small group that God has sovereignly put together through this 21st century electronic marvel called the Internet, has already impacted tens of millions of lives worldwide and seen over 1,100,000 souls we know of come to faith in Jesus Christ since we began in August of 1999. God is calling me, and He is calling you, to now take our commitment to the next level!
The fact is, it is up to us each day just how much of an impact we will have for the Lord. We can do as little or as much as we want. For me, it took cleansing myself of earthy goals and setting instead heavenly goals. It took not being motivated by the temporal material things of this world but by the eternal spiritual things of God.
You see my friend, the things of this world, money, possessions, power, position, all mean NOTHING in light of eternity. The moment you die, all of those things cease to exist or have any importance at all. The only thing left when you take your last breath are the things you've done for the Kingdom. Your only real legacy is in the hearts and souls of those lives you have impacted for Jesus during your journey here.
I love you and care about you so much. I have never asked you to do anything I haven't done. Before I ask you to sacrifice to give to this ministry, my wife and I already have made our sacrifice. Before I ask you to take a stand for Christ, I've already taken my stand. I have always believed that you lead by example. I would not be asking you today to make a greater commitment to Christ if I hadn't already done so. I am challenging you today to take some time alone with the Lord and let God show you how He can use your life as part of the Liveprayer family to help me make the impact, not on millions, but on BILLIONS of lives God has called us to make.
If you've been called to pray for me and this ministry, seek God how you can pray more effectively. If you've been called to sacrifice to give to support God's work here, seek God how you can make an even greater sacrifice. If you've been called to share Liveprayer with people you know, seek God how you can share this work with even more people. It is no accident that God has brought our lives together, and through the commitment to Christ we have each made, God has used our lives over nearly 8 years to impact tens of millions of lives around the world.
GOD IS NOW CALLING US TO STEP UP, MAKE AN EVEN GREATER COMMITMENT SO HE CAN USE THIS WORK TO IMPACT HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF LIVES WORLDWIDE EVERY DAY!!!!
How committed are you to Jesus?
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller