Daily Devotional for Friday May 26, 2017

Do You Stay in Touch with God Every Day?

(1 Kings 22:19)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, help me to stand strong in these difficult days. I know that in the end, YOU...and YOU alone will have the final word. Give me boldness and courage to stand for you as evil abounds. In the name of Jesus I pray..AMEN!!!

People have not really changed since God created Adam and Eve. While billions and billions of people have lived and died since the first man and woman, people have not changed. A great study in human behavior is found in the Book of Judges. I want to encourage you today to take some time in the next few days and sit down and read the entire Book of Judges. It will take you less than an hour, and be worth every minute. Sadly, the spiritual lives of most Christians are exactly like the spiritual lives of the children of Israel in the Book of Judges. Here is how the pattern goes.

While everything is going great in your life, God slowly stops being your top priority. Actually, He often gets put far down the list of priorities. You quit praying every day, having that meaningful time alone, just you and the Lord. You quit reading your Bible every day. Going to church is not a MUST any longer. Allowing God to use you to bless others with your life isn't a burning desire. If it happens, that is fine, but it is not that important.

As God plays less of a role in your daily life, you slowly start making choices that you would not make when you are in that close, daily relationship with Him. At the time, they seem like harmless choices. But as the days go by, you are making more and more choices that are NOT pleasing to God. Deep down you know this, but you justify it by telling yourself that you deserve to have some fun, to do what YOU want to do. Slowly over time, it is no longer what God wants from your life, but only what YOU want.

One morning you wake up and your life is a mess. You see my friend, SIN ALWAYS HAS CONSEQUENCES. THERE IS ALWAYS A PRICE FOR SIN--A BIG PRICE. The Bible tells us, "Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy." When you forget God, when you quit making Him the head of your life, when you put God on the shelf because you think that you don't need Him, you have opened the door for satan to come in and destroy you!

Trust me, at first it won't be anything that bad. Satan is the great deceiver. He will deceive you into thinking that you don't need God. He will deceive you into thinking that it is YOUR LIFE, and you should do whatever YOU want to do. The longer that we live without God, the more choices that we make without praying, the deeper in sin we get. Sin is like quicksand, we sink slowly, and when God tries to get our attention, we ignore Him and sink deeper.

It is only when we are facing insurmountable odds, only when we have hit bottom, only when life is crashing down all around us that we finally decide to cry out to God. Look at the Prodigal Son. He had to lose everything, and be living in the worst conditions imaginable until he went home to his father. In our desperation we go to God, we repent, we ask His forgiveness, and we rededicate our lives to Him. Does that mean all of our problems magically go away overnight? NO! We didn't create our problems overnight, and they rarely go away overnight.

But we do now have God back in our lives and He is fighting for us, giving us the strength to get through each day, giving us the hope we need to move forward. Having God back in our lives doesn't eliminate us from having to deal with the consequences of our ungodly choices, but over time, He will help us to be victorious. Our life will be great again!!! We will look forward to waking up each morning. We will once again know the peace, the joy, the abundance that this life can offer. Many however, like the children of Israel in the Book of Judges, will sadly start to forget God again, and the cycle will be repeated all over.

I love you and care about you so much. I pray today that this message opens the hearts of many as this trap satan uses so effectively is exposed. Here is the truth that I never want you to forget. ***WE NEED GOD ON THE MOUNTAINTOP...JUST AS MUCH AS WE NEED GOD IN THE VALLEY!!! Let me repeat that. WE NEED GOD ON THE MOUNTAINTOP...JUST AS MUCH AS WE NEED GOD IN THE VALLEY!!!

We all know to call on the Lord in our time of trouble. My word for you today is to call on Him ALWAYS!!! In this life, we will always have trials. No matter how close we are to the Lord, we all have to fight the day to day issues of living in this sin-filled world. Nobody can escape that. However, when we stay close to God each day, we can minimize the problems in our life that WE CAUSE through our rebellion!

Do you only call on God in your time of need? My admonition for you today is to call on Him EVERY DAY. Keep Him first at ALL TIMES. God has revealed to YOU today a common trap men and women from the beginning have fallen into. Receive this word from the Lord today and walk with God every day of your journey here on earth. Call on Him in your time of need AND in your time of plenty!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller