Daily Devotional for Monday July 2, 2018

Never Ever Give Up

(1 Thessalonians 2:4, 4:1; Hebrews 13:16)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Father, bless me this day to have the courage to stand up for YOUR TRUTH in my daily life. Give me boldness to proclaim YOUR TRUTH when I am with those who mock and demean our faith in Christ and for following the teachings of the Bible. No matter what they may say, let me be not afraid to stand for you. In Jesus name...AMEN

While this may not sound like some earth-shaking, life-changing word from God's throne room, please don't just dismiss it as something light and trivial. In the course of calling sin, sin, challenging you to live a holy life and serve the Lord, dealing with all of the issues we face in our world, this message today may appear on the surface to be not very important, but it is. I am here to encourage you to do your very best today and make sure you understand that is all God ever expects of us, to do our best.

There is one simple message that I want you to hear loud and clear today. GOD LOVES YOU and all He expects is that you do your best each day. None of us are perfect. The Bible says that we all have sinned and come short of God's glory. In the course of our day-to-day lives, we all fail God, we all make choices that we wish we could change. But God knows our heart, and all He has ever asked you to do, is your best.

Each day I deal with the real life issues that we all face, in the context of God's Word. I deal with all of the sins that are out there to hurt our lives. I deal with the tricks that satan uses to try and destroy us. It is out of my love for you that I share the Absolute Truth of God's Word and how He has called us to live. I do my best to break down for you why God's way works.

The fact is, there is right and wrong in our world. Those who oppose God have always done their best to get people to believe that right and wrong doesn't exist. Their goal is to get each person to decide for themselves what is right and wrong. That way, you can never tell a person that they are wrong no matter what they choose to believe. That sounds wonderful in theory, but in reality it leads to utter chaos.

More important, it is a lie, since God has clearly told us in His Word what is right and what is wrong. In the course of applying the truth of God's Word to our personal lives each day, it can get frustrating when we sin, when we don't follow God's plan. Again, the word that I want to share with you today is to DO YOUR BEST. Am I saying it is OK to sin? Of course not.

But 1 John 1:8 tells us that if we say we don't sin, then we are deceiving ourselves. What I am saying is that God knows your heart. He knows how grieved you are when you sin. That is why He has promised to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness when you confess your sins to Him (1 John 1:9). What I am saying is that all God expects us to do, is our best each day. HE LOVES YOU.

I love you too, and care about you so much. I realize that what I write each day is usually very serious, very heavy, real life issues. It can become overwhelming trying to live the way God calls us to live, to do it His way. It is out of His infinite love for you that He teaches you His way, to help you to avoid the pain and heartache associated with living life your way.

It is out of my love for you that I try to do the best I can each day to very simply share what God's way is for your life, again, to help you avoid having to experience the pain and heartache that living life outside of God's plan can bring. But never forget, all any of us can do each day is our very best, and God understands that.

I will be praying for you today. I pray that you will know the peace, the joy, and the abundance that this life can offer because of all He did for us. That is the beauty of our relationship with the Lord. Even in the midst of the storms, even in the midst of the trials and tribulations of daily life, we can still experience His peace, His joy, and the abundance of this life. God loves you more than you will ever know. He cares about you. All He is asking you to do is your very best.

In His love and service, Your friend, brother, and co-laborer in His work, Bill Keller