Daily Devotional for Friday September 20, 2019

It is in LOSING our life that we find it!!!

(Psalms 123:2, 40:1; Isaiah 40:31; James 1:4)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, give me Your strength today. Your Word says that when I am weak, You are strong. Strengthen me this day to live my life for You, to defeat my enemies, and see victory. You, and You alone are my hope and strength each day. Let the Holy Spirit rise up in me this day and guide my life for Your glory! In the name of Jesus I pray...AMEN!!!

***THE DAILY LIVEPRAYER TV NUGGET: The religion of social justice. This past April, I shared with you a Daily Devotional on the different groups who make up the religion of social justice. Link: https://liveprayer.com/devotional.cfm?id=53986 One of the groups are those who claim climate change will destroy our planet in the next 12 years, even though these same people told us it would be 10 years until total destruction...in 2006! For those who didn’t believe me that this is a religion to its’ adherents, at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, founded in 1836 by members of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, students went to the schools chapel and prayed to plants. You heard me, PRAYED TO PLANTS! UTS has long been independent of any church affiliation and known as a bastion of progressive Christian beliefs. Translation, they reject the Truth of the Bible and embrace every theological perversion you can name. Also, NBC has a website where people can go to “confess their climate sins.” Like the children of Israel, Moses is not around for a few days and when he returned the people were worshipping a golden calf!!!

*Don’t miss the Liveprayer TV program, airing “LIVE” every Monday thru Friday from 11pm EDT to Midnight! For details on viewing options for the Liveprayer TV program, “LIVE” or “On Demand,” go to: https://liveprayer.com/liveprayer-show-about.cfm

No doubt one of the most difficult things we do in our journey with the Lord is follow Him to be where He wants us to be, and doing what He wants us to be doing. I have no doubt that it is the ultimate goal of every follower of Christ, everyone that has surrendered their lives to Christ. Having that as our goal, achieving that goal is something EVERY Christian struggles with throughout their life. The million dollar question is how do we get to the exact place God wants us to be, doing the exact thing God wants us to be doing with our life each day.

To find the answer, we have to start with the big picture. Each person that lives was created with the same purpose. That is to serve and glorify God, in this life and for eternity. The starting point of being where God wants you to be, doing the things God wants you to do is in surrendering your life completely, unconditionally to Him. It is the one and only thing that God has ever asked us to do. The fact is, the Bible says that if you have accepted Christ as your Savior, it is no longer your life, it belongs to Him. So in reality, you are only surrendering to Him what is already His to begin with.

Completely surrendering our life to the Lord is one of the most difficult things for any person to do. Our flesh says NO, it is MY LIFE. Satan is there with his lie that you can give God a little bit of your life, but also keep some for yourself. Jesus said that you can't serve two masters, you have to choose who you will serve. The fact is, it is in LOSING our life that we find it.

Many people have tried living with one foot in the church, and one foot in the world. I know I did for many years. I bought into satan's lie that I could go to church on Sunday, give the church a big check every week, do a few things on the side for God, but still keep my life and do whatever I WANTED.

The rich young ruler came to Jesus and when Jesus told him to give away all that he had and follow Him, to turn from the things of this world and completely surrender his life to Christ, the Bible says he went away "sorrowful." When it came time to choose following Jesus or keeping the things of this world, he decided he could not let go of the things of this world.

As Jesus said, YOU CAN'T SERVE TWO MASTERS! You can't serve God and mammon at the same time. God isn't impressed with our "scraps of service," God wants our life! You will NEVER be right where God wants you to be, doing exactly what God wants you to do with your life until you first surrender your life 100% to Him-not 70%, not 80%, not 90%, not even 99% . . . 100%!!!

Once you come to that place where you completely surrender your life to Christ, the challenge then is to find out exactly where God wants you to be, and doing exactly God wants you to do in serving Him. The starting place is to determine what you have a passion for and what are you talented in. It is God that gives each person a passion for those things we love in life. It is also God that gives us our gifts and talents.

That is why those young adult years are so critical. It is during those years that as we are exposed to different things, we develop a like for some things over others, and start to understand the gifts God has given to us. GOD GIVES EVERYONE GIFTS, NATURAL ABILITY IN CERTAIN AREAS, BUT WE STILL MUST DEVELOP AND PERFECT THOSE GIFTS OVER TIME.

In addition to gaining an understanding about what things in life we have a passion for, finding out what our natural gifts are, God will open and close doors during our life to guide us where HE wants us to be. Remember, there are NO coincidences with God. Nothing happens by accident. God allows events to happen in our life, allows people to come into our life, to guide us to where He wants us to be, doing what He wants us to be doing.

I love you and care about you so much. After completely surrendering our life to the Lord, the most important thing we can do is spend time with HIM each day in prayer and the Word. God speaks to us through His living Word, through that "still small voice" as we pray, in addition through other people and our circumstances. As our lives are yielded to the Lord, become empty vessels for Him to use, God WILL place you right where He wants you to be, doing exactly what He wants you to be doing.

Never forget, our life is made up of many seasons. Throughout the course of our journey God may have us doing MANY things for the Kingdom. That is why we must be close to the Lord each day, listening to Him with our spiritual ears and watching Him with our spiritual eyes. We are soldiers in HIS army, and as any soldier knows, your commander may have you fighting in one place today and somewhere totally new tomorrow.

I will be praying for you today. Praying that you will take time to meditate on these words. The last element is patience, WAITING ON THE LORD. Again, it is God who opens and closes doors in our life. There are times we need to be patient, wait on the Lord to not only show us a door, but open that door. The goal of every follower of Christ is to be where God wants us to be, doing what God wants us to do with our life.

We achieve that goal by first surrendering our life completely to the Lord, by following those God-given passions while using the gifts He gives us, by staying in a close intimate daily relationship with Him so we can "hear" and "see" Him, and be patiently waiting on the Lord to guide us.

The ultimate in life is to wake us each day knowing you are exactly where God wants you to be and doing exactly what God wants you to be doing with your life. I will be praying for you today as you come to that place in your life.

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller