Daily Devotional for Monday January 6, 2020

Being productive for the Lord in 2020!

(Proverbs 18:9)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, Thank You for your love and protection over my family and I. As we go through the day, please continue to watch over and protect us from the evil and harm that is in this world. My family and I look to You for our strength, guidance, protection, and blessings! In the name of Jesus...AMEN!

***THE DAILY LIVEPRAYER TV NUGGET: A sad day for me personally! For full disclosure, I was born, raised, and saved in the United Methodist Church, though I have not been part of that once great church for well over 30 years. The UMC pre-80s was focused on evangelism, not social issues that dominates most of their churches today. Like other mainline denominations such as the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the United Methodist Church will be splitting due to the chasm within the church over gay marriage and the sin of homosexuality. It is a truly sad day for a once great church born out of a revival movement within the Church of England and founded by great men of God like the Wesley brothers, Whitfield, and so many others. I have railed for years now against churches who have “struggled” with how to deal with same-sex marriage and people who CHOOSE to engage in perverted sex with people of the same sex. These are no issues for debate, these are issues to be treated like we do any other sinful activity! We call it what it is, sin. We pray for people in bondage to such sins as we do those in bondage to any sin. WE DO NOT DEBATE SIN, THERE IS NOTHING TO DEBATE! Think of how insane this is. To debate sin you need to actually make a case for satan’s viewpoint in order to challenge the Truth of God’s Word! THERE COULD BE NO BETTER DEFINITION OF INSANITY!!! I shared on the TV program during the holidays a comment by a bishop in the Church of England of all churches. He simply stated an attitude and belief that sadly far too many churches have adopted, and that is “culture trumps the Bible!” Again, this is in complete contradiction to the teachings of Jesus where he talked about Believers being “salt” and “light.” The church is supposed to lead the culture, not the other way around. No issue exposes this sad reality of the culture leading the church like gay marriage and the sin of homosexuality!

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Many people ask me each day where I get the inspiration for these devotions every day. I literally sit down and write these every morning around 5am. Often they are Devotionals I have been putting together over several months. It is quiet in the office, my mind is fresh, and hopefully God is speaking into my heart what to share with you. Some days what I feel God leading me to write makes sense, other days it doesn't. This is a "doesn't day" but here it goes. Amazing to me, even on the "doesn't" days, God is trying to reach someone, maybe you.

I am convinced through Scripture, that God expects us to be busy, to be active, to be productive in our lives. It is through this activity that we earn our living or get an education, participate in sports and other recreational activities, interact with family and friends, and most important, serve Him. You see, lazy people make bad servants. The Bible tells us to be busy working while there is still light, because night is coming.

That means that until Christ returns, we need to be busy serving God so that His plan can be fulfilled. God has a plan and purpose for everyone's life, and for every situation. Since we can't know the entire mind of God, or what His specific plan and purpose are in every case, our job is to simply be obedient. God then uses our obedience in serving Him to accomplish His purpose.

Now I realize that many take a scriptural position that we really don't have to do anything, because God is going to do it anyway. Others put the dependence on the actions of man for God's plan to unfold. The Bible actually teaches that is a blending of those extreme positions where it becomes the sovereignty of God working in conjunction with the activity of man.

As far as the issue of being lazy is concerned, the Bible clearly tells us in many passages that it is a sin to be lazy and nonproductive. That is why today I want to encourage you not to fall into this trap. If being lazy is an issue that you battle with, it is time to recognize it and battle to conquer laziness just like any other sin in our life.

I will be praying today that you take a few minutes to analyze your life, and if laziness is something you fight, that God will give you the strength to become more active and productive in your daily life. It really is about having focus, having goals, and having projects to complete at all times. In other areas of your life, you have much going on, but often the sin of laziness the Bible is speaking of occurs in our service for God. We have energy to do other things, but in our service to God, we tend to slack off. My prayer is that you will be just as energetic in serving the Lord as you are in other areas of your life.

I love you and care about you so much. I will be praying for you. Make this an active, productive day of service for the Lord. Make the rest of this new year of 2020 an active, productive time of service for God. He has blessings above and beyond anything you could ever imagine if you just follow Him, love Him, and serve Him each and every day.

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller