|

Archived
Devotionals
September 14, 2020
Devotion Plus Discipline =
Daniel !
My
Dear Friend,
Daniel
was a man of extraordinary devotion and
discipline. His heart was wholly
abandoned to God and his life wholly
trained for maximum usefulness.
So
rapt with devotion for Yahweh was Daniel
that he was ready to lay down his life
for Him (Daniel 1, 6). And he was so
disciplined that he prayed and gave
thanks to God three times a day, whether
in prosperity or adversity (Daniel
6:10).
Let us examine ourselves to learn the
true state of our devotion and
discipline. Honesty is our only policy
here and spiritual growth our only
purpose.
Are we, like the Ephesians, saved but
cold? Faithful in our service but
lacking passion for Christ - our "first
love" - in our hearts? (See Revelation
2:4.) Then let us surrender afresh,
confess our sinful lack of love, and ask
God to rekindle our devotional fires -
and then put ourselves in the position
for Him to do so by drawing near Him to
patiently read His Word, commune with
Him in prayer, and worship and praise
Him with a grateful attitude … until His
Spirit relights ours.
Or are we, like so many in our
generation, devoted but undisciplined?
Genuine love for Christ stirs within our
hearts whenever we see His goodness and
blessings in our lives, or hear
beautiful Christian songs or timely
biblical messages that we recognize
speak personally to us. Yet, despite
these repeated stirrings, we remain
woefully irregular in our spiritual
disciplines.
We pray, but only when forced to by
adversity - not at regular periods daily
or in scheduled prayer meetings. We
worship, but only at church weekly, not
at home daily. We serve, but only
seasonally, not steadily.
We read the Bible a little, but never
faithfully pursue a steady course of
biblical studies all the way through to
the end. We fast, but very rarely. We
give a small offering to God's work here
or there, but rarely tithe and never
give steadily or sacrificially. What's
wrong with us?
We've never disciplined ourselves, as
Daniel did! We're saved but slothful,
inspired but irregular, touched by God
but not rooted in His ways. Today is the
day for us to become devoted,
disciplined followers of our devoted,
disciplined Lord after the pattern of
His devoted, disciplined prophet,
Daniel. Fully committed. Habitual in
seeking. Steady in service. Unwavering
in adversity, unrelaxed in prosperity.
Steady as a rock, regular as a clock.
True
Christianity requires a glowing heart of
devotion, refueled and reheated daily at
Jesus' feet. Mere ashes won't do. But
true Christianity also requires that,
after receiving Jesus' nature and Spirit
by God's grace, we respond with our
works, setting every area of our lives
in God's order.
Indeed, laziness has never built
anything successful and Christ will
never use lazy Christians to build His
kingdom. But what wonders will He work,
what exploits, what earth-shaking
miracles, what testimonies, what vast
harvests, what reenactments of The Acts,
if He has a church full of Daniels to
work with?
May Christ touch us and speak to us as
we read these words, and may His Spirit
bear witness and plainly reveal the
response He desires from us. And may we
respond! "Whatever He says unto you, do
it" (John 2:5)!
And may we become living proof of this
biblical equation: Devotion plus
discipline = Daniel!
Disciplining
my devotion,
 |
Greg
Hinnant
Greg
Hinnant Ministries |
|
|