faithfully fit
Devotional Guide
Week 1
Monday: Gods Care For Individuals
Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have
everything that I need!
Psalm 23:1
In the last analysis nothing is more central to the
practical life of the Christian than confidence in
Gods individual dealings with each person. The
individual care of the shepherd for his sheep, of
the parent for the child and of the lover for the
beloved are all biblical images that have passed
into the fundamental consciousness of Western
humanity. They pervasively and essentially mark
our art and general culture as well as our religion.
Not only conservative and liberal Christians, highchurch and Pentecostal, but also Christian and
Jew, and even Jew and Muslim, come together in
saying, The Lord is my shepherd, I lack for
nothing. He makes me lie down in green
pastures, he leads me beside still waters (Psalm
23:1-2, paraphrase).
MEDITATE: Take each phrase of Psalm 23 (or the
first few phrases), and picture how different you
would be inside if you really believed it. How
would your life be different if you really believed
the Lord was your shepherd? If you really
believed you lacked for nothing? How would you
feel and how would you interact with people
differently if you continually experienced green
pastures and still waters with God? Dont
evaluate yourself, but delight in how wonderful
this would be!
There's one thing to be said for a diet--it
certainly does improve your appetite.
E. Wilson.
Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, flavonoids
and other phytochemicals with
anticarcinogenic properties
The only way to keep your health is to eat
what you don't want, drink what you don't like
and do what you'd rather not.
Mark Twain.
Tuesday: God Invading Human
Onions are an excellent antioxidant, and th
ey contain anti-allergy, antiviral and
antihistamine properties.
personality
You have taken off your old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator.
Colossians 3:9-10
The biblical record always presents the
relationship between God and the believer as a
friendship or family tie rather than one person
taking care of anothers needs. Biblical
personalities from Adam to the apostles Paul and
John form a millennia-long saga of Gods invading
human personality and history on a one-to-one
basis. There is nothing general or secondhand
about the divine encounters with Abraham,
Moses, Isaiah, Nehemiah, Mary or Peter. The saga
continues to our day in the lives of leaders in the
spiritual life. When we consider Teresa of vila,
Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, George Fox,
Phoebe Palmer, Frank Laubach, A. W. Tozer or
Henri Nouwen, we see persons who regard
personal communion and communication with
God as life-changing episodes and as daily bread.
Untold thousands of humble Christians who will
never preach a sermon or have their name
appear in print can testify to the same kinds of
encounters with God as are manifested by the
great ones in the Way.
REFLECT:How do you respond to God invading
human personality as a daily occurrence? How
might you want God to invade your personality in
greater ways?
Wednesday:
Singing To The God Who
Speaks
[David] sang to the LORD the words of this song
when the LORD delivered him from the hand of
all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He
said: I love you, O LORD, my strength.
Psalm 18:1
When were led personally by God, were often
swept up in a rhythm of amazement, just as
David responded in song: I love you, O LORD.
Faith in a God who speaks personally to the soul
is recorded in the churchs hymns, sung week by
week by the gathered church and day by day by
Christians at work, at home, at play: Savior, Like
a Shepherd Lead Us, He Leadeth Me and
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. Other hymns
speak about personal divine guidance and the
souls conversational communion with God, such
as this chorus from C. Austin Miless In the
Garden: He walks with me, and He talks with
me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we
share as we tarry there, None other has ever
known.
PRAY: Sit in a quiet place (a backyard swing
would be ideal) and hum or sing to God a hymn
or song that refers to his speaking or leading.
Offer to God the other truths implied in the song.
Relish the tune and how it fits the words.
(Contemporary songs might include In the
Secret or I Love You, Lord.)
Never go to a doctor whose office plants have
died.
Erma Bombeck.
which we learn is the moving of God upon our
mind and heart. Experience teaches us the
remarkable difference between when it is just
me talking, or even just me quoting and
discussing Scripture, and when a certain
something more is taking place.
REFLECT: In what past circumstances might God
have supplied you with ideas of how to do
something new or better or with more tact
(love)? In what circumstances, no matter how
inconsequential, do you now need some divinely
inspired, mind- expanding ideas?
primary purpose of the Father. He will guide us,
but he wont override us. That fact should make
us use with caution the method of sitting down
with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper to write
down the instructions dictated by God. Suppose a
parent would dictate to the child everything he is
to do during the day. The child would be stunted.
The parent must guide in such a manner that
character, capable of making right decisions for
itself, is produced. God does the same. (emphasis
added)
REFLECT: Consider a decision you made that you
now believe was wrong. Did it produce in you
more characterintegrity, simplicity, concern for
others? If not, how could you now let that
decision reap these rewards in you?
Broccoli contains twice the vitamin C
of an orange
Thursday: God And Our Thoughts
He who forms the mountains, creates the wind,
and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns
dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of
the earththe LORD God Almighty is his name.
Amos 4:13
In a television interview in 1983, Dr. Ken Taylor,
who produced the widely used version of the
Scriptures known as The Living Bible, told how he
had been concerned about children having a
Bible that they could easily understand.
According to his statement, one afternoon God
revealed to him the idea of a thought-forthought translation instead of word-for-word.
This idea worked so well that such versions have
now been published in many languages around
the world. How do we know God is working in our
thoughts? We become accustomed to interacting
with a characteristic type of thought and impulse,
Green-tipped bananas are better for
your health than over-ripe bananas.
An avocado has more than twice as
much potassium as a banana.
Friday: Character, Not Results
My purpose is that they may be encouraged in
heart and united in love, so that they may have
the full riches of complete understanding, in
order that they may know the mystery of God,
namely, Christ.
Colossians 2:2
We have witnessed the painful confusion of
individuals who try to determine Gods will and
make dreadful errors. They force a desperate
whim or chance event to become a sign from
God. When it is not, they sink into despair. But
God did not make us to be puppets on his string.
As E. Stanley Jones observed in Victorious Living,
The development of character must be the
Saturday/Sunday:
Gods Will And Our
Will
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you
the desires of your heart. Commit your way to
the LORD; trust in him and he will do this.
Psalm 37:4-5
When our children were small, they were often
completely in my will as they played in the back
garden, though I had not told them to do the
particular things they were doing. They would
still have been within my will even if they were
playing in their rooms or having a snack in the
kitchen. Too often we assume that what God
wants us to do automatically excludes what we
want to do and even what we want God to do.
That is not true. Generally speaking, we are in
Gods will whenever we are leading the kind of
life God wants for us. And that leaves a lot of
room for initiative on our part. God respects our
initiative and ideas and thinks they are central in
doing his will in our lives.
REFLECT: Consider why we so easily assume that
what God wants must not include anything we
really want to do or anything we want God to do.
Why is it a new thought to us that Gods love
includes respect for us and our desires?
At a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes, Bobby Richardson, former New
York Yankee second baseman, offered a prayer
that is a classic in brevity and poignancy:
"Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing
less, nothing else. Amen."
Source Unknown.
