Daily Devotion (Monday, June, 29th - Friday, July 3rd)

Monday

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us - Romans 8:26

Have you ever been deeply concerned about something or someone, but you didn't know what to pray? "What can I say," you wonder. "I don't know how to articulate this."

But did you know that sometimes some of the best prayers are the shortest and the simplest?
We might think, God likes flowery, long prayers. In fact, the longer they are, the more impressed God will be.

Jesus spoke of the Pharisees who loved to pray long prayers. He said, " 'They think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him' " (Matthew 6:7--8).

Sometimes, we will come to God and say, "Lord, I want to pray for this situation. Um, well, um. . . ." We want to pray, but we don't know how to articulate it. It may be nothing more than a grunt or a groan.
But God understands that prayer. Whether you have a beautiful prayer to pray or whether you don't know what to say, present it to God, and the Holy Spirit will help you.

According to Romans 8:26, "The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses." The Holy Spirit helps us to pray.
Remember all that God has done for you and all that He is doing for you. He saved you. His Holy Spirit indwells you. He assures you. He teaches you. And He helps you to pray.

So let's yield to Him. Let's open up our hearts to the work that He wants to do in our lives.


Tuesday

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways" (Isaiah 55:8-9).

God speaks to his children in many varied ways. God has said that his ways are not our ways. If left to our reasoning, we will fail to fully walk in the full counsel of God, which leads to poor decisions.

Thus, our goal is to avoid being deceived and to develop a listening ear that hears the voice of God with confidence. Our goal is to have such intimacy with God that we can walk in the full blessing of our decisions and to be assured they are not based on our own reasoning alone. This does not mean that we do not use the intellectual and logical skills that He has equipped us with.

A.W. Tozer said that the man or woman who is wholly and joyously surrendered to Christ can't make a wrong choice - any choice will be the right one. J. Oswald Sanders explains his method of receiving guidance from God for decisions; "I try to gather all the information and all the facts that are involved in a decision, and then weigh them up and pray over them in the Lord's presence, and trust the Holy Spirit to sway my mind in the direction of God's will. And God generally guides by presenting reasons to my mind for acting in a certain way."

The apostle Paul said, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13). God has equipped us with everything we need to make good decisions. Hearing His voice is the first step toward making right choices in life.


Do you have a decision to make? Submit that decision to the Lord, ask God for clarity. Ask Him to make the desires of your heart the same desires that He has for you in this matter. Await His perfect timing on the matter. Then you can be assured of making the right decisions.


Wednesday

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. - John 6:63

Remember the day the Holy Spirit shined His light in your heart and showed you that you were a sinner? You thought you were an okay person, but suddenly the Holy Spirit began to convict you of your sin.
It was the Holy Spirit who brought about that change in your heart.

Jesus said, " 'Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit' " (John 3:5--6).

Not only does the Holy Spirit bring about the work of conversion, but after it has taken place--after Christ has come into your heart--the Holy Spirit personally gives you the assurance that you are a believer. As Romans 8:16 says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."

As a result, you can have the inner conviction and witness of the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God.
And as part of this wonderful work of conversion, the Bible also teaches that the Holy Spirit indwells us. Romans 8:11 tells us, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

God is not asking you to do the impossible. He will give you the power to live the Christian life.
With the Holy Spirit empowering you--and as you yield to Him--you can live this life that God has called you to live.


Thursday

"And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin. . . . " --John 16:8

When we know people who are not believers, we obviously want them to come to faith in Christ.
Yet, as they live their lives and break the laws of God left and right, we see that they seem to have no sense of guilt, no remorse, and no concept that they are engaged in wrongdoing. So we try to assist the Holy Spirit in an attempt to bring them to a sense of conviction.

Mothers are especially effective in this area. Even if you haven't done anything wrong, one look from Mom will have you confessing something. It is a unique ability that mothers have.
Jesus, in speaking of the Holy Spirit, said, " 'And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin . . . because they do not believe in Me' " (John 16:8--9).

Another way to translate the phrase, "to convict" is "to convince." The Holy Spirit is not coming to merely convince us of certain sins, but also to get to the root of our problems: sin itself.

The worst sin we can commit is the sin of not believing in Jesus Christ. This is what we will be ultimately judged for. When we stand before God, it will not be a sin issue as much as it will be a Son issue.
So we must be careful in our zeal to reach people for Christ that we don't actually deter them. If we get in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit, we can actually drive unbelievers away. If someone can be pressured into the kingdom of God, they can be pressured out.
We must let the Holy Spirit do His work in His way.

Friday

"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight" (Isaiah 5:21).

Many of us have been trained to make decisions and respond to problems in a horizontal way instead of vertical. Operating from a horizontal basis means we try to fix the problem through our own self-efforts by bringing greater pressure upon it through our reasoning or our natural skills. Operating from a vertical position means we are seeking God for the answer and waiting for him to impact the problem. Perhaps it is a spouse who fails to put their clothes away, or a boss who is overly critical, or an employee that you clash with. When we operate horizontally we attempt to shame or coerce the other to change their ways.
God knows the solution to the problem before it ever exists.

Our responsibility is to ask God for help to solve the problem and to rely on Him for the outcome. The minute we take on the responsibility, God quietly stands by to let us experience failure until we decide to seek Him for the answer.

One of the best examples of the contrast between a vertical and horizontal dimension in scripture is that of King Saul and David (see 1 Samuel 25). King Saul thought the way to preserve his kingdom was to kill David. While in pursuit of him there were several occasions when David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but David chose to wait upon God's timing and await his own deliverance because he understood authority. David had such respect for those who had been put in authority by God over him that he would not take matters into his own hands.

Saul represents the exact opposite of this principle. He thought David was the problem and sought to get rid of him through force. As a result, he lost his kingdom because he chose to rule horizontally instead of vertically under God's rule in his life.

No matter what problem you face today, stay vertical with God.