Dema's Devotions

[stillstanding]

i love you, my sister Dema. your words always touch me so deeply.

missed ya,

[dema]

Thank you Stillstanding, you urged me on.

Day 23- Standing

Psalm 27 (English Standard Version)
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!

Be of good courage and wait on the Lord. Be strong and mild and patient.

Psalm 31 (English Standard Version)
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD!

Take the armor of God:

Ephesians 6 (New American Standard Bible)
11Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Jesus defeated Satan. The devil’s power is largely through smoke and mirrors.

13Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

You have to stand – firm. Not wobbling and wondering, second guessing. Know that you are the Child of God.

Take the armor of God, not to fight - but to be able to stand. Be strong and mild and patient.

You can be both strong and mild.

14Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,



Your righteousness is not of yourself, but through the blood of Jesus.

15and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE;

Know your scriptures. Know the power that you have through the promises of God.

16in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Believe! Believe!

17And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.

18With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

This is a tall order for us humans.

[dema]

Day 1 – Conditions

Psalm 37 is a wonderful chapter to read when you are feeling beaten down.
It tells us that God will take care of us.

Psalm 37 (New International Version)
25 I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.

And even more, He will give us what our heart wants most.

Psalm 37 (New American Standard Bible)
4Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
5Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

But these promises are not given without an obligation on our part. Delight yourself in God and THEN He will give you what you desire. Commit. Trust. And then He will fulfill His promises.

Our commitment to God is a strong theme in these devotionals – one present in the Bible that is frequently left out when quoting out of context.

The Bible tells us that we are required to fulfill the condition before we get the result. Have extreme satisfaction, pleasure and joy in the Lord and He will give you what your heart desires!

Learn to be delighted with what God has already done and He will fulfill you beyond your wildest dreams. But, you have to be delighted with what you have already been given first, and then you will be fulfilled.

God’s promises are designed to grow us – to make us better.

[stillstanding]

woooooot!

Learn to be delighted with what God has already done and He will fulfill you beyond your wildest dreams.

thanks, dema

[dema]

Day 24 – Meek

In my studying, I come upon the common theme which can be interpreted as either 'moderation' or perhaps more accurately 'oxymorons'.

“Meek” means mild and patient. The word “humble” used below is translated as “meek” in other translations.

Numbers 12 (New American Standard Bible)
3(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

And yet Moses was not allowed to go into the promised land because of a burst of temper.

Numbers 20 (New American Standard Bible)
9So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him;
10and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?"
11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.
12But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

A meek person is humble and patient, even under pressure.

Matthew 11 (American Standard Version)
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

This last verse refers to Jesus, who never sinned, and yet he did get angry with a godly anger. (I guess the secret of that is to not let the anger control you – but you control the anger as God guides you to do so.)

The meek can be easily guided and taught.

Psalm 25 (American Standard Version)
9 The meek will he guide in justice; And the meek will he teach his way.

And rewards will follow.

Psalm 22 (American Standard Version)
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied; They shall praise Jehovah that seek after him: Let your heart live for ever.

The rewards of the meek include peace.

Psalm 37 (New International Version)
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.

The meek will inherit the earth – inherit – it will pass to them eventually. That seems to imply to me that that means the meek will continue living on in peace, and not dying quickly in battle.

Matthew 5 (New International Version)
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.

We are to be mild and patient, letting God lead us, teach us – and fight our battles for us.

[dema]

Day 25

The Bible seems to be full of contradictions – but when taken in context, I believe these seeming discrepnecies are actually a call to balance.


Proverbs 28 (English Standard Version)
1 The wicked flee when no one pursues,
but the righteous are bold as a lion.

We are called to be meek, but we are also expected to be bold. In martial arts, the student is taught similarly. Martial arts are not to be used by the aggressor – but to protect oneself and thereby preserve peace.

Meekness is mildness, and receptiveness. We learn through meekness, and then are to speak with boldness.

Philippians 1 (American Standard Version)
14 and that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear.

Meek and bold seem to be opposite – but boldness implies courage – acting in spite of fear. Meekness has nothing to do with fear.

Acts 4 (American Standard Version)
13 Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness,
31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

Boldness isn’t arrogance. And meekness isn’t timidity.

Ephesians 3 (New International Version)
12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Both go well with faith and confidence.

1 John 4 (New International Version)
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

The Bible is directing us to be fine tuned.

[dema]

Day 2 – Failure

Doesn't it seem sometimes like nothing is going your way? Like no matter how hard you try, you just can't win? You get up and get knocked right back down. You've tried option after option, but it just hasn’t worked out.

Macy failed 7 times before his new York store caught on. Gone with the Wind received 38 rejections. John Creasy, an English Novelist, got 753 rejection slips before he published 564 titles. How does one find so many people to write rejection slips? And after that, how did he find someone else to actually publish his book?

The best way to success is to rely on God and to follow God’s lead.

2 Corinthians 3 (New International Version)
5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

God created us and He alone fully understands our strengths and our weaknesses. Our job is to just keep trying. To keep seeking His plan for us; the path He wants us to walk.

Philippians 3 (The Message)
12-14I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.

And to never forget that God can help us to do anything!

Philippians 4 (New International Version)
13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Know who you are.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (New International Version)
21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

You are the righteousness of God if you believe. Your identity is in Christ, not in your work, though it often seems otherwise. You are spectacular in Christ. Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly.

God wants us to lead us into abundance. But, we need to keep on keeping on, on the path God chooses for us.

[dema]

Day 3 - Receiving

God promises to strengthen us – as we are willing to trust Him and believe in what He has promised. And the more we are willing to love, the more we will be filled with God’s abundant love, and we will be blessed in all areas of our lives.

Ephesians 3 (New American Standard Bible)
16-20That He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love ...that you might be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.

Please note, we are told to grow spiritually first, to grow in the inner man, and then we are told that God is able to accomplish wonderful things with His power that is working inside of us.

We need to grow spiritually to get the power working. Then we'll see results.

We are also promised health and prosperity, conditionally.

3 John 1 (New American Standard Bible)
2Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

Our soul needs to to be growing, through study and seeking God, and then the rest of us will be blessed. The point is - your insides need to prosper before you can expect God to make the outsides prosper. Prosper is extreme. It is not mediocre - not average. Each of us needs to work on developing spiritually. To the extent that we develop spiritually and claim and act on the promises of God, we will receive.

[RainaSkye]

Ty.....

[dema]

Day 5 – Christ’s Sacrifice

You've heard the following every Easter. Let’s think about the reasons that Jesus suffered.

Isaiah 53 (New American Standard Bible)
5But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.

Because we transgressed, didn’t follow the rules, He was pierced.

Because of our sins, He was crushed.

He was mistreated and scourged, beaten in a horrible way, in order to give us health and well-being.

Jesus died to atone for our sins. But, Jesus suffered in order to give us a better life and to heal us.

Consider the previous verse:

Isaiah 53: (New International Version)
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

Jesus willingly took up our frailties and diseases. He accepted them and did so in the past tense. He has already suffered for our sorrows. He wasn’t stricken by God because of anything that Jesus Himself did, but was afflicted that we might not be.

John 16 (New International Version)
21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

We are the Lord’s joy, when we accept Him and all He has done. The pain he suffered became like labor pains because of the many souls who were born as a result.

John 10 (New International Version)
10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Satan wants us miserable. Jesus wants us abundant and joyful. We choose to accept the sacrifice that Jesus already gave and to become a new person and to live a very different life with His leading.

[dema]

Verses to remember:

Romans 8 (English Standard Version)
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s support is total. God’s love is all encompassing.

Psalm 46(New International Version)
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.

We can and should go to God for our support. He is always available.

2 Timothy 1:7 (English Standard Version)
7for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Fear is not from God. Neither is panic, nor temper, nor any other out-of-control behavior. God wants us to have self-control, and power, as we act in love.

Proverbs 3:5 (English Standard Version)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.

One of the most powerful thing we can do is to trust God.

Psalm 73 (New International Version)
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

When we trust God, and act with self-control, He will guide us – all the way to our next destination.

[lyl1114]

Thanks for sharing this...it really spoke to me...