It is wonderful to have a good friend. At least one. And many of us have more than one. My sister-friends are just a phone call away when I have great news to share and when I am having troubles. I can laugh with them, cry with them, complain to them, and ponder the mysteries of the universe with them. Whatever it is, they understand.

            Especially when I’m having hard times, my friends are wonderful examples to me of the love of the Lord. Psalm 94:19 says, “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul” (NKJ). God comforts me best, and He’s given me friends who are there for me as well. The Scriptures also say, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly” Proverbs 18:24 (NKJ). I just hope I’m as good a friend to them as they are to me.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

My husband and I recently visited my nephew and his family in Columbus, Ohio. They live in a quaint, historic little neighborhood just outside of downtown in a gorgeous, three-story brick home. Anyone who turns from the major thoroughfare onto the side street leading to their home will see a street sign that says, “Calming Zone Ahead.” After driving a few more feet, we discovered that the calming zone was achieved by speed bumps. Whoever made that sign realized everything is just a matter of perspective. Slowing down was more than a safety concern; slowing down was an opportunity to experience calm.

God placed a speed bump in Israel’s road, but with a calming zone sign. “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Romans 9:33 (NKJ). Lots of people stumble at the name of Jesus, not wanting to surrender to Him; however, slowing down to consider the claims of Christ leads to both safety and calm. The safety found in Christ is the security of the eternal life He supplies. The calmness found in Christ is in knowing that He always has our back.

So as we face whatever comes our way, let’s not allow Christ to be a speed bump inhibiting our progress, but a calming zone inclosing us in calm.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

One of the funniest things about parenting happens when you find yourself talking to your child and you suddenly realize you are sounding just like your own mother or father. When did we become our parents? When we had kids of our own. Little by little, we discovered the wisdom of what seemed so incredibly crazy when our parents spoke the same words to us.

“Don’t turn that heat up. Just put on a sweater.” Now I realize Daddy was trying to save on that gas bill.

“You will sit there until you eat those vegetables.” Now I see that Mom knew what was best for my health.

“This hurts me more than it hurts you.” Now I know the pain of disappointment a parent experiences when our children ignore our counsel chasing foolishness they believe is astuteness. It hurts just as much to have to discipline them as it does to have to watch them experience the consequences of their poor choices.

With that said, one of the most gratifying things about parenting happens when our children become adults and we have the opportunity to see them repeat some of the good things we’ve done or said. We set our feet upon the Rock which is Jesus, trusted Him in our parenting, and now we experience the fruit of that labor as our children carry on in that same vein. Proverbs 22:17-21 states:

Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
and apply your heart to my knowledge;for it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you;
let them all be fixed upon your lips,so that your trust may be in the Lord;
I have instructed you today, even you.Have I not written to you excellent things
of counsels and knowledge,that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth,
that you may answer words of truth
to those who send to you? (NKJ)

Yes, we are to listen to God’s wisdom, count it as pleasant, and let it be fixed upon our lips. As we consistently learn and live by God’s counsels and knowledge, He will allow us to “know the certainty of the words of truth.” We will then know how to “answer words of truth (pass it on) to those” who He puts in our path. And low and behold, our children are the first recipients of the wisdom we have to pass on.

Be encouraged, parents. God’s wisdom will not come back empty. Keep listening to God, learning from Him, and passing it on.

____________________________

©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

When I teach my students how to write their research papers, I teach them the technique of backward planning. We start with the finished paper in mind. I show them a sample of a completed, excellent paper and then I ask them, “What’s the step that happened just before this student turned in this excellent paper?” They’ll answer that the student organized all the finished parts and did a final check to make sure everything was in the right order. I’ll then ask for the step that happened before that. I write each step on the board, forming a timeline from end to beginning. This back and forth questioning and answering keeps going until I bring them all the way back to where we are at present, the starting point. My students then have a clear picture of not only the final project I’m expecting, but also of the detailed steps they must take in order to successfully produce a quality research paper of their own.

God has done some backward planning for our lives. He wants to turn out men and women who resemble His Son. The end result is our glorification, but before that comes our justification (just-as-if-I’d never sinned). Before that, God calls whom He justifies. Before the calling comes predestination, and before predestination, comes the amazing omniscience of God; He knew us. In other words, thanks to the backward planning of God, we were declared to be “A” students even before we started the assignment.

_________/__________/___________/____________/____________/

known       predestined     called           justified             glorified

The Bible states this phenomenal plan in this way:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:28-31(NKJ)

All my students have to do is follow my plan and they’ll get an “A” on their research papers. Inevitably though, every year, I teach students who don’t believe that my way is best. They strike out on their own only to end up with disastrous results. Let’s not be that way with God. In the words of the old Four Spiritual Laws tract put out by Campus Crusade for Christ, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Just keep walking and working in the plan. “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” Romans 8:37.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, and Power Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Most of us would not consider ourselves to be greedy. In the main, we like to think we are generous, kind people who are willing to lend a hand or share our possessions if need be. However, Romans chapter 8 suggests a level of possible avarice we may not have formerly considered.

In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul makes the case for those who are in Christ Jesus, stating that we are not under the condemnation of the law. We live that out by “not walk[ing] according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit… [because] the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made [us] free from the law of sin and death” Romans 8:1-2 (NKJ). The greed on our part comes in when we claim the name of Christ and rejoice over the fact that He death, burial, and resurrection indeed freed us, yet we continue to live double lives. We greedily bask in the glory of our salvation while also greedily enjoying the deceptive pleasures brought to us by our sinful nature (to which we are supposed to be dead).

What’s wrong with us? “We are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” Romans 8:12-13. We are debtors. Don’t we realize that we owe God and our “payment” to Him is righteous living? But no, we want what we want, and we actually feel overwhelmed by the lusts of our flesh. We feel like we can’t help ourselves when we greedily give in to whatever carnal desires of the moment rear their ugly heads.

How about trying to remember that “we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together…” and “consider that the sufferings of this present time (saying no to the flesh, for example) are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” Romans 8:16-18. Let’s give over and confess the manner in which we have greedily held onto our sinful ways. Replace that greed with a voracious appetite for righteousness.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

God speaks directly to and about certain people in the Bible. When God spoke to Ananias about witnessing to Saul (who would soon be known as Paul), He pronounced that Saul “is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” Acts 9:15 (NKJ). God also refers to David as “a man after My own heart, who will do all My will” Acts 13:22. If we do a character study on Paul and David, we will find that neither man was perfect; yet, God had great things to say about both.

Job on the other hand is an Old Testament character who seemed to have it going on. In fact, God says of him “that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil” Job 1:8. More still, God was speaking to Satan about Job, and actually setting Job up as a test-dummy to be pitted against Satan’s onslaught. After hearing God’s estimation of Job, Satan challenged God twice that he could get Job to curse Him to His face (see Job 1:11 and 2:5). But even after Satan ripped Job of his wealth, killed all 10 of his children, and struck his body with a painful disease, Job never sinned in his attitude toward God. In fact, Job “fell to the ground and worshiped… did not sin nor charge God with wrong… [and] did not sin with his lips” Job 1:20, 22; 2:10.

So today, forget what everyone else has to say. Whether you know you are flawed like Saul (Paul) or David, or whether you are pretty good in the main like Job, what would God testify about you? Can He call you one of His chosen vessels and put you to work for Him? Are you a person whose heart is bent on doing God’s will above all else? Could God say that you are blameless, upright, a God-fearer, and one who shuns evil?

It’s all about the heart, your center, that which is deep down inside. Even though Jeremiah tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” you can pray along with David for God to “create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 51:10.

God only has flawed people to love, and He loves you. Thanks to Jesus’ substitutionery death and His resurrection, God sees you through Jesus’ blood as pure and right. He has good things to say about you. Live in the light of God’s testimony.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

When my husband and I visited Niagara Falls, we discovered that the area had once been a prime location of the Underground Railroad. Runaway slaves sought out abolitionists in the area who could help them escape the brutality of slavery by getting them to and across the Niagara River, which separated the United States from Canada.

Ever since our Niagara experience with the historic Underground Railroad sites, we have become Underground Railroad connoisseurs, searching out other areas that have preserved the basements, lofts, nooks, and trails upon which our forefathers stealthily traveled to get to freedom. So far, we’ve been to Buffalo, New York; Memphis, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; and Columbus, Ohio, seeing the sites, hearing the stories, and reliving the heart pain of our ancestors. Sorrow and anger well up as we read the stories of the hardships of slavery. We also feel an amazing sense of pride realizing that the strength and determination those runaways had also runs through our veins.

Slavery is always a thing to run away from. It is an institution that lends itself to the ultimate, violently brutal treatment of those enslaved. And that’s exactly what sin does to us. Oh, it comes on nice and meek at the beginning, but little by little, it tightens its screws and increases its demands. We must obey sin’s wishes. Even when doing so, we will still be beaten by the whips of guilt and shame. In the case of sin’s slavery, there is no Underground Railroad.

Now here’s the good news! Death will free us. “He who has died has been freed from sin” Romans 6:7 (NKJ). That may not sound like good news until we realize that we do not die of ourselves. By identifying with Jesus Christ, we are “buried with Him through baptism into [His] death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” Romans 6:4. The passage even asks the question, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Romans 6:2. That would be a ridiculous as a freed man going back to volunteer to be a slave again.

Just like the change brought about by transitioning from slavery to freedom, this death to sin leads to a brand new kind of life. Since “death no longer has dominion of Him [Jesus],” we who are dead to sin in Him are able to “reckon [ourselves] to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:9-11.

In one of the Underground Railroad locations, I read an account of a runaway slave who made it to Canada. The gentleman was so happy that he kissed the ground and jumped up and down yelling, “I’m free, I’m free, I’m free!” That’s how we should feel and act every day about our release from sin. Whenever we’re enticed by sin—the captor that tries to lure us—or threatened by those whips of guilt and shame, we can remember we are standing on the free soil of salvation in Christ. Look that enslaving temptation in the eye and yell, “I’m free, I’m free, I’m free!”

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814 

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

I think we misunderstand the depths of God’s goodness. That’s understandable because of the depths of our depravity. We are so far away from knowing Him and His ways that it’s mind-boggling. Still, God puts up with us and keeps plugging away at revealing Himself to us for the purpose of making us the kind of people He wants us to be.

Although Romans chapter one plainly lays out a devastating problem, Romans chapter two comes back with a remedy that involves God’s goodness. In chapter one, we read that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven” because of suppression of the truth about God that is “clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that [those suppressing the truth] are without excuse” Romans 1:18-20 (NKJ). Chapter one goes on to say that since those folks did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, He gave them up to uncleanness, vile passions, and a debased mind (See verses 24-28). The chapter then ends by saying, “those who practice such things [as are specified in verses 24-31] are deserving of death” Romans 1:32.

After all of that, we should be pretty scared, but thankfully, we can keep reading Romans chapter two. This chapter starts off by sweeping in those who would look down their noses at the folks caught up in the truth-suppression mentioned in chapter one. It’s one thing to speak the truth about God’s truth; it’s quite another to judge a person based upon it. We are not judging one another by reminding each other of God’s standards. We slip over into judgment when we pronounce that there is no hope for deliverance. In Romans 2:1, God tells us that we are “inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things” (NKJ). God is not saying that those folks’ sins are okay; He’s telling us that ours rank just as high.

Now here’s the great news that God is trying to get across to us: every one of us—the wretched truth-suppressors from chapter one and the wretched doing-the-samers of chapter two—is still a candidate for “the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering” Romans 2:4. Why? Because “the goodness of God leads you to repentance” Romans 2:5. God’s not blessing us because we’re good; He’s blessing us because He’s good. We need to stop wishing for bad things to happen to those we consider sinful. God’s goodness leads to repentance. And once repentance happens, God “will render to each one according to his deeds.” Thanks to God’s goodness, all of us can receive from Him “eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality” Romans 2:6-7.

God has not changed His mind about sin. We still need to speak the truth about all sin and pray for all of our deliverance from it. But we mustn’t judge each other as hopeless causes just because we can’t understand each other’s bondages. God’s goodness is as powerful to deliver the drug addict, the adulterer, and the homosexual, as it is to deliver the envious, the racist, and the backbiter.

____________________________

©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Did anyone have a mom who would only put up with your foolishness for so long? She would speak to you, place you on time-out, scold you, or even spank you about something you kept doing. Then your stubbornness to continue in your folly finally caused her to look at you and say, “Okay, you just keep on, I’m done.” Somehow you knew you had taken her across the line for her to have given up. You also knew that you were hanging out there on your own and you were on your way to a worse consequence than Mom could ever dole out. Once Mom gives up on you, watch out.

God is even more patient with us than Mom, but He comes to times when He gives up. As with Mom, God gives up when we push Him to do so. We can’t blame Him for the negative consequences that follow because He gives us chance after chance, and warning after warning that something bad is about to happen.

In the Old Testament, God gave up when the wickedness of mankind got ridiculously out of control. Genesis 6:5-7 tells us, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (NKJ). After this, God flooded out the earth.

God gave up again in Numbers 14:22-23. He had brought the children of Israel out of the cruel Egyptian bondage and was taking them to a wonderful land, but most of the people kept disobeying and disrespecting Him. Finally He said, “Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it” (NKJ).

One would think we’d learn to simply do things God’s way, but no. We get to the New Testament, and Paul tells us that despite the things about God that are “clearly seen,” we have still pushed and pushed for our own way. Some of us have pushed God to give up yet again. And the consequences are dire. Those who have “suppress[ed] the truth in unrighteousness… God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator… God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” Romans 1:8, 24-28 (NKJ).

So what happens when God gives up? In Genesis, it was a worldwide flood. In Numbers, it was exclusion from reaching the Promised Land. In Romans—the current dispensation, which means today—the consequences are the shameful exchange of the natural use of one’s body, an earned penalty related to one’s health, and a debased mind. Ultimately, God says, “those who practice such things are deserving of death” Romans 1:32 (NKJ).

Here’s the good news. It is not necessary for any of us to suffer these consequences because we’ve pushed God to give up. Experience His amazing mercy today by trusting His word rather than your feelings. We glorify God by honoring our bodies, using them in the way He intended. Restoration is available in repentance. He will not give up on us when we line up with His word.

____________________________

©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Watch The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network’s new internet TV show Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. (Stream current show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or view past episodes anytime!)

Pick up a copy of Sharon’s newest release,

Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

(Boomerangs Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk )

Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

I do not like being confused. If I am involved in something, I want to be able to understand everything that’s going on. This helps me give my all to the situation, organization, or project. When someone can explain, or when I can read and comprehend the instructions, I feel immensely better and much more confident about my participation. I guess you could say that I then own my connection. Understanding the inside scoop means I am truly a part and this brings me joy.

The people of God need to understand God’s word so they can own their connection as well. In the chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah, we see how this works. Ezra the scribe brought the Book of the Law “before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding” Nehemiah 8:2 (NKJ). Upon hearing the word of God being read, the people’s first reaction was to answer “‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground” (verse 6). The Levites then joined in and “read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading” (verse 8).

Upon understanding the word of God, the people’s resulting reaction was joy. And the result of that joy was strength. Yes, this is the context of the oft-quoted words, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (verse 10).

God does mean for us to understand Him, and we do that by understanding His word. Lots of people who have never read the Bible like to express their opinions about God, Jesus, and the stands taken by Christians, but unless we read and study the Bible, our joy is not full, our outlook is weak, and our opinions are moot. Read the Bible, and you’ll receive understanding, joy, and strength—such a deal.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

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Why I Get Into Trouble as well as other favorites, Boomerangs to Arrows, andPower Suit

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Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)