Christian Daily Devotionals

by Sylvia Gunter

I don't know your story and you don't know mine, but we share a common theme. We are driven by the search for true identity, a desire to be understood and appreciated for who we are. We have longing to seek out something more. Those are not evil desires. God gave us the desire to seek the essence of who he created us to be, so that he can fulfill it.  He created the thirst so we can enjoy the Living Water.  Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time and energy looking everywhere else but to him for that fulfillment.

In Jeremiah 2 God paints a picture of how his people loved him like a bride loves her groom, full of passion and complete in their devotion to him. But their hearts changed. In Jeremiah 2:13 God says that his people have forsaken him, the spring of Living Water, and have dug their own cisterns. They are looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places. You can hear the Father's grieved heart as he lays out their behavior before them and then ends with "How's that working for you?"

My heart sinks as I see the areas in my life where I have chosen to find identity in my own cisterns, rather than drinking the Living Water. We too easily revert back to our own cisterns that can hold no water. Look at the cisterns in your life. What seemed like such a good source of legitimacy suddenly pales in comparison to true legitimacy found in God. That is why it is critical to meditate on the truths of who God is and who we are in Him until it sinks down deep into our spirit, soul, and body. John Calvin wrote in The Institutes Of The Christian Religion, "It now remains to pour into the heart itself what the mind has absorbed. For the Word of God is not received by faith if it fills the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart." Calvin is urging us to take deep drinks of the Living Water of who he is and what we have because of who he is:

He is Jehovah-Jireh (provider).
Genesis 22:14 Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.
You can be sure he sees and knows your every need.
Matthew 6:8 Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

He is Jehovah-Rophe (healer).
Exodus 15:26 I am the LORD, who heals you.
You are being renewed.
Isaiah 40:31 ... those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength...

He is Jehovah-Shalom (peace).
Judges 6:24 ... and called it The LORD is Peace.
You have life and peace.
Romans 8:6 ... to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

He is Jehovah-Nissi (banner).
Exodus 17:15 Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner.
You are led in Christ's triumph.
2 Corinthians 2:14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ...

He is Jehovah-Rohi (shepherd).
Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd...
You are his well-tended sheep.
Psalm 100:3 We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

He is Jehovah-Tsidkenu (righteousness).
Jeremiah 23:6 This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
You are free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:2 Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

He is Jehovah-Shammah (THE LORD IS THERE, Ezekiel 48:35)
Matthew 28:20 Surely I am with you always...
You are continually with God.
Psalm 73:23 Yet I am always with you...

Stop and allow these truths to sink deep into your spirit.  You may "know" these Scriptural facts, but now really receive their truth deeply in your spirit where your legitimacy, identity, significance, and birthright are defined by God.

Remember whose you are... and who you are in him!

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/09/sg_whose-you-are/
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by Sylvia Gunter

Beloved child of God, listen to your Father's heart and his ways for you in Galatians 5:22-23,25.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

Listen with your spirit to Romans 5:5 "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Be blessed to know how dearly God loves you, because he has given you his Spirit to fill your heart with his love. You were created of your Father's love. You are the evidence of God's love deposited in you in lavish measure in making you just the way you are. Know deep within that your Father who is love speaks his love to you. He enjoys you and finds pleasure in who you are. You are not an "it." You are you, the real you in your essence, your inner being, your spirit.

Deep inside, be blessed with larger-than-the-universe love, the faithful love of your infinite Father for you. Be blessed to know that you are shielded in his love that always seeks your highest good, no matter what you do. Be blessed with God's kind of self-giving love that gives freely without asking anything in return. Be blessed with knowing deeply that you are accepted and affirmed in him. His love for you was forever settled on the cross. Be blessed with being completely persuaded that nothing can separate you from his love. He loves you with a mighty love that has no end. Marvel at the goodness of his holy love without measure. His love extends its covering over a multitude of sins. He perfectly loves you, and you need have no fear before him.

Be blessed to love others as the fruit of God's love living in you. You love others because he first loved you and lives in you to love through you. Be blessed with the love of Christ that compels you. Be blessed with 1 Corinthians 13 unfailing love filling you through and through. Be blessed as you let that love flow through you to your family and everyone around you.

Be blessed to love by character and by choice, not by emotion. Love must give, whatever the cost. Be blessed with increasing and overflowing love for others (1 Thessalonians 3:12). God who is love lives in you to will and to do it.

Be blessed to display the fruit of the love of God that the Holy Spirit produces in you, your grace-inspired response from his love (Galatians 5:22).

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/01/sg_fruit/
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by Sylvia Gunter

What do you really want? I pray that my answer to that question would always be "more of Jesus."  But we are often lured away from our first and true passion by other loves.  When is the last time you let Jesus invite you to want more of Him?

Picture encountering Jesus face-to-face. Imagine that He Himself asks you these two questions: "Who is it that you are seeking? Have I been among you so long and you don't know Me?" (John 20:15b, 14:9).

Who are you seeking today?  Do you want Jesus so passionately that you can't imagine spending a day without him?  Do you know him so intimately that you come together with him in love, new life is conceived, and the fruit of love is coming forth?

The following guide is a call to the heart of God.  Give yourself the gift of time.  Slip away with the Lover of your soul for an hour, an afternoon, or a day and soak in this.

1. Get still.  Sit before Him to communicate with Him.  Read (Psalm 46:10; 2 Samuel 7:18; Revelations 3:20; Habakkuk 2:20).  Write your response to Him.

2. Draw near to His heart.  Read (James 4:8; Psalm 42:1-2; Isaiah 55:1-3,6; Psalm 65:4, 73:28, 84:1-4,10).  Write your response to Him.

3. Seek His face. Read (Matthew 7:7-8, Psalm 27:4,8; Psalm 63:1-8; Hebrews 11:6; Jeremiah 29:11-14).  Write your response to Him.

4. Spend time in His presence.  Read (Exodus 33:14-15; Psalm 16:11, 89:1; Isaiah 29:13, 63:9; Lamentations 2:19; Jude 24-25).  Write your response to Him.

5. Spend time knowing Him better.  You cannot love someone you do not know.  Let Him teach you who He is through His names and attributes.  Each one reveals something about Him.  Encounter Him in His Word. Read (Matthew 11:29; Jeremiah 9:23-24; Philippians 3:8,10).  Tell Jesus that knowing Him is the most important thing in all the world to you.  Write your response of adoration or sing Him a song.

6. Tell Him all those things that you are willing to count as nothing compared with knowing Him and seeing His glory (Philippians 3:7-8): your ministry, your reputation, your personal strengths, your intellect, your pride, your self-sufficiency, your will, your ambition, your relationships, your job, your sins, your failures, etc.  Say, "I give it all. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing" (1 Chronicles 21:23; 2 Samuel 24:24).  Give all that you know, and then open yourself up for God to show you new "all's."  Write your response of surrender and commitment.

7. Be overwhelmed with the awesome Person speaking to you.  "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).  Receive His unfailing love.  Let the Father hug you and pour His love into your heart by His Spirit.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/02/14/sg_falling-in-love/

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by Sylvia Gunter

Listen with your spirit to the Word of God in Deuteronomy 33:25b. "Your strength will equal your days." 2 Corinthians 13:4 "Jesus was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you."

Beloved one, by your Father's strength you have life. I bless you with strength in your spirit for each day. I bless you with waking up every morning knowing that the living God is sustaining, strengthening, and renewing your spirit, soul, and body for the opportunities and problems that he sets before you today. I bless you with knowing that your Father's power provides everything you need today for being who you are called to be and doing acts of obedience to him that he appoints for you to do in Jesus' name. I bless you with the assurance of inner quiet, security, and strength for each day for as long as God chooses your lifetime to be. I bless you with assurance of his help and presence in all the majesty of his glorious detail with which he has ordained your days. I bless you with a constant and growing sense of his presence with you for his purposes and his pleasure.

By your Father's promise you have life. Beloved one, listen with your spirit to God's Word in Psalm 119:50. "My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life." Your Father renews your heart and your spirit with his promises. I bless you with recalling the many times that your Father has been with you, has loved you, has taken care of you, has blessed you. I bless you with holding on to promises that he is making to you from his Word and by his Spirit. I bless you with deep understanding that his words are your very life. I bless you with knowing that your faithful Father is watching over his purposes that await a future time for fulfillment. I bless you with enjoying life, being renewed, refreshed, and restored in your relationship with God and his faithfulness expressed in his Word.

By your Father's life you have life. Beloved one, listen with your spirit to God's Word in John 5:26. "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself." Your Father has life, and he has given his Son life in himself. I bless you with the life that Jesus has in you. I bless you with knowing the life of your Father and of his Son living in you and enlarging your spirit to know him better and love him more. I bless you with knowing that you are alive and well and awake and fully present to life today by the power of his Holy Spirit.

By the power of the Living One you have life. Beloved one, listen with your spirit to God's Word in John 11:25. "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live...' " I bless you with believing that the Living One lives in you as your life for today. I bless you with appropriating with your spirit the full measure of the life of Jesus within you for the here-and-now.

By the light of Jesus you have life. Listen again with your spirit to John 1:4. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men." I bless you with light that comes from the life of Jesus living in you and through you. I bless you with his life that lights your way, your relationships, your time, your decisions.

By the words of Jesus you have life. Beloved one, listen to John 6:63. "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." I bless your spirit with hearing and knowing the words that Jesus speaks to you. I bless you with meeting him daily spirit-to-Spirit. I bless you with not doing anything by mere human effort. I bless you with being energized with the life of eternity upon all that you are, and think, and do.
I bless you in the name of Jesus who is your life.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/02/09/sg_strength/

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