Todays devotional readings really spoke to me...and stepped on my toes.
"Without faith it is impossible to please Him." Hebrews 11:6.
The first few sentences of the updated edition of my all-time favorite devotional, My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers, edited by James Reiman really hit a home run with me....
"Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth.
The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life."
Wow. Powerful words. I tend to think in terms of common sense...so my prayer this morning is this:
Lord replace my mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-minded common sense with Your "complete revelation sense."
My second reading was from my "For I Know the Plans" devotional, which has several contributors but does not acknowledge the specific Writer for their specific days contributions.
Todays reading is based on Luke 6:38 NIV (my favorite version of the Bible--although I still love the King James version of some passages--especially the poetic ones in Psalm and Proverbs, as well as some of the new testament Bible verses I memorized in the KJV ):
"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Again, wow. We can not outgive God. We give our loosely leveled cup of flour, and He returns it pressed down, packed in (like a compactor pressed to get more and more, and more and more), heaping up in a mound so large it spills over the top!
I can sometimes be stingy. Generosity is something I need to work on.
There are a few charities that have been speaking to my heart lately--but I've yet to open my pocketbook and support most of them.
But it's not just our possessions we can be generous with...
From the devotional:
"... generosity is life changing. We can hold our hands open, finding ways to give abundantly. God has promised to provide for us. Perhaps He also wants you to use the resources He has blessed you with as a means of providing for someone else. Generosity isn't restricted to wealth. Can you generously forgive? Offer mercy? Encourage others?"
(And I added be generous serving others with my time.)
My second prayer:
Lord, open my eyes to the ways I can be generous. Then open my heart, hands, and calendar to actually be generous.
Just a couple of short devotional readings...but boy howdy did they speak to my heart and step on my toes.