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God's Words For US
by Cecelia Lester
“And we pray this in order that you may live a life
worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing
fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.
Colossians 1:10(NIV)
When we see children after a while of not being around them, it seems the first words we speak
to them are, “My, how you’ve grown. Last time I saw you, you were so high.” And we hold our hand to the approximate place they stood.
I remember a group of siblings who came to our former church several years ago. I remember that all but one of them had a name that began with the letter “A” and all of those had fair complexions and the hair coloring to match.
But what I remember most is that they all were short for their ages. We received a new pastor while these kids were coming. The pastor’s wife, a registered nurse, noticed this feature about them and said they had failure to thrive.
As Christians, we began our walk with Jesus wanting to know more about Him. Because we are human, our desire may have weakened. When we realize we don’t know Him as we first wanted, we might choose one of three ways to deal with this issue. Either we ‘go the way of the world.’ Or we become Christian in name only, going through the motions. The third way to deal with this dilemma is to train ourselves into daily devotional time-read a devotional story and its accompanying scripture passages, study the Bible and pray.
Several denominations publish devotional magazines. These are some that I am acquainted with:
American Baptists publish The Secret Place
Roman Catholic Church has several different devotional periodicals.
The United Methodist Church publishes The Upper Room.
The Wesleyan Church publishes Light from the Word.
Some companies publish devotional booklets or books; these are a few.
The Radio Bible Class publishes Our Daily Bread.
Guideposts Magazine publishes Daily Guideposts each year.
Devotionals by men of faith:
My Utmost for His Highest, the writing of Oswald Chambers.
Morning by Morning by Charles H. Spurgeon
Evening by Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon
Morning and Evening, by Charles H. Spurgeon. (A compilation of his books mentioned above)
Compilations of Devotional writings of people of the faith:
“disciplines for the inner life” by Bob Benson Jr. and Michael Benson.
Women’s Devotional Bible published by Zondervan.
Men’s Devotional Bible published by Zondervan.
Couples Devotional Bible published by Zondervan
Bibles:
For me, I was trained that it was important to choose a Bible that I could understand. I have a favorite translation. But I recently was exposed to a more modern one that has me interested. My hair stylist belongs to a church that only recognizes a traditional translation of God’s Word. When I saw her last, I began my conversation with her stating that I knew her church only used that traditional version. She surprised me and said that their pastor had begun to use a more up-to-date translation. Then, I shared with her about the one I recently discovered. If a young Christian asked me about which translation to choose, I would have to tell him or her to look at several of them and select the one they can understand better.
Bible Study:
Several Christian Authors have penned Bible Studies for us to use: Charles Swindoll. Max Lucado, Jill Briscoe, Elizabeth George, Warren W. Wiersbe-just to name a few, all have written Bible studies to foster spiritual growth.
Prayer:
We have recorded evidence that Jesus maintained contact with the Father through prayer. When we read the Bible we see instances where early in the morning, He went off by himself to talk to His Father.
When we train ourselves to pray, it becomes second nature to us. Some people use time in the morning to talk to God. Some others have their prayer time in the evening. Still, others pray throughout the day whenever they feel the need.
The children of God have been blessed to have books on prayer written by several accomplished authors; among them are Stormie O’Martian, Warren and Ruth Myers, and Eugenia Price.
In order to fully grow in the Lord we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us through. As we practice these means of grace, we will learn more of God and will bear fruit for Him. This outcome pleases God and that should be our goal as His children.
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Cecelia Lester has been serious about her writing for over two decades..
She composes Christian essays and posts them to her blog quietspirit-followingmyking.blogspot.com/
She has served in a faith-based organization, Grace In Action by writing two newsletters and searching for possible grants.
In July 2017, she published her first book, 'Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy.'
She and her husband of 54 years live in central Indiana. They have one grown son.
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