Weekly Devotionals

Living with Integrity

10/6/2024

Wednesday’s Word
by Dorette Saunders

Living the Christian life is by no means an easy task, especially if you think of what God is asking of us. God tells us that we need to be holy, even as he is holy (1 Peter 1:15, 16). Furthermore, the Scriptures tell us that without holiness and a peaceable nature, no one will see God (Hebrews 12:14).
Isn’t that what we all want? At the end of this life, to see God?
No wonder the psalmist, David, in his prayer, asks God:
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
    Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
    Don’t let them control me.
   Then I will be free of guilt
    and innocent of great sin.
                          (Psalm 19:12-14, NLT)

Yet, living the Christian life is not impossible because we do not live it without the aid and guidance of the Holy Spirit. He comes alongside us and expounds the truth of God’s Word. He injects wisdom in our thinking, and plants discernment in our hearts. We are equipped for everything that God is asking us to accomplish.

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3, NLT).

God desires that we walk in integrity. It is a mark that distinguishes us from others.
“Integrity” seems like an old-fashioned word that has been banned from our vocabulary and our way of life. Yet, quite often when many high profile individuals fall from grace, it is usually because they have neglected to walk in integrity.

What is integrity? Simply put, it is doing the right thing when no one is looking. Doing the right thing without seeking reward or recognition. Doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason. It is standing up for the truth of God’s Word even if you are the only voice you hear.

…the Lord has told you what is good,
    and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
    and to walk humbly with your God.
                                                        (Micah 6:8, NLT)

Walking in integrity is a spirit-led discipline which we all need to acquire. It requires humility, patience, and passion. It requires obedience to the hard things…like loving our neighbors (even though they are different from us, and may not like us). It requires trusting God and waiting for God’s answers while we climb steep hills or walk through lonesome valleys.

The rewards for being a person of integrity are awesome. We become attuned to hearing God’s voice, and we can say to God, like the psalmist, when evil people seem to triumph over us:
… But I am not like that; I live with integrity.
    So redeem me and show me mercy.
                                                             (Psalm 26:11, NLT)
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, show me mercy. Reveal my hidden faults, and I will repent of them. Keep me on the path of righteousness that I may walk in love and integrity. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

                                                                                                       ©M©dytations 2024

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Joy in the Journey

8/4/2024

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Wednesday’s Word
By Dorette Saunders

Like most things in life, being a Christian takes dedication and commitment. Yet, the Scriptures teach us that we are not doing the journey alone. We have help from God in the person of the Holy Spirit, and we can also find help from the community of believers with whom we fellowship.
And while some may describe Christianity in somber tones, getting to know our Lord, and walking with him daily, is a relationship that brings more joy than our hearts can ever imagine.
Like a museum featuring the many faces of God, we meet God as holy and majestic. A God who demands our respect and loyalty and will not share his glory with anyone else. A God who declares:
“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3, NIV).
And yet, another frame shows God singing over us, his beloved, in joyful tones, simply because he loves us!

The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.
                                                    (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

Is he a tenor or a bass? Oh, we will never know. But God who does all things well, can be the whole orchestra and chorus just because he can!

The naysayers tell us that the world is filled with trouble and heartache, and indeed it is. But there is also joy if we but look for it. Look for the good! Don’t let Satan steal your joy with his constant attacks and self-effacing doubts.

We are a tapestry that God weaves. Not all threads are the same color or the same strength, or even the same size. But we are curated by the same artistic director who weaves us according to the plan and the pattern he has in mind.

Who else can prepare a feast for you while your enemies watch? (Psalm 27:5).

Who else steps into your life, to remind you that he is the God of yesterday, but he is also the God of today, and even of tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8)?

Who turns our feeble praise into an anthem of rejoicing? Who turns the day-to-day events into little miracles of joy to take on our journey?

Were you disappointed in an event, only to later discover it was a blessing in disguise? Did God show up where you least expected him? In the pages of a 40-year-old diary? In a hospital room? In the smile of a total stranger? In a Bible verse you had seen many times before, but hadn’t really “seen”?

Look for the good. Apply grace to every situation. And seek God in all things. When you find him, you’ll definitely find a wellspring of joy!

PRAYER: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21, NIV).
                                                                                                         ©M©dytations 2024

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Lust and Honor

8/4/2024

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Wednesday’s Word
by Dorette Saunders

Students of the Bible know its heroes and heroines, can recount their exploits, and can check the boxes of their character traits. For example, we think of David –fighting Goliath, David and King Saul, David and Jonathan, David the psalmist. And, yes, David, who the Bible references as “a man after God’s own heart.”

Yet, do we ever think of Uriah as a biblical hero? U-who? Huh? Do we learn of Uriah the Hittite as a loyal man, a man of integrity? A man who put aside his own desires for the good of his country, and the king he served? Certainly, he is an unsung hero.

As 2 Samuel 11:1-15 tells it, Uriah the Hittite is one of the troops who goes off to war under commander Joab while David, the nation’s king stays home. During this respite, David, from his rooftop, sees a beautiful woman bathing. After finding out about her (she’s Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah), he orders her to be brought to him. He sleeps with her, and consequently impregnates her.

And while sin is sin, whatever its nature, this sin against Uriah is particularly egregious. Do kings have the right to trample on the rights of their subjects? Whatever King David thought, clearly his sexual misconduct, adultery, and its consequence, ravaged his conscience and he tried to cover his sin.

As Christians we would be wise to take heed. Sin separates us from God our Father. And lust, a stealthy sin, surreptitiously will creep into our hearts, leading us into covetousness, and the fallacy that we control our own bodies and lives, and can do with them as we will (1 Corinthians 6:19,20). Such foolish behaviors that violate what God has forbidden, destroy our relationships, and ultimately, our walk with God.
Lust, like the grave, is never satisfied. Its jaws remain open 24/7. No wonder the Bible reminds us:
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father, but from the world” (1 John 2:16, NIV).
In the midst of the war, David sends for Uriah and tries to trick him into going home and having relations with his wife, Bathsheba, to make it appear that the child she is carrying is really Uriah’s. (This trick, used by both men and women, has apparently been around for a very long time!)
However, this loyal, unsuspecting soldier refuses.
Uriah answered, “The sacred chest and the armies of Israel and Judah are camping out somewhere in the fields with our commander Joab and his officers and troops. Do you really think I would go home to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? I swear by your life that I would not!” (2 Samuel 11:11, CEV).
Flummoxed, David invites Uriah to dinner the next day, gets him drunk and sends him home. But Uriah does not do so, preferring instead to sleep outside where the king’s guards slept.
What does one do with a growing baby bump, a loyal and honorable soldier, and a guilty conscience?
Finally, David writes a letter telling Joab, the army’s commander, to place Uriah in the fiercest fighting and then leave him stranded so he can be killed.
If that were not enough, the unkindest cut of all comes when David gives Uriah this written death warrant to deliver to Joab.
Yielding to lust can have deleterious effects, and life-shattering consequences. Yet behind it all, we see a portrait of Uriah as an honorable man, a man of remarkable restraint, who stood up for what he believed. And although David ultimately repented of his sin of adultery and murder, he suffered as a result. The child he and Bathsheba produced, died. Yet, God who is rich in mercy, forgave David, and later blessed his life.

PRAYER: Lord, keep my eyes and heart from lust that I might not sin against you. Make me stand for truth and virtue and remain strong no matter the temptation. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

                                                                                             ©M©dytations 2024

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A Time to Rest

7/20/2024

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Wednesday’s Word
by Dorette Saunders

Imagine our Creator designing and creating our marvelous world in six days. Nothing existed, and day by day, God spoke life forms into existence. Light. Sky. Land. Ocean. Vegetation. Animals. Then, he used his hands and breath to make humans. And finally, on Day 7, God did something that was every bit as important as his work on the previous days—God rested!
Do we really rest? If the truth be told, we rarely do. We may physically lay things aside, but our minds are in constant overdrive waiting to attack the next big task.
Rest…
For some, “rest” is a four-letter word. How can we rest when there is so much to do? And if we don’t do it, who will?
But rest is good for us. Not only does the pause rejuvenate our physical and mental well-being, but it allows us time to reflect on our spiritual relationship with God.
Time and again, as we read the Scriptures, we see where Jesus took time to be away from the pressure of ministry—preaching and healing—to be alone and rest in God’s presence, praying.

Listen to Jesus’ advice to his disciples after they returned from a short mission trip.
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.  Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place (Mark 6: 30-32, NIV).
Each of us needs time to shed the burden of work, whether at home or in the marketplace, and center ourselves with no other motivation but to find peace in the presence of God. This is resting with purpose.
Sometimes our busyness masks our lack of spiritual growth. We adopt the “keep so busy working for the Master” attitude that we “ain’t got time to die” or to live, or to study and strengthen our faith.

Busyness can indeed prevent us from receiving many of God’s blessings, including the spirit of discernment, which we need to properly make sound decisions.

Jesus invites us:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV).

And while Jesus is not speaking of a mere 10-15 minute respite, but a lifetime relationship with him, we can start by making a daily discipline of spending time alone with God—resting in God’s presence.

We will find that rest revives us. It deflates fear and anxiety; it gives us hope. Rest gives us time to recover from the onslaught of stress and reminds us that God is always in control and we can trust God to provide for our needs.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you who give peace that defies explanation, let me rest in your presence. Let me drink deeply of all that you would share. Refresh me in body, mind, and spirit. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

                                                                                             M©dytations 2024

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Living in Perilous Times

7/13/2024

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Wednesday’s Word
by Dorette Saunders

Many moons ago a famous crooner sang, “What’s Going On?” and today many of us look at the world around us and ask the same question. All the things we used to hold dear are being upended, and it appears we have no center. That is, of course, if we push God and his Word out of our lives, our communities, our nation.

Make no mistake about it, we are living in perilous times. Not that we haven’t been warned. Clearly, the Bible tells us that when we utterly reject the Word of God, we suffer the consequences of our actions.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the guards stand watch in vain.
                                                 (Psalm 127:1, NIV)

From the family to the nation, incorporating the Word of our God in our daily living is necessary for our spiritual health, and our ultimate survival.

The Scriptures tell us: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people” (Proverbs 14:34, NIV).

This is not a doomsday drumroll, but rather a call to action to revive our personal commitment to righteousness. We learn from God’s Word that “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3, NIV).

Let’s take a soul check. Do we have “knowledge of him who called us by his own glory”? Have we assimilated that knowledge of God and has it become part of who we are? Have we been transformed by God’s “divine power”?

A quick trip to the pharmacy recently triggered a survey asking feedback on the experience and what could be improved. What if at the end of each day we would do a review to see if we reflected Christ, and determine where we fell short? We could then repent and seek God’s forgiveness and healing.

The Bible paints a less than flattering picture of those who turn their backs on God.
“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--  having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:2-5, NIV).

Take a look at the world around you. Do you see similar signs of moral and spiritual decay?

Do you see Christians holding on to God with one hand, and grabbing the world’s treasures (and pleasures) with the other?

Have you noticed truth being subtly contorted into lies? Or how feeble our stand is on issues of morality?

How can you and I help to reverse this? First, by praying and seeking God’s direction. Ask God to give you boldness to use the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to discern what he would have you do. Then boldly do it.

Yes, these are perilous times. But don’t lose hope in God. God is faithful—always! Did God not declare that he will be with us through times of testing? (Isaiah 43:2)?   Pray for godly wisdom in your life and in the lives of those who lead us. Despite what it looks like on the outside, God is still God—omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. We have his solemn Word on that. Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
                                                        (Isaiah 40:28, NIV)
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help me to keep my eyes on you no matter what happens around me. You, God, are all I need. You will guide me through every peril. Thank you for this assurance. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

                                                                                                      ©M©dytations 2024

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Living with Integrity

Joy in the Journey

Lust and Honor

A Time to Rest

Living in Perilous Times

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