DAILY DEVOTIONAL – October 19, 2020
“No Vacancy”
Prayer: God, You are above all things. How high above our ways are Your ways O Lord! By Your power and grace, help us to stay focused with all of our hearts and minds on You. Let us not be consumed with the fleeting worries and passions of this life, but instead be filled with all of Your goodness that has been given to us through the blood of Jesus. Amen.
Scripture: Philippians 4:8
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Devotion – “No Vacancy”
Have you ever had one of those days where at some point you have reached your max? There is no more room intellectually for retaining or processing more information, no more room emotionally to deal with drama, no more patience left to be spent. You’re just done for the day. When we reach full capacity, Jesus gives us this invitation in Matthew 11, “28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The same Lord Jesus who took upon Himself the sins of the world, who burdened the entire wrath of God that would have crushed us and brought us to nothing, now calls us to burden Him with all of the things in this life that worry us and bother us and cause us to fear and prevent us from living and operating in the peace and joy that He has promised to give us.
You know friends, when the devil attacks us, he attacks our minds. He deceives us and causes us to think about all the wrong things. He distracts us with all the garbage in life and all the worries in this life. The Devil wants to fill up our thoughts and memories with fear and doubt.
When our minds are full and focused on God and His Word and His ways, that is how we resist the devil and prevent ourselves from becoming overloaded and incapacitated by the endless troubles and worries of this life. This is exactly what Paul is telling us in our passage from Philippians 4:8, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Scripture tells us that when we are baptized, the Word of God works in the water to clean us and regenerate us, mark us as a true child of God, and give us a new life. When we are baptized, we are made clean and righteous in the eyes of God and are saved. Of course, while we still live in this broken world, we still fight the daily temptation to sin and be consumed with everything but the things of God. Our only hope is in the same Word of God that has saved us and made us clean in baptism. That same Word of God that we hold in our hands and keep in our hearts and minds daily cleanses us and keeps our thoughts and memories preoccupied with the wonderful things of God so there is no room left for the wicked things of this world or the Devil. Paul puts it this way in Romans 12, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
God bless you my friends, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
