Daily Devotional

REJOICING IN HIS DISCIPLINE AND GRACE

September 26

eloved Disciples of Christ, if you have given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are His disciple. A disciple is one who is disciplined in the Lord. It means that you ask the question, "As a sincere Christian looking for a victorious and joyful walk with God what should I seek to move fully in that direction?" What disciplines are good and powerful to make me the best and most fulfilled Child of God? First, the true disciple of the Lord teaches himself/herself to read, hear, enjoy and seek strongly after a deep and satisfying knowledge of the word of God--- the Bible. The true follower of Christ Jesus accepts as a given fact the pursuit and strong study of the Bible as a daily disciplined reading and memorization. "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." (Psalm 119:11) You may argue "I tried to read the Bible, but I get tired and sleepy doing so." Beloved, at times the Evil One will resist your gaining knowledge of God and how to serve him and may work against your study and "hiding" the word of God in your heart. Pray to the Father to make the word and its taking in to your heart a strong joy and powerful desire for you. You will be given the strength to do this. Call on the Lord for this and do not make excuses! He will come and help you. Read a few simple verses such as in John or read interesting Old Testament verses such as the Psalms in a modern simple version for you. You must overcome this, or you will be weak and powerless without a good pursuit of the word of God. Second, you must learn to pray very strongly. Weak and ineffective praying will make you a weak and ineffective Christian. Find someone else with a powerful prayer life and stick to them until they teach you how to pray as they do. "As your prayer life goes, so goes your life of faith with the Lord!" Accept these things as realities for your own life. Open your heart to your Father in Heaven, and He will come to you and give you the materials to obtain a strong and good prayer life. In other words, worship, prayer, and the study and taking in of the good word of God will build you up and make you powerful in the Lord in a short time. You cannot allow your Christian life to just happen, you must become aggressive and seek after God through these avenues. Finally, make up your mind to do good to all men and women everywhere. Ask the Father to guide you to the needy and hurting and speak and do kind things in Christ to seek to change and heal their hurt. This is pleasing to God and will release to you the grace and selflessness which will produce the mind and person of Christ in your daily life.

Prayer

---

Father, there is no doubt whatsoever that I desire to follow the Lord Jesus! I ask you to bless me in worshipping you. I ask you to impart to me grace to become a sincere and careful follower of the Lord Jesus right now in Jesus' name, amen!