Promise for Today - Following Up

NOTE: For the rest of November, I will share Thanksgiving moments written by other authors.
Today's devotional was written by Sean Nagel.
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One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him - he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then He said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:15-19

In this account of Jesus’ healing ministry, ten men with leprosy called out to Jesus from a distance, asking Jesus to have pity on them. Jesus showed His love and mercy for the faithful men and healed them; however, only one man returned to Jesus to give thanks for His  love and kindness.

In today’s world, we often cry out to God for His blessing, yet forget to come back to Him in appreciation... During this season, be reminded of the many ways that God has provided for you and blessed your life, and always return to Him in praise and thanksgiving.

Prayer:

Abba Father, 

                    We come before You as children who understand that You know how to best care for us. Thank You, Father, for Your love, patience, discipline, and safe-keeping. Amen.

Lest I Forget How Much

We love each other because he loved us first.
1st John 4:19 NLT

I have come to the conclusion that left to my own devices, I would be THE most selfish… because I know how selfish I can be now, and that’s with me trying to follow Christ. However, I have GREAT hope!

You see, since following Christ, there are things I won’t do now because I know the selfish act would hurt someone. But I sure used to and didn’t think twice about it… There are things I say now that pierce my heart as soon as they’re out of my mouth, but they’re fewer and farther between, thank God! And even at that, I’m encouraged because they DO pierce my heart whereas before I would have heedlessly used them to slice and dice. Because of Christ, I’m quicker to apologize and seek forgiveness.

Before Christ, I used to pride myself on how fiercely I loved those I considered mine. Now I know I didn’t have a clue. The only way I can love others – the ONLY way they can love me – is because He loved us first.

In our sin… In our selfishness… In the absence of all things holy… When we were unlovable by any standard, He loved us.

You’ve seen it lots of times in e-mails. Let me share it again.
I asked Jesus, "How much do You love me?"
"This much!" He replied.
Then He stretched out His arms and died… because He loved us.

Prayer:

Father,
           Lest I forget Gethsemane; Lest I forget Thine agony; Lest I forget Thy love for me – lead me to Calvary! In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen

Reminder - Lest We Forget

Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God, 

• the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
• the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
• the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
• the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you. 

If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again.
Deuteronomy 8:11-17 The Message

Lyrics to an old hymn resound in my spirit today, "Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I forget Thine agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary..."

How easy it is to forget where we've come from.
How easy it is to forget what God has delivered us from.
How easy it is to see someone else's sin or slip into judgment about it.
How easy it is to forget ALL the sins He has forgiven in our own lives.
How easy it seems to be to forget the ultimate sacrifice of Christ's death so that we might live.

Prayer:

Father,
           Forgive us for the times we become so full of ourselves that we lose sight of the Cross at Calvary. Help us to never lose sight and to never forget anything good that we have or any good that is in us is only because of You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

By Request - How Quickly We Forget

 So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

Deuteronomy 11:18-19 NLT

The past week has been one of remembering for me. Labor Day - originally proclaimed to celebrate the legalization of labor unions and the labor movement. My father - he'd have turned 103 this week. And tomorrow: 9-11. Twenty-one years have passed since America united as a country against the evil atrocities perpetrated against our nation, but how quickly we forget.

We remember those who gave their lives trying to save those who had come under attack. We remember those who spent days and weeks and months trying to dig out from under it all. We remember those who have taken a stand against terrorism and have fought and are fighting for our freedoms. All day tomorrow, there will be conversations that begin with, "I remember what I was doing when I heard..." "I remember I couldn't believe..."

We remember facts, but we don't remember the truths that came from it. What I mean is that when the shock wore off, we were no longer divided across party lines, or state lines, or skin color lines. We were Americans who stood arm in arm and waved our flags, and sang our anthem, and burned candles, and filled all the churches for two whole weeks following 9-11. Oh, the flag waving and anthem singing and burning candles lasted a while longer, but by the third Sunday following 9-11-01, most churches were back to their usual Sunday congregation. And twenty-one years later, we're up in arms against each other instead of arm-in-arm with one another. How quickly we forget.

The same thing happened when Jesus took the bread as recorded in Luke 22:19, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. And then later, His body was broken for our sins. We remember the facts, but do we remember the Truth? The atrocities against Him - against God's love personified? Do we remember what it cost Him? He laid His life down for our freedom. He died to save us and to free us from the rubble of our lives.

So many don't remember from twenty-one years ago - is it any wonder that 2,000 years later they've forgotten Christ? We MUST remember...

Prayer:

Father,
          Keep the cost of the Cross ever before us, O Lord. Forgive us for taking it lightly, as just a matter of fact. Bind us together by Your love. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Friends' Favorites - Don't Forget

Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.
Psalm 103:1-2 NLT

I love using sticky notes. I think I may be personally responsible for keeping that company in business. And another whole multi-million dollar industry has been built around teaching us to improve our memory. They instruct us to repeat something several times immediately to get it into our brain - to mentally "write" it down. Say it aloud again and again. Burn it into the brain. Write it down on something we can see throughout the day and we won't lose it.

It seems the older I get, the more I forget. I don't mean to, I don't want to, but I do. If I don't write it down, it's a goner...and I'd better write it down where I can find it. And just in case you don't know this - life is too short to waste money on cheap sticky notes - especially if you expect them to actually stick. How many of us have ever written a number or name or important something on our hand so we didn't forget? You can be relatively certain THAT note won't disappear.

Has God ever done something for you and you've forgotten? We think we won't, but we do. Someone reminds us, "Remember when God did such-and-such for you?" And we reply, "Oh, yeah! I forgot about that..." What are some of the things He has done for us? We have only to look in the next few verses of our text for today. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

David wrote it down - Let ALL that I am... with my WHOLE heart... Speaking of which, Deuteronomy 6:5-6 tells us, And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Then you know what it says? The Old Testament equivalent to today: verse 7; Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Don't forget!

Prayer:

Father,
We are fearfully and wonderfully made! You are amazing! Science, with all its intelligence and technology, cannot do what You do by speaking Your Words and the world into existence. You are the Creator. We stand amazed. Father, teach us how to love You with  all our heart, with all our soul - which is our mind, will and emotions - and with all our strength. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Lest I Forget How Easy It Is

Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God,

• the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
• the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
• the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
• the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.

If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again.
Deuteronomy 8:11-17 The Message

Lyrics to an old hymn resound in my spirit today, "Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I forget Thine agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary..."

How easy it is to forget where we've come from. 

How easy it is to forget what God has delivered us from. 

How easy it is to see someone else's sin or slip into judgment about it. 

How easy it is to forget ALL the sins He has forgiven in our own lives. 

How easy it seems to be to forget the ultimate sacrifice of Christ's death so that we might live.

Prayer:

Father,

          Forgive us for those times when we become so full of ourselves that we lose sight of the Cross at Calvary. Help us to never lose sight and to never forget anything good that we have or any good that is in us is only because of You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen