Seven Days of Devotion
The Weekly Word is a Collection of Devotionals to be read on the Day Listed and presented freely as a service to and for the Body of Christ and Believers throughout the World that We may Hear God Speak to us as the Spirit of God gives us ears to hear and eyes to see what God would have for us daily in relationship to Him.
KNOWABILITY
"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. John 10:14 (NKJV)
There's a big difference between "knowing of" someone and "knowing" someone. You know of the President and the latest A-list celebrities and athletes. But chances are, you don't really know any of these people. It's a one-sided and one-way relationship. You might invite them into your life, but they aren't allowing you into theirs...and they probably never will.
When it comes to the people you really know, it's the people in your life who are knowable-your spouse, your children, and your friends. It's those who allow and invite you into their lives. You experience a two-way relationship with these people. Now carry that idea over to God. He isn't just someone we can know of but someone we can actually know. He makes Himself open and accessible to us. He invites and allows us into a personal, two-way relationship with Him.
Think about it for a moment. The almighty Creator of the universe, the One who keeps the galaxies and constellations from colliding into each other, the One who keeps every single atom from flying apart, wants to be known-and wants to be known by us! And as if that weren't enough, He sent His own Beloved Son to suffer and die so that we could know Him (John 17:3).
There are two types of people: those who know of God and those who know God. May we be those who not only know Him for ourselves, but also who make Him known to others.
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches...let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me.... (Jeremiah 9:23-24 NKJV)
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
MONDAY
Holiness
"Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" Exodus 15:11 (NKJV)
What comes to mind when you hear the word holiness? Is it a wild-eyed, crazy man screaming through a megaphone on a street corner? Is it a pompous person looking down his nose at you? Or is it a preacher calling down fire and brimstone in a fever-pitched voice?
Put those preconceived notions out of your mind, because they're counterfeit reflections of the holiness of God. The holiness of God has been described as "the antithesis of all moral blemish and defilement." In other words, it's the exact opposite of our fallen condition.
In God, there is no evil, no wickedness, no impurity, not even the slightest hint of the slightest deviation from absolute moral perfection. From eternity past, He has never had a random sinful thought nor has He ever done a single thing tainted by sin. Beyond that, God is so morally pure in nature that He can't even look at sin (Habakkuk 1:13). He is all we wish we were and know we never could be. He is holy.
But here's the real mind-blowing thought: His holiness is something He's called us to share in (Hebrews 12:10).
"How is that possible?" It's possible because it's His Spirit in us that's progressively purifying and cleansing us. It's true: We still sin by saying, thinking, and doing unholy things. But by the power of God's Spirit, we're on a trajectory towards holiness. We're on course to be completely set free and released from our sinful state (Philippians 3:21), and we're destined to dwell in His holiness for all eternity (Revelation 4:8).
But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.... (1 Peter 1:15 NKJV)
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
TUESDAY
MINDFULNESS
What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? Psalms 8:4 (NKJV)
Do you realize that God is mindful of you? Not just aware of you in a generic sense, but mindful of you in a more meaningful sense. What's the difference?
When David wrote the proceeding passage in Psalm 8, he used a very specific Hebrew word for mindful. It means to reflect upon or make record of something. It speaks of not only the ability to know things, but the willful desire to know and keep track of things. This amazing attribute of God was something that drew followers to Jesus during His earthly ministry.
"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Matthew 10:29-30 (NKJV)
Don't miss the significance of this. God reflects upon you and everything that occurs within your life! You get a splinter in your finger; God knows about it. You accidentally bite your lip; God knows about it. You misplace your keys; God knows about it. He knows all these things, not because He's obligated to as God, but because He wants to as your Heavenly Father.
You never escape God's attention. He's always reflecting on you and keeping record of even the minutest details of your life. So when the weight of this world starts to discourage and drag you down, be mindful of God's mindfulness toward you.
Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. (Psalms 40:5 NKJV)
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
WEDNESDAY
PERFECTION
As for God, His way is perfect? 2 Samuel 22:31 (NKJV)
"Perfect!" Ever say that? Of course you have. Maybe it was after you took a picture. The lighting, the pose, the scenery...it all beautifully blended together in a snapshot of time. You clicked and caught it. You formatted and framed it. And now it sits on your desk or hangs on your wall, a small sliver of this thing we call "perfection."
But as you know, perfection is something we can never truly capture. Even the perfect picture is subject to being torn or damaged. One sprinkler head goes off, and the picture is no longer perfect. That's the fall-out of living in an imperfect world. As long as we're trapped in this fallen environment, true perfection will always be fleeting.
Now think about this: All that God is and all that God does is perfect. Meditate on that for a moment. This thing called perfection that we persistently pursue and never quite capture is found in God and what He does. He never is or does anything less.
For a few years, the world was witness to this perfection in the life of Jesus. As He walked this earth, humanity had the opportunity to see the Perfect Man do perfect things and eventually offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice. Everything about Jesus reflected the perfection of God that we instinctively appreciate and strive for.
The only place we'll find true perfection is in God's presence. He alone will ensure we're progressively perfected until the day we finally see Him face to face.
When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away...For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face (1 Corinthians 13:10-12 NKJV).
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
THURSDAY
MERCY
And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand?the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. Genesis 19:16 (NKJV)
Context is key when it comes to understanding mercy. For example, in the passage above, which is the first time mercy is mentioned in the Bible, we need to understand the circumstances in order to understand the meaningfulness of the Lord's mercy.
The setting is Sodom, and God is about to bury it in judgment. But before He does, He warns Lot and his family to flee. As time is running out, Lot lingers. It's then that the Bible says the Lord mercifully has Lot taken by the hand and saves him from destruction. That's such an apropos portrait of mercy, because mercy is the act of sparing and saving us from judgment and destruction.
That's how God is. He's merciful. He doesn't stand back with folded arms as people face imminent judgment, and He doesn't delight in their destruction but desires to preserve and rescue them from it (Ezekiel 18:23, John 3:17).
God's mercy means He meets us in our proverbial Sodom, takes us by the hand, and mercifully leads us out of our destructive situations. Unfortunately, that's such a far cry from the image many people have of God. They picture Him impatiently poised and ready to incinerate us at the first opportunity.
That's not mercy, and that's not the God of Scripture, whose mercy endures forever (Psalm 136). May we not only receive God's merciful nature for ourselves but also reflect it for those who don't know it.
Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. (Micah 7:18 NKJV)
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
FRIDAY
GRACE
For You are God, gracious and merciful. Nehemiah 9:31 (NKJV)
Yesterday we saw that God is merciful, and today we want to focus on the fact that He is also gracious. What's the difference? Aren't mercy and grace the same thing? While the two attributes are similar, they do have a significant difference.
Mercy, as we saw, is the act of sparing and saving from judgment and condemnation. In relation to God, it speaks of Him rescuing us from the punishment we deserve for our sin. Put another way, mercy is a matter of not giving us what we deserve. Grace, on the other hand, goes above and beyond mercy by giving us what we don't deserve. Some have aptly defined grace as "God's unmerited favor towards the infinitely undeserving."
It's merciful of God to save us from eternal condemnation and death, but it's gracious of God to then adopt us as His own, to make us inheritors of eternal life, and to give us every spiritual blessing in heaven (Ephesians 1:3). Mercy removes the burden, grace adds the blessing.
That's how God operates in our lives, because it's His nature to be gracious. He isn't satisfied with simply not giving us what we deserve, but He delights in taking it a step further by giving us what we don't deserve. A life that's surrendered to God represents an abundance of riches...it's overloaded with evidences of His graciousness.
So if God is gracious and pours out His grace in our lives, what's next? The next step is for us to follow His example by allowing His Spirit to work through us in a way that enables us to be gracious to others. For then, and only then, do we become good stewards of God's grace.
As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10 NKJV)
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
SATURDAY
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 (NKJV)
At the end of a long and tested life of spiritual service, after countless brushes with death, Paul was able to point to God and say, "He remains faithful." Why? Because faithfulness is God's nature, and not even He can deny that about Himself!
Let's make an important distinction here. God doesn't just do faithful things, He doesn't just act faithfully. No, it's much deeper than that. It's who He is. We could even go so far as to say that God can't not be faithful.
It's always a challenge for us to fully receive this wonderful truth, because we tend to view God through the lens of the humans around us. We see hints of His attributes here and there in our earth-bound relationships: the kindly neighbor, the parent who's there for us, and the pastor who help us through life's trials. But no matter how well-intentioned or sincere someone might be, they're bound to fail because they're fallen.
Not God. He's completely different. God is never going to fail us the way others have because He's never fallen as they have. From the very first moments in the Garden of Eden to the End of the Age...one thing that's never in question is the faithfulness of God. It's more reliable than the Law of Gravity.
Remember that the next time your faith in God's faithfulness is challenged. Remember that His faithfulness is a fixed part of His very nature. Remember that He can't not be faithful to you. And remember that His faithfulness remains regardless of how faithless you may be.
"Blessed be the LORD...there has not failed one word of all His good promise... (1 Kings 8:56 NKJV)
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
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