ICS Daily Devotions
God Knows You 100%
God and you are the only ones who really know 100% what is happening every moment of the day in your life. People often asked how would they know that is God speaking to them in their daily lives through their daily devotion? The answer is very simple. Because only God and you know what problems you are struggling with in your mind and your heart. The Holy Spirit can bring a word from your memory to comfort or anchor your faith and His Word can minister to you during your devotion. It can also rebuke, correct and train you in righteousness when you are doing your devotion. If you refuse to do something based on His prompting, the Holy Spirit can be grieved or quenched. Therefore, it is extremely important to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit throughout the day especially when you are facing a test, trial or tribulation in life.
Galatians 6:1(NKJV) Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
Although tribulations come into our lives as a way to steal the word from our lives by the devil, we have to remember that God is a good God who has gone through an extensive effort to restore our relationship with Him. In fact, nothing is able to separate His love from us. God justifies us and therefore, nobody is able to bring a charge against us as we are God’s elect. Tribulations are not from God and are not a way for Him to punish us. They are the work of the devil whose desire is to destroy our faith in God through these hard-pressed situations.
However, God will test us in order to reveal if we have willfully or unknowingly allowed something or someone to rule as god in our lives. Idols in our lives could be our career, investments, assets or even our hobbies. We should learn to forgo those things that we hold dear in our lives by preventing them from replacing God as the center of our lives.
God also allows trials to mold our character, but He will be with us. We should be like David and Daniel of the Old Testament when trials, persecutions and challenges come despite living a sanctified life. We should consider it pure joy when a trial comes because it will mold our character.
We need to grow spiritually until the day when we are called home to be with the Lord. We can always be easily overtaken by trespasses even for those who are spiritually matured if there is a lapse in self-control. However, we are the ones who hold the key to our own personal growth. It does not mean that we are perfect or spiritually matured even though this is how God looks at us right now. This is the positional truth we have in Christ.
If we have decided to live a consecrated and sanctified life, then we should know whether our hardship is from the work of the devil, the result of our fleshly desires or a trial to mold our character. Knowing this distinction is important so that we know if we have to repent, take responsibility for our actions and how to deal with the hardship with the values, principles and ways of God. Only God and you truly know 100% what is happening in your own life.
Sermon Series: God, the Devil or Me?
