Devos for Dec. 9th

Hey everyone it’s blog day! I hope the new blog has been beneficial to you in your devotions. Remember, the blog isn’t a replacement to devos but an aid. It’s to encourage you in your reading of the bible, also to give example of what God’s saying in His word.

Scripture

Today we read Titus chapter 1, 2, and 3:1-11

Take Away Verse – Titus 1:15,16 (pure hearts) 1:10,11 (useless talkers) 2:7 (actions matching words) 2:14 (freedom in Christ)

Observation/Application

There was an abundance of things God was saying through today’s devos! Some encouraging, others challenging, and yet others found me hungry for more.

In 1:15,16 Paul is addressing people’s hearts, he correlates the heart with the mind and says if a man’s mind is corrupt it’s because his heart is too. This week I was reminded of a song we used to sing when I was a young buck in youth church, it was Give us clean Hands. In this song it say’s, “Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another”.  We find that our actions are corrupt because we can’t seem to put aside the desires of this world. It’s not the mind that is corrupt in this alone but it’s truly a heart matter. The reason we can’t put aside the desires of the world are because our hearts aren’t pure! We haven’t truly set it in on course for God and God alone. Paul follows up verse 15 by saying “such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live.” We can say anything we want, but it comes down to the “walk the walk don’t just talk the talk”. I know plenty of people who “believe” in God but Paul is saying they are truly denying him with their life.

In 2:7 Paul tells Titus to let everything that he does to reflect his teaching, in other words, don’t be a hypocrite! We need to be bold in our faith and not let the voices of this world tell me to be quiet. We should be confident in speaking what I know, and what I know is the very truth that the world needs.

2:14 say’s that Jesus gave his life to cover every kind of sin. There isn’t anything we can do to out run that covering. It’s an umbrella that covers us. If we accept him we are covered. Every KIND of SIN! What a good God we have. I fall short in all kinds of ways, but none bigger than what Jesus already did for me. If you’re out there feeling distant from God, for something you’ve done in your life; past or present, his gift has covered you. That was the plan from the beginning, to reconciled you back to God.

PRAYER

Lord, thank you for your sacrifice that covers me and all my failures. You are mighty and knew my mistakes even before I made them, yet you choose me still. Help me to live out what I preach and teach. Help me to become more and more like your son Jesus. I love you and your word, continue in me a passion for you, enough to put aside the things of the world and to only love you. In Jesus name Amen.