21 Days of Dedication

Day 5 - "Comfort Yourself in God!"

Welcome to Day 5 of our 21-Day Dedication. If you’re new here, this is a three-week period of time where we remind ourselves Who we belong to, repent from uncleanliness of heart and dedicate ourselves to Yahweh, the King of kings. In a time of repentance and dedication, it can be easy to have an “Us vs. Them” mentality with “Them” being God. Some picture God angrily waiting in disappointment for repentance. Yet the Bible says in Romans 2:4 that God’s kindness leads us to repentance. He is a great comforter and, in His righteousness, we will be made whole. Praise God!

Political unrest is to be expected on this side of eternity. There has been no nation, no time period, no civilization that has not experienced it. If we find comfort in anything at all, let our peace lay in the fact that God, in that same kindness, knows how to walk His people through times of upheaval. At the risk of sounding redundant, if we find any comfort in ANYTHING or ANYONE that is not God, may today be the day that we lay the false god of comfort on the altar as a sacrifice to Him.

When you travel through the Old Testament, you find numberless stories of God’s redemption and miraculous rescue. God parted the Red sea rescuing Israel from brutal slavery. God led Nehemiah and the Israelites to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem giving His children a home from slavery yet again. Goliath’s army ran from Israel after it seemed like they were unbeatable. God is a deliverer. He is faithful to His promise. Yet in so many instances of His deliverance, obedience was the first step. If we are holding tightly onto what we think we want, we might miss what we need. Today is the day to dedicate our will to God. OUT LOUD, with your audible words strumming through those amazing vocal cords that God gave you, give Him your will. Have you done that before? Cool. Do it again. We plan what we eat, what we wear, what we spend our money on. We sit on the throne of our lives making decisions about the 5,000 different ways we could drink our coffee (and if we are correct in our ways, we drink it with cream and no sugar). We can lay the burden of our countless decisions at the feet of Jesus and seek first and foremost His will, His desires, and His ways. As we offer our will, may we seek the Lord in faith for His wisdom. James 1:5 tells us that He gives it generously!

And my last challenge for the day is this: read the book of James. May we immerse ourselves into the Word of God. If you listen from your Bible app it takes 13 minutes. It’s worth it.

Be blessed and steadfast in His love!

-Pastor Christina Noe