Monthly Archives: December 2019

Does The Will Of God

Posted on by
Reply
Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Life - 1 John 2:15-17 - Does The Will Of God - Growing As Disciples

Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Life – 1 John 2:15-17 – Does The Will Of God – Growing As Disciples

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.  1 John 2:15-17 (NIV)

Love Of The Father

Loving the world, that is something I don’t want to do. This world is passing away. My days in this life are short. There is nothing from this life that will last forever. There is nothing from this life that I can take with me. Everything of value that I now see will one day amount to nothing. A lot of what I have pursued will have been like a mirage on the road ahead. I will have chased after nothing. I don’t desire that kind of life anymore. I want my life to have counted for something. I want my life to have mattered. I want to look back from heaven knowing that my life on this earth was well spent. So, I don’t love this world. I don’t crave all that this world has to offer.  I don’t lust after this world’s delicacies.  I take no pride in what I have or in what I have done.

What do you really want most of all? Most of all I want to know and love you. Loving you or loving the world may seem like a hard choice to some. It isn’t to me. Why is that? I have tasted of your goodness. I have felt your kindness. I have experienced your love. I have received your forgiveness and cleansing. I know that I am your child. I have been accepted into your family. You are my Father and my God. Yes, I am. There is no place I would rather be than in your presence. There is nothing I would rather hear than your voice. There is nothing I would rather see than your glory. There is nothing I would rather do than to love, follow and serve you. I have no greater joy than to know that I have been used by you. I am at your disposal. I want to bear an abundance of fruit for your kingdom and glory. One day I want to hear you say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Only you can make that possible. Only you can make me faithful. Yes, I can.

It is my prayer that I will be able to receive all that you want to give me. It is my prayer that I will do all that you have asked of me. Do you believe that I will hear and answer your prayers? Yes, I do believe. Why do you believe?  It is unlike me not to crave all that the world has to offer. It is unlike me not to lust after what I have seen with my eyes. It is unlike me not to boast about what I have or what I have done. You have changed my heart and mind and desires. Yes, I have. You have made me hungry and thirsty for you. Your love for me has made me to want to love you. I want to live in your love. Your love has filled my heart and my mind and my soul. Yes, it has. I will live my life with and for you. Yes, you will.

Lord, I love you with all my heart and mind and soul and strength. It is my desire to both know and do your will. Guard my heart and mind from loving the world or anything in it. Help me to do your will in all that I think, say and do. Amen

For today’s complete 4 page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide click here:

Life – 1 John 2-15-17 – Does The Will Of God – 4 Page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide

Please consider sharing these devotionals with others through the social media you use.

Individual users may save the Discipleship Devotional Study Guide to their desktop for private use. All the blanks in the study guides are fields that allow typed responses. To use the fields on the study guide you may need to open the guide with a free version of adobe reader.

By Jon Ulrich © All rights reserved                   Copying not permitted                      www.GrowingAsDisciples.com

Good Stored Up In Him

Posted on by
Reply
Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Heart - Matthew 12:35 - Good Stored Up In You - Growing As Disciples

Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Heart – Matthew 12:35 – Good Stored Up In You – Growing As Disciples

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. Matthew 12:35 (NIV)

Storing Up 

What are you storing up in you? That’s an odd question. What does that mean? How can I sore up something within me? My question is not odd at all. Let me ask you a couple questions. I’m listening. Have you ever said something that you deeply regretted? Yes, of course I have said things that I deeply regretted. I’m not finished. Have you ever said to yourself, “Where did that come from?” Have you ever wondered how you could have blurted out something that was so regrettable? Should I answer your question now? Yes, go ahead. I can’t tell you the number of times I have deeply regretted saying something. Yes, I have wondered where what I said came from and how and why I could have said it. The fact that I could have said some so regrettable has been deeply troubling to me. Well, I have some bad and good news for you. What’s that? I’ll start with the bad news. There is no mystery here. Whatever you think and say and do comes from your heart. If you have thought or said or done something regrettable it came from something regrettable that you have allowed to be stored up in your heart. That’s why you asked me what I am storing up in me. That’s right.

What’s the good news? You get to choose what you will allow to be stored up in your heart. You can choose to store up in your heart what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. You can choose to store up my word in your heart. What you store up in you will change your heart, transform your mind and guide your life. Each day you will be presented with a choice. How so? You will be asked, what will you allow to be stored up in your heart and mind and life. If you do nothing, the world and all its evil will be stored up in you. You live in a world filled with evil. Every day the world will try to conform your heart and mind and life according to its patterns, practices and values. If you do nothing, you will think and speak and act just like everyone else in the world. Is that what you want? No, it is not. I want to be storing up your word in me. I want to be able to know and do your will. I want to live a life that is pleasing to you. That is what will happen as you keep storing up my word in you. Then you will think and speak, and act based on what has been stored up in your heart.

Lord, I want to store up good in my heart and mind and life. I will store up your word within me. I will let your word dwell in me richly. Use your word to change my heart, transform my mind and guide my life. Use your word to bring abundant good out of my life. Amen

For today’s complete 4 page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide click here:

Heart – Matthew 12-35 – Good Stored Up In Him – 4 Page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide

Please consider sharing these devotionals with others through the social media you use.

Individual users may save the Discipleship Devotional Study Guide to their desktop for private use. All the blanks in the study guides are fields that allow typed responses. To use the fields on the study guide you may need to open the guide with a free version of adobe reader.

By Jon Ulrich © All rights reserved                   Copying not permitted                      www.GrowingAsDisciples.com

Seek – Find

Posted on by
Reply
Discipleship Devotional Study Guide - Rhythms - Jeremiah 29:13 - Seek-Find - Growing As Disciples

Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Rhythms – Jeremiah 29:13 – Seek-Find – Growing As Disciples

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

All My Heart

I know that I have not always sought you with all my heart. There have been many times when I have not sought you at all. I have gone and done my own thing. I have lived my own self-sufficient and self-reliant life. I have pursued my own plans. I have followed my own purposes. I have sought my own comfort and pleasure. I have lived a life, quite apart from you. How was that life? It was no life at all. Nothing I pursued could fill the emptiness inside of me. There was nowhere I could go or nothing I could do that would fill the void inside of me. Every pursuit, every accomplishment, every comfort and every pleasure left me feeling empty. But that isn’t half the story. What is the rest of the story? My self-centered and self-reliant life left me bruised and battered and broken. How so? I lived for myself. I enjoyed things. I used people. I lived a dark and sinful life. I walked on a path that led further and further away from you. At least that is what I thought. I’m glad you added that.

What happened to you? I reached rock bottom. I could take it no more. I wanted no more of my empty and meaningless life. I had enough. I felt like I was without hope in a dark and broken world. What did you do? I cried out to you. I asked you to show yourself to me. I say I asked. I really screamed. I would have heard you either way. Yes, but you heard the depth and pain with which I cried out to you. Yes, I did. I deserved nothing from you. No, you did not. Yet, you heard my cry. You answered my prayer. Yes, I did. You were with me even in the darkness of my empty life. Yes, I was. I was not so far away from you that I could not be found by you. No, you were not.

I have been following you now, for many years. Have I always sought you with all my heart? Have I ever sought you with all my heart? The answer to both questions is probably not. Yet, the desire to follow you with all my heart burns hot within me. Yes, it does. Well, I have this one request of you. What’s that? Fan the flame of my desire to seek you with all my heart. Make my desire to seek and know you burn white hot within me. I want to know you. I want to love you. I want to follow and serve you with all my heart and mind and soul and strength. I will hear and answer your prayer. You will seek me with all your heart. You will find me. You will know and love and follow and serve me with all your heart. Thank you, Lord. 

Lord, thank you for your promises. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your faithfulness. I will seek you with all my heart. I know I will find you as I seek you with all my heart. You will help me to come to know you. You will help me to go and do your will. Amen

For today’s complete 4 page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide click here:

Rhythms – Jeremiah 29-13 – Seek – Find – 4 Page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide

Please consider sharing these devotionals with others through the social media you use.

Individual users may save the Discipleship Devotional Study Guide to their desktop for private use. All the blanks in the study guides are fields that allow typed responses. To use the fields on the study guide you may need to open the guide with a free version of adobe reader.

By Jon Ulrich © All rights reserved                   Copying not permitted                      www.GrowingAsDisciples.com