Recovery Devotional 301 Token Allegiance

JMD Devotional 301 2 Chronicles 15:1-2, 7 Token Allegiance

THE SPIRIT of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. And he went out to meet Asa and said to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him, craving Him as your soul's first necessity], He will be found by you; but if you [become indifferent and] forsake Him, He will forsake you.

Vs 7 Be strong, therefore, and let not your hands be weak and slack, for your work shall be rewarded.

Faith and obedience are useless in half-measures; their value is bound to their degree of purity. Who do men think they are trying to fool with token allegiance, outward ceremony, half-hearted commitment? The person who tries to fool God ultimately deceives himself! Faith and obedience are two parts of the same glove: faith is the inside and obedience is the outside; one cannot be isolated from the other. A ‘faith’ that does not result in active obedience is not really faith at all, not in the earnest, Biblical sense of believing in, trusting and knowing God. We do not serve God for nothing, either. God has promised Himself as the ultimate inheritance for His people. When we forsake Him for anything else, that is idolatry, be it material, sensual or positional. What our covetousness really says is that we do not trust God to give us His best, that those things are better than having Him in our lives. I am used to people labeling me ‘fanatic’; how I wish it were branded on my heart and mind in every moment of temptation!

Dear God,

I praise You because You are far better to me than I deserve! Forgive my hypocrisy, my half-measures, my superficial ‘righteousness’, my iniquity. Help me to be strong in Christ, filled with Your Spirit, to be faithful, fully committed, authentic, and consistent: a ROCK. Help me to be a faithful servant of Christ Jesus, an effective witness, a true saint. You are my great reward; may I not settle for less.

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

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Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

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**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

I originally produced these blogs between 2006 and 2007, which were then published in my book, JMD Recovery Devotionals. In 2010, I am sending these out to a few people as I review them and see if my point of view has changed.

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