Thurs.’s Devo - Staying in the Lord

Read: Judges 2:10-3:31, Luke 22:14-34, Ps. 92:1-93:5, Pr. 14:1-2 After Joshua was gone, Israel fell into sin. They went after foreign gods and intermarried with the very people God told them not to. Because of their rebellion, God sent their enemies to attack them. God used their enemies to tempt and try them. They oppressed them until they eventually cried out to the Lord, Then, God would raise up a judge to help the people defeat their enemies and turn back to Him. They would stay true to the Lord as long as the judge lived, but as soon as they died they would got right back into ways more corrupt than before. That is true in our own lives. When God rescues us, if our hearts don’t change, our deliverance will be very short-lived. Temporary peace or freedom will only be temporary if it doesn’t come from a deep relationship with Jesus. God will deliver us, but we have to stay close and not return to our same life style we had that got us into our pit. How easy is it for us to slip away? For Peter, it was just a few hours. He sits with Jesus and has the most important meal of his life then goes out and denies knowing Jesus three times. We have something they didn’t have in the Old Testament and that is the Holy Spirit. He is our power to stay a witness. He can keep us in the Lord and guide us in truth. We should not be living our Christian life on a roller-coaster but it should be going from glory to glory. The Holy Spirit makes that possible! Lord, thank you for the Holy Spirit - your gift to us. It is a very good gift!