Oh my gosh. I missed yesterday. I did all of my other devotions but went to Jazzercise at 5am and didin't have the time to squeeze this in. Today I'll do two of these entries and since it's already 5:46 one of them may be really short. Apparently God knew that this one didn't need a lot of "stuff."
Just say no. Say no to a coke and have water. Say no to laziness and go work out. It's like he's talking to me here...ha. Delaying gratification = success in everything. Jesus said "if anyone wishes to come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23 I'm glad he touched on this point because I've always had trouble understanding what this means. Denying myself. Now that he threw in the coke and exercise...I understand a little better. Its as if to say all the things that I "gave up" for Lent help me to be better. I deny myself of those things and I'll find success.
Say No to yourself at least once a day. Today I should have started with telling myself "no, don't snooze. Get up and get moving, you have some praying to catch upon."
I haven't figured out how to get an hour of prayer in and an hour of jazzercise in on the same mornings. I haven't woken up before 4:00 for any reason other than a trip...EEEK.
POINT TO PONDER:
Learning to deny yourself will pay huge dividends in your life.
Makes me want to go save even more money. I'll need to do that anyway if we build a house. After that if God wants us to have a baby, I'll definitely need to save.
VERSE TO LIVE:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22- 23
All of the fruits are positive or "soft" fruits and self-control (ok maybe patience too) is really the only "hard" one. Self-control is really the only one we have to really take ownership of and be in "front" of it. I'm not sure if that really makes sense to you. The others seems easy, and self control seems to be the one that takes the most work. This means that you get the most out of it (at least selfishly. ha ha)
QUESTION TO CONSIDER:
In what area of your life do you exhibit the most self-control? In what area of your life do you exhibit the least self control?
When it's not Lent, the least self-control is with exercising and drinking soft drinks I think, using bad language that is truly unnecessary. Patience for sure...I don't have a lot of patience.
The most self-control I have now is my prayer life, it's growing and changing. I also think my marriage with Carey...we both exhibit the right things to make it work so smoothly. I think it takes bits of all of the gifts of the spirit at the right time to make it work.
Come to think of it. Life requires the same.
PRAYER:
Jesus, Give me the grace and strength to say no to myself.
Jesus, Give me the grace and strength to say no to myself.
I had to repeat it.
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