Faithless – Me From the Inside Out

Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land, Quiet Time

Depending on God’s Power

Posted on October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 by

based on the LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land / w4d4

Scripture: God’s Road Map for Our Journey / Daniel 6:10-18 (16)

So at last the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to him, “May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you. Daniel 6:16. NLT

Observations and Applications

Have you ever doubted the importance of your testimony as a believer? If so, this passage certainly validates the value of living out our faith in this faithless land. Perhaps Darius, a pagan king, had heard about the fiery furnace ordeal and what had happened to Belshazzar; Scripture doesn’t say he did, but what it does say is that because he had witnessed Daniel’s consistent living and active faith, when he realized that he could not rescue Daniel himself, he indicated that, at least in this, he would have to depend on the power of Daniel’s God.

No one should doubt the impact a believer’s consistent testimony can have on an unbeliever, even one hardened against faith (James 5:10; 1 Peter 3:16).
Bibleref.com

Oh, how I love Darius’ words of encouragement to Daniel and the hint of his belief, at least in the power of Daniel’s God. I also took great delight in knowing that the king wasn’t upset when Daniel continued to pray despite the edict but that the edict put Daniel in danger. – Then they told the king, “That man Daniel, one of the captives from Judah, is ignoring you and your law. He still prays to his God three times a day.” ¹⁴Hearing this, the king was deeply troubled, and he tried to think of a way to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day looking for a way to get Daniel out of this predicament. (Daniel 6:13-14)

Prayer of Response to the Journey

Father, Thank You for the reminder that Your people’s testimonies are tools in Your hands. They can impact a pagan king, encourage a struggling believer, and change neighborhoods and families. We may never know how our faith affects others, but we do know that we are meant to be salt and light in this dark and faithless land. So help us to be careful how we live, to remember that the world is watching, to remember that we were created for Your glory, and to live as such – not shrinking back but confidently and boldly pressing on to the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. – In His name, I pray and trust – Amen💜

The More We Know About the Journey

More about the Lion’s Den: This form of execution probably used a closed cave or manmade enclosure holding lions captured for this very purpose. The structure might have had multiple doors, including one on the top so that victims could be literally “thrown” in without the lions escaping or attacking the executioners (Daniel 6:17, 24). – Bibleref.com

Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land, Quiet Time

Even When I’m Old

Posted on October 20, 2024October 20, 2024 by

based on the LGG Journal, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land / w4d1

Scripture: The Road Map for Our Journey/Daniel 5:1-17; Isa 46:1-5 (4); Jude 1:24-25

Even when you are old, I will take care of you,
even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.
I made you and I will support you;
I will carry you and rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4. NLT

Some commentaries differ on whether Daniel was 70 or 80 when he was called before King Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Regardless of his age, we again witness Daniel’s bold and faith-filled courage as he stands before the King of Babylon. I don’t know about you, but this gives me hope that despite the situations and demands of this faithless land, God will grace me with the strength to remain faithful for as long as I live.

Did you read today’s passage from Daniel 5:1-17? Did you read the part where Belshazzar called for the gold and silver cups that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem? Did it appall you that he did this so that he and the others partying with him could drink from them? Vessels once used in the Temple of our God were now being used by a pagan king, his nobles, wives, and concubines! I found myself heartbroken by this but somewhat delighted as I kept reading to find out that God interrupted the party with some handwriting on the wall. I also took great delight in the reaction of the king. Scripture says that his “face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear, and his legs gave way beneath him.”

they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, – The king himself saw the hand as it wrote,
Daniel 5:5

This time, Daniel is not commanded to interpret a dream but rather the handwriting on a wall. Still as confident as he was as a young man before Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel agrees to do as Belshazzar has asked but tells the king that he does not want the gifts that had been offered for his success. Remember, while it may impress us that Daniel was not looking to profit from the gift God had given him, we must remember that the king, his officials, and anyone watching would have most likely considered this a great offense. Oh, that we might live so boldly today.

Prayer of Response to the Journey

Teach us Your ways, Lord, and help us to walk in them faithfully and to share them with others, regardless of our age. Help us talk about you when we rise up, when we lie down, and when we go throughout our day. Thank You for Your promise never to leave us or forsake us, to help us, regardless of our age or place in life, to carry out Your call on our lives, and to stay faithful in this faithless land. Thank You for making this possible through Christ in us. – Amen

²⁴Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. ²⁵All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.
Jude 1:24-25. NLT

The More We Know about the Journey

Did you notice how much Belshazzar resembles the young and very proud Nebuchadnezzar? Were you surprised that Belshazzar did not seem to know about Daniel or his gift of interpretation? – May these be lessons for us as parents or grandparents to share with the younger generation what God has done or is doing in our lives. May we introduce them to our God and teach them to follow Him faithfully so that they might not disregard the things of God but love and serve Him faithfully.

Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land, Quiet Time

Conformed or Transformed?

Posted on October 2, 2024October 3, 2024 by

based on the LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless World / w1d4

Scripture: A Roadmap for our Journey – Daniel 1:3-7; Isaiah 39:6-7; Romans 12:1-2

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service. ²Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2. NET

If we belong to God, He is our Father, and He wants us to live according to His plan and His ways—which are righteous and holy. This will not and cannot happen if we copy the behaviors and customs of the world around us. God’s plan and desire is to transform us into new people, and this starts with changing the way we think. He wants to mold us and make us into His image, specifically, the righteous and holy image of His only begotten Son, Jesus.

Paul exhorts the believers in Rome to present their bodies to God as living, holy, and pleasing sacrifices. This means we will have to forego all the pleasures of the world and our hearts’ desires that do not align with God’s will and pleasure. Please read that again, making sure to understand that we do not have to forego all pleasures or give up all of our heart’s desires – only those that do not align with the will of God. How, in the world we live in, with all of its demands and tempting pleasures, can we faithfully do this? I believe the answer is found in Paul’s instructions: we should not conform to the ways of the world but instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds. One question we can ask ourselves every morning is, will we conform to the ways of the world, or will we be transformed by the renewing of our minds by allowing God to change the way we think?

As God’s people, we are not to adapt to or adopt the ways of the world around us. 🦋

The picture we see played out on the pages of Daniel Chapter 1 is one of a king attempting to transform Daniel and the other Jews, who were God’s chosen people, into the image of a ‘true’ Babylonian by reshaping the way they thought and spoke. At the end of a three-year training program, they would enter the king’s service. Even their names were changed from names that pointed them to the true and living God of Israel to Babylonian names that pointed them to the gods of the Babylonians.

“Everything was going to challenge what they had been taught in Judah.” The question was, “How would they choose to live? Could they make a home in Babylon and remain faithful to their God?”
Love God Greatly / Living Faithful in a Faithless Land / p53 – emphasis added

“What about you, MaryEllen?” Those were the words that popped into my mind as I was rereading the first part of this post that I had written earlier in the day. More questions followed that question … Do my ‘name’, my character and the things about me – ie. my words and the things I do and say point me and others toward the true and living God – or toward the gods and things of this world? – It’s a hard but important question, one I believe is good to ask ourselves from time to time – along with, “How have I chosen to live? Am I remaining faithful to God as I live in this sin-saturated world?”

Paul strongly urged the believers in Rome to give themselves over to the pleasures of God instead of self – to no longer live as though they were still dead in their sins but as ones made alive in Christ, holy and pleasing to God. What he wrote to the believers then is still vital for us as believers today — who “live in a culture that seeks to challenge what the Bible teaches.”¹Remember the King in Daniel’s story, how he worked to change the way the young men from Judah thought and spoke and even ate by filling their minds with the literature and language of the Babylonians and their bodies with royal delicacies? The Lord’s Word, His literature, and language have the power to transform us, to reshape the way we think and speak and live, and – as I have found – to change us from the ‘inside out’ as we learn to live by the good, pleasing, and perfect will of our God.

“We need to renew our minds over and over with the Word of God. The better we know God, the more likely we are to trust Him and know that His ways are best even when we can’t understand what is going on.”
Love God Greatly / Living Faithful in a. Faithless Land / p53

Father, how easy it is to let my thoughts be filled and influenced by the world/culture around me. Guard me against this, Father, and let Your ways, Your Words, Your love, and desires saturate – not just my mind but my heart – so that I can know Your good, pleasing, and perfect will and live accordingly. Change me from the inside out – I pray this in the name of Your Son, my Savior – Amen❤️

Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land, Quiet Time

A Letter of Hope

Posted on October 1, 2024October 1, 2024 by

based on the LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless World / w1d3

Scripture – Our Roadmap for the Journey: Jeremiah 29:4-14/soap 29:7

And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
Jeremiah 29:7 NLT

The Right Perspective

Perhaps one of the most challenging things for a Christian to come to grips with is the realization that we do not live a “charmed life.” The hope and future we have in and through Christ do not guarantee that everything in our lives will be easy or go well. Scripture warns believers that there will be suffering and difficulties in this life, but praise God 💜 It also promises that a beautiful future awaits us.

Observation and Application for the Journey

Exiled with Instructions

We must not overlook that the exiles were God’s people, and they were instructed by God to work to see that the city where they were exiled enjoyed peace and prosperity; they were also to pray to God for “the city” to prosper. In other words, they were to be concerned about the place where God had sent them and the people they were now forced to live in exile with. I can’t help but think of the command Jesus gave to His disciples in the NT to love their enemies and to pray for those who persecuted them.¹

The RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

Having the right perspective requires knowing and remembering that God exiled His people only after they refused to do what He told them to do. ² Reread Jeremiah’s warning and the people’s response in Jeremiah 18:1-12, paying careful attention to verses 11 and 12.

So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ ¹²But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” Jeremiah 18:1-12. NET

We also must not miss the “right perspective” we are given through the prophet Jeremiah’s identification of God as the orchestrator of the exile. Yes, God sent His people into exile as a consequence of their rebellion,³ but He had a plan for both the ‘city’ and the ‘exiles.’ The plan was not to harm them but to prosper them, and as Jeremiah went on to write, God knew what He had planned for His people—which was “to give them a future filled with hope.”⁴

I don’t know that we can fully understand this type of exile, but the thing that hits me with some semblance of understanding is knowing that this world is not our forever home. Peter referred to his fellow believers as “temporary residents and foreigners.” And Paul wrote, “We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” He goes on to say that “we are eagerly waiting for Christ to return as our Savior.” For then, “He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.”⁵

Friends, it is important to understand that this promise was specific to the “Nation of Israel,” even more specifically, to the Jews who were in exile in the days of Daniel. However, all who are in Christ share in God’s promise of hope and a future forever with Him! Without this truth and perspective, we will get lost in our misery and struggles, or we will get caught up in the ways of the world around us and turn from our God – missing out on the purpose He has for us here, which is not just biding our time – but working and praying for the salvation of the lost until He returns.

The return of Christ is always presented in Scripture as a great motivation to action, not as a reason to cease from action. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, Paul wraps up his teaching on the rapture by saying, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:6, Paul concludes a lesson on Christ’s coming with these words: “So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.” To retreat and “hold the fort” was never Jesus’ intention for us. Instead, we work while we can. “Night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4). Gotquestions.org

Prayer of Response from the Journey

Father, thank You for the reminder that this is not our forever home. We are foreigners and aliens in this world. However, this has also reminded me that we are not to be simply biding our time until You return and we receive our promised citizenship in Your Kingdom. Instead, we are to work and pray for the salvation of the lost as Jesus commissioned His disciples to do – until He returns. Help us, Father, not to be caught up with the cares and struggles of this world but to keep our eyes on You, Your promised return, and Your call upon our lives to live faithfully in this faithless land. – I pray these things in the name of Your Son, Jesus – my Savior and Lord – Amen

WORSHIP RESPONSE TO THE JOURNEY/ BORROWED AND SHARED FROM YOUTUBE

Reflection on the journey

How can you work in your “city” for peace and prosperity?
How/what can you pray for “the city”?

The More We Know

For more insight, read today’s Love God Greatly Blog Post

For further reading and understanding: Psalm 137:1-4; 2 King 25:4-12

The Plans I Have for You

Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, God is good, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land, Quiet Time

A God-Given Desire

Posted on September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by

Scripture: Our Roadmap for the Journey: Jeremiah 24:1-8 / SOAP: verse 7 / w1d2

I will give them hearts that recognize me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.
Jeremiah 24:7. NLT

Observation and Application from today’s journey

The Heart of God for His People is seen in the “I will” statements God gave through Jeremiah. They must have been great words of encouragement to Jeremiah, words of hope for a heartwrenching and seemingly hopeless situation. God had sent His people into exile because of their rebellion, but here, God tells Jeremiah, “I consider them to be good.” He then proclaims that He will look after their “welfare.” He will also restore them to their land, build them up, and not uproot them. He will give them the desire to acknowledge Him as Lord; He will be their God, and they will be His people. Why? Because God loves them with an everlasting love and, from the beginning of time, was working all things out – not to harm them but to give them hope and a future. The LGG journal for today’s portion of our journey explains this so well that I am sharing it with you here. May it help us as we move forward through the lessons of living faithfully in the land of the faithless.

Today’s devotion is borrowed and shared from the pages of the LGG Journal, Living Faithful in the Land of the Faithless, p 45.