Daily Bread Archives

November 28, 2022November 28, 2022

Know His Ways

⁶ The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. ⁷He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. ⁸The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. ~ Psalms 103:6–8

The people of Israel were only familiar with God’s acts. They only saw what He did because they stood far off. But Moses knew His ways because he drew near to God. Moses said let me know Your works that I might know You. David also knew his God, and that is why he is known as a man after God’s own heart because he sought to know the LORD his God.

The people of Moses’ day were not so inclined to put themselves out there in order to know their God. It’s the same today. People are good and content just to come to church and sit in the pews and let somebody else praise God for them. They sit quietly by while their neighbor gets more and more undignified, praising God.

But catch them at a football game. They will come home with their throats sore and their voices hoarse from the screaming and yelling and celebrating. They will never see God’s glory until they catch the spirit of Moses.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Know His Ways.

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Don’t Miss Him

¹⁸Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off ¹⁹and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” ²⁰Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” ²¹The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. ~ Exodus 20:18–21

So many Christians only know about God, but they don’t know God. They can quote Scripture, defend doctrine, and even teach the Scriptures to others, but they don’t know God. They have no relationship with God. They’ve become like the Pharisees. The Pharisees taught the Scriptures; they were the teachers of the Law and the closest to perfection mankind could get on their own; nevertheless, they didn’t know God. They had no relationship with God.

Because they only knew God on a surface level, they missed God completely when He came in the form of man by the name of Jesus. Today, so many of us only know God on a surface level that we don’t see Him in our society anymore. We try to mix God with our own personal ideas of who God is and what He stands for instead of trying to get to know Him on a personal level. We’d rather others pray for us than for us to go to God ourselves. This just adds to the separation between us and God. If we don’t seek God out ourselves for who He is and not who we want Him to be, then we’ll miss Him completely.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Miss Him.

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Invoke, Thank, and Praise

⁴Then he appointed a family of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. ~ 1 Chronicles 16:4

Solomon said that a three-strand cord isn’t easily broken. In other words, when you put three key principles together, you aren’t easily overcome by the enemy. David set up a three-strand cord as well, and there was much peace, prosperity, and favor of the LORD during His reign.

1. Invoke (to invoke the Name of the LORD. To bless. Jesus gave us the authority to use His mighty name.)
2. To give thanks
3. And to praise the LORD

Normally, the first thing that is listed, or the first thing that is done, is the most dominant or the most important. The first thing David did was call on the name of the LORD. We were given a promise from the time of Joel that all who call on the name of the LORD would be saved. Jesus promised that God would hear those who call on the name of the LORD.

After this, David gave thanks. This is important because we enter God’s gates with thanksgiving. In other words, after God has heard our cry and we’ve gotten His attention, we begin the process of entering His presence through thanksgiving.

Finally, David had them praise the LORD. Because you enter His gates with thanksgiving, and you enter His courts with praise. In other words, we enter God’s presence through praise. This three-strand cord opens the door to the presence of the LORD. It worked for David during his time on this earth, and it still works for us today.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Invoke, Thank, and Praise.

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Continue To Give Thanks

¹⁴then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ¹⁵who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, ¹⁶who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. ~ Deuteronomy 8:14

Life is filled with hardships and tribulations. It’s filled with obstacles and walls. Life is always an uphill battle, but don’t let the devil use these things against you. Satan is the Father of Lies. He’ll use any situation that we go through in order to convince you that God doesn’t love or want you, but this isn’t the Truth. Do not let Satan, that old devil, convince you that you’re going through hardships because God hates you. Don’t let him persuade you that God has forgotten you because you just got laid off. Or that those fiery serpents and scorpions are snapping at your heels and are blocking your way because God wants to see you struggle. Do what you’re supposed to do.

Continue to pray, seek, and worship Him. Continue to offer thank-offerings. Don’t get caught up in lies. Don’t let the devil steal your dreams or your blessings—stand firm on the promises of God and all that He has done for you. Never let the devil steal your thanksgiving and your gratefulness. Give thanks to the LORD even in times of trouble, for He is good.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Continue To Give Thanks.

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Enjoy Thanksgiving Benefits

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

God wants us to be thankful and to give thanks at all times and in all circumstances. Rejoice at all times and in all situations, not just when the sun is warm on your face, and the wind is to your back, but even when the rain is coming down, and you have no umbrella. Rejoice even to the confiscation of your goods as the early Christians did, for great is your reward.

That does not mean praying only when you need something or when difficult times are upon you. Using God as a “Get out of jail free” card. This is the crutch of the whole matter, giving thanks—the act of thanksgiving. Again, we don’t wait for everything to go right to give thanks. We don’t stop giving thanks because life has thrown us a curve ball. To give thanks is the will of God. Therefore, be thankful, and enjoy the benefits. And may you have a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Enjoy Thanksgiving Benefits.

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Obey To Be Thankful

¹¹Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, ~ Deuteronomy 8:11

God said, “Be very careful not to forget the LORD your God.” Why? Because God considers it an insult when you have a short-term memory and do not keep His commandments or obey His rules or observe His statutes. He’s not interested in the sacrifices or the prayers of the disobedient. Because to obey is better than sacrifice. This is because when we are obedient to God, we are showing God that we are dependent on Him and thankful to Him for all that He has done for us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Obey To Be Thankful.

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Don’t Forget God

⁸This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; ~ Matthew 15:8

Lip service is cheap and can be insincere, or at the very least, it can come across as insincere. But when you live a life of gratitude, you will experience the joy of Thanksgiving, and it’ll keep you humble before God because now your mind, your carnal nature, won’t begin to believe or think that it was all you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Forget God.

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Live a Life of Gratitude

⁶Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! ~ Psalms 150:6

William Arthur Ward once said, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” According to God, we are to serve Him (God) with gladness. We are to come into His presence with singing and thanksgiving because it was God who created us in His own image, and He is continuously molding us to be more like Him. We are not self-made people.

We are the sheep of His pasture. He loves us and cares for us, and He is faithful even when we are unfaithful, and all He wants is our obedience and our gratitude. Our thanks. Therefore, we should give thanks to God for all He has done for us and for who He is. But you know what? God wants us to take it a step higher.

He wants us to not only give thanks to Him but to live a life of gratitude. He wants us to live like we are thankful for life. Thankful for the things we enjoy. Thankful for the things we take for granted, like family and close friends. Thankful for the food we eat. Jesus never ate one bite of food without giving thanks. Should we do any less? Peace. Love. Go Forth and Live a Life of Gratitude.

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Don’t Believe The Lies

⁶Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! ⁷All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. ⁸Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” ⁹Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. ~ Daniel 6:6–9

Envy is a terrible slave master. It will make you do some despicable things,
not excluding lying with the intent to cause murder, as these men did. It knows
no bounds, no limits, has no friends, has no loyalty. Envy is a cunning
emotion, and these men were caught in its vice grip.

The Scriptures say that it pleased King Darius to set 120 satraps over the
whole kingdom. A satrap was a governor of a province or a ruler. So, the
kingdom was probably divided into 120 provinces, and each province had a
governor or some high-ranking official called a satrap over each one.

Then the king was pleased to set three top officials over the 120 satraps
(Daniel 6:1–2). Everything was working out just fine until envy set in. You
see, Daniel began to distinguish himself from the others through his work ethic
and his honesty. So, the king was further pleased to set Daniel over them all.

That’s when the others had enough of Mr. Goody Two Shoes, and that
green-eyed giant of envy raised his nasty head. And they began to plot. They
tried to find some kind of dirt on Daniel, anything, anything at all. But try
as they may, they could not find anything because Daniel was an honest,
hardworking, squeaky-clean man, righteous in all of his ways. They came to the
conclusion that they would never find anything illegal against him. So, they
would have to invent something. But that is nothing new; it still happens
today.

The punishment for their setup of Daniel was death by the same
means they had intended for him. Envy will convince you that it will get you
whatever it is that you desire from someone without punishment. But there are
always consequences for every action we make, whether good or bad. Don’t allow
that green-eyed monster to convince you otherwise.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Believe The Lies.

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Choose the Latter

The enemy’s goal is to spiritually kill us. So, he makes certain parts of our faith illegal with each and every generation. Some of us hold on regardless of repercussions, as Daniel did, but others of us fall prey to the enemy’s plan. One day, he’ll even set up a system that the consequence will be death to all who refuse to bow their knee to the normalized sin of the enemy. This system isn’t too far off, it’s already here in certain parts of the world, but one day it will come to the west. It’ll overtake us by force like a flood we can’t run from. There will be two options set before us, just like Daniel, spiritual death or physical death.

But don’t be discouraged or frightened. Our bodies aren’t our own; we belong to Christ. We are the Temple of the Living God, and He will have vengeance on anyone who destroys His Temple. He will bring Justice and cause an end to the wickedness of this world. He will come back to redeem His people and bring His rewards with Him. Therefore, be encouraged. If the world is against you, then God is for you. Stay awake, for the hour is coming when darkness will fully reign, and there will only be two choices for all people.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Choose the Latter.

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