I love the comments!!!
Leviticus chapter 23.
I was excited about today's devotion because I saw a real challenge that could impact every day of my life and impact the lives of others every day. God appointed festivals that were to be carried out by the Israelites. All the festivals had something in common.
1. All the festivals were to be done “To the Lord.”
2. It involved “A sacred assembly.”
3. It involved doing “No regular work.”
Other principles mentioned were:
4. Giving God our best.
5. Having an excitement for the Lord.
6. Rejoicing before the Lord.
7. Denying self.
8. Others should benefit from our blessings.
Can you imagine how differently our lives would be if we could put these principles into practice every day! Think how differently our lives would be with the Lord and with others. Think of how other lives would be impacted. Life would no longer be just all about me. It would be all about God. I would daily be wondering how I could incorporate the love of God in my life at home, at work, at school, at church. I'd want to give God my best, daily surrendering my selfish desires so that I could give God my full attention striving to please him and others versus trying to please just myself. Think of things I would be willing to give up or even think of friends I would be willing to give up that hinder my relationship with the Lord. Think how much more often I'd be excited about spending time with God in my prayer life or Bible reading. Think how much more often I would want to be in fellowship with others in a church setting. Think of how are often I would give thanks to God for answered prayers, or for friends and family, or for even trials that help me grow vs complaining about trials or tribulations. Think of how more often I want to take advantage of every opportunity to be a blessing to those around me. For me, in order for this to happen on a daily basis, I have to:
1. STOP and LISTEN. I can't be in such a hurry to accomplish my goals that I miss what God's trying to say to me and how he's trying to lead me so that it's more about his goals vs mine.
2. I have to be more INTENTIONAL WITH MY THINKING. I need to strive throughout the day to take advantage of every opportunity to focus on God, be thankful, think about those around me and their needs. My goal today is to strive to stop, listen and act on the spirits leading so God becomes my focus and others benefit. This is my challenge for me today maybe it could be a challenge for you as well.
Pastor Blair has brought up lots of great points. May we strive towards focusing on God and allowing Him to shine through us to make an impact on others.
There’s so much in the Old Testament that points to Jesus. I think that the festivals are another example. I went to Colossians 2:16-17 after reading about the festivals today. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
After reading about these appointed festivals, I tried to do some lateral research and I focused on the festal of unleavened bread. “For the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast.”
It brought me to 1 Corinthians 5:7 that says “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch- as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
Blair, I think those steps 1-8 that you shared would make us into who we really are, as an unleavened batch. When we live a life of sin, the opposite of those 8 steps you mentioned, when we are FULL of old yeast, we can not stand FIRM in our faith of the Lord (unleavened bread is firm, like a cracker/flatbread). I pray that we can all get rid of the old yeast in our lives, and be as we really are!