OUR DEVOTION WILL DETERMINE OUR PROMOTION

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BENEFITS OF HAVING YOUR DEVOTION

As christian our goal is not perfection but progression, every day of our lives should draw near to God. As His children He instructed us to put Him first in our daily task, that is our devotion. Devotion is not a religious thing that we must do to be accepted by God, whether we do something for God or not we are still precious and acceptable to God's eyes because of Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. The grace of God is not dependent to what we are doing.

WHAT IS DEVOTION?

Devotion is setting aside time to read the word and God and reflecting on His promises, correction, guidance etc, sometimes we spend 20 - 30 minutes of our day specially in the morning before we do our daily task or evening before we sleep reading the word of God. It is a time alone with God. Time to read His words, reflect in His words, thinking about our sins and asking God's forgiveness.

Today we can learn from the story of King Jehoshaphat the benefits of doing his devotion.

2 Chronicles 17:1-11
Jehoshaphat King of Judah
1 Jehoshaphat his son succeeded him as king and strengthened himself against Israel.
2 He stationed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah and put garrisons in Judah and in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.
3 The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways that his father David had followed. He did not consult the Baals
4 but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel.
5 The LORD established the kingdom under his control; and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so that he had great wealth and honour.
6 His heart was devoted to the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.
7 In the third year of his reign he sent his officials Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah to teach in the towns of Judah.
8 With them were certain Levites-Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah and Tob-Adonijah-and the priests Elishama and Jehoram.
9 They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD; they went round to all the towns of Judah and taught the people.
10 The fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah, so that they did not make war with Jehoshaphat.
11 Some Philistines brought Jehoshaphat gifts and silver as tribute, and the Arabs brought him flocks: seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven

BENEFITS OF HAVING YOUR DEVOTION, it helps you to

1 our devotion helps us to REMOVE OUR PRIDE

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v.6 "His heart was devoted to the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah."

Our daily devotion helps us to remove our pride. If we don't take our daily devotion the tendency is we will accumulate all the pride of life and Proverbs 16:18 will manifest in our lives.

Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."

On the other hand Humility always brings us near to God
Proverbs 3:34 He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.

High places and Asherah poles during those times are signs of modernization of the city, it is a form of idols, it is a form of pride. People forget about God and started worshiping other gods, Israel sinned against God because they forget about their living God. Same with our daily lives, our achievements or our accomplishments became our asherah poles or worst thing they became our god.

We must always remember that everything that we have or we will have is the result of God's grace towards our lives.

2 our devotion helps us to RENEW OUR PASSION
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v.9 "They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD; they went round to all the towns of Judah and taught the people."

People during those times, forget about the law of the Lord, they forget about the word of God that is why they forget to be passionate about God.

As christian, our lives are not perfect, serving God is a tiring task but indeed rewarding. There is a season in our spirituality wherein we became consumed and tired, our hope became weak our faith became stagnant. If that thing happen start doing your devotion. Because a minute with God is what all we need to ignite our passion again. Go back to your source of life.

3 our devotion helps us to RESTORE OUR PEACE

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v.10"The fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah, so that they did not make war with Jehoshaphat."

In the presence of God there is perfect peace, our devotion will give us solitude. If you are in trouble, if you are distress, in debt, discouraged take your bible and start reading one passage a day and God will give you peace that you can use to be strong in the middle of storm.

These are the 3 in thousand benefits of doing our daily devotion. It will help us remove our pride, renew our passion and restore our faith. Brothers and sisters for us to experience the favor of God and for us to see His wonderful deeds, let us seek His kingdom and His righteousness first and all these things (referring to all our needs) shall be added unto us,
Matthew 6:33.

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