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| We Build Shrines That Become Prisons 11/17 | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 17 2008, 01:24 AM (14 Views) | |
| editor | Nov 17 2008, 01:24 AM Post #1 |
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A Dieter's Devotion For You:) From Burning The Fat On The Fire by Lynn Montgomery and Margaret Thomas Day 17 We Build Shrines That Become Prisons Daily Opening Prayer Heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to present myself as a living sacrifice, which is my reasonable service. Cleanse me today from the sin of willfulness and fill me with Your holiness. Today, I choose to burn the fat on the fire. Accept this offering and enable me to live a self-controlled life by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in me. I refuse to despise and resist the disciplining of the Lord, which demonstrates His great love for me. How often do we have the sense that there are iron bars built all around us? The truth is we have built ourselves into prisons. The lie is that there is no key to let us out. In fact, sometimes it seems like there isn't even a door. Jesus said in John 10:7 "I am the Door." In Revelation 3:8 we are told that God has set before us an open door that no man can shut. In 1 Cor. 16:9 Paul was given a great and effective open door. In Luke 4:18 Jesus said He had come to set captives free. God is no respecter of persons. There is absolutely no prison that Jesus cannot walk into. Once there, He Himself is our doorway out. And how do we get into these prisons? Anything we allow to become more important than the Lord becomes an idol. As we habitually worship these idols, we are actually building a shrine around them. We have made many things into idols. Money, our children, our positions, our Christian service, and for those of us who are overweight----Food. We worship at this shrine daily. Over and over again, we seek this part of God's creation rather than the Creator, Himself. In 1 John 5:21 we read, "little children, guard yourselves from idols." Each time we choose to serve our fleshly appetites we strengthen this shrine. We must see that by making these choices we allow the enemy a way to ensnare us. We don't realize we've been building a shrine for our food idols until we find ourselves trapped, wondering "How did this happen?" Suddenly we are in a prison that doesn't seem to have a door. Deliverance will only come when we cry out to Jesus for help. He has actually been with us the whole time. Because our attention has been focused on gratifying our fleshly desires, WE HAVEN'T SEEN HIM! God has allowed the misery of this imprisonment to become so painful we finally turned our eyes upon Jesus with the determination to follow Him out. As we do this the shrine dissolves. The Lord Himself replaces the idols of food. We see the truth that the only way to stay free is to make Jesus the center of our existence. This will be a step-by-step walking out as we continually choose to keep our focus on Him. Heavenly Father, Thank You for providing Jesus as the way out of the prison of lies my self-indulgent choices have built. Forgive me for ignoring You and focusing on my own fleshly desires. Today, I choose to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus as He leads me out of this bondage. I praise You and thank You that as I continue to do this, my soul is set free from sin and my body will be set free from fat. In Jesus' Name, Amen. |
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9:32 AM Nov 25
