Good Morning Team! I found myself all over with the Lord . Traveling down different trails of prayer and study. I'd say none were rabbit trails either as I was focused and abiding as He led me. So maybe you are there with our devotionals or with your Bible reading. Where is God leading you as you listen to His still small voice? How is He informing your prayers? Talk to Him and ask Him to lead you, inform your prayers and direct your steps . Dedicate this week to Him and His Kingdom come and will to be done in, through and around you. Then go live, love, and pray like Jesus. I'm praying for you. God has plans for you--good plans. Seek first His Kingdom and righteousness and be determined to follow His lead. Never know where it might lead but it will lead to what He has planned and created you for. Amen!
I was really wrestling with Our Daily Bread and God . LIES! Propaganda. Deception. Doubt. Fear. These are not things of God. They are oft used tools of the enemy and they are being deployed by his minions and God=haters all around us. If we are not careful to seek and listen to truth, turn off the noise and focus on God and His good plans, we will be in deep doo-doo. Turn off the noise and focus on Jesus because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life! We are seeking life to the fullest. We will not find it without Jesus and His ways! So, turn off the noise. Open your Bibles. And follow Jesus. That's where the good and abundant fruit awaits! Amen!
Part of ODB is the reading from Col. 3:9-15 below. Meditate on that as you still your self, listen, abide, receive and prepare to pray and follow Jesus. That is the way to true and lasting life! Amen! Choose that! Trust God. Choose joy and faith and keep lifting ! Turn off the lies, deception and propaganda! Abide in the Spirit of Truth and seek His good plans. They will lead to life! Amen
Col. 3:9-15
9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,[a] circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,[b] slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
ODB:
Plague of Lies
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices. Colossians 3:9
“What a cruel act to be untruthful,” Daniel Ladinsky once wrote in a poem that contrasts relationships built on trust with those damaged by lies. Inspired by German theologian and monk Meister Eckhart, he described truthful, loving words as “wonderful spices mixed into the days.” But lies are like earthquakes in the mind and poison to the soul: “Havoc is created in the mind that can no longer trust someone once loved . . . . a plague is spread by one who cannot tell the truth.”
The imagery of a plague spread by falsehoods might seem stark. But to take speech seriously resonates with how our words and their impact are described throughout Scripture. When Paul explains to new believers the difference between life before and after their union with Jesus, words take center stage. “Do not lie to each other,” the apostle emphasizes, “since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self” (Colossians 3:9-10).
There are many reasons to be tempted to lie or distort the truth. Sometimes we might think it’s the best way to protect ourselves or others. But through Christ’s love, through His Spirit at work in our hearts, we learn a different way—one transformed by “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (3:12). And we learn how forgiveness and love can create the kind of trust and peace that brings rest to our souls (v. 15).
By Monica La Rose
REFLECT & PRAY
How have you seen damage caused by a lie? How does forgiveness and love help you live with honesty?
Loving Savior, please help me bless others with words that can be trusted.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Paul instructed believers in Jesus to live a faithful and fruitful “life worthy of the Lord and [to] please him in every way” (Colossians 1:10). Using a metaphor of replacing old clothes with new, he commands us to “put to death” our worldly, sinful habits (3:5-9) and adorn Christlike virtues (vv. 10-15). Paul singled out the importance of not engaging in harmful speech—“slander,” “filthy language,” and “lie[s]” (vv. 8-9). Truthfulness is essential for believers, for Christ is “the truth” (John 14:6). Elaborating in another letter, the apostle tells us to “stop telling lies [and] tell our neighbors the truth . . . . Let everything [we] say be good and helpful, so that [our] words will be an encouragement to those who hear them” (Ephesians 4:25, 29 nlt). When we “[speak] the truth in love” (v. 15), we bless others. And we’ll “[grow] in every way more and more like Christ” (v. 15 nlt).
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