Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

    Thought 95

Test the Preacher’s Sermons

          Test the sermons you hear with God’s Word. Paul commended the Bereans for diligently testing the preaching they heard with the Scriptures (Acts 17:10-12). Please, do not believe everything preachers and “Christians” tell you; instead, filter EVERYTHING through the spiritual lenses of Holy Spirit and the eternal truth of the Bible; and yes, even filter what your minister tells you. When I listen intently to sermons and seek God’s truth to renew my mind, while being alert to detect things that are not Biblical, I get a whole lot more out of listening to a sermon. Now I don’t mean to that you should be condemning, but alert. Personally, I get gems of Spiritual truth that the Holy Spirit spoke through another when I weigh what was said with the Word of God that I know, and one day, God will have me share those gems with others.            

          Remember that God’s Word is the ultimate authority in your life and that NOTHING men, the government, or even a pastor does or teaches will ever be higher in authority. Therefore, test everything you hear with the Word of God.

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 94

Writing Down what God has Done for Us

          Writing down what God has done for you will help you to remember and thereby, continue to be thankful. Just as, we need to remember the Scripture and refresh ourselves in it to remember, so we should go back through our journal of what God has done for us, thanking Him and standing in awe of all that He has done for us. This encourages our spirits and keeps us on track in our relationship with the Lord.

V  Have you written down the things that God has done for you? If not, start today.

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 93

H1N1: The “Swine” Flu

          Not long after the “swine” flu ‘came out’ I became sick. I was afraid that this was it, I am going to die. Anyway, I felt lead to look up strength in the concordance of my Bible and when I did I found a verse (I think that it was in Psalms) that said that God was my strength; right then and there I made the decision to trust that God would carry me through this. I stopped worrying about possibly having the “swine” flue and simply trusted that God would take care of me. And here I am, He was not finished with me yet! The dreams and passions that He had just placed in my heart had not come to fulfillment at that time, and deep down I just knew that He wasn’t finished with me. I cannot describe it, but there are times in life that you just know that you know that you know that something is true and at those times a stillness, a peace from the Almighty comes.

Trust in God Triumphs!

          Do you need to trust that God? This does not mean naming something you want and claiming it; rather, trust is a firm belief and humble spirit which asks God to have His will accomplished in a matter. We learn His will as we know Him more and more—we know that He desires to bless us like a Father his children; but we also learn that we go through trying times as discipline, and that we will grow from those times.

          In short, our prayers will always be answered, whether sooner or later; either as we wanted or the exact opposite; but God’s will is supreme and we recognize it—that is trusting in God. When our prayers are not answered how we want them to be we need to brush ourselves off and move on: a simple principle, but if we apply it a big change will come.

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 92

Scripture Selections for Meditation

Read John 14.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."   1 John 5:14-15 NIV

  *Please note that we can ask God anything, but when we ask according to His will, God gives it to us. If we ask with a manipulative spirit, God knows that and will not answer our prayer. But how will we know the will of God? By intimately knowing Jesus Christ and to know Him we must spend time with Him.

Daily Devotion from Ryan Marks book Thoughts

Thought 91

Little One

(I wrote this during my mothers’ pregnancy with my little sister Erin)

  Little one inside the womb, I pray for you. God loves you. Although you enter this world with sin, I will do my best to show you Jesus whose love you should accept. My God, my God, protect this little one; O God, I thank you for this child’s life. Lord, I will take my position of authority in this sibling’s life and the influence I will give all the days of this little one’s life to You. Lord, protect my sibling.

  I know not your gender, but I surrender you to God. ONLY GOD GIVES LIFE AND ONLY HE TAKES IT. This wisdom I give you from my small stores: the safest place that you can be, little one, is in the center of God’s will: being in tune with Him through the Spirit. I will teach you the best I can in the few years I have with you at home and I pray that you will enjoy some of things I do.

P.S. If you have blue eyes I’ll be proud.

Answer to Postscript: My sister Erin’s eyes are blue.

 My Story Behind the Previous Letter:

          When I was growing up I had one little sister, but I wanted a little brother too. On my tenth birthday I prayed that God would give me a little brother. And guess what? By my next birthday I had a little brother. My parents were surprised, because it had been eight years since my sister was born! A year or two after my brother’s birth I began praying to have another little sister. I thought that my brother needed a little sister like I had and I would enjoy another sibling, right? So I prayed again and this time it took a while. My mom became pregnant and the baby passed away in a miscarriage. A second time my mom became pregnant and as she was going through another miscarriage I was trying to have faith. I wanted to believe that child into existence, that everything would be ok and all the signs of death were just mistakes. But I did not get what I prayed for. My mom lost that baby as well. I was broken and for a while a little lost, but God brought me closer to Himself in the end.

           By now, five years had passed since my mom had my little brother who I prayed for on my birthday; and my mom became pregnant a third time and had my little sister Erin. She is healthy, there were no problems. God answered my prayer! I have learned something over those hard years: that God answers us, but not always in the way we want or in our timing. Since then, I have prayed for twin brothers and my mom is not very happy with me. She knows that I have prayed twice for siblings and eventually did “get” another brother and sister. I think she has a little fear that my prayer might come true, and I’m pretty sure that her fear is far from what they label Holy Fear. J  Anyway, what prayers has God answered for you? Did you have to wait and were you given exactly what you asked for?