Devotion

I am devoted to some things in which I need to surrender. How about you?

Daily I walk with God imperfectly, and I like to think that I am hopelessly devoted to Him. Sometimes, though my priorities falter, my control of situations kicks in, my need for gratification overshadows my love for my Savior, my frustration and anger overpower my dedication to sharing about Jesus.

I want this to be my testimony; She walked with God. That was her game changing strategy.

Devotion is a deep commitment, loyalty to, profound dedication to a person, religion, thing, cause; anything really. To whom are you devoted or to what? I am devoted to Jesus. I am devoted to my family and friends. I am devoted to my work selling insurance, building relationships, coaching and empowering women. I am a little less devoted in all of those areas when I am not fully connected to Jesus.

Daily I struggle in my walk with God. Jesus is with me always, but sometimes the flesh wins out. So I find myself pondering the question. “Where is your devotion, Susanne?”

I want to battle with people on social media that I do not agree with. I want to say what I am thinking. I want to do some things that I know are completely sinful, or downright shameful. Because my flesh is weak. However, the more connected I am to the Savior, the less I desire those things. I can say that many of the wants have changed through the years, as I have gained wisdom, learned lessons, and realized some of them just flat made me feel empty.

I pray daily. However, being devoted to prayer means sacrificing time spent doing other things, right? My prayers sometimes can be hurried. I talk about Jesus daily. However, being devoted to Jesus means a posture of servitude and quite frankly sometimes I serve myself. Being devoted to cultivating a heart faithfully surrendered to building love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, and self-control, well, let’s just say I can fall short on the daily. These are the fruits that grow out of a soul that is steadfast in humility. Oof, how great is God’s grace and mercy for us.

Scripture says in Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Or God and stuff, or God and self…

People sometimes feel as if they battle their way to heaven, because they fall short. that is the furthest thing from the truth. Yet, our heavenly Father says, he fights our battles, we need only to be still.

Ephesians 2:9 breaks this lie for you. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

When the world says you are not enough, God says you are chosen. When the world says you can be anything you want, God says you were created in His image, for His purpose and His glory. When the world says anything at all from any source at all except scripture you should question it, dissect it and flesh it out in the scriptures. That means the pastor, the friend, the brother, the sister, the mother, the father, strangers, celebrities, everyone….Because I, you, and any other human can be wrong.

Life is desperately hard sometimes. God’s truth sometimes doesn’t feel good, because it convicts your flesh. We blame instead of facing ourselves. We deflect, justify, hide, cower in shame, run, change the narrative, deny, reject, refuse, exclude anything that makes us uncomfortable.

Instead of seeking reality, we create an alternate one. The feel good, passivity, relative, fit my own narrative, escape posture, that never accepts accountability, responsibility or change, or reality.

Living a life of Devotion to Christ, takes sacrifices we are sometimes just unwilling to offer because it’s not gratifying to our fleshly desires. The more devoted I am to Jesus the more rest I have in the flesh, the deeper my heart yearns for freedom from the flesh and a connection to the divine, the vine where those fruits grow.

Before your life even began, God wrote a purposeful story for your life, and each day He invites you to step into this story and walk in faith with Him. Jesus is the answer. My life is a testimony to this. It is found in, over, under and inside every single story and chapter of my life. Susanne does walk with God, imperfectly. I am a sinner saved by grace. There is not a single soul who has accepted Jesus who is not a sinner saved by grace. We are all hypocrites. There is no one righteous, no not one. Romans 3:10

God can do more with your surrender, than you can do with your control. Surrender, devotion allows for you to love those who persecute you, to speak truth in love, to serve others above yourself.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. —Mark 12:30

Stay Beautiful,

Susanne