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Day 4 Heart Attitudes Devotional

By September 21, 2017Daily Devotional

Pray:

Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

Heart Attitude: Demonstrate an Open and Honest Life

Ephesians 4:25,

“25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

Understand:

In the passage our verse for today comes from, Paul gives instructions for Christian living. He instructs to avoid “every kind of greed and every kind of impurity.” To do this, he advises that we have to put off the old self and put on the new…like taking of an old pair of garments and putting on new ones. How are we to do this? Paul tells us by first “putting off falsehood and speaking truthfully with your neighbor.” Isn’t that interesting? Before we work on doing anything else, Paul wants us to be honest. Essentially, he says that as believers, our words should be absolutely trustworthy!

That’s pretty powerful stuff! It’s heavy. Maybe Paul was so forthright because he knows that our words can be used for amazing good and amazing evil. Words can greatly impact our relationships for ill or good. If we use too many words, or if we speak untruthfully, we sometimes sin. If we don’t use enough words, we may fail to tell others things that they need to know about us—or about themselves.

As we strive to live in community with one another, our words have great implications. As members of the Body, we have a responsibility to one another. We must allow others to know our struggles and our joys. Sharing our lives with others allows them to celebrate our joys with us, to encourage us when we are discouraged, and to hold us accountable to walk faithfully with Christ.

Look, life is hard enough without us making it more difficult by putting up a façade. We don’t need to lose any sleep worrying what folks would think about us if they really only knew who we were. The truth is…we’re all equal when it comes to the foot of the cross; we all have fallen short of God’s glory. Wouldn’t it be easier if we all quit playing the games and were honest with folks and ourselves? If we just let our yes be yes and our no be no?

I like how the Message puts this verse: “What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body, we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself (Eph. 4: 25).”

Apply:

Take some time today and think about what it means for you personally to speak honestly, openly and appropriately to one another.

Are you doing it? If not, what would it take to move you in a direction to where you would put off falsehood?

You may need to make a confession to God about areas where you struggle with your speech and/or living openly and honestly. Pray that God would show you one or two specific steps to take.

*From what you have just read and considered: What is a personal implication/application for your life today?

Live:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.

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