hold on

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Righteousness
by

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Righteousness

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 9 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day twenty-three with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a path of righteousness.

Walk a Path of Righteousness

“My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.  I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full.”
Proverbs 8:19-21 (NIV)

What does righteousness mean to you?  How do you become righteous?  What does your answer to that question say about how you should go about walking a path of righteousness?  What would righteousness look like in a person’s daily walk?  How would it impact the way you interact with friends?  With strangers?  With coworkers?  With enemies?  With anyone?  What does your righteousness say about you relationship with God?

God makes it clear in His Word that there is no one who is righteous.  Yet before you give up on walking this path of righteousness, I must point out that He also says that all who are in Christ have been clothed with His righteousness!  As you pray, ask God to help you to see yourself both as you really are and as He sees you.  Pray that you would daily choose to walk in His righteousness.  Pray that God would fill you with wisdom to choose the way that is right in all of your dealings with people.  Pray that the people around you would catch a glimpse of God’s righteousness as they watch you.

In prayer,

Tom  

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Rest
by

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Rest

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 10 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day twenty-two with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a path of rest.

Walk a Path of Rest

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’“
Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)

Are you weary?  Do you ever feel that you are carrying a burden that is simply too large for you?  Do you ever have times when you feel that your soul is at complete rest with God?  What leads to those times?  What seems to prevent those times from happening?  Would having a soul at rest help you experience physical rest?  Does a lack of physical rest make it more difficult to be at rest in your spirit?  How important do you think your rest is to God?

Through Jeremiah, God instructs His people to look for the ancient paths and discover a good way where we will find a path of rest.  The people of Jeremiah’s day refused to walk in it and many times we stubbornly follow suit.  As you pray, ask God to help you seek out His ways that you would have respect for His instructions of old.  Pray that you would find rest for your soul as you choose to follow His ways and not fight against Him.  Pray that you would value rest for both body and soul as you recognize God’s intent in establishing the importance of a sabbath day each week.

In prayer,

Tom  

Walk This Way: Walk a Renewed Path
by

Walk This Way: Walk a Renewed Path

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 11 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day twenty-one with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a path of renewal.

Walk a Renewed Path

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.“
Isaiah 40:30-31 (NIV)

Do you ever feel worn out?  I know, silly question, right?  Who doesn’t?  How did you get that way?  Did it happen overnight or was it a gradual culmination of things that slowly eroded the newness out of your life?  What does it take to renew your hope?  Your strength?  Your stamina and endurance?  How patient are you?  Do you expect complete renewal to take place overnight in a life that has taken years of neglect to wear down?  What could you accomplish if you were to walk a renewed path?

God says that we all grow tired and weary and that we all have times that we stumble and fall.  The good news is that He provides a renewed path when we put our hope in Him and wait on His timing.  As you pray, acknowledge the times when you are worn out and in need of renewal.  Pray that God would help you to wait upon the Lord as he renews the path for you.  Pray that you would consistently spend time with God and His Word in order to maintain this renewed path.  Pray that the people around you would be refreshed as they walk a renewed path.

In prayer,

Tom  

Walk This Way: Walk a Prayerful Path
by

Walk This Way: Walk a Prayerful Path

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 12 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day twenty with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a path of prayer.

Walk a Prayerful Path

“They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble.”
Jeremiah 31:9 (NIV)

When do you pray?  What do you pray about?  How often do you pray about decisions that you face?  What does it take for a matter to be included in your prayer time?  Do people often come to you with prayer requests?  What do they expect?  How would you respond?  What do you feel is the greatest hindrance in your prayer life?  What would it take to overcome it?  When you pray, how much time do you spend in quietness and God’s Word listening for what He would say?

God speaks to Jeremiah of a time when He will draw His people back to Himself and they will come to Him weeping and in prayer.  As they return, God removes the barriers as He leads them beside streams of refreshing and on level paths.  As you pray, ask God to help you be more intentional in your prayer life.  Pray that your pursuit of God in prayer would bring times of refreshing to your spirit.  Pray that you would recognize the work of God’s Spirit in removing the obstacles that interfere with your prayer life.  Pray that you would always listen to God as a deliberate part of your time in prayer.

In prayer,

Tom  

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Peace
by

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Peace

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 13 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day nineteen with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a path of peace.

Walk Path of Peace

“Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Luke 1:78-79 (NIV)

Are you currently experiencing conflict in any form?  How does it make you feel?  Do you often find external peace to be elusive?  How about internal peace?  Why?  Can you have one without the other?  Is one more valuable than the other?  Why?  What are some of the methods people use today in an attempt to arrive at peace?  Do some means work better than others?  Why?  What does it take to have peace with God?  How should peace with God impact the peace we have with others?

As Christians we are called to walk a path of peace to the extent that it depends upon us.  Jesus also makes it clear that as His followers we will have trouble and peace will be elusive because those that were against Him will be against us.  Yet even in the midst of trouble Christ came to guide our feet into the path of peace.  As you pray, ask God to help you realize that it is only through surrender that you can have peace with God.  Pray that you would be known as a peacemaker because the peace of God dwells within you.  Pray that the people around you would seek the peace that is found in Christ.

In prayer,

Tom  

Walk This Way: Walk an Obedient Path
by

Walk This Way: Walk an Obedient Path

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 14 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day eighteen with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a path of obedience.

Walk an Obedient Path

“The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.  You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him.  And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.”
Deuteronomy 26:16-18 (NIV)

How obedient do you think you are?  How do you feel others would answer that question about you?  How do you decide what rules or laws should be obeyed and which ones shouldn’t be?  How do you decide when to obey a person?  Are there times when it would be appropriate to disobey rules, laws, or people?  Why?  How much effort do you put into knowing God’s laws and commands found in His Word?  How careful are you to obey them?  When someone points out an area of disobedience to God’s Word, are you more likely to attempt to justify your actions or change?

As Christians, we have agreed to submit to the Lordship of Christ meaning that we will obey all that He has commanded.  As you pray, ask God to help you identify any areas of disobedience in your life.  Pray that you would daily commit to walking a path of obedience to God.  Pray that the people around you would see the value you place on your relationship with Christ by observing your commitment to obedience.

In prayer,

Tom  

Walk This Way: Walk a New Path
by

Walk This Way: Walk a New Path

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 15 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day seventeen with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a new path.

Walk a New Path

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Romans 6:4 (NIV)

Do you like new places, new adventures, new paths?  What things excite you the most about the idea of going somewhere new?  What do you find most frightening about new things?  What does it take for you to leave a familiar path for something new?  Do you tend to cling to comfortable ways even when you know the familiar path is headed in the wrong direction?  When a path before you is closed, how do you decide on a new path to follow?  Why is it important to die to the old path before you can walk the new path?

I am often amazed at the things I find when I put the old ways behind me and venture on a new path.  Paul writes that when we are baptized into Christ we die to our old way of life so that we can be raised to walk a new path.  As you pray, ask God to help you let go of all that you have died to.  Pray that you would walk a path that brings glory to God in all that you do.  Pray that the new path you walk would always be grounded in the eternal Word of God.  Pray that the people around you would seek a new path because of your example in walking it with God.

In prayer,

Tom  

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Love
by

Walk This Way: Walk a Path of Love

Every day you and I face a variety of choices regarding the path we take.  Many things influence our decisions for both good and bad, yet God wants us to choose daily to walk according to His ways.  Over the next 16 days I will be sharing from the devotional journal, “Walk This Way”, with the prayer that it helps you to grow in your walk with God as you pursue a greater understanding of the path He calls you to.

Here is day sixteen with an important reminder that walking God’s way will lead you on a path of love.

Walk a Path of Love

“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”
2 John 1:6 (NIV)

What are you willing to do for the people you love?  What do you actually do?  If there is a different answer to those questions, why?  How willing are you to do the things that someone you love asks you to do?  What might your unwillingness to do what someone asks say about your actual love of them?  How much does your obedience to God say about your love of Him.  How closely would you follow the Word of God if you deliberately walked a path of love each day?

God says that we express our love for Him by walking in obedience to His commands.  His commands are centered in His love for us and our response to Him should be centered in our love for Him.  As you pray, ask God to help you walk a path of love that is lived in obedience to Him.  Pray that your path would share the love of God to the people around you.  Pray that your motives for obeying God’s commands would always come from a heart of love for Him.  Pray that the people around you would come to know the joy that is found in walking a path of love.

In prayer,

Tom