Devotion

• Be fully devoted to God (1 Chronicles 28: 9)-But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there in Samaria when the army of Israel returned home.  He went out to meet them and said, "The LORD, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah and let you defeat them.  But you have gone too far, killing them without mercy, and all the heaven is disturbed.-When God gives a command to His people, His people are to remain faithful and carry that task out with control, in obedience to Him.  There has to be a balance in the way it is carried out.  There has to be order in it.  We His Children, are to carry out His commands in a way that resembles or reflects His way.  We should never be overdoing anything that He asks, nor should we be out of control when we do it.  If we do, we are in danger of falling into disobedience, which is sin.  We know that our God is great, and with His greatness comes responsibility, order, discipline, and balance.  Too much of anything is not good.  We need to exercise care when carrying out God's plan.
  
• Worship God with devotion (1 Chronicles 29: 9)-Our fathers have been killed in battle, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity.  If we do not remain devoted to our God, God can make us into an object of ridicule.  In the story of Hezekiah, when he reopened the temple, we see that their ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God.  They abandoned the LORD and his Temple; they turned their backs on Him.  They also shut the doors to the Temple's foyer, and they snuffed out the lamps.  They stopped burning incense and presenting burnt offerings at the sanctuary of the God of Israel.  That is why the LORD's anger had fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem.  We must remain faithful and devoted to the God of Israel, and carry out His commands.
• Be devoted to prayer (Psalm 5: 3)-Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD.  Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.  Every morning we should be bringing our requests to God and waiting, expecting a response from our God who is faithful.  We should commit to bringing these requests first thing each day rather than waiting until the end of it.  God should always come first.
• Let your life be devoted to God (Romans 12: 1-2)-And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will accept.  When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?  Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.  Our bodies should be fully devoted to God as well as our hearts and minds.  When we think about all He has done in creation, in His birth, in His life on earth, all He did to teach us the truth of our existence, and purpose, it should be really easy to commend and commit to Him our bodies, minds and souls.  Our bodies are important in that, we should not be hurting our bodies in any way, and this includes inflicting it with pain, suffering, abuse both physical and sexual abuse, tattooing, sex outside of marriage, masturbation, anal sex, sex with animals, and sex with same sex.  This is called lasciviousness.  This is detestable before the eyes of the Lord.  This is what our God wants from us.  He wants us to willingly live for Him.  He does not want us to copy the behavior of the world.  He wants us to let Him transform us into the people we were designed to be.  We were designed to live for, obey, and worship Him with everything we have.  It's the right thing to do.  When we get to the point where we understand what His will is for us, it becomes easier to commit to that sort of lifestyle.  A lifestyle of love, peace, understanding, wisdom, devotion, commitment, obedience, faithfulness, and the list goes on..  It is a life of honor that the LORD our God wants for and from us.  This is the life we should want to live..for HIM.  Lets keep this in mind, and when we pray; lets pray for God's will to be done and carried out in our lives and in the lives of all believers in Him.  

Until the next study, be blessed, and pray for God to improve any areas of your life that are lacking devotion to the one true God, our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.  God bless you.