TODAY’S WORD FOR FRIDAY JANUARY 2, 2015.
STANDARDS
Something established by authority, custom or general consent as a model or example; criterion; the morals, ethics or customs regarded as acceptable.
What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God with all your heart, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees. Deuteronomy 10:12.
As we begin a New Year, we urge you to sit down and evaluate the standards you have set for your life and carefully study them and make sure you are living by them. The sad fact today is that most people do not have standards that they have set for their life. Most people do not consider standards are important to them. They want to do what they want and when they want. They really only want to do what benefits themselves right now.
God has set standards for us who love Him to keep. Setting human standards that ignore God and His commandments have no lasting effect. For the non-believers standards are made to be broken.
For those who know Jesus as his or her Savior, a standard has significant importance. A believer in Jesus lives by the standards that Jesus lived by and taught. They are God’s standards. God first gave His standards to the Children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land. The purpose of God’s standards was to make His people spiritually and morally unique from the rest of the world. Their godly standards of living were to be a witness and a testimony of the true and living God to the nations. We read in Deuteronomy 10:12-13, that there were five things that God expected of them. They were:
1. Reverence God.
2. Walk in all His ways.
3. Love Him.
4. Serve Him with all your heart and soul.
5. Observe His commands.
Jesus, when He was here on earth, lived by and taught these same standards. God does not change. His standards for us are the same that they were for the children of Israel and as they were some 2000 years ago when Jesus was on this earth and taught them personally. Godly standards are essential in every believer’s life. Are you living the way that God expects you to and are you keeping God’s standards?
Living by God’s standards should become a natural part of every believer’s daily routine. Here are some thoughts to consider that may help you to stay committed to living by God’s standards:
Do you set a time daily for reading the Bible? If not how does God communicate to you and how do you learn about Him?
Do you spend time daily praying to God? This is your time to communicate with God.
Do you spend time with your family and do you communicate with your spouse?
At the workplace do you set yourself a standard of excellence in your work, completing your work, communicating to the people you work with and living a life that exemplifies the Lord before them?
What about your church? Are you active and offer to serve as a volunteer in some way?
Do you set good examples and a Godly standard for your family, friends and neighbors?
Are you involved in a home Bible study group?
Do others during the week see the same life standards in you on Monday that you live by on Sunday?
We are sure that these are enough questions to get you to think about making standards in your life that honor God a priority. Setting Godly standards in your life and then keeping these standards are essential if we want to be used by God and be a testimony to the rest of the world of God’s love and saving grace.
The commands and decrees that we are told to keep in Deuteronomy 10:12 are given to us in Exodus 20. We know them today as the Ten Commandments. We urge you to read these today and then print them and put them in a prominent place in your home so you have to read them daily. If you choose to do this and then choose to live by them God will change you and your life dramatically. Commandments are not options. They are the requirements necessary to have a right relationship with God.
Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 4:4.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Father in heaven, help me and my family to be obedient to Your commandments so that others will see that we are morally and spiritually unique. Keep us committed to living by godly standards so that our lives are a testimony that we have been changed by Your saving grace that we have received through the shed blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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