He Has You

While I was in the prison ministry it was a great blessing to see the fruits of another ministry in a monthly devotional called, “Our Daily Bread”. The “Our Daily Bread Ministries” donated thousands of these pamphlets to many prisons, where the men and women would gain a devotion and a daily dose of God’s Word every day.

What I have learned across my faith journey is that the life a Christian is lived out one day at a time. We have good days and we have bad days. We have victories and we have defeats. There is nothing easy about being a Christian. It is a daily struggle and a daily process in which the Lord is changing us to become who we were meant to be.

The reason we have to die to our flesh every day is because it wakes up every morning. The Apostle Paul said, “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31).

We are never asked to pray for abundance, but for the day we are in. Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).

I believe we learn more in our failures than our victories. We try so hard to be victorious in our own power, and in doing so we prove that the pride of life still rules in us. It is in the daily humbling of ourselves before God that He can then fill us with His holy power to overcome. When we live holy lives it is only to His credit and to His glory, there is no other way.

The reason the Lord has new mercies for us each morning is because every morning we need them. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

The Lord decides how many days you shall have and you decide what to do with them. “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

When I have a bad day, whether by circumstances or my own poor choices, I know that the day will soon come to a close. And the next day when I wake, it is a new day. Determine in your heart to live in the new day. Start each new day in repentance from the prior and surrender to the present, that God can cleanse you and make you a new creature able to overcome by the life of Christ in you.

Let today be the day that God has His way with you, and make that your prayer every day. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2).

The outcome of your day has more to do with the attitude you bring into it more than the circumstances that happen in it. “… Lord, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You” (Psalm 88:9).

I have learned to develop these daily habits:

I begin each day in prayer with my first words being the first fruits of each day to the Father. “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up” (Psalm 5:3).

Daily picking up my cross and dying to my flesh, making room for the Spirit within me. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

Daily praying for the Holy Spirit to fill me and manifest the life of Christ in me. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20).

Daily listening for the leading of the Holy Spirit. You won’t get a fresh word eating the canned goods of man. “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice…'” (Hebrews 3:7).

Daily reading the Word into me that the Word would come alive in me. “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

Some days I feel more spiritual than others, but I just keep pressing in regardless. Our faith is not founded on our feelings or our achievements, but on Christ the Rock alone can we stand.

The plant lives by the sunlight each day and then endures each night. The believer needs the Lord when they wake to when they go to sleep, and all the moments in between.

How you start the day often determines how it will end. “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Selah” (Psalm 68:19).

Blessings to you,

Paul Balius

All Scripture is quoted from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted. Please use the version you prefer to review the verses shown here. The best version is the one you read. An even better version is the one you live.