Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.  James 4:8-10 HCSB

I talk a lot about God’s blessings and His protection. I reference Psalm 91 the Psalm of protection often. I also reference Romans 8:28 which says that all things work for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. I also use Jeremiah 29:11 which tells us that God has good plans for us, plans not for our harm, but for our welfare.

Maybe you’ve been reading some of this and thinking, “Yeah, right.” Maybe you feel like you missed out on the whole blessing thing. Maybe you’ve been feeling like God has forgotten you or walked away. Well, let me say that if you feel this way, God has not walked away, but maybe you have lost your love for Him.  Maybe you have begun to treat God like something you put on a shelf and pick up every now and then when you need Him. Maybe God is dealing with you in some area of your life.

Lately God has been dealing with me about taking better care of myself through diet and exercise. Now those of you that know me, know that I consider diet to be a dirty four letter word so I will just be trying to cut back on sugar and eating more healthy foods. But exercise is something that has been lacking for quite some time, so I need to get back to that.

Now the problem with anything we try to do that God tells us to do, is that the devil wants to stop us. The devil wants us to quit before we even get started. So we must adhere to our scripture passage today and resist the devil. For me, this means getting up a little earlier and getting my devotion done and going to exercise first thing. Otherwise I will get busy and distracted and it just won’t happen. I have often heard it said that it takes 30 days for something to become a habit. I thought that this first day of October would be a great day to start a good habit. We are about to enter the holiday season. It will be on us before we know what happened. So, I figured now is as good a time as any before we get all wrapped up in food and presents and get togethers with family and friends.

Now I know that God is dealing with me on taking better care of myself, of course you need to figure out what it is that God would have you to do or to give up. It is not uncommon for the best of us to get off track at times. When David sinned with Bathsheba He prayed to God in Psalm 51 for restoration. In verse 10, he asked God to create a clean heart for him and renew a steadfast spirit within him. So, maybe we should start there. Then we could simply ask God what it is that He would have us to do. As we set about doing what God has called us to do, we must remember our scripture passage today. We must be in prayer as we draw near to God and He draws near to us. We must cleanse our hands and purify our hearts and humble ourselves before Him. Remembering that if we submit to God and resist the devil, the devil will flee from us. Pray for God to keep you focused on the goal that He has set for you. Trust in Him to help you get through the next 30 days.

Whatever it is that God has called you to do, there is no better time than now to do it. I pray that you will give God the next 30 days to create a good habit to enrich your relationship with Him. I encourage you today to pray Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.  See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.”

Turn to God today, He gave you His son to die on the cross. Can’t you give Him 30 days? See what it is that He would have you to do and trust in Him to help you do it. Please pray for me. I’ll be praying for you. Let me know how it goes.

Have a great day!