Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today we’ll study how God uses scripture to convict us to love Him most.

Today’s scripture, 2 Timothy 3:16‭-‬17 (NLT) explains…
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

Consider…
The inspiration for this week’s focus came from sermons from last Sunday that convicted Dana and I about prioritizing spending time alone with the Lord, and remaining humbly aware and acknowledging of God in the midst of success.

God used His preached word to reveal areas that we need to be more diligent and disciplined in our individual relationships with Him.

Both sermons convicted us about how we should prioritize God above everything, but often neglect Him in our planning and preparations to achieve all that we want to accomplish. He showed us how we were planning without Him (James 4:13-16).

God used both sermons to remind us to…
Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. – Proverbs 16:3 NLT

And…
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. – Matthew 6:33 NLT

These convicting words from God’s word, are examples of His use and purpose of scripture that Apostle Paul explained in today’s verses.

From today’s scripture we’re shown that God provided His Biblical Instructions Before Leaving Earth (BIBLE), to help us live for Him, while we’re here.

The Holy Spirit is guiding me to emphasize what was written, by writing it in bullet form, with corroborating scriptures. Accordingly, today’s scripture reformatted is…
All scripture was provided by God to:

• Teach us what is true (John 14:6)
• Make us realize what is wrong in our lives (1 John 1:8) and (Romans 3:23)
• Correct us when we are wrong (Hebrews 12:10-11)
• Teach us to do what is right (Psalms 119:104-105)
• Prepare and equip his people to do every good work (Ephesians 2:10)

The Holy Spirit took me back to last week’s sermons and pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with planning and preparing to achieve success, it’s just making sure we do it God’s way. He provided Joshua 1:8 NLT, which teaches the right way to prosper and succeed. It says..
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

Then the Holy Spirit, ran me back through the pages to 1 Timothy 4:8 (NLT), which convicted me that godliness is what God deems successful. Thus why the scripture says…
“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

You see God always wanted and still wants to be the priority in our lives.

I have been taught that the Bible is all about Jesus, and it is. It’s also all about God’s desired relationship with His image-bearers. Jesus is God’s Exhibits A, B, C and D of just how much God loves us and wants to be our:

• Adoring Heavenly Father (Ephesians 1:4-5)
• Beloved Big Brother (Romans 8:29)
• Choosing Friend (John 14:13-14)
• Divine Heart Guest (Revelation 3:20) and (Romans 8:11)

Clearly God has gone through great lengths to have a relationship with us. The question, is what lengths do we go through to have a relationship with Him? Therein lies the ultimate conviction, He gave up everything for us (Philippians 2:7-8), but what or who will we give up for Him (Luke 14:26)

God’s convicting word is simply love Him with everything in you, because He loved you with everything in Him! (Mark 12:30)

Today’s Song…
I Surrender All

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)