August 29 – September 5, 2025

LINGER IN HIS PRESENCE

Luke 9:24 “‘If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it…if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.’” (NLT)

When you live in secret sin, you are leading a false life, a hidden life, a life of shame. God wants you to lead a true life. Life to the fullest, life to the maximum! To live this kind of life, we must die first.

Jesus says in the preceding verse: “You MUST pick up your cross and follow Me.” It’s not enough to just accept what Jesus did through His death on the cross. In order to live a rewarding life, we must take our sins, pride, perversions, addictions, negative attitudes, wrongful actions and we must nail them to the cross and let them DIE. Dying to yourself daily simply means to take your old habits and ways and kill them, strangle them, beat them, put them to death on a daily basis!

Why? Why must we change, become a new creation, become more Christ-like? One reason is that people watch to see if you are different! They listen to hear what you say. People who have no interest in God, even atheists, have expectations of those who follow Jesus. They expect you to be kinder, more honest, to be more forgiving, to treat them differently.  They expect you to handle adversity differently! Because even though they themselves do not believe in Jesus, they believe in YOUR relationship with Jesus. Everything you do reflects Jesus and the world is watching and listening. The world may not know Jesus,but they sure do know when you are not imitating Him!

When our attitude becomes that of complete and utter surrender to God, “more of You Lord and less of me,” God will show you what needs to change. Is there something from your old way of life that is still ruling you? Arguing? Gossip? Complacency? Pride? Repent. Lay it down. Change the way you think and act to align with the Bible. 

There are many activities that use up our time and energy but bring us no closer to God. Invest your time in Him. Linger in His presence. It will be the best part of your day and the best part of your life. 

This is an excerpt from a 90-day devotional written by Emil and Karen. To order the full devotional, click on the TO ORDER DEVOTIONAL page.