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If you haven't been following along with us on our 21 Days journey, we are into Week 2 and are exploring how we can Surrender to God's Ways. It's not too late to sign-up for the daily emailed devotional, download the entire pdf, or grab a booklet from Riverwood.
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Thursday, Jan 11
Surrendering Your Hands (Actions)
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DEVOTIONAL: “SURRENDERING YOUR HANDS (ACTIONS)”
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During this second week, our devotionals have centered around surrendering parts of ourselves to God’s Ways. One aspect of this involves surrendering our hands (i.e. actions) to the Lord.
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From the beginning, mankind has rebelled against the Father and ignored His ways, leading us to lives of sin and guilt. In order to live aligned with His Ways (i.e. live like Jesus lived), we have to surrender our actions to Him.
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What can this look like? When you understand the Father’s deep love for you and remember you are of God, you will be prone to center your actions around Him. There are a variety of actions that can glorify God: prayer, worship, loving others, service, and more.
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Jesus-followers should naturally desire to serve Him. The Bible makes it clear we are not only made in His image (Genesis 1:26-27), but we are His “workmanship” created to do good works! (Ephesians 2:10) Because we are the work of His hands, surely, as imitators of God, (Ephesians 5:1) He designed us to serve Him with our own work. When we are in pursuit of Him, our hearts become oriented around the Lord, and we use our actions to glorify Him more often.
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Still, we should be reminded that our salvation is not dependent on our actions. Jesus did the ultimate work for us on the cross. Our actions need not (and cannot) amount to the work of Christ. Instead, we can choose to praise and serve Him in all we do. In centering our actions around Christ, we begin to be doers of the Word (James 1:22) and use our hands as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:13). In every endeavor, we can choose to give God the glory. After all, it’s important to distinguish our devotions for the Lord from our devotion to the Lord. Our spiritual disciplines help us to draw nearer to God, but we are not to boast in our works. Rather, in obedience to the Father, we can use all that we do to glorify Him and not ourselves.
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Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.” Our work for the Lord is eternal – our hands and actions are the tools for the Spirit to work through us. When we surrender our actions to God, He uses us for His glory and our good.
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Heavenly Father, we thank you for the work Christ did for us by dying on the cross. Help us to use our hands and actions to serve you and give you the glory. Guide us as we work to be doers of your Word, using our individual gifts to serve one another and glorify you.
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Find a person or organization to whom you can give one hour of time to before the end of the 21 Days.
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The Table
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This Monday, women from the Waverly area will be gathering in the home of Sara Corcoran to discuss and learn from each other what discipleship looks like in their walk of life. We hope to see you there: Monday, Jan. 15 from 7-8 PM.
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Riverwood's Annual Report
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We will be presenting the 2023 Annual Report after the Worship Gathering on Jan. 28. We invite you all to stay and hear of how God has been moving in Riverwood and our community this past year!
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Monthly Financial Update
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Here is the General giving update for Dec. 2023. Also, be looking for your end-of-year statements to be e-mailed to you soon!
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Budgeted YTD Needs: $187,188.17
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Actual YTD Giving: $194,657.74
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Just For Fun
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