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Speaker 1: Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your

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Speaker 1: walk with Christ, please visit us at Bible Studyheadquarters dot com.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Daily Devotions with pastor John. I'm John

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Speaker 1: Stogy and today's devotion is inspired by Colossians Chapter one,

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Speaker 1: verse ten, which says, so as to walk in a

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Speaker 1: manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing

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Speaker 1: fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge

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Speaker 1: of God. Scripture uses the concept of walking to illustrate

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Speaker 1: something of a deeper spiritual significance. It's a term that

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Speaker 1: refers to how we live and how we conduct ourselves. Specifically,

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Speaker 1: we're being told in this passage that we're to walk

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Speaker 1: or live in a manner that one is worthy of

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Speaker 1: the Lord, two is fully pleasing to him, three bears

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Speaker 1: fruit in every good work, and four is increasing in

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Speaker 1: the knowledge of God. There are two ways to approach

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Speaker 1: a verse like this. One approach is helpful and very effective,

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Speaker 1: and the other approach will drive you crazy, and many

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Speaker 1: people select the crazy approach. The crazy or drive you

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Speaker 1: crazy approach is to try to do all of this

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Speaker 1: without help, trying to live your life worthy of the Lord,

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Speaker 1: trying to please Christ in all things, trying to do

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Speaker 1: good works, trying to increase in your knowledge of Him,

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Speaker 1: and do this all without seeking help and with total

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Speaker 1: reliance on your own strength and perceived abilities. That approach

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Speaker 1: will drive you nuts, and it isn't the way of

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Speaker 1: new life in Christ, even though it may look very

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Speaker 1: spiritual to others from the outside. The effective of approach, however,

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Speaker 1: is to come to a place of humility and accept

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Speaker 1: that you can't do any of this without Christ. It's

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Speaker 1: only in the power of Christ that we can walk

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Speaker 1: in a manner worthy of his name. Let's pray, Lord,

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Speaker 1: we thank you for your word, and we're grateful for

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Speaker 1: the privilege that it is to think about what you

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Speaker 1: revealed to us here in this portion of scripture from

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Speaker 1: the Book of Colossians. And Lord, we know that you

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Speaker 1: want us to walk in a manner worthy of your name.

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Speaker 1: That's certainly something that you've placed in our hearts as

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Speaker 1: a desire, and that's something that we know we're supposed

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Speaker 1: to focus on. But we also know that we don't

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Speaker 1: have sufficient wisdom and sufficient strength in and of ourselves

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Speaker 1: to accomplish this. We need your power. We need to

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Speaker 1: humbly accept that we need your intervention. And that with

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Speaker 1: your help, as you guide us and as you empower us,

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Speaker 1: then we can walk in a manner worthy of your name.

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Speaker 1: But without your help, we would be relying on our

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Speaker 1: own strength and our own wisdom, which has definite limits

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Speaker 1: and really wouldn't be effective. Lord, we know that when

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Speaker 1: we go about life fully relying on ourselves, we could

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Speaker 1: actually find ourselves drifting toward legalism and judgmentalism, because we'll

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Speaker 1: measure our efforts up against the efforts of others, and

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Speaker 1: if we feel like we're working harder than somebody else,

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Speaker 1: we'll pat ourselves on the back while besmirching them. But

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Speaker 1: that's not the example you've given us, and that's not

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Speaker 1: your calling on our lives. You've called us to rely

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Speaker 1: on you in every context we find ourselves in. So, Lord,

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Speaker 1: thank you for creating the desire within us to glorify

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Speaker 1: your name and to honor you. We want to walk

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Speaker 1: in a manner worthy of your name. But we pray that,

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Speaker 1: by your grace that we would understand how that's actually accomplished.

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Speaker 1: And it's only accomplished as we trust in you and

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Speaker 1: rely on the power that you supply. Thank you, Lord,

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Speaker 1: for empowering us to do your will, and we thank

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Speaker 1: you that you are present with us right now. We

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Speaker 1: pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen,