Hold Fast to Him

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

The Family Room with my Massage Area 

It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. Deuteronomy 13:4 NIV

We as people are constantly trying to explain the world around us. Scientists test and want to replicate their theories.  Though out time we have created stories to explain who we are and why or how we came to be. The word says the in Psalm 19:1-4

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." In Luke 19;37-40  we read the following, "And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

All around you every day nature is declaring God's goodness and glory. The sun rises and shines on both good and evil people. The flowers on the hill side show the wonder and beauty as God paints each day a beautifully changing landscape for us to enjoy. Yes there are a lot of processes in effect that we have come to understand about how and why flowers grow. You may or may not attribute those processes back to a creator. I guess I have trouble seeing how one could not see within the scope of creation intelligent design. One just has to look at the intricacy of the human body to see that its more than some DNA and some cells getting haphazardly thrown together.  

I like to wear hummingbirds, and dragonflies because they remind me to approach life with a sense of wonder. I rarely wear crosses, I can look all around me and see the destruction that mankind is capable of. Its odd to me that we would use a symbol of such suffering as a sign that we are believers. I do understand that it is a reminder of how great a price Jesus paid on our behalf at the same time I think we get stuck at His death and forget to move on to His resurrection. Even beyond the resurrection we often forget to move on to the Holy Spirit that he promised to send to us - to help teach us and guide us through life. He kept his promise to rise from the dead and because of that I know he is able to keep all His promises.  There is a lot that I don't understand and much that I take with simple faith, trusting God's love will make it self evident should I need greater understanding. 

My Massage Area

I try to approach new ideas with an open mind and often I realize that our attempts at explaining are limited. I've had people say "I want to learn to pray like Margot prays". Its odd to have to stop and try to explain how and why you do particular. Most of it is just stuff I have learned spending time with Jesus. Somewhere on my to do list, when I eventually get back to it is a e-book on prayer. It is still stewing at this point while I continue to unload boxes and try to get the house we just moved into organized and functioning for each family member. Last night I re-arranged the family room so I would have room to set up my massage table. I have a bunch of student massages that I need to do to graduate and I need a place to do them. I'm happy to say I finally came up with a workable arrangement. I challenge you to take the things that you just do and try to explain why and how you do them to someone else. I think the Lord does a pretty good job of explaining Kingdom life and we have Jesus who walked it out before us. Still it is a challenge to decide to do things God's way and not our own ways. Even when we decide to obey we often still struggle and I believe it is because God desire is not for us to be religious but to be his. We can't really live the Kingdom life without the constant aid of the Holy Spirit. Stay close to the Lord, hold on to Him and He will help you through each day of the journey.