Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too much,
because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy for
today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect yesterday's
portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going
to change all of that. Let's experience God's words today
and receive the power we need to live healthy, vibrant lives.
Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,
Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Thursday, December eighteen,
twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El David Harris.
I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
where we give you God's word every single day, and
today is no exception. We are continuing in our lesson
study series Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and our caption
for today is Cling to God. Cling to God. Before
we get into that, i'd like to say welcome to
everyone joining us, especially those joining us for the very
first time. Please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Please join our online community. Pick up your Daily Portion
Life application guide. The new one is out for quarter
one twenty twenty six. Get that one as well. And also,
please please, if you are inclined by God, please go
ahead and click that donate button at your daily portion.
This is one of the ways we continue to build
faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and then
we will get underway. Father, We thank you for giving
us this new day and the privilege that you have
entrusted to us to open your word and to connect
with you in a real way. Please help us to
do that, connect with you and live with you eternally.
In Jesus name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. So
let me just share this news flash with you. We
cannot abstain our way into connection with God. We cannot
abstain our way into eternal, eternal bliss with God. Yeah, okay,
so listen. When I first wanted, at least as I
could tell, I wanted to be connected to God when
I was in university, I think it was my first year.
I said, you know what, I'm going to stop listening
to this certain kind of music. I'm going to stop
going to these certain places, and I'm going to stop
having these certain kinds of relations with the opposite sex. Right,
I'm going to stop those things. And then I will
have I will have a right connection with God. Well, yeah,
that didn't work out, and I was ashamed when I
started listening to the music again and started going back
to those same places and started having the kinds of
relations I shouldn't have had with the opposit sex, and
I was so I don't know if I was ashamed.
I think I was. I felt read, I felt defeated.
I felt defeated, and and because I'm a man of
my word, even when I was young, I was a
man of my word, and I fell short of my
word and I just kind of did I was hiding,
like I can't believe I did that. Well that was
because I just really intentionally thought I could abstain my
way into the Kingdom. To make a long story short
years later, God really he found me and transformed my life.
And I realized that clinging to God is the key
not abstaining from all of the things that we shouldn't do.
And really, really and truly those three categories of things
I shouldn't have done. I was on the right track intellectually,
but there was no way that that method or that
strategy would actually connect me with God. And so we
cling to God not only abstain from the things in
air quotes. Right, So let's go ahead and begin with
a quote from John Nevians Andrews, reviewing Herald article dated
January five, eighteen sixty nine. You're noticing that I'm using
pioneers as we study, and that's for good reason. And
it reads to cling to God is to wait a minute,
love him above all else. So if you were to
evaluate your relationship with God, evaluate your quote religion. Is
it that you love you cling to God and love
him above all else. Let me continue the quote. This
love is shown not by profession, meaning back then they
used to use profession like profession of faith, that is
to confess and say, and you're purporting that you fill
in the blank. It's not by profession or professing that
you but by steadfast obedience and devoted service. Interesting, let
me go go to one in the book The Acts
of the Apostles, page five hundred fifty one. Supreme love
to God and unselfish love to one another. I think
that's the two great commandments. Love for God, love for humanity.
This is the best gift the Father can be stolen.
By this love. We reveal our connection with Heaven. So
a revelation of the connection of a connection, a revelation
of connection with God is the two great commandments, love
for God and love for humanity. So we're not trying
to love God and trying to love humans and trying
not to do this and trying not to do that,
and then hoping that that will somehow give us brownie
points or our bonus at the end of the year
at our job of trying to be holy. No, those
are a manifestation of our connection with God. Cling to God,
our first lesson for today, is a daily choice of
loyal love. Clinging to God is a daily choice of
loyal love. Coming in from Deuteronomy, chapter four and verse four,
the Bible reads, but ye that did cleave unto the
Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day.
And so the Hebrew word in that text that means
to cleave the bach it means to cling, stick to,
hold fast, and pursue closely. Are you pursuing God? Are
you clinging to? Are you adhering to? Are you running
after God? He said he would run after you and
overtake you with blessings if you're one of his children.
And so this word describes covenant, lofe loyalty. It's like
a marriage covenant as in Genesis chapter two and verse
twenty four and Ruth's devotion to Naomi as in Ruth
chapter one and verse fourteen. Joshua reminded God's people that survival, identity,
and spiritual purity depended on clinging to God. What does
it mean? Cling means to stick, to hold fast, to
pursue closely? Are you pursuing God closely? Running after God? Huh?
He ran after you to find you. Yeah, So it
depended upon clinging to God, not merely avoiding idols. I
think I gave you that lesson already. Faithfulness is proactive love,
not avoidance or abstinence. In the eighteen hundreds and the
eighteen hundreds at Ellen used to say abstemiousness. Where it
came to diet, people were trying to get healthy by
stopping to eat this and stopping to eat that, and
thought that that would do it. But they were finding
themselves in malnutrition because they weren't choosing the right things
to eat. But I digress. So our action step is
speak a personal commitment to God. Today, Lord, I cling
to you, keep my heart close to yours. Lesson number
two as we come to a swift close love for
God can be commanded. Can be commanded because it is
a choice of devotion. The Bible reads in Joshua, chapter
twenty three and verse eleven, take good Heed, therefore unto yourselves,
that ye love the Lord your God. And in this case,
the word for love is ahavah. It means deep affection, commitment, loyalty,
and devotion. Are you deeply do you have deep affection
for God God? Are you loyal to God? Are you
committed to him? Do you find yourself being devoted? Love
cannot be forced emotionally. Some people try it, but it
doesn't work. It can, however, be commanded as a covenantal decision.
God calls his people to choose devotion because of who
he is and what he has done. So this love
in the scripture is not an emotional kind of love.
It's allegiance and loyalty. It's a heartfelt, heart directed obedience.
So practice intentional devotion and love. Set aside time today
to express love to God through praise, gratitude, or obedience.
Speaker 1: Theatre dating us listening friends, Always remember we cannot live
by bread alone, but by every word that comes from
the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion
with El David Harris. Make it a great day, Yeah,