Do you remember writing your first research paper? If you haven't been required to do that, this devotional will help prepare you! When you first learn to write, it's all about learning the alphabet and figuring out how to turn letters into words, words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs. Once you are able to write a whole paragraph, you are well on your way to writing a research paper. While a good research paper usually has many paragraphs, it's content and conclusions are always based on its sources. The practice of "citing your sources" is important to give other authors credit for where some of your ideas come from, but it also creates "a map" for your readers to do their own research into your sources to agree or disagree with the ideas presented. Much like a research paper, a good devotional references scripture and gives others "a map" to follow Christ. In a world that offers an abundance of sources for guidance on how to live, we need to remember and know the real source.
My favorite scripture as a child was 1 Corinthians 16:13, "Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong." I liked this scripture because it was easy to memorize and always reminded me to live boldly for Christ. I can't tell you how many times this scripture helped me to choose the right path when I came to a fork in the road. However, there were many times I thought I was standing up for Christ, when in reality, I was actually working against Him. As I continued my study of scripture over the years, I decided to take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 16:13. Much to my surprise, all those years I never knew the four words that directly follow this verse in Verse 14. "Do everything in love."
We are called to mend a broken world by showing others that God's love flows through us. This kind of love is beyond human capabilities, especially if we don't really know the source. Standing firm in the faith is not something we can willingly decide to do on our own. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God works within us to change our hearts and transform our lives. Proverbs 21:30 reminds us that, "Nothing can succeed against the Lord." A research paper full of incomplete, unreliable sources won't hold up well, and neither will our lives without Christ. Speaking from personal experience, if you want to live confidently and courageously in Christ, know the source.