Daily Devotionals by Ardith Keef

       It is remarkable that we need to pamper ourselves so much.
     We think it a great hardship when a luxury is cut off or when there must be twice the work for the same result.
     The Soldier of the Cross ought to consider the important things to be important and the other things to be non-essentials.
     There are still missionaries in Africa who do not have running water. I have met a number of servants who used small generators for years and years and communicated only by radio to a larger mission station.
     When I was a girl, my father taught me to love it when the heat or water stopped. He always said it would teach me to see effortless warmth as a luxury. In Mexico, we had an icebox and I would have been shocked if getting a refrigerator had been on the list of things to do.
     We walked many miles and went without food often. I always thought it was an adventure and it never occurred to me that we were deprived.
     I had to sit many hours while my parents studied the language and worked with pronunciation informants. I was made to be quiet and entertain myself. We dressed out of missionary barrels and we made clothes out of clothes.
     In the middle of the twentieth century, getting up early to put kindling and then small logs in the water heate,r was not thought to be anything but good. Even though many nationals in the same town had water heaters, those things were not given importance.
     Scorpions were everywhere - in our shoes, at the bottom of cups - anywhere it was dark and maybe a little warm. I had to shake each stick off in the dark before it could go into the water heater.
     My father loved pressing away from addiction to "must-haves" and I will eternally thank the Lord for that.
     The flesh never ceases to raise its ugly head and wants to complain about something, but the Spirit has no serious battle when the Christian is watching Him.
     What are our most basic needs? He has said He would see that all our essential physical needs are met. We are to pray in our daily bread, and we are not to worry about tomorrow. After all, hasn't He said "I have never seen the children of the righteous begging for bread?"
     We need and must have:
     The Word of God;
     Time alone with Him;
     The Body of Christ;
     The songs of the faith;
     Sweet fellowship with those whose coals are the hottest;
     To express Him with our mouths;
     To reach out to the unlovely;
      We need the Cross.
      We need Jesus.
      
     
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