The Daystar Devotional

By MaryAnn Diorio

Are you looking for daily encouragement in your walk with Christ? The Daystar Devotional will provide just what you're looking for. Daily readings will give you fresh insight into Scripture verses that will inspire you, encourage you, and strengthen you as you face the challenges of life. A powerful tool for growing in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TopNotch Press
• Release date: Feb 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9780930037390

MaryAnn Diorio

MaryAnn Diorio writes award-winning fiction from a quaint small town in New Jersey where neighbors still stop to chat while walking their dogs, families and friends still gather on wide, wrap-around porches, and the charming downtown still finds kids licking lollipops and old married folks holding hands. A Jersey girl at heart, MaryAnn loves Jersey diners, Jersey tomatoes, and the Jersey shore. You can learn more about her and her writing at maryanndiorio.com.

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The Daystar Devotional

by

MaryAnn Diorio, PhD, MFA

Copyright 2016 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD, MA

All rights reserved.

Published by TopNotch Press

PO Box 1185

Merchantville, NJ 08109

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any other—without the written permission of the publisher.

Cover Photo Design by MaryAnn Diorio www.maryanndiorio.com

To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…

In Whom I live and move and have my being…

Acts 17:28

To Skye, my dear friend and

sister in Christ…

Table of Contents

THE DAYSTAR DEVOTIONAL

How to be Born Again

Afterword from the Author:

Social Media Venues for Dr. MaryAnn Diorio

Other Books by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio

THE DAYSTAR DEVOTIONAL

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1: 22)

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Precious Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Daystar,

When He walked the earth, Jesus attracted many followers with His teachings. These followers became known as His disciples. The word disciple comes from the Latin word discipulus which means pupil.

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ means to be a pupil or a student of His teachings. But even more than that, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means to obey His teachings.

Many of us fail to receive the fullness of God’s blessings in our lives because we are hearers only and not doers of His Word. Usually our failure to obey the Word does not stem from a deliberate decision to disobey. Believers in Christ want to obey Him. The problem, I think, lies mostly in our failure to remember His Word.

We hear the Word preached in our churches on Sundays. We read the Word in our Bibles. But when it comes time to obey the Word, how many of us always remember what we heard on Sunday or what we read in our Bible? Sad to say, I have not always remembered what I have heard or read and, therefore, have not always obeyed what I have heard or read. We need to remember the Word in order to obey it.

Why is it so important to obey God’s Word? There are many answers to this question, but the very significant one mentioned in our Scripture verse (James 1: 22) is that failure to obey God’s Word results in deception. In practical terms, this deception can manifest itself in wrong decisions with serious long-term consequences. But when we hear AND obey the Word of God, we will make right choices and we will be blessed (James 1: 23-25).

Let me encourage you today to keep looking into God’s Word so that you won’t forget it. Then, when you are faced with a choice between doing something your way or doing it God’s way, you will remember what the Word says and you will obey it. And then you will be greatly blessed. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1: 25).

Be blessed today and every day. Hear God’s Word and obey it!

Your sister in Christ,

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio

Whosoever would save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9: 24)

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Precious Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Daystar,

It has been estimated that over half of all physical illnesses have their roots in a sick soul—in damaged emotions, wrong thinking, or a rebellious will. These three parts of the soul (emotions, mind, and will) were designed by God to work in harmony. Likewise, God designed the three parts of man—spirit, soul, and body—to work in harmony. A disorder in one part always affects the other parts.

Sickness in the soul often results from self-centeredness, or making the self the center of our lives. When we are self-centered, we focus on ourselves. In other words, we have ourselves on our minds more than or other than God. Self-centeredness causes the personality to disintegrate. We know that we are being self-centered when we become defensive, proud, jealous, selfish, touchy, offended, unjustly angry, or hostile.

Countless Christians today are sick in their souls. Many suffer from depression, anxiety, fear, worry, jealousy, and a host of other mental and emotional ills. Perhaps you are one of them. If so, let me assure you that this is not God’s will for you.

Well, you may be asking, what am I to do? Let me suggest a powerful remedy.

The best cure for sickness of the soul is praising God. When we praise God, our focus must, of necessity, shift from ourselves to our Heavenly Father. We cannot praise and worship God in spirit and in truth unless we focus on Him. This shift in focus takes our eyes off ourselves and puts them on God. Keeping our eyes on God brings health to the soul.

Make it your daily habit to praise God continually whether you feel like it or not. As you do, a remarkable thing will happen. In losing your self for Him through praise, you will find your self becoming whole.

Your sister in Christ,

Dr. Mary Ann Diorio

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8: 6)

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Precious Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Daystar,

The word carnal comes from the Latin word meaning flesh. The word flesh in the Bible refers to both the physical body and to the soul (the mind, the will, and the emotions). The carnal Christian, therefore, is controlled by the impulses of the body and/or of the soul.

We’ve all experienced being controlled by the impulses of the body when we’ve taken that second piece of pie or that third piece of chocolate. We’ve all experienced being controlled by the impulses of the soul when we’ve spoken anger-filled words at someone who has offended us.

But Jesus warns us that being controlled by the flesh leads to death: death of self-respect, death of relationships, even physical death.

God designed us to be ruled by our spirits, not by our souls or our bodies. But in order for us to be ruled by our spirits, we must crucify the flesh. This means that when we want to be unkind, we respond with kindness; when we want to overeat, we don’t; when we want our own way, we defer to another’s way.

As born-again followers of Jesus Christ, we have been given a new spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. As we yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within our new spirit, we will become spiritually-minded. And the more we become spiritually-minded, the more we will experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give us (John 10: 10).

Your sister in Christ,

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio

’For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29: 11)

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Precious Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Daystar,

All of us at some point in our lives experience frustration. Usually the frustration stems from not achieving a goal we’ve set for ourselves. We also feel frustrated when our life doesn’t turn out the way we may have planned it to turn out.

Frustration is the discrepancy between what we hoped to achieve and what we actually achieved. This discrepancy often results from following our own plan for our lives instead of God’s plan for our lives.

Strange as this may sound, God’s primary goal for us is not our success. His primary goal is to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. If there is anything in our lives that stands in the way of that goal, God will deal with us about it.

For instance, you may have a serious financial problem and need money badly. You pray and pray but nothing seems to happen. Why? It may be that lack of money is not the root cause of your problem; lack of discipline may be. God wants to deal with the lack of discipline first. Otherwise, if He were to give you the money without dealing with the lack of discipline, the money would harm you.

God always deals with the root of the problem, not the symptom. Only when the root is destroyed will the problem disappear.

If you are experiencing frustration, ask God to show you the root cause of it. You may find that you are insisting on your own plan for your life and not God’s plan. I can tell you from personal experience that your own plan will never bring you the joy, peace, and fulfillment that God intends for you. Only God’s plan for you will do that.

As you surrender to His will for your life, your frustration will disappear and, in the process, you will become more and more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Your sister in Christ,

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio

For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. (I Timothy 4: 8)

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Precious Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Daystar,

Physical fitness has become the rage in our culture. We jog, power-walk, and lift weights. We use treadmills, stair-steppers, and universal gyms. We spend hours a week developing our bodies that will one day return to dust, but only moments, if any, a week developing our spirits that will live forever. This ought not to be.

Why do we need to develop our spirits? Because we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6: 12).

Satan is a spirit, and we must fight him in the spirit realm with spiritual weapons. These spiritual weapons are called the armor of God and are described in Ephesians 6.

Satan is no match for a strong-spirited Christian. Resolve to develop your spirit through diligent study of the Word and through prayer both in English and in other tongues ( I Corinthians 1: 14-15).

Build up your spiritual muscles so that you will be an able and victorious soldier in God’s army.

Your sister in Christ,

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12: 2)

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Precious Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Daystar,

Have you ever wondered why some Christians continue to live defeated lives after they’ve been born again? Perhaps you are one of those Christians. If so, let me encourage you today.

When we receive Christ as our Savior, we enter into a legal contract (the New Testament or New Covenant) with Him that entitles us to all the benefits of His death and resurrection. These benefits include eternal life for our spirits; mental and emotional healing and health for our souls; physical healing and health for our bodies; healthful relationships, and financial prosperity.

While the benefit of eternal life for our spirits becomes ours the instant we are born again, all the other benefits must be possessed by us. In other words, they are legally ours, but we must fight the good fight of faith in order to experience them. We find a parallel to this concept in the Old Testament. Although God gave the Promised Land to the Israelites, they still had to go in and possess the land—i.e., drive out the enemies—before they could enjoy its benefits.

Like the Israelites, we, too, have to drive out the enemies from our minds in order to possess our Promised Land of health and prosperity. These enemies are all the negative thoughts with which Satan continually bombards us. But how do we drive out those negative thoughts? We drive them out in a two-step process:

1) We cast them down and give them to Jesus (2 Corinthians 10: 5).

2) We fill the void with only those positive thoughts that agree with God’s Word (Philippians 4: 8).

By following this two-step process, our minds will be renewed, and we will be transformed. And once we are transformed, we will prove (which means experience) the perfect will of God for our lives.

If you are still living a defeated life, check your thinking patterns. Do they line up with the Bible? If not, get rid of them and replace them with God’s thinking patterns as revealed in His Word. When you do, you will experience the abundant life that Jesus paid the ultimate price to give you.

Your sister in Christ,

Dr. Mary Ann Diorio

In your anger, do not sin. (Ephesians 4: 26)

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Precious Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Daystar,

This is an interesting Scripture verse. It doesn’t command us never to be angry. Instead, it acknowledges that there will be times in our lives when we will be angry, but it commands us not to sin during those times.

How do you deal with your anger? Do you allow it to control you and overpower you? Or do you take control of it?

Here are some suggestions for handling your anger in a way that is pleasing to God:

1) Realize that anger, in itself, is neither right nor wrong. It’s how you respond when you are angry that matters. You can choose to blow up or clam up; or you can choose to respond in love.

2) When you are angry, say so in a calm manner. Go to the person with whom you are angry and say something like, It makes me angry that… If possible, discuss the situation with the person involved. Too many people suppress their anger. This does nothing to solve the problem.

1) Instead, suppressing anger creates new problems both in the body and in the soul. Other people explode when they are angry. This does no good, either. Exploding hurts both you and the person who is the target of your hurtful words or actions. A good way to vent your anger is to do something constructive, like exercising or cleaning your house.

2) If you find that your anger seems to be beyond your control, you may be dealing with a spirit of anger or even a generational curse of anger. If this is the case, take authority over it in the Name of Jesus. Also, go to your pastor and ask him for counsel. Some anger issues have deep roots that need to be exposed and cut off.

3) Pray and seek God continually about your anger. Our Lord is our Deliverer. He will deliver you from anger. Just ask Him to do so, and cooperate with Him as He leads you into all Truth.

Your sister in Christ,

Dr. Mary Ann