February 23, 2026 · 5:44 AM

Let Go To Grow

I grew up with the mentality that if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself. What a damaging way to look at things! We were not created to do everything on our own. I can tell you from personal experience that if you try to do everything yourself, you’ll burn out. Another thing is that you’ll lose clarity and start making poor decisions after a while. However, the worst thing for me is that when I try to do everything myself, I keep others from stepping into their calling. God sends us people to share the load with, but we keep denying them what God has sent them for as we wear ourselves out. Delegation is not a sin. Handing things off is not bad. When you learn to do this, you’ll start accomplishing more.

In Exodus 18, Moses’ father in law, Jethro, came to visit. Moses told him all God had done in Egypt and they celebrated. The next day from sun up to sun down Moses listened to people share their disputes with him and he made judgements for them. Jethro asked him why he was doing that by himself. Then in verse 18 he said, “You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself” (NLT). He told Moses how to delegate that role. The best part is that Moses listened. He didn’t tell him that he didn’t have a right to tell him how to do things. He didn’t try to justify it, nor did he get upset. He recognized wisdom and implemented it making his life exponentially better.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.” How good are you at letting things go? What has God been trying to move off of your plate? It’s been my experience when you let go of certain things, it frees you up to grow and make a greater impact. The Bible tells us to share each others burdens, to entrust work to faithful people, to pray together and to encourage and build each other up. When we try to do these things on our own, we miss so many of the blessings God has for us. Let go of the lie that you need to do everything yourself. Quit holding on to things you are supposed to let go of and open yourself up to more of what God wants to give you. It’s time to let go so you can grow.

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February 20, 2026 · 6:03 AM

The Heir’s Mindset

One of the terms Paul uses a few times to refer to beliers in the New Testament is “heir.” To be an heir, or a co-heir, has to do with our identity shift. When we think of heir, we think of receiving something later, but Paul is reminding us we become someone different now. Being an heir changes how we see ourselves, how we define ourselves and ultimately how we live. We no longer have to chase approval because we have become sons and daughters of God. Our identity is in Christ. Like the early believers, we need to be drawn out of the old mentality and shifted into a new one that sees ourselves with an eternal perspective. You don’t have to earn an identity in the Kingdom of God. You’ve already been given the highest one. Stop measuring yourself by your output and start living from the Spirit’s input in your life.

Here are some Bible verses on being an heir:

1. So listen carefully, my dear brothers and sisters, hasn’t God chosen the poor in the world’s eyes to be those who are rich in faith? And won’t they be the heirs of the kingdom-realm he promised to those who love him?

James (Jacob) 2:5 TPT

2. So as a gift of his love, and since we are faultless— innocent before his face— we can now become heirs of all things, all because of an overflowing hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:7 TPT

3. And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory.

Romans 8:17 AMP

4. And if you belong to Christ [if you are in Him], then you are Abraham’s descendants, and [spiritual] heirs according to [God’s] promise.

Galatians 3:29 AMP

5. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

Galatians 4:7 NLT

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February 19, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Trust God Anyway

To me, one of the worst feelings in the world is the feeling of being helpless. When everything seems to be going against me and there’s nothing I can do to stop it, there’s a sense of fear and desperation. In those times, all my efforts to help myself, or to get myself out of it, are fruitless. Many times when that happens, the harder I try to get out of the situation, the worse it gets. It’s that feeling where you’re stuck in the mud and the more you push the gas, the worse you get stuck. My feelings and thoughts quickly turn negative, and if I’m not careful, those feelings and thoughts can dictate my actions. We all face times like these, even the heroes of the faith who are in the Bible.

David often found himself in desperation. You can see how his thinking affected him and his actions. In Psalm 28, he’s going through a helpless situation. In verse 1 he prays, “I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die” (NLT). At this point, he’s not even sure God is going to come help. His fear is causing him to doubt just like our fear does to us. If we trust our feelings over our faith, life can feel a roller coaster. Emotions were given to us to help us gauge a situation. They were not meant to be what we trust in. They often lie and manipulate us. We must learn to trust God over our emotions and over how they’re making us feel about our situation.

In verse 7, David moves his trust his emotions to God. He reminds himself, “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.” When we switch where we place our trust, our emotions follow. We need to trust God with all of our heart instead of our emotions. He sees what you’re going through, and He will not abandon you in it. He doesn’t always remove us from the situation or give us the answer we’re hoping for. The question is, will you trust Him anyway? Will you have faith that whatever it is, He can turn it for your good? It’s not easy to do. However, where you place your trust will determine how well you come through it.

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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February 18, 2026 · 5:44 AM

Training Your Faith

In 2019 I was offered a voluntary severance package from the company I had been at for nearly 15 years. After a lot of prayer and answers from God, I accepted the package and started my own business. After a few months, things were going well. I was getting steady customers and starting to grow. Just as things were looking up, Covid hit and pretty much shut me down. In that moment I had a choice to make. I could look at my friends from my previous company who were getting a steady check, and I could be upset at God, or I could remember that I heard from Him and trust that He’d always taken care of me in the past. When crisis hits, our natural inclination is to think God has abandoned us. However, I’ve learned that spiritual maturity is built on remembering the faithfulness of God.

In Exodus 17, the Israelites were in the middle of the wilderness and there wasn’t any water. One version says they were tormented by thirst and they began to complain and argue with Moses asking why he brought them out of Egypt if they were just going to die of thirst. These people had just witnessed the plagues God brought on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and were receiving daily manna from heaven. Their current crisis had them thinking God had abandoned them and their mind said they would have been better off living in slavery. Moses went to the Lord and God told him to strike the rock and water would come out of it. Moses named the place “Arguing” because they had argued whether God was with them or not.

In Psalm 77 Asaph was going through a tough time and starting to think that God had forgotten him. Then he penned verses 11-12, “But then I recall all you have done, O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works” (NLT). He chose to remember God’s faithfulness in a wilderness season when God was silent. He chose to lift his hands toward heaven anyway. Faith is having a well trained memory that looks at God’s faithfulness over time instead of our current thirst. A good habit is to write down times God has been faithful to you in the past, to share them with others and to read them when times get tough. Doing this will help train your faith to trust in the wilderness.

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February 17, 2026 · 5:00 AM

Behind The Delay

I’m currently sitting at an airport waiting for my flight that has been delayed several times turning it into a red eye. I’m contemplating all the ramifications and inconveniences of the delay as it relates to my plans, my sleep and how it will affect me tomorrow. As much as I hate delays, I’ve learned there’s nothing I can do to change it. I can only control how I respond to my timetable and plans being disrupted. I’ve also learned that many times God is involved in the delay for one reason or another. Most of the time, I never get to see the reason for the delay, but sometimes He pulls back the curtain and reminds me that He’s in control and had my best interests at heart. He also reminds me that there is more going on than we can see.

In Daniel 10, he had been praying for understanding and clarity regarding the future. He had been in a time of mourning and fasting with no answer for three weeks. It was then that an angel appeared, pulled back the curtain and let him know what was going on behind the scenes. The angel said, “Daniel, don’t be afraid. God has heard your prayers ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in order to gain understanding. I have come in answer to your prayer” (GNT). He then explained what was going on in the unseen that caused the delay in the answer. He had been fighting principalities in the heavenlies to bring him an answer, and he would have to go back to fighting. He showed Daniel that sometimes delays are caused by our enemy opposing the answer God is sending.

When I’m faced with delays, or when I’m waiting on God to answer, I remember the words of Psalm 27:14. It says, “Wait for and confidently expect the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord” (AMP). It’s not easy, but keep waiting and trusting during the delay. What the angel said to Daniel is true for you. He loves you, your prayers have been heard and help is on the way. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop trusting. Confidently expect the Lord to do what only He can do. Your delay is temporary. Your timetable may be disrupted, but God is on the move. Your breakthrough is coming. It’s just being fought for in places you can’t see.

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February 16, 2026 · 5:50 AM

Daily Dependence

In 1970, during the Apollo 13 mission to the moon, an oxygen tank ruptured. It quickly went from an exploration mission to do what it takes to survive. With limited oxygen, limited power and limited resources, the crew had to depend on Mission Control for each move they made. Engineers on the ground began calculating and figuring out what the astronauts needed to survive. They figured out how to construct an air filter with what the astronauts had on board and walked them through step by step to create it. The astronauts completely depended on Mission Control to help them make it to earth safely. Their dependence on Mission Control wasn’t considered weakness. It was their way home.

In Exodus 16 the Israelites were in the desert headed to the Promised Land when they started complaining about food. God responded by giving them daily rations of manna. They were only allowed to take what they needed for the day or the extra would spoil. What they didn’t see was that the manna was a training ground for daily dependence on God. It trained them to trust He will provide. It trained them to obey what He said, to live without trying to control everything and to depend on God for what they couldn’t produce for themselves. Every morning, when they woke up, they sought God and His provision. They learned to trust Him and built a relationship with Him through receiving the daily manna.

In Matthew 6, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. We know it as the Lord’s Prayer. In verse 11 of this prayer, Jesus taught us to say, “Give us this day our daily bread” (NKJV). Today, God is still asking us to seek our daily provision from Him. He is still looking for us to trust Him for what we need, so we can build our relationship with Him. The question isn’t whether God will provide, but rather will we go to Him daily? He’s there waiting each day for us to meet with Him, to tell Him our needs and to walk us through life’s difficulties. You can’t stockpile intimacy with God. It’s built through daily communication and dependence on Him. Don’t skip out on the daily bread He offers you. There’s more to it than you realize.

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February 13, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Faithful Hands

There are a few places in Scripture, like Deuteronomy 6:8, that tells us to bind God’s Word to our hand and our head. I’ve seen people take this literally and walk around with a small leather box filled with verses tied to their head or arm. I believe the command was twofold. To keep it on the forehead could be to keep God’s Word in front of us, in our thinking and in our world view. On your hand because it represents your actions, behaviors and your work. In a lot of places, when Scripture talks about our hands, it’s figuratively referring to these things. When you read these, think about your actions, behaviors and work to honor Him. It’s not enough to say we believe God’s Word, it must show up in these areas too.

Here are some Bible verses on having faithful hands:

1. Lift up your tired hands, then, and strengthen your trembling knees! Keep walking on straight paths, so that the lame foot may not be disabled, but instead be healed.

Hebrews 12:12-13 GNT

2. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

James 4:8 GNT

3. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 NKJV

4. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

Matthew 6:3-4 NLT

5. If your right hand makes you stumble and leads you to sin, cut it off and throw it away [that is, remove yourself from the source of temptation]; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 5:30 AMP

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February 12, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Living By God’s Code

When I was in my teens, I was introduced to what it meant to live by a code. I was taught that it was important to have a set of guiding principles by which to live your life. I didn’t know then how much they would shape my life and help me through making decisions. All these years later I still have the code memorized and think of the characteristics often. They are still the words I live by because they are so fundamental. These words apply to my mental, physical and spiritual life. They are: alert, clean, honest, courageous, loyal, courteous, obedient and spiritual. Each has its own saying that defines it and how I should live.

When the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they didn’t have a code to live by. After living in Egypt and slavery for so long, their guiding principles were what the Egyptians told them to do. So the first place God led them to was Mount Sinai to meet with them and to give them some principles to live by. Today, we call them the Ten Commandments. You can find them in Exodus 20. These commandments were a set of rules to live by to ensure that people did the right thing by God, themselves and others if only they would follow them. He further defined the Law through Leviticus, but these were the core ones to guide their lives.

Today, we have the entire Bible to show us how to live. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (NLT). The word “hidden” means to store up and treasure as your most valuable possession to the point that it governs your life. God’s Word is not just a mere set of morally good ideas and principles that we should just read. It’s inspired by God and is to be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). It is what we need to treasure above all other things in our heart because of the eternal impacts it has on us. When we value it and place it in a position in our life to govern our decisions, we will live the way God called us to. It is our Code for living.

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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February 11, 2026 · 5:52 AM

Exercising Vulnerability

When I do premarital counseling, in one session I tell them we’re going to have an exercise in vulnerability. I want them to understand how critical vulnerability is in marriage and to help them share some things that they’ve kept hidden out of fear. I remind them that they aren’t responsible to heal what has happened in the past, but they get to participate in the healing of it. As each one shares a defining moment in their life, we discuss how it made them feel, the echo of words that it started in their mind, their reaction to it and how they coped with it. Like it or not, they’re bringing that into the marriage and it will show up in pressure situations. It helps them also be able to say they need help at times and how their spouse can help heal them. It takes courage and vulnerability to allow others to participate in healing something that’s broken in us.

In 2 Kings 5, we find the story of Naaman. He was a commander of the Syrian army, highly respected and known by the king, but he had a dreaded skin disease. A servant girl, whom he had kidnapped in a raid, told him about a prophet in Israel that could heal him. When his entourage showed up a Elisha’s house, Elisha sent out a servant to tell him to dip in the dirty Jordan river seven times and he would be healed. He was indignant because he felt it was beneath him to do that, he wasn’t given the respect for the prophet to come out and what he expected to happen didn’t. This was an exercise in vulnerability for him because he had to admit he couldn’t heal himself, he needed someone else and he risked humiliation by asking. However, when the servant said, “His servants went up to him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can’t you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?” (GNT) Healing doesn’t always look like we think, but it begins with admitting we need help.

James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored” (AMP). If we want healing, we must confess that we need it. Sometimes our pain comes from our sins or someone else’s who offended us. We have to admit it’s affecting us to someone we trust. Telling someone lets them participate in the process of healing. You won’t heal in isolation. You need others who will pray with you and for you. Restoration is possible, but we must be willing to be vulnerable first. It won’t look like you think it will either, but keep trusting God’s process. Like Naaman, it may not appear the healing has begun the first time you follow His plan. Naaman’s leprosy didn’t disappear until after he had dipped the seventh time. When you carry the weight of a past offense or sin for years, you rarely find healing in the first step, but that first step is critical to your healing. Have the courage to exercise some vulnerability with someone who can participate in your healing.

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February 10, 2026 · 5:58 AM

Barefoot Faith

One of the most famous stories in the Bible takes place in Exodus 3. Moses had fled from Egypt and was tending sheep for his father in law when he saw a burning bush. As he looked closer, he realized the bush wasn’t being consumed by the fire and started walking towards it. As he drew near, the Lord called out his name and then said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground” (NLT). By having Moses remove his shoes, God was teaching us how to approach Him. Not only was removing the shoes an act of humility, it was also symbolic of removing the dirt and things that get between us and God.

We know that pride separates us from God because He rejects the proud, but gives grace to the humble. In Luke 18 Jesus told the story of a Pharisee who thanked God he wasn’t like that tax collector. The tax collector was so humble he couldn’t lift his face toward heaven as he asked for mercy. The tax collector had removed the shoes of pride and was justified. He had dirt in his life that should have kept him from God’s presence. Tax collectors were notorious sinners, but this one removed the dirt of sin by seeking forgiveness. He didn’t want anything to come between him and God. We don’t see him physically take off his shoes, but know he symbolically did as he approached God’s presence.

Hebrews 12:1 reminds us, “As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us” (GNT). Every one of us have some type of sandal we need to remove from our life that is getting in the way of drawing closer and running our race. Whether it’s sin, pride, self reliance, clinging to our old life, performance based faith, etc., we must remove it so we can stand with barefoot faith on holy ground. God is calling out your name, the way He called out Moses’. Like him, are you willing to take off your shoes and stand on holy ground?

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