Monthly Archives: May 2016

May 17, 2016 · 1:01 AM

1,000th Devotion


It’s hard to believe, but this is my 1,000th post. I started this journey four years ago not knowing what to expect, but having grand ideas in my head. I wanted to learn how to improve my writing, and to have a better understanding of direction, and how to promote my writing so I went to the Re:Write Conference soon after I started. One of the speakers there was Mary DeMuth, who has written over 30 books and has blogged for many years. She said a couple of things that really stood out to me, and I still reflect on them to this day.

The first thing that stuck out to me was that she said she wrote in obscurity for seven years before anyone noticed her. She talked about the struggles of continuing to write when very few are reading. I remember thinking, “That’s not going to be me!” In my mind, I had a message to share and the world wanted to hear it. All I had to do was write, and people would flock to my site. Four years later, I’m still writing in obscurity. I’ve struggled with that because my results haven’t met my expectations.

That leads me to the other thing she said that stood out to me. She said, “Writing is not so we can fill a hole in our heart; it’s so we can give away what God has given us.” That phrase (along with my wife) has kept me grounded throughout these years of writing in obscurity. They both remind me that anything I do for God is not about me. It’s about God. If what I’m doing is about Him, then I need to learn to be ok with obscurity. As my wife tells me, “If what you wrote was for one person and God sent them to read it, you are successful.”

In our world, I’ve learned that God defines success differently than we do. We think of book deals, thousands of followers, and fame as being successful. But God defines it as our obedience to Him. In this journey of writing, I’ve learned that it’s not the quantity of lives that I touch that makes me successful or gives me worth: it’s the quality with which I touch lives. If I’m doing what God has called me to whether it is for one person or one thousand, then I am successful in His eyes and those are the only ones that matter.

For those of you who have been on this journey with me, I’d like to say, “Thank you.” For those of you who have let me know that a particular post has touched your life and been exactly what you needed at that moment, you will never know what that has done for me. Your words have encouraged me as I’ve struggled in obscurity and reminded me that I’m being successful in God’s eyes even when I don’t feel like I’m being successful.

I hope that with this post, you can look at your life and see where you’ve defined success differently than God has. I hope that you can see that your success doesn’t depend on how many people you reach. It simply depends on your obedience to what God has called you to do. If you’re struggling with not feeling successful in what God has called you to, take heart. If you’re being obedient, you are successful in God’s eyes, and He’s the one who ultimately matters.

Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭16:3‬ ‭AMP‬‬

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May 16, 2016 · 2:09 AM

Come Back Tomorrow


Have you ever had a craving, drove across town to get to the restaurant, walk in, and have them tell you the kitchen us closed? I hate it when that happens. It’s worse if you’ve pulled into the parking lot, are walking up to the door, and they flip the sign to “closed” while looking at you. You just want one thing. It won’t take long, but they tell you to come back tomorrow. How does that make you feel? Angry? Disappointed? Frustrated? Sad? Lots of emotions come to mind.

The problem is, that person had the ability to satisfy your craving, but not the will. They could have gone above and beyond for a good customer like yourself, and just let you run in and get it. But they didn’t. They withheld it from you and you have to wait. When that happens, I almost want to do a personal boycott because I let my emotions get the better of me. But at the be of the day, it was just a food item I wanted. It wasn’t life or death. It won’t make or break me if I don’t get it.

Imagine someone who needs something that really will make or break them. Imagine that they need this thing to keep afloat, and you have what they need. Imagine you told them to come back tomorrow because you were busy. This isn’t a craving they’re trying to get a fix for. This is a real life, make or break situation, and you were as aloof to them as that person who looked at you and flipped the sign to close. Remember how you were feeling when they did that for a craving? Multiply that feeling for that person.

God puts people in our path each day who desperately need our help, but we are too busy to see them or too nonchalant to care. We have the opportunity daily to be God’s hands, but we rarely open them. Proverbs 3:27-28 says, “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say, ‘Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you’” (NLT). God’s desire is that we keep our sign turned to “open” when it comes to helping others.

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May 13, 2016 · 5:30 AM

Your Guide to Life


If you were to look up “Guide” in the dictionary, it would tell you that it’s a person who advises or shows the way to others. Throughout history God has given us things to show the way to Him and to direct our lives on how to live. God knows that we all feel lost in this world, are looking for answers, and have no sense of direction. When we follow anything other than something or someone God has given us as a guide, it’s the blind leading the blind.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened my Bible when I’ve needed direction and found my path. There have been times that I’ve prayed for an answer and God placed someone in my path to give it to me. Then have also been times when the Holy Spirit has caused me to remember something from the Bible just when I needed it. God didn’t leave us fumbling around in the darkness. He gave us guides to show us the way.

Here are several verses from the Bible that talk about the Guides He has given us.

1. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

Psalms 119:105 NLT

2. And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16 ESV

3. For the Lamb Who is in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to the springs of the waters of life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Revelation 7:17 AMP

4. We beg you, our friends, to pay proper respect to those who work among you, who guide and instruct you in the Christian life.

1 Thessalonians 5:12 GNT

5. I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s. I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s. Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.

1 John 2:1-2 MSG

6. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.

John 16:13 NLT

7. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Galatians 5:16 NLT

8. You in Your mercy and loving-kindness have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.

Exodus 15:13 AMP

9. The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in the one body. And be thankful.

Colossians 3:15 GNT

10. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Isaiah 58:11 ESV

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May 12, 2016 · 5:37 AM

The Real Question


Have you ever wished God would tell you, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you”? Think about that. What would your answer be? How much time would you take to answer that question? Would your answer benefit just you or would it benefit others? If God promised to give you anything you wanted, that would be a big deal. Personally, I’d be afraid of giving the wrong answer, but in this situation, there really isn’t one.

I asked you that question, because that’s exactly what God asked Solomon in I Kings 3:5. Solomon had just sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings to the Lord and God visited him that night with that question and promise. The Bible doesn’t say how long Solomon took with his answer. What he asked for has stayed with me my whole life. The final part of his answer in verse 9 was, “Give me the wisdom I need to rule your people with justice and to know the difference between good and evil. Otherwise, how would I ever be able to rule this great people of yours?” (GNT)

Solomon had some big shoes to fill being king after David. He recognized that he needed help in ruling the people, so he asked for wisdom. One of the biggest things that stands out to me is that God asked him what he wanted and he answered with what he needed. There’s a big difference there. Our wants are usually different from our needs. I may want a Lamborghini, but what I need is a reliable car to get from A to B.

Let’s go back to your answer to the question. Was it a want or a need? What about your normal prayer time? Is it a list of needs or wants? I think it’s ok to ask God for the wants, but when people ask for their needs, God goes above and beyond. II Corinthians 9:8 says, “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others” (NLT). When God gives what we need, it’s enough to share. So the real question is, do you want what you need or need what you want?

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May 11, 2016 · 5:56 AM

The Pursuit Of Happiness


The Declaration of Independence of The United States says that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are among our inalienable rights as humans given to us by God. We all have the desire to live, to be free, and to be happy. So many of us have spent a lifetime in the pursuit of happiness. We think of we have more money, we’ll be happy. We think of we had a better job, a better house, a faster car, more friends, a bigger church, more toys, or (fill in the blank), we’ll be happy so we pursue those things.

The inalienable right granted to us was the pursuit of happiness, not the pursuit of things though. Yes, God wants you to be happy, but He wants you to find it in Him. If you’ve pursued things to make you happy, you can attest that once you had those things, your happiness faded. They fulfilled you for a short while, but then you wanted a better whatever it was that you pursued. When you pursue things for your happiness, you’ll never be satisfied. You will always want more. That’s why we have the phrase, “Money doesn’t buy happiness.”

The pursuit of happiness is different than the pursuit of things to make you happy. You can still desire those other things, but you have to understand that’s not what’s going to fulfill your longing to be happy. Psalm 37:4 says, “Seek your happiness in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desire” (GNT). When we pursue our happiness in God, a funny thing happens. He begins to give us the things we desire. It’s a matter of priorities.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (ESV). It’s when we seek Him, His Kingdom, and His desires that we will find our happiness. All the other things are a side note to life. Yes, it’s ok to want them and to even have them, but we have to understand that if they are what we are pursuing to make us happy, we I’ll be disappointed. If we will seek our happiness in Him, we will be truly happy and He will bless us with things that will enhance our happiness.

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May 10, 2016 · 5:30 AM

You Are Powerful


I’ve read how you can re-map what your brain believes by changing what and how you think. When asked why we can’t or won’t do something, we say, “That’s not who I am” or “I’m not wired they way.” We’ve been fed a lie by someone, repeated it to ourselves and others, and believed it until it has become who we are. That same process can be used to undo the damage caused by the lie we believed before. We can become who we are not, by changing what we believe.

If you read the Psalms, you see two versions of David. You see one who is downcast and scared, and you see another who is proclaiming they are strong and mighty. I believe David struggled with the lie that he was just a shepherd boy instead of a king. I believe he heard the voices telling him he belonged in a pasture than on the battlefield, and it created that struggle within him. He wasn’t so different than you or I.

God calls us to do mighty things, but our self doubt kicks in and tells us we can’t. When we allow the words of people to echo in our minds louder than the words of God, we remain stagnant and afraid. That’s the plan of the enemy to immobilize the Church. If he can get us to buy into the belief that we are weak, unworthy, unable, and insecure, then he can keep us from stepping out in faith into our full calling. He uses fear, intimidation, and the power of mind mapping to keep us from our destiny.

I believe David recognized that and that’s why we read so many of his self affirmations in Psalms. He knew that if he repeated God’s truth enough times, he would believe it, and it would become who he was. In Psalm 118:14 he proclaimed a truth each of us need to proclaim as well. He said, “The Lord makes me powerful and strong” (GNT). God has made you more powerful than the enemy. He has made you more powerful than the lie you’ve been told. He has made you powerful enough to become who He has said you are and to accomplish what He has called you to do. 

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May 9, 2016 · 5:30 AM

God Listens


Have you ever been talking to someone only to figure out they were looking at you, but not listening? It’s frustrating. You’re going through the emotions that you feel, describing each detail to them, and they aren’t even paying attention. Would you go back to that person the next time you needed the support of a listening ear? No! You wanted someone to listen and to help you, and they weren’t even giving you the respect of listening.

Have you ever felt like God was that way? Have you felt like you poured out your heart to Him in prayer, but it was like He wasn’t listening? It’s frustrating to be in prayer and to feel like your prayers aren’t escaping the room you’re in. Maybe you’ve tried praying louder or just sat there weeping in that place crying out to God for mercy. In any case, God is not like us. He does not have selective hearing. He hears every prayer, even those that seem to fall flat on the floor.

In Psalm 116:1-2, the Psalmist wrote, “I love the Lord, because he hears me; he listens to my prayers. He listens to me every time I call to him” (GNT). God hears every prayer you’ve ever prayed from the silent ones that you could barely muster the energy to say to the loud “can you hear me” prayers. When you and I pour out our heart before God, we have a guarantee that He hears us and listens to us.

We are not guaranteed to have every prayer answered, but we are guaranteed an audience with God every time we pray. Since He gives us an audience and hears us, we should have confidence and approach His throne where we will find mercy and grace to help us just when we need it (Hebrews 4:16). We don’t have to leave prayer frustrated because we know He hears us, and if He hears us, He will give us the grace and mercy we need for whatever our situation holds.

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May 6, 2016 · 6:02 AM

God’s Presence


As I’ve studied great men and women of Faith, they have something in common: they love being in God’s presence. In fact, William Seymour, the man God used to start the Azusa Street revival, moved into the second floor of the warehouse where they were holding revival so he wouldn’t have to leave God’s presence. Moses stated on the mountain top in God’s presence for forty days. King David never wanted to leave it either.

For some of us, being in God’s presence is a scary thing because everything that is not of God in our lives is exposed. For others, that’s what they relish. It gives them the opportunity to come clean and to allow God to purify every part of their life. Each of us should be a person who loves God’s presence. We should want to carry it around with us wherever we go. To do that,we need to be people of prayer. We need to stay past the point of our words ending and to remain until God shows up in a powerful way.

If we want to see a move of God, we have to be willing to spend time in prayer and in His presence. Here are some verses that discuss God’s presence.

1. Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.” The LORD replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

Exodus 33:18-19 NLT

2. Bless me with your presence and teach me your laws.

Psalm 119:135 GNT

3. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8 AMP

4. Come, let’s shout praises to GOD, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! Let’s march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns!

Psalm 95:1-2 MSG

5. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.

Acts of the Apostles 3:19-20 NLT

6. I am always aware of the Lord ‘s presence; he is near, and nothing can shake me.

Psalm 16:8 GNT

7. Honor and majesty are [found] in His presence; strength and joy are [found] in His sanctuary.

1 Chronicles 16:27 AMP

8. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV

9. And so I walk in the presence of the Lord in the world of the living.

Psalm 116:9 GNT

10. In just a short time he will restore us, so that we may live in his presence. Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.

Hosea 6:2-3 NLT

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May 5, 2016 · 5:32 AM

Christlike Compassion


A friend recently told me how a mutual friend of ours had made some wrong choices and called them for help. I said, “You didn’t help them did you?” They said, “No.” I said, “Good! They need to learn they can’t keep making these choices and think everyone is just going to bail them out.” Immediately I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Where was the compassion in my heart? Where was the good in me that wants to help others? I was choosing who deserved it, and God was getting on to me.

What if God had that attitude toward me? What if He said, “I’ve already forgiven you of this same sin over and over. I think I’ll just let you deal with it instead of me helping you. Maybe then you’ll figure it out”? That would be devastating because when I sin, I run to God, beg Him to forgive me, and ask Him to bail me out when it comes to the consequences. I want Him to hear my prayer, see my heart, and to have compassion on me. For some reason, I fail to have that same compassion on others.

When I read of Jesus, one thing that always stands out to me is how He had compassion on the crowds. He was tired and hungry, but when people came to Him, He was moved with compassion to help them. As a CHRISTian, I am to be like Christ. To me, one of His greatest attributes was His compassion and His goodness to any who went to see Him. In Psalm 145:9 David wrote, “The LORD is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation” (NLT).

If the Father is good to everyone and the Son showed compassion to everyone, wouldn’t it make sense that I do the same? Even if I can see someone’s choices and consequences, I can’t see their heart. If God has had compassion on me after I’ve made the same boneheaded mistake over and over again, I need to show that same compassion to others. I may never fully be Christ like, but I can at least move in that direction. One of things I can change is how I show compassion to those who I don’t feel deserve it because none of us deserve God’s. Thankfully He gives it to us anyway.

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May 4, 2016 · 5:30 AM

Doing God’s Will


Too often we think it’s hard to know God’s will. We say we want to find it for our lives, but I wonder if that’s just an excuse we use to keep us from doing something. We don’t like change. We like things that are comfortable for us. We rationalize that if God opened the heavens, gave us a clear sign, and spoke to us in an audible voice then we could do the things that are uncomfortable. We put parameters like that on how to know God’s will so that we can remain inert.

The truth is that we know what God’s will is if we’ve read any of the Bible. We know His will for how we should live, we know His will for how we should treat the least among us, and we know His will for what we should do with our knowledge of Him. What we don’t know is how to do it. So the real question isn’t, “What’s God’s will”, it’s, “How do I do God’s will?” That’s the real problem most of us have, but we just can’t admit it because if we know what His will is, we are responsible for doing it.

I do an exercise with managers at work to illustrate the difference in telling someone to do something and teaching them how to do it. I create a long tube out of easel paper, tell them to hold out their fingers, put it on top of them, and tell them to take it to the ground. The problem is they can’t do it. They know what I want them to do, but they can’t. I keep telling them my will, but they don’t know how to do it so they get frustrated. Many walk away from the exercise frustrated because they aren’t successful. They give up because something that seems so easy is do hard to do.

After letting them struggle for about 10 minutes, I finally teach them how to do it. They then are able to do it with some struggles. I think it’s similar to doing God’s will. It should be easy to love our neighbor, defend the orphan, or tell others about Jesus, but it isn’t. I think David struggled with doing God’s will too. That’s why I think he prayed this prayer in Psalm 143:10. He prayed, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing” (NLT).

I can relate with David. I know God’s will and I want to do it, but I struggle with doing it. Maybe you’re in that boat too. You want to do what He’s called you to, but you just don’t know how. Let David’s prayer be your prayer. Change your question from, “What’s your will” to “Can you teach you how to do it?” We still might struggle with doing it, but I’d rather fail at trying to accomplish His will than to fail God by doing nothing. Pray today to ask God how to do His will, then look for opportunities to do it. God will teach us and give us opportunities too.

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