Monthly Archives: January 2024

January 17, 2024 · 5:46 AM

Stand In Victory

Everyone knows the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17. The Philistines were encroaching on Israel’s land and trying to take it. The armies were encamped on two mountain sides with a valley between them. For forty days Go,oath taunted the army of Israel. When David heard it, something stirred in him. He was willing to leave the mountain side and enter the valley to fight. Goliath laughed at him because he was small and young. In verse 45, David, full of confidence, said, “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the Israelite armies, which you have defied“ (GNT). In order to win the battle in the physical realm, he understood it needed to be won in the spiritual realm first. He also knew it was God who gives victory.

In Matthew 4. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He fasted for forty days. When he was weak physically, but strong spiritually, Satan came to attack Him. He told Him to turn the stones into bread if He really was the Son of God. Jesus didn’t need to prove who He was and replied with Scripture. Then Satan took Him to the top of the Temple and told Him to jump and let the angels catch Him. Again Jesus pushed back with the Word of God. Finally Satan showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and offered them to Him, but Jesus fought back with the what God had said and told Satan to leave. Jesus understood that victory came from God and used God’s Word to achieve it.

Isaiah 54:17 says, ”But no weapon will be able to hurt you; you will have an answer for all who accuse you. I will defend my servants and give them victory.” You can have confidence in whatever battle you’re facing today. No matter how loud and intimidating or manipulative the enemy’s voice is, God’s Word is stronger. Don’t try to win a spiritual battle with your physical strength or wit. Seek God first and He will give you wisdom in how to fight it and He will give you victory. Let Him defend every accusation against you. Remember the battle is the Lord’s. You still have to step onto the battlefield, and you still have to face your giant. However, you don’t have to be unarmed. Like David, we can have confidence our victory lies in the name of the Lord. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Stand in victory today.

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January 16, 2024 · 5:30 AM

A Foundation Of Grace

Growing up on the Gulf Coast I’ve seen first hand the impact storms and hurricanes have had on homes and buildings. Hurricane Andrew hit the Bahamas and Florida in 1992 as a Category Five. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida destroying homes and buildings. It was also the most costly for about 25 years. Afterwards, people changed how they built their houses. One of the biggest construction changes made was to the load path of the structure. They began to build them so that when the high winds came, it directed the wind loads on the roof and walls down to the foundation. A strong foundation can help a building endure just about any storm when the load is directed to it. Without this change, storms could wipe outa building leaving the foundation in tact.

Paul endured many real storms in his life and metaphorical ones too. His life was built on the Word of God and had a load path that directed life’s stresses to his foundation. In 2 Corinthians 12 he mentions a thorn in his flesh that was a messenger from Satan to torment him. He asked God to take away this storm, but He didn’t. God wanted to teach Paul how to direct the tension to his foundation. Jesus said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” (NLT). From then on, Paul began to be glad about his own weaknesses because it wasn’t up to him or his strength to withstand the storm. He learned how to trust God in his weakness by relying on the firm foundation of grace.

Proverbs 10:25 says, “When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation.” Have you been relying on your own strength to endure or have you been directing everything to your foundation? I’ve personally tried it both ways. In one instance, I lost everything but the foundation. However, when I let God rebuild my life, I learned to trust in Him and direct everything to the source of strength in my life. Having a form foundation or a life built on God’s Word doesn’t exempt you from storms. It simply helps you weather them. When the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy everything in your life, you can still be standing because your foundation is firm and you trust in God to help you endure. His strength is perfect and His grace is sufficient for whatever storm you’re facing.

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January 15, 2024 · 5:38 AM

Listening For Wisdom

Do you ever hear the air conditioner blowing in the middle of your workday? The sound is there but you don’t hear it because of all the other noise going on around you. Your ears hear the voices, the copy machine, the rustling of papers and people walking by. However, if you tune out all of the noise and listen for the air conditioner you can hear. That’s the difference between hearing and listening. If your ears are attuned to it you’ll hear it all the time. The problem is that our ears have become attuned to the noise around us. If you consciously listen throughout your day for the blowing of the air conditioner you can retrain your brain to pick it up over the other noise.

In 1 Kings 12 Solomon’s son Rehoboam had become king. His father had worked the people to the bone with all of his projects and they were tired. They reached out to the new king and said, ”Your father made our yoke (burden) heavy; so now lighten the hard labor and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, and we will serve you“ (AMP). So Rehoboam called on the wisdom of his father’s elders to see what he should do. They advised him to ease up and the people would serve him forever. It then says he ignored their wise counsel and went to his young friends to see what they said. They told him to be harder than his father and to make a name for himself. He went with the noise of his friends instead of the wisdom of the elders and the people revolted which split the kingdom.

His father told Him in Proverbs 8:1, ”Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift up her voice?“ Wisdom is calling out to all of us, but there is so much noise in our life that it’s hard to hear her. We have phones, TV’s on 24/7 and people around us constantly. God is asking us to find time get away from the noise in our lives so we can hear His wisdom. He gives it liberally to all who ask (James 1:5), but how many of us listen for it after we ask? Solomon tried to teach all of us that wisdom is everywhere and it’s calling out, but like the air conditioning, we can’t hear it unless we’re listening for it. We must be careful of the websites we go to, the news people we give credence to and the people we listen to for wisdom. We need to find sources of godly wisdom so we can make the best decisions and walk in the blessings of the Lord. Godly wisdom is calling. Are you listening?

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January 12, 2024 · 5:38 AM

3,000 Devotions

Eleven years, eight months and three days ago I posted the first devotional to this site. This devotional is my 3,000th one to write. When I started out, it was because I heard God tell me to write. I imagined book deals and thousands of followers, but that never happened. What did happen was that I learned how to hear from God, dig into His Word and be faithful to what He asked no matter what. When people ask me about writing, I simply let them know that this is an act of obedience. If nothing huge ever comes from this, I’m good because that isn’t my motivation. Like me, God has called you to be faithful to do something. We can imagine all the things our faithfulness will bring as we dream of success. However, God’s idea of success and ours are often different. Can you be continue to be faithful to it even when your idea of success isn’t met? No matter what God has asked you to do, keep at it daily. God teaches us and uses us through our faithfulness .

Here are some Bible verses on being obedient.

1. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.

1 Samuel 12:24 ESV

2. Life’s blessings drench the honest and faithful person, but punishment rains down upon the greedy and dishonest.

Proverbs 28:20 TPT

3. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

4. The master was full of praise. “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!”

Matthew 25:21 NLT

5. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:2 ESV

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January 11, 2024 · 5:30 AM

Before You Start

I, like you, have a pretty busy day and week ahead of me. From the moment I woke up I started thinking of all the things I need to do to accomplish everything today. My mind races to find solutions to scheduling conflicts, deadlines, and how to be in two places at once. I’ve got a to-do list a mile long and a very short time to accomplish it. With all of that happening, do I have time for God?

It’s tough not to put God on a back burner on busy days. He’s the easiest one to “reschedule”, but He’s the last one I need to reschedule. “He’ll understand”, I reason in my mind. “I’ll read my Bible and pray later,” I tell myself. The truth is that I won’t have the time later either. If I don’t make Him a priority right now, I won’t make Him one later. If I don’t slow down now and take time to reflect on Him and His Word, I won’t do it.

God told David in Psalm 46:10, “Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God” (TPT). David was a king and I’m sure he had a lot on his plate too. He would cry out to God in times of need and celebration. He would throw those 911 prayers up to Heaven like you and I often do. “God, I have a lot to do today. Help me to get it all done”, is what we pray. God wants more than that. He wants us to stop, take a moment and spend some time with Him.

In the world we live in, it’s easy to mix up the temporary with the eternal. It’s easy to reverse their importance. Today, stop, breathe, meditate on His Word, and thank Him. Rest in His arms before you do anything else. Give Him more than a 911 prayer and truly thank Him for another day of life. Thank Him that you even have things on your schedule. Know that He is God and really that’s what matters more than anything else I’ll accomplish today.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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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January 10, 2024 · 5:48 AM

Responding To Correction

A few years ago I got a call from a friend who wanted to tell me she had been promoted to Assistant Manager of a store. I told her I was excited for her and scheduled a time to visit her. When I showed up, her enthusiasm had waned. She told me how a sales rep asked to meet with her in the office. He walked in and sat in the manager’s desk chair forcing her to sit on the other side. He then told her how there was nothing she could teach him. He said that he didn’t want her to offer him help during his sale, he didn’t want to be coached and that she just needed to stay out of his way. She asked what to do. I told her you can’t force someone to learn or to grow. I advised that she give as much value as she could to the other reps to help them improve as much as possible. We also discussed how to handle the disrespect.

After King David’s plan failed to cover his sin with Bathsheba, and he had her husband killed, he thought the situation was over. However, God wasn’t finished with it. In 2 Samuel 12, the prophet Nathan visited David to tell him a story. When the king’s anger raged at the man in the story, Nathan simply said, “You are the man!” David’s immediate response was repentance instead of defending. He penned Psalm 51 after this encounter as a prayer seeking God to change his heart. ”Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a right and steadfast spirit within me“ (AMP). He still suffered the consequence of his sin, but he also continued to have God’s blessings because he received correction.

Proverbs 9:8 says, ”Do not correct a scoffer [who foolishly ridicules and takes no responsibility for his error] or he will hate you; Correct a wise man [who learns from his error], and he will love you.“ Which of these two men do you identify with when it comes to correction, learning and growth? Since no one is perfect, everyone is able to be corrected. When correction comes, we tend to defend ourselves or attack the person trying to help us as a defense mechanism. However, a wise person sees feedback and correction as a gift to make us better. The Holy Spirit will convict our heart when we sin in an effort to lead us to repentance or use someone else to get his message across. Will you be foolish and take no responsibility or like the wise who learns from his error? How we respond to correction exposes what’s hidden in our heart.

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January 9, 2024 · 5:40 AM

Giving Up Everything

If you’re like most people, you’ve imagined what success would look like to you. Have you thought about what ridiculous success would look like though? That’s the kind of success where you wouldn’t have to worry about money if you had it. I’ve heard stories all of my life of people who were ridiculously successful and then gave it all up to go into ministry or to do something Jesus called them to. I read recently where musical artist Daddy Yankee became a Christian and walked away from his music career. He’s decided to use his platform to share the Gospel instead of the lyrics to his songs.

In Luke 5 Jesus was teaching people on the shore of Galilee while fishermen cleaned their nets. He asked one fisherman, Peter, if he could use his boat to teach from. After His message, Jesus asked Peter to go out a little deeper and then to let down his recently cleaned nets. Peter pushed back at first saying they had fished all night and caught nothing. However, having heard the message Jesus just taught, he agreed. Immediately there were so many fish in the nets that they signaled another boat to come help. The Bible says there were so many fish that both boats were filled to the point they were about to sink. Verse 11 says, ”After they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example]“ (AMP).

If you had the ridiculous success they had, could you walk away from it all to follow Him? What if you had just what you had now? Jesus doesn’t call everyone away from their jobs to follow Him, but He does ask you to be willing to give up everything to be His disciple. He asked Abraham to give up his only son. He asked the widow to give up the last of her oil. He also asked the rich, young ruler to give up everything, but he wasn’t willing to. It comes down to what do you value more: your success with earthly things or your relationship with Jesus. The question really exposes our heart when answered truthfully. More of us are like the rich young ruler than the widow. Ask God to help you give more of your life to Him and to value the relationship you have with Him more than your relationship with earthly things to the point where you’re willing to give up anything if He asked.

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January 8, 2024 · 5:39 AM

Melting Ice

When God’s promises seem slow or feel like they’re never going to come to pass, how do you respond? Do you keep doing what you’re doing to prepare for them or do you give up hope thinking they’re dead? I heard John Maxwell talk about something similar regarding melting ice. Imagine it’s 27 degrees out and you’re working on raising the temperature and it goes up to 28. The ice is still frozen, but you keep going and it gets to 29. Still nothing. You keep going and it grid to 30, then 31. It can feel like nothing is happening because the ice hasn’t changed at all and you’ve done everything you can. However, don’t give up because once it hits 32, all that has taken place begins to work suddenly.

In Ezekiel 37, God took Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones where God asked if they could live again. Instead of stating the obvious that the situation was hopeless, he replied that only God knew. God told him to prophesy to them to come together because God was going to make them live again. There was a great rattling in the valley as they came together into individual skeletons. Then muscles, joints and skin covered them. A great army stood there lifeless until God told him to prophesy to the four winds to breathe on them. Suddenly they came alive. God then said that Israel had given up on his promise to return them home from captivity saying all hope was lost. However, God wasn’t done. He was going to breathe life into His promise when all hope seemed lost.

I Corinthians 1:9 says, ”God is faithful [He is reliable, trustworthy and ever true to His promise—He can be depended on]“ (AMP). The Bible is full of stories of people whom God’s promises seemed like they would never come. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for a son. Joseph was away from his family for over a decade before his dream came true. David remained a shepherd then ran for his life for over 15 years while being promised the kingdom before he became king. If it seems like everything is still or moving in the wrong direction, keep believing, keep working towards it and trust God. He is faithful to His promises even when it seems all hope is lost. 32 degrees is just around the corner.

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January 5, 2024 · 5:30 AM

MORE

I’ve seen several people and churches ask, “What is your word of the year?” I love reading the comments on posts like this to see what people are seeking. One comment that stuck out to me was the word “more”. I couldn’t help but think how we could all use more of what God has for us. I need more of His grace. I want more of His blessings. I crave more of His presence. More is a great word and God has more to give you this year and throughout your life. Don’t settle for less than what God has for you. The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give you life MORE abundantly. Pray today and ask God to give you more of what He wants to give you.

Here are some Bible verses on things God wants to give you more of.

1. But he continues to pour out MORE and MORE grace upon us. For it says, “God resists you when you are proud but continually pours out grace when you are humble.”

James 4:6 TPT

2. Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly MORE than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21 AMP

3. For to everyone who has [and values his blessings and gifts from God, and has used them wisely], MORE will be given, and [he will be richly supplied so that] he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have [because he has ignored or disregarded his blessings and gifts from God], even what he does have will be taken away.

Matthew 25:29 AMP

4. May God give you MORE and MORE mercy, peace, and love.

Jude 1:2 NLT

5. Yes, God is MORE than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have MORE than enough of everything —every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.

2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT

What would you like MORE of from God this year?

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January 4, 2024 · 5:30 AM

Daily Disciplines

I’ve watched the movie “Greater” a couple of times. It’s the faith based story of Brandon Burlsworth who is considered the greatest walk-on in college football history. He had everything working against him, but he persisted. One coach told him since he didn’t have talent, he was going to have to work harder than anyone else. He was first to show up and last to leave. At one point, he got a new coach and the coach found him practicing his footwork when the practice field was closed. The coach asked him if his previous coaches let him do that. Brandon replied that they never knew he did it. The coach said, “Well, they say character is what you do when no one’s looking.” Brandon quickly replied, “Someone’s always looking.”

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he was reminding them that they were going to go through hard times. In chapter 6, let them know that how they respond matters. Verse 4 says, “Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly… in hard times, tough times, bad times” (MSG). That phrase, “gets validated – or not – in the details” jumped off the page at me. In hard times, it’s more important than ever to focus on the details of our spiritual growth. We must continue to read and study God’s Word, spend time in prayer and fasting, share our faith and put into practice what we know. It’s those daily disciplines that help us to stay our post when times get tough.

Brandon Burlsworth was only able to achieve what he did because he continued with his daily disciplines no matter what. It’s easy to make excuses right now and to slack off on our relationship with Christ, but now is the time we need to go deeper in that relationship. People are watching how you and I respond to difficult times. Are we rising to the challenge or are we succumbing? We must stay at our post, stronger than ever, giving people hope and pointing them to the One who gives peace in troubled times. Our work – our faith – gets validated in the daily details and is exposed under pressure. I believe God is calling us into a deeper relationship with Him than ever before. The way to that relationship and spiritual maturity is in the details of your daily spiritual disciplines.

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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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