Author Archives: Chris Hendrix

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About Chris Hendrix

My name is Chris Hendrix and I live in Houston. I've had some spectacular failures in my life. I've been divorced, bankrupt, lost a business and just about everything I once held dear. I've lived through them and learned from them. God has somehow found me worthy enough to use me to share my testimony, give hope, teach lessons I've learned and to bring encouragement from His Word to others. My hope is that in reading these devotionals that I post Monday through Friday, you will start your day off thinking about God and His promises to you instead of all the worries that life brings. If we learn to focus on Him first instead of our problems, we will see that He is greater than anything we'll face today. You haven't gone further than His love can reach or failed so badly that He can't use you. You can follow me on twitter at @devotionsbyme or to set up a speaking engagement, you can send an email to chris@devotionsbychris.com
September 22, 2014 · 7:42 AM

When In Doubt…

When I was young, I loved the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. Each time you read them, it could be a different story. Every couple of pages, you had a choice to make. If you thought the character should do one thing, you turned to a certain page. If you thought they should do another, you turned to that page. Sometimes, I made the wrong choice, the character died and the book was over. I’d flip back, choose the other one and keep reading. It was easy to keep the story going.

In real life, it’s not that easy to go back and make the right choice after you’ve made the wrong one. Our story is forever altered by the decisions that we make. Often we are presented with dilemmas where there is no clear cut right or wrong answer. There are times when we can’t foresee what the outcome of our decisions will be. It’s hard to know what to do. Sometimes those decisions have eternal consequences and we can’t easily just go back and make the other choice.

At the first ever ReWrite Conference, I got the opportunity to meet and interact with Peter Strople. I was invited to attend a small group meeting with him and a few other writers. That meeting had an impact on my life and will be something I remember forever. In that meeting, he said, “When in doubt, love.” It’s so simple, yet so profound. I find myself constantly trying to find the right answer for every situation, and the answer is always the same. Love others.

A few years back, everyone was wearing “WWJD” bracelets. I can tell you what Jesus would do in any given situation. He would show love. He made His decisions based out of love for the person. It wasn’t always the easy decision, but it was the one He made constantly. He loved Peter enough to go to him after he had denied Him. He showed compassion to the woman caught in adultery. He was patient with Martha when she was concerned about all the wrong things. He didn’t disassociate himself from the woman at the well who had been divorced multiple times and was living with a man.

Jesus knew that love is what is required in each situation. That’s why when someone asked Him what the greatest commandment was, He added a second. In Matthew 22:37-40, He said the most important commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul and mind. Then he said, “The second is equally important: love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Both of the greatest commandment were about love. Loving God. Loving others. When you learn to love both, the right decision becomes clear. When in doubt, love.

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September 19, 2014 · 7:15 AM

Passionate Prayer

It’s Free Friday! Today you can choose to let go of the things that weigh you down and hold you back so you can embrace all that God has for you. To celebrate, I’m giving away a free copy of “The 21 Most Effective Prayers of the Bible”. Keep reading to find out how you can win it.

Someone recently asked me to pray for one of their friends. As I started to pray, I started to become more passionate in that prayer. The more passionate I got, the longer the prayer got. When I said, “Amen”, they said, “Thank you” and mentioned that they just meant a “little” prayer. I couldn’t do it though. If it’s worth praying about, it’s worth being passionate about.

I don’t know that the louder a prayer is, the more God will hear it. I believe the more passionate prayer is, the more God responds to it. I think of Hannah in the Bible in I Samuel 1, she was deeply troubled because she couldn’t have children. She was embarrassed and felt like a lesser person. While her husband went to offer sacrifices, she went into the temple to pray. Her prayer wasn’t loud, but it was passionate.

Verse 10 says, “And Hannah was in distress of soul, praying to The Lord and weeping bitterly.” When Eli the priest came in, he saw her mouth moving, but nothing coming out. Verse 13 says she was praying in her heart. He quite honestly thought she was drunk. When he confronted her, she assured him she wasn’t and that she was pouring out her soul. He then told her to go in peace because God was going to answer her petition.

It wasn’t on the words she was saying, it was in the emotion of her spirit that caught God’s attention. So often we worry so much about the words to our prayers, that we forget to worry about the passion in them. James 5:16 says, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” When I looked up the words “effectual” and “fervent” in the original Greek, the word used was energeo. That’s our root word for energetic.

God is more concerned with the energy in our prayers than in the words. He wants to see our passion instead of our memory. I’m afraid most of our prayers aren’t answered because we aren’t very energetic in them. We don’t put much emotion into them. Instead we say it half hearted just hoping He’ll hears us and maybe answer. James said an energetic prayer is dynamic in its working. It has tremendous power available. The words in our prayer are important, but God is listening to our heart too.

If your prayers aren’t being answered, I encourage you to think about the emotion and passion you’re putting into your prayers. Are they more of an after thought or are they passionate? Are concerned more about saying the right thing or conveying the right thing? The most effective prayers in the Bible came from deep within the heart, not the brain. The heart is the seat of our emotion. It’s where our passion comes from. Try praying from there and watch God work.

If you’d like to win, “The 21 Most Effective Prayers in the Bible”, go to my Facebook page and “like” it or one of my statuses today. I will choose one person randomly tomorrow (9/20/14) who does either of those things. You can access my Facebook page here.

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September 18, 2014 · 7:42 AM

10 Scriptures About Peace

1. Turn your back on sin; do something good. Embrace peace—don’t let it get away! (Psalm 34:14 MSG)

2. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18 AMP)

3. I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27 NLT)

4. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all. (2 Thessalonians 3:16 NLT)

5. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. (Romans 15:33 ESV)

Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father! (2 John 1:3 MSG)

6. You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. (Isaiah 26:3 AMP)

7. GOD makes his people strong. GOD gives his people peace. (Psalm 29:11 MSG)

8. I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways. (Psalms 85:8 NLT)

9. Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79 NLT)

10. For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (‭Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ NKJV)

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September 17, 2014 · 7:47 AM

The Secret To Finding Joy

When I was a kid, we used to sing a song to the tune of “Jingle Bells”. It said, “J-O-Y, J-O-Y this is what means. Jesus first, yourself last and others in between.” For some reason, that song has stuck with me through the years. I don’t know if my children’s pastor made it up or not, but there is a lot of truth in that song. It simply lays out the plan in the Bible to finding joy. As simple as that plan is, it’s so hard for us to do and accomplish.

Paul’s letter to the Philippian church spent a great deal of time trying to get them (and us) to realize this truth. In chapter 2:3-4 he wrote, “Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” Everything he told us right there goes against human nature and with God’s nature. For that reason it is difficult to do.

Zig Ziegler put it this way, “If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.” I started asking myself, “What do you really want?” I started listing material things, job titles, income levels and how I wanted others to think of me. Then I asked myself, “What is that you want that you think those things will bring?” All of a sudden, I started looking into the core of who I am and into my innermost needs. What I found was a lot of selfishness.

Paul and Zig both knew that when we focus on others, we begin to be less selfish. We begin to act more like Jesus. Our wants change and when those change, our lives change. We begin to see how truly blessed we are in our own lives when we help those less fortunate. Suddenly the desire to acquire more things starts to subside. Titles don’t matter anymore. Achieving a high income is no longer your motivating factor. Pleasing God is.

Once we start pleasing God, helping others becomes a part of who we are. Joy is the byproduct of that change. Joy has nothing to do with circumstances. It’s not an emotion, it’s a part of your character. It’s who you are. I’ve personally found it to be a source of strength in trying times. When depression tried to grab hold of me, joy pushed back. When bitterness tried to plant roots, joy made the soil infertile. It didn’t change my circumstances, it gave me hope in them.

If you are searching for joy in your life, follow the steps of that little song. Put Jesus first in your life. In everything you do, see if it honors Him. Then, look around you and see who you can help get ahead. Find ways to help others. When you do those two things, you’ll find that your deepest needs are being met. The fiber of who you are will reflect Christ and you’ll be a light in a dark world because joy shines through the darkest night.

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September 16, 2014 · 7:52 AM

Child’s Play

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I used to watch my son play with a toy similar to the one pictured. He would try to fit the shapes in the holes, but often got them wrong. He would get frustrated and try to force them in. He would even bang the pieces in the wood somehow hoping to make it go in where there wasn’t a hole. When he was ready to give up, he would just take his hand, move it back and forth over the pieces and make a bigger mess.

I used to show him the shapes one by one and point to the right hole. Even though I showed him which one, he would still struggle to make it work sometimes. I would show him and say, “Triangle” then point to the triangle on the box. “Triangle.” For him, it was too complicated and hard. When he couldn’t master it easily, he wanted to give up. For me, it was easy. I could do it with my eyes closed.

You and I face complicated problems every day. We try to fit all the pieces together, but they just won’t fit. We try to force them to and they won’t work right. It gets frustrating to us. We can’t see the answer to the problem and we know there has to be an easy solution. Often in our frustration we make a mess. We scatter the pieces that were supposed to come together and give up. We cry out to God for help and he just points and gives us one word answers. We end up wanting to quit in the process because it’s so difficult.

God looks down at our problems and situations like you and I look at that puzzle for my son. To Him, it’s easy. Jeremiah 32:27 says, “I am The Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” There is no situation that you or I face that isn’t child’s play to our God. There’s no problem so complicated He can’t figure it out. While you and I stare at it, fight against it and struggle to figure it out, God looks at it and sees the easy solution. He knows just what to do.

Just like my son used to do, we need to hand the pieces of our problems to God and ask Him to put the puzzle together. There’s no sense in struggling with problems we can’t figure out when we are children of the one who knows all things. There’s no shame in admitting to Him that we need help. In fact, in II Corinthians 12:9 God tells us that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we are able to take our problems to Him and admit we are weak, His grace become sufficient for our problems and His strength becomes our strength. Take your problems to Him today.

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September 15, 2014 · 7:27 AM

Don’t Worry

Whenever I get overwhelmed by my circumstances, I search the Bible for God’s promises. I try to find people who were overwhelmed too. Some of the greatest leaders of the Bible needed encouragement as much as I do. They looked at their circumstances as well as what God called them to do and I can imagine their panic. We don’t always read that they were panicked, but we see what God said to them and can tell that they were. Joshua is a great example of this.

He had been to the Promised Land, seen the giants and declared that they could defeat them. In Deuteronomy 31 when Moses passes the torch to Joshua, the reality of that prediction fell on his shoulders. He said they could be victorious so God said, “Ok, then you get to lead the charge.” As Moses was passing the torch of leadership to him, he said, “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated… He (God) is right there with you. He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you…Don’t worry.”

Those words weren’t recorded just for Joshua’s sake. They were written to remind you and me that whatever we face in this life, God is with us. We can be strong and courageous. We can be assured that God won’t let us down so we don’t have to worry. There may be an impassible river in front of us today, but God will part it. There may be giants in the land ahead of us, but God will give us the victory. We may see all the impossibilities that stand in our way, but we don’t have to be intimidated.

You and I aren’t the first ones to be lead into the unknown. We aren’t the first ones to have to face giants. What God has done for others in the past, He will do for us. The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. We can fully trust that He will part the waters, knock down the walls, defeat the giants in our life and give us victory. What He requires of us is to have the courage to walk to the waters edge, circle the walls in our lives and face the giants that stand in our path.

When we do our part, He will do His. Our step of faith preceded His provision. He encourages us to be strong and courageous because we need that in order to step out in faith. Don’t let fear hold you back. Don’t be intimidated by what you see in the physical realm. Our God makes things happen in the spiritual realm that affect the physical realm. We have to trust Him completely and act in accordance with His Word and He will give the victory today. God won’t let you down or leave you, so don’t worry just believe.

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September 12, 2014 · 5:19 AM

God’s Megaphone

“Pain insists on being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures , speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

C.S. Lewis

Have you ever had pain so badly that it throbbed? I’ve hit my thumb with a hammer before and it felt like my thumb was going to explode. The pain in my thumb was sending signals to my brain, “I’m hurt! Help me!” I held it, sucked on it and then put ice on it until it quit hurting. Whenever I grabbed something for the next few days, I would remember that I hit it because the pain was still deep inside. Eventually it went away and I forgot that my thumb had ever been hit.

When we go through pain and suffering in our lives, it’s a lot like that. Our pain signals us to call out to God, “I’m hurt! Help me!” He then comes to us and helps us in our pain. He speaks to us in those times and shows us things in His Word that we’ve never seen or understood until we were in that kind of pain. As time goes on, the pain goes away and so often, our dependence on God.

When times are good, we tend to forget God. We have no need of Him if we really don’t know Him. He is kind of our 9-1-1 call when we are in trouble. He’s always available, but we don’t call Him until we need Him. When we do call in those times, He does respond, but He wants to be more than your go to guy for an emergency. He wants to be the one you go to in the good times as well. He’s speaking to us in those times as well, but we don’t hear Him because we are too busy enjoying life.

Bad things happen from time to time so that He can renew our relationship. Every time the children of Israel forgot God, He would send the prophets to remind them and to draw them back. When they wouldn’t listen, He would allow them to be taken to captivity until they remembered hat God said in Leviticus 26:3-13. He said if they would listen to Him and obey He would pour out all kinds of blessings on them. He spent the rest of the chapter letting them know that if they forgot Him, He would use pain and calamity to draw them back.

If things are rough in your life right now, chances are that God is shouting to you. He could be trying to get your attention to speak to you. I’m not saying you’ve done something wrong in your life, but maybe God is trying to get your attention. Instead of running from the pain, try stopping, calling out to God for help and then listening. There are things He wants to say to us all the time, but we’re usually not listening until pain is involved. Take time today to listen.

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September 11, 2014 · 7:39 AM

God Is Your Refuge

September 11, 2001, was a day that no one who was alive will forget. Since it happened, people have placed blamed on the hijackers, the government, Muslims, George W. Bush and God for the attacks. No matter who you believe was behind it, there is evil in this world and it seeks to destroy. On that day it destroyed lives, buildings, families, people’s sense of security, health, hope and trust.

In John 10:10, Jesus said that it is the enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy. It bothers me when people place the blame on God when bad things happen. That is not who God is. In the same sentence, Jesus said that His purpose is to give a rich and satisfying life. He does not cause bad things to happen to you. James 1:17 tells us that whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father.

Why is it that we blame the bad things on God, but not the good things? Somehow we think that we are responsible for anything good that happens in our lives without the help of God, yet we are not responsible for bad things that happen. The Bible is full of scriptures that show consequences for actions: honor your father and mother so that your days may be long (Exodus 20:12), a man who is diligent in his work will stand before kings (Proverbs 22:29), if you are faithful with the small things, God will make you faithful over many (Luke 16:10) and if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains (Luke 17:6).

Too often we associate God as someone in the sky who is waiting for us to mess up so He can crush us. Yes, just like there are consequences for good actions, there are consequences for going against what He says too. The difference in what the reality of who He is and who we think He is in those times is that He doesn’t want us to stay in those consequences. He always provides a way of forgiveness no matter how bad the sin. He doesn’t want to leave us there so He has provided a way out. II Chronicles 7:14 says that if we will humble ourselves, pray and turn from our wrong doing, He will hear from Heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.

God has no desire to leave you in sin or to destroy your life. He wants you to live freely in Him, overcome evil and to walk in forgiveness. Your life matters to Him. When evil seeks to destroy you, your life, your home, your business or your relationships know that you can run to God for help. He is a strong refuge (Nahum 1:7). He is help in time of need (Psalm 46:1). He raises a standard when he enemy comes in like a flood (Isaiah 59:19). He fights for you (Exodus 14:14). No weapon that is formed against you will prosper (Isaiah 54:17). If He is for you, who can be against you (Romans 8:31)?

If you are under attack today, proclaim those promises that God has given you in scripture. I’m not telling you these things out of faith. I’m one who has lived those promises and has seen God do it in my life. I know His Word is true and He can be trusted. I have seen Him be my refuge and fight for me when I didn’t have the strength to. I’ve had the enemy come in like a flood and try to destroy everything. When that happened, I cried out to God who lifted up a standard and held back that waters before they consumed me too. If He did it for me, He’ll do it for you. Ask Him and trust Him with your life.

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September 10, 2014 · 8:06 AM

Respons-ability

If you know the story of Esther, you know that after she had been made queen, Haman plotted to kill all of the Jews. Since he was the kings closest advisor, the King agreed to what he suggested. In Esther chapter 4, her uncle Mordecai found out that his race was being targeted for genocide. He responded by mourning and fasting. Somehow Esther had not known about the news. It wasn’t until her maidens saw her uncle weeping they told her about it. She then sent someone to find out why he was in distress.

When Mordecai sent word back, he also told them to tell her that she had a responsibility to go before the King to save her people. Her first response was fear. She told him that she couldn’t go before the King or she would be killed. She must have felt that since she was queen she would be saved from the massacre. Mordecai wouldn’t have any of it. He very frankly told her that if she didn’t respond to the challenge so done else would, but she and her family would perish.

Just like her, you and I face situations in our life that we’d rather ignore and hope they go away. The problem is that they won’t in most cases. The longer we wait to respond to them, the bigger they can get. Our ability to respond has to overcome the fear of the situation. Mordecai also sent the encouraging word, “Who knows? Maybe you’ve been put in this position for such a time as this.” He pointed to God’s providence in her life. He began to see why things had happened the way they had so that she could be the answer.

Where you are today and the situations that you’re facing are not an accident or a surprise to God. He has groomed you and placed you where you are because you have the ability to respond the way He wants you too. You could say it’s your respons-ability. You can say, “But I don’t know how to handle this.” James 1:5 says that if any man lacks wisdom he can ask God for it. Proverbs 15:22 says there is wisdom in a multitude of counsel. You can ask God and or others what to do. Mordecai gave excellent advice to Esther.

We never know why we have the burdens of being in difficult situations. Not responding isn’t the right choice. We have the respons-ability to seek wisdom and to respond in a way that pleases God. Difficult situations require difficult choices. In my own life, it’s been those times that have grown my faith the most. I’ve had to step out in faith and trust that God had my back. Esther did too and her people were saved. Life isn’t easy, but you were made for a purpose and are where God needs you right now in order to respond accordingly. Trust what He says and step out. It may be difficult, but doing what He says is less difficult than the results of disobedience.

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September 9, 2014 · 7:48 AM

Stuck In The Waiting

This is a guest post from a friend and I felt like it needed a second look today.

I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God.…
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

T. S. Eliot, “East Coker”

I read these words in Philip Yancey’s book “Disappointment with God”. I was going through a brutal spell in my life. If you’ve read the book, maybe it helped. But it didn’t help me. In fact it just made me feel worse for all the people referenced in the book as well as for myself.

Why do bad things happen to generally decent people? I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I’ll ever understand this side of heaven. It might be better if I stopped asking. But there are few things that haven’t escaped me. Maybe they were rungs on the ladder that kept me hitting rock bottom. Here they are:

I’m not in control. Even if I was, I don’t know what’s best for me.

It’s true – and actually this struck me when things were going well. What do you do when the things that happened by “chance” turned out better than your carefully laid plans? This had been the case a couple different times and while I was overwhelmed with gratitude, it eerily bothered me. When my tides turned, I realized that it goes both ways. In the end, I’m not God. I don’t know what’s best for me, I can’t see the big picture of God’s plan for me and I can’t control all the outcomes in my life. Living by faith means accepting both the good and the bad and realizing both are temporal. Accepting the fact that life isn’t fair helps too.

Take responsibility. Don’t sabotage myself.

If you’ve ever wondered if your life could get any worse, let me clear that up for you real quick. The answer is always yes. That may sound like a morbid thing to say, but the truth is that we’re always one decision away from making things much worse. And when things aren’t going well, we’re in the DANGER ZONE. Think about it: if you’re stuck in a crummy job, you are only one decision away from not having a job at all. If your marriage is going poorly, you are only one decision or one conversation away from a further setback. If you aren’t married and wish you were, you are one or several decisions away from creating a lot more misery for yourself and others.

It’s tempting to say that “God wills” my circumstances to be what they are and then act like a victim. But actually we’re usually our own worst enemy. Proverbs 19:3 says, “People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord” (NLT). When the chips are down, the temptation is even stronger to make foolish choices that add to our pain.

We can’t always control our circumstances, but in every situation, we always have a choice of how to respond. And that means we have the responsibility to make a good choice, no matter how good or bad circumstances are.

Realize my pain will be able to be used in a positive way in the future.

If someone had said this to me when I was down, it would’ve brought me up real fast… swinging. That’s not what I wanted to hear. But unfortunately, not “just anyone” said these words. They came from Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, recounting his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz. They were also shared by psychologists to the survivors of the PanAm Flight 73 hijacking in 1986 as they prepared to board their next flight.

Those folks have “cred” in my book. I may not like the message, but I can take it coming from them. When I’m hurting, the last thing I want is “some perspective,” but even so, they’ve had far worse than me.

If you’re in pain, there is a sense in which you’re alone. Proverbs 14:10 says, “Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy” (NLT). No one else can walk your path for you and you may not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know I couldn’t. When we’re stuck “in the waiting,” as Eliot’s poem says, we likely won’t be able to see the redemption in our circumstances. It’s only by faith that we can believe that this too shall pass.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach and thought leader. Visit him today at NathanMagnuson.com or follow him on Twitter.

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