Author Archives: Chris Hendrix

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

May 22, 2012 · 7:19 AM

Extend grace not judgement

I love to watch the show “Holmes on Homes”. In this show, Mike Holmes goes to houses that people bought, finds problems with the house and then repairs it free of charge. It often costs him money personally that show doesn’t pay for. He finds people who didn’t do their homework when hiring a contractor or when buying a home and later find that nothing was done right. He comes in, does a thorough inspection to find everything that is wrong and makes all the necessary changes.

It costs him time and money to make it right for these strangers. I watch the show in amazement not only because he does a great job, but because of the grace he extends to these people. He doesn’t walk through and tell the homeowners what they should have done. He simply points out the problems and then finds the solution. He lets the audience know what should have happened so we don’t make the same mistakes.

My nature is to quickly point out someone’s mistakes and to tell them how they should have done it. That’s not how Jesus operated though. He extended grace to people who didn’t deserve it. People who were outcasts and out right sinners were brought to him for judgement and every time, he responded with grace.

I noticed 3 things he did each time that we can do for others.

1. He conversed with them

At the well with the Samaritan woman, Jesus started the conversation with her. He didn’t wait for her to talk to him. It was against the culture for him to speak with her because she was a woman and because she was considered a unclean. When the disciples came back, they were shocked that he was talking to her.

Who has God placed in your life to talk to? Have you kept your distance because of what others might say? There are plenty of people who are hurting because everyone has kept their distance from them. They need a friend. They need someone to talk to. They need someone to offer living water.

2. He didn’t judge

When the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery and wanted to stone her, he simply said, “Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone.” I love that it says starting with the oldest, one by one they laid down their stones. There is not one of us without fault or sin somewhere in our life. I think we like to find fault in others because it makes us feel better about our own faults.

Jesus said clearly in this story, “I did not set myself up to judge or condemn.” If he didn’t, then why do we? Condemnation brings death. Love brings life. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. I will give you living water. I have come to bring life and that more abundantly.” How can you bring life to someone who needs it today instead of condemnation?

3. He extended grace

Grace is something we all want, but rarely give. He knew the woman had been caught in adultery, but said, “Neither do I condemn you.” He knew the woman at the well had been married five times and was now living with a man out of wedlock. He still told her, “Ask of me and I will give you living water.”

Jesus looked past the externals and circumstances of people to see who they really were. He didn’t judge them for that. He extended grace because he knew they needed it. When we receive it, it makes a difference in our day and in our life. You may have been wronged by someone, but Jesus calls you to extend grace to them anyway. Don’t be quick to receive grace from others and slow to give it. We all need grace.

4 Steps to praying effectively

Last December, we had a severe thunder storm that caused flash flooding. As I watched from my office window, my boss called crying. She was on the road in front of the office. Her car had quit running when a bigger vehicle passed her causing water to come over the hood of her new car. She wanted help getting it out of the street.
When I ran out the front door, her sister and several other coworkers were standing there with an umbrella watching her try to start her car. I handed them my wallet and phone and waded out in the knee deep water to her car. Two other men got out of their cars and helped me push her car into the parking lot.
Once we got her parked, I grabbed an umbrella so she could carry her computer in. It was then that I noticed I had lost my wedding ring. I waded back into the water being soaked by the pouring rain looking for my ring. After searching for about 10 minutes, a friend came out and held an umbrella over me to keep the rain from disturbing the water and giving me a clear view of the bottom. We searched the path of the car for about 30 minutes. I couldn’t find it. The lightening and thunder were getting worse. I decided it was too dangerous.
We went back inside devastated. I couldn’t believe I lost something so precious while I was helping someone else. My friend looked at me and said, “Chris, we can find it. Let’s go try again.”. This time I got on my hands and knees crawling through the parking lot. The water was up to my nose as I looked at the bottom and felt everywhere I could with my hands. We searched another half hour in the rain to no avail.
I stood up, walked to the curb and said, “It’s not here. I give up.”. When I dropped my head in defeat, I looked down and there, through the water, I saw something gold and round. I immediately dropped down and reached into the water. It was my ring! We need to seek God and to pray the way he and I looked for that ring.
James 5:16 says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”. We need to not just ask God for things, but desperately seek Him for an answer. We often throw a prayer up, don’t hear anything and then give up. Ask him like a child asks for something. They don’t give up because they know you will give in and give it to them. Seek God for an answer knowing he will give it to you.
There are four things I learned from what happened that day with my ring.

1. Continue to seek Him even in the storm
Don’t give up because of the rain, lightening and thunder going on in your life. You need to continually seek him despite your circumstances. Learn to hear his voice through the storm. Block out the distractions and noise that tells you, “He can’t hear you. He won’t answer you. You aren’t good enough.” As a child would continue to beg and plead and throw themselves on the floor to get something, be that desperate with God. Spend time asking Him.

2. Get a friend to believe with you

In Exodus 17, the Israelites were fighting a battle. When Moses had his hands up, they were winning. When they dropped, they began to be defeated. Moses grew tired of keeping his hands up so Aaron and Hur came along side him and held his hands up. Friends can provide you with strength to keep praying when you are tired. They can hold that umbrella over you to protect you in the storm. You are not alone so don’t fight alone.

3. Get on your hands and knees

I love what Mark Batterson says: Work like it depends on you. Pray like it depends on God. I must do something while waiting for my prayer to be answered. I’m not saying go out and solve it for God. I’m saying act in faith while you wait.
There is the story of a woman with an issue of blood in Luke 8 who wanted Jesus to heal her. She couldn’t get to him because there were so many people trying to get his attention for their answers. She didn’t let the circumstances keep her from Jesus. She got on her hands and knees to crawl through the crowd to touch the hem of his clothes. We need to get on our hands and knees before God and to spend time at the feet of Jesus to get what we are asking for. Press in despite the obstacles keeping you away from Him.

4. Admit you don’t have the ability to do it

In II Corinthians 12:9, we find that it is in our weakness that His strength is made perfect and that His grace is sufficient. It’s when we realize that we can’t do it on our own that we reach that point of desperation in Him. That produces an effectual, fervent prayer that has great power and produces wonderful results. His grace will be sufficient and strength enough to carry you through.

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May 18, 2012 · 8:09 AM

How to be Satisfied

Learning to be satisfied with what you have and where you are in life is tough. We live in a society that puts a lot of emphasis on making more money, moving up in the company and having nicer things. While it is nice to have all that, if you are never satisfied, you can never be truly happy no matter how much you have. You will always want more. I have found three steps that have helped me to be satisfied. I have found that when you are satisfied with what you have and where you are, life is not such a struggle to deal with.

1. Learn to trust God

This is easier said than done. What you have now is not based on what you have done. It is based on what God has seen He could trust you with. Scripture says, “You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities (Matthew 25:23 NLT).” God cannot give you more until you learn to be content with what you have.

To be content with what you have now, you need to recognize that what you have was given to you by God to be a steward of. That simply means, it doesn’t belong to you. It is all His and your job is to do with what you have for Him. Give and it shall be given to you. It’s a law of God that cannot be broken. Try it.

2. Control your thinking

How and what you think controls your actions and moods. When I wake up each day, I decide to choose my attitude. I simply pray what David prayed: This is the day the Lord has made. I WILL rejoice and be glad in it. Until you learn to rejoice in each day, your attitude and actions will be determined by the circumstances of your day.

Philippians 4:8 says that you should “fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Think about things that are lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and praise worthy (NLT).” Don’t let you mind dwell on the negatives of your day. We all have things that happen to us throughout our day to ruin it, changing what you think about will help you to be satisfied with where you are.

3. Focus on others

When we help others who are in a worse place than we are, it gives us perspective of how good we really have it. It is when we compare ourselves to those who have more that we become unsatisfied. Zig Ziggler found out this principle and and says it like this, “If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.”

Helping others is key to taking the focus off your circumstance. The Bible is full of people in leadership who took the time to help others. Jesus told us how to do it when he said, “He who wants to be great among you must become a servant (Mark 10:43 NLT). That simply means to do for others what you would want them to do for you. When you do for others, you will find no better satisfaction in your life. What can you do today for someone else? It can be as simple as paying for the coffee or food for the person in line behind you. Try it. See if it doesn’t make your day better.

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3 Questions to ask yourself

1.When is the last time you exercised your faith?

I mean really exercised it. I want you to think of how much you make a year. Got the number in your head? Now think of one thing that costs that much. Imagine buying that one thing and then giving it away. It would hurt right?

Mary had purchased a perfume that cost a years worth of wages and poured it out on Jesus’ feet (John 12:3). Doing what God had asked her to do didn’t make sense to her or anyone else at the time. She wasn’t afraid to go big with her faith. God is looking for obedience from us. He wants us to exercise our faith. In order to do that, we must first spend time at the feet of Jesus to know his will and desire for us.

2. When is the last time you gave up what you wanted for the Kingdom?

In John 12:24, Jesus compared himself to wheat and said because he was going to die, he would produce many others and yield a great harvest. We have to truly learn to die to ourselves and put the kingdom mission above our own mission. If you want to get a great harvest, it starts with dying to yourself.

That is easier said than done. In order to do that, we have to gain perspective. We have to understand God’s plan for the world and accept our role in that plan. Each person has a role. Paul said that some plant, some water and some harvest. Rarely does doing for God bring you glory and attention. To get a harvest in your life, give up your desires and vision for His. It will be life changing.

3. Are you willing to do something for God without getting recognized for it?

In John 12:27, Jesus knew he was on a mission and he was troubled and distressed over it. He asked if he should pray and ask the Father to save him from what was coming. He then recognized that it was for God’s glory what he had been asked to do. He submitted to the will of the Father even though he knew that it would bring him pain and shame.

God sees the whole picture and the full ripple effect of what He is asking you to do. All we see is that we are being thrown into a pond of water that is over our heads. We have to be willing to complete the mission for His glory, not ours. If we have the wrong motivation, fear will keep you from doing what he wants.

The Vision

When I was a preteen, my parents sent me to a kids camp. At one of the evening services, I was slain in the Spirit and God showed me a vision. In that vision, I saw the rapture take place. I saw airplanes crash, traffic jams, burning buildings and all sorts of chaos that ensued. At the end of the vision, God spoke clearly to me, “You must tell everyone before I come about my love for them.” He also spoke to me about my role in the end times. He said I would share His gospel with others and that I would not only preach with some of the most famous speakers in those times, but that I would also lead the final Great Awakening.
I have kept this vision with me my whole life. I shared it with others as a kid and as a teen. In fact, a lady at church, who was one of my Sunday School teachers, told me I should write it down. I did, but have lost it somehow through the years. Because she had me write it, I have always remembered it.
Since that time, I have waited for God to speak to me to tell me when I was to begin. He gave me a phrase in that vision that someone would speak to me to let me know it was time to begin. Every church service that I have been to since that time, I have waited for the Spirit to speak it to me through someone.
About a year ago, God spoke to me through a book by Mark Batterson called “Primal”. It challenged me showed me how to love the Lord with all of my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength. The one that stood out to me was to love him with my strength. It was simply “to do.” I have looked for ways “to do” things for God since that time to show Him my love.
He resurrected a dream He had placed in me years ago to write a book. I sat down and picked away at it for months. I even got an accountability partner who helped to keep me on track. Through that book, God continued to speak to me. As He showed me how He was with me through the most difficult period in my life, He began to prepare me and tell me time was getting close for me to be used by Him.
When I went through that difficult time in my life, I felt that I would not be able to be used by God because of it. I struggled with that as well during that time. I had let the vision fade because people who were divorced could not be ministers through our fellowship. God showed me that He would use those scars to His advantage and use them to help me to reach people.
Early in 2012, Lewis Hogan was invited to preach at our church. He preached on the previous Great Awakenings. My heart raced as he preached. My spirit was getting excited to hear what he was saying, especially as he preached about the final Great Awakening. As the service was being concluded and he made an altar call, I stayed in my seat because his call did not pertain to me. God had spoken to me through his message though, so I was content with that.
As I sat in my seat during the call, I spoke with God and simply said, “Lord, all I have is yours. When you are ready for me to do your will, say the word and I will give it all up for you to do your work.” At that moment, Lewis spoke up again. He said, “I feel like the Lord is telling me that someone in here has been called to be the ‘Voice of the Nation’. I see that you are young… or at least think that you are young. If that is you, please come down so we can pray with you.”
I immediately had a check in my spirit that God spoke that to Lewis for me. I didn’t hesitate to get out of my seat and go down there. As I got to the front, Angella Colby came up behind me and whispered in my ear, “Just as a confirmation, when he said that, the Lord showed me that it was you.” I’m glad she did that because a couple of other people went down there and I was beginning to doubt.
When Lewis began to pray over me, he stopped and prophesied. He said, “There is a heritage that has been passed down to you from your grandfather. I don’t know about him, but you need to research him to see what gifts he operated in because you will operate in the same gifts that he operated in.” What he didn’t know was that my grandfather was a first generation Christian and an Assembly of God minister.
About a week after I was prayed over, God spoke to me one morning in the car and said, “The message is love.” As I have researched my grandfather since that time, one word comes up over and over again: Love. God has shown me in my research that Love is not only a fruit, but it is a gift.
The next day in my car on my way to work, God spoke to me again. He said, “I want you to walk with me.” I replied back, “Lord I do walk with you. I have a spiritual walk with you.” His response was very clear, “I am not just speaking about that kind of walk. I want you to walk with me like Enoch did. I want you to spend time with me each day and walk with me so we can talk.” I said, “Lord, when do I have time in the cool of the evening to walk with you. I have family obligations and I can’t always just leave the house to go walking at night.”He said, “Walking was the form of transportation in the days of Enoch. We spoke to each other as he walked from place to place. Driving is your mode of transportation. I want to meet with you each day as you drive. I also want you to write down what I am telling you.”I quickly said, “I can’t write and drive at the same time. I know there is traffic, but how can I do that?”He said, “Your phone has dictation in it. You can speak into it what I am telling you and then you can transcribe it later.”
Each day since then, God has spoken to me. As I have turned off the radio and tuned out all other distractions, He has given me direction, scriptures and words of knowledge. As He speaks to me certain things, I ask him to show me in scripture where that occurs. He would remind me of situations and people in the Bible. After I got to work, I would transcribe the notes and then google the situations or people that He spoke to me about.
As time has gone on, I have wanted to make sure that I am hearing His voice clearly. Instead of googling now, I am asking Him to give me the exact scripture reference that He is talking about. Each day He does it. It is an humbling and frightening experience to hear His voice so clearly that He gives me exact references. I look around me in amazement some days to see if anyone is looking.
Each day, I wake up early to make sure that I spend at least an hour with Him and to give Him time to speak. Each week, He does something spectacular to show me that I am indeed hearing his voice. In April of 2012, I was in church and Pastor Maddoux was preaching his sermon. The first scripture he used had been given to me on Monday. Oddly enough, that week, Sara had asked that I start to text her the scriptures that God was giving me so that she could read along.
As pastor preached that sermon, every main verse and passage of scripture that he used had been given to me that week almost in exact order. Sara and I sat in church looking at our phones, seeing if Pastor would use the next scripture. That humbling and frightening feeling came back as we sat through that sermon. We knew that God had been speaking to me.
As I write this, He has simply told me to prepare for how He will use me. Part of that preparation was to write this down. He continues to speak to me daily and I do what He asks without question. I take time to walk with Him daily uninterrupted and He continues to speak. I already know that as I move into this ministry he has called me to, He will require more and more time throughout my day to walk with Him. I’m continuously learning how to love Him with all my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength.