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January 23, 2026 · 5:56 AM

Following God

When I first hear that David was a man after God’s own heart, it challenged me to want to live that way. As I’ve looked at his life trying to determine what that might be, one of the strongest characteristics I’ve seen is that He wanted to follow where God led. Most of us, like Saul, have our own ideas and agenda of where we should go so we quit following and start leading. We do see that with David or other great people in the Bible. They were all willing to follow God. Moses said he wouldn’t go anywhere without God’s presence leading him. The ones who followed God closely aligned themselves with His desires. Are you following where God is leading or trying to go your own way and asking Him to follow you?

Here are some Psalms about following God:

1. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.

Psalms 63:8 NKJV

2. You are faithful to all those who follow your ways and keep your word.

Psalms 103:18 TPT

3. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:27 NLT

4. I will follow his commands and I’ll not sin by ceasing to follow him, no matter what.

Psalms 18:21 TPT

5. Lord, I have so many enemies! Lead me to do your will; make your way plain for me to follow.

Psalm 5:8 GNT

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January 22, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Following God’s Plan

One of the things that bothers me is when someone asks me for advice on how to handle something, and then they don’t take the advice. I’ve shown them what to do, but they either didn’t want to do the work, like the things I told them or had someone else tell them something different to do. Either way, when they’re still stuck in the situation and come back for help, my mind wants to turn them away. However, somewhere in the exchange, my compassion overrides my pride and I try to direct them to the right path out of their situation. A lot of times they didn’t get in the situation overnight, and they’re not going to get out of it overnight, no matter how badly they want to.

I find myself doing the same thing to God though. I run to Him with my problem or circumstance i want out of. He directs me to His Word, but i don’t always like the prescription. Instead of listening, i try other things, other ideas or anything besides what His path out of it is. It’s amazing how many times we all go to God with a problem, sometimes of our own doing, seek His path out of it, and then tell Him what we’re going to do. What we’re really saying is, “God, i know you have a plan for me, but I want to do it this way. Will you please bless it and let me do this my way?” How can we expect God’s blessings when we’re telling Him what we’re going to do instead of seeking His plan and path?

David, who was known as a man after God’s own heart didn’t approach God that way. In Psalms 25:4 he prayed, “Direct me, Yahweh, throughout my journey so I can experience your plans for my life. Reveal the life-paths that are pleasing to you” (TPT). If we want to experience all the blessings God has for us, we’re going to have to submit to His plan and walk on His path. God has no problem revealing His plan and path for how our lives should go. It’s up to us to obey and to stay on that path. When we get off of it is when we experience a lot of pain. Staying on God’s path doesn’t mean you’re not going to experience hardship, pain or set backs. It means you’ll have His blessings, guidance and protection through them. He has a plan and a path for you, but it’s up to you to stay on it and follow it.

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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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January 21, 2026 · 5:45 AM

Keep Digging

I love reading stories of George Müeller. He was a British evangelist and cared for over 10,000 orphans in his lifetime. There are many stories of miracles that happened because of his faith and consistent prayer life. One of the stories I read said that he had five friends he wanted to come to Jesus. He committed to praying for them daily. After one year of praying, one gave their heart to the Lord. After ten years, two more accepted Jesus. After twenty five years of praying for his friends, the fourth one came to know Jesus. George died still praying for his fifth friend. That one decided to follow Jesus after the funeral, fifty years after the first prayer. He never stopped trying to get them to Jesus.

I also love the story in Mark 2. Jesus had returned to Capernaum and began to teach the Word of God to people in a home. The Bible says there were so many people there to see Him, that not only was the house full, you couldn’t get near the door. That’s when 4 people showed up carrying their paralyzed friend on a mat. Verse 4 says, “When they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Jesus; and when they had dug out an opening, they let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying” (AMP). These four were going to do anything to bring their friend to Jesus. They were relentless and Jesus honored their faith. In fact, the first thing He did for their friend was to forgive his sins.

James 5:16 says, “The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) is able to accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].” I don’t know how persistent you have been trying to get your family member, spouse or child to Jesus, but don’t stop. George Müeller kept praying persistently for fifty years and God honored it. For the paralytic, it was the faith of his friends that Jesus saw. They wouldn’t let a crowd, walls or a roof come between them and Jesus. Don’t be intimidated by whatever obstacles you see. Keep praying. Your fervent, persistent prayers are having a powerful effect in the unseen. Keep digging through that roof until you breakthrough and get them to Jesus.

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January 20, 2026 · 6:06 AM

Trading Inheritances

In Genesis 12:1 God told Abraham, “Go away from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you” (AMP). What God was asking him was more than to leave his home. God was also asking him to walk away from his inheritance. In that time period, your inheritance was everything. It was your security for your future. Abraham left on a promise with trust in God. When the Lord had brought him to the place He was leading him, He said, “I am the [same] Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance.” God not only promised to give him descendants, He also gave him a greater inheritance than had he stayed at home.

In Matthew 19 a young man approached Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to obey the commandments. He told Jesus that he had done that his whole life. Then Jesus said, “If you wish to be perfect [that is, have the spiritual maturity that accompanies godly character with no moral or ethical deficiencies], go and sell what you have and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me [becoming My disciple, believing and trusting in Me and walking the same path of life that I walk].” The next verse said he walked away sad and distressed. He wasn’t willing to let go of his earthly security the way Abraham was. He failed to receive the inheritance God offered him because he couldn’t let go and follow where Jesus would lead him.

Philippians 4:19 reminds us, “And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” What has God been asking you to walk away from or to let go of? Are you holding on tightly like the rich, young ruler? Or are you willing to walk into the unknown like Abraham? God is our source. He is the one who will supply all of our needs. Sometimes we will receive our inheritance from Him in this life, and other times we will receive it in eternity. God calls us to walk by faith and not by sight. When we cling to earthly security after He’s asked us to let go, we’re showing we believe we are our source and not Him. God is always willing to trade inheritances where we give up to temporal for the eternal.

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January 19, 2026 · 5:49 AM

Pursuing Presence

Exodus 33 tells us that as the children of Israel traveled through the wilderness and set up camp, Moses would set up a tent away from the others. That’s where he would go to meet with God. When he went out there, it says that everyone else stood in front of their tents to watch him go into God’s presence. Verse 11 says, “Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting” (NLT) These two men regularly pursued God’s presence.

You can’t be a spectator like all the other Israelites. Christianity is about having a relationship with God. You can’t have it vicariously through other people who are willing to go into God’s presence while you stand far off. Imagine having a relationship with someone where you’re never in each others presence. Moses was in God’s presence constantly and yet he wanted more. In verse 18, Moses asked to see more of God’s presence than he had ever seen. He knew there was more of God than he had come to know, and he wanted to see more. God granted his request as He placed Moses in the cleft of the rock and passed by.

James 4:8 says, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” That’s a promises to you and I. If we will pursue His presence and draw near to Him, He will draw near to us and reveal more of Himself to us. Drawing near requires a hunger, a willingness to prioritize our relationship with Him and an intentionality to prioritize our relationship. We can’t afford to stand and watch as others go in. Like Joshua, we must stay even when others leave. God used both Moses and Joshua in a mighty way because they pursued God’s presence. They developed a relationship with Him where they spoke regularly as with a friend. What will you do differently to pursue God’s presence and prioritize your relationship with Him? The closer you go to God, the closer He will come to you.

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January 16, 2026 · 6:03 AM

Looking Forward

When we go through tough seasons, our tendency is to regress to where we have been rather than to where God is leading us. How much did the Israelites complain on the way to the Promised Land? They kept wanting to go back to Egypt. What about Lot’s wife? Even Peter went back to fishing after the crucifixion. We tend to edit the past in our mind to believe it was better than it was. Yet God is calling you forward. We don’t need to deny the past, but it’s hard to move forward when you’re looking backwards. It’s time to look ahead to where God is taking you instead of behind you to where He’s releasing you from.

Here are some Bible verses on looking ahead:

1. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

Proverbs 4:25-27 NLT

2. But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:62 AMP

3. When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

Genesis 19:17 NLT

4. But the Lord says, “Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.”

Isaiah 43:18-19 GNT

5. I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead.

Philippians 3:13 TPT

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January 15, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Turning North

One of my favorite visual lessons to use in a group is to have everyone close their eyes and to then point north. What usually happens is you will have a room full of people pointing just about every direction including up. I then have them open their eyes to see where everyone is pointing. Immediately some start laughing, but others start trying to convince others they’re right. I then pull a compass out of my pocket and show them which way is north. I’ll ask them to again close their eyes and point to north. Most will point in the direction the compass did, but there will still be some who point in other directions. I tell them that if they don’t know which way north is, and you’re lost, it’s hard to get where you’re going.

All throughout the book of Jeremiah, Israel was lost. Each person was doing what was right in their own eyes and doing what they wanted. Even though they had the compass of The Law, they chose to go in different directions. In Jeremiah 18, God had Jeremiah watch a potter work with some clay. After making a piece of pottery, the potter didn’t like it, then crushed it and started over. Then, in verse 11, God said, “Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds” (ESV). He was telling them to repent, which means to change directions. He wanted them to turn north towards Him.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path” (GNT). God has given us the compass to navigate this life by giving us His Word. It will guide us in the direction we should live and in how we make choices. However, just like in the room full of people knowing which way north is, we still have to make the choice each day to point north or to point in a different direction. God always gives us that choice. If we head any direction but north, we risk facing the consequences of our actions. His way is the only right way to go north. His word lights the path so we can see where we’re going and also guides us in the paths of righteousness. It’s up to me and you to continually turn north when everything else is trying to get us to turn in different directions.

Photo by Tim Graf 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 14, 2026 · 5:41 AM

Sacrificial Obedience

In Mark 1, as Jesus was beginning His ministry in the Galilee region, He came across Peter and Andrew. They had their fishing nets in hand and it says they were actively catching fish. In Verses 17-18 Jesus said to them, “‘Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people.’ At once they left their nets and went with him” (GNT). They didn’t walk away from their nets when they were empty. They didn’t walk away while they were having success. Leaving an empty net behind is often a relief, but to leave a full one is surrendered obedience. They didn’t think twice. They walked away from their nets comfort of something they had known their whole life simply because Jesus called them.

In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah had his mountain top moment with God, and then he was told to go pick his successor. He came upon Elisha while he was plowing a field. Elijah put his cloak on him and immediately Elisha jumped off the oxen and asked to say goodbye to his family. Verse 21 says, “Then Elisha went to his team of oxen, killed them, and cooked the meat, using the yoke as fuel for the fire. He gave the meat to the people, and they ate it. Then he went and followed Elijah as his helper.” Again, this person obeyed in the middle of success. He didn’t try to finish the job or ask questions about where he was going. Instead, he sacrificed what had been his security, blessed everyone around him and followed God’s call.

In Luke 9:23 Jesus said, “If you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, take up your cross every day, and follow me.” It’s easy to follow Him when we’re at a dead end job, have nothing going on or are disgruntled where we are. Can you take up your cross and follow Him when you’re having success, surrounded by people you like and with things going well? That’s a true sacrifice of obedience. It’s much more difficult to do. We must learn to deny ourselves (let go of what’s working), take up our cross every day (embrace sacrificial obedience) and follow Him (move immediately when He calls). Sacrificial obedience isn’t easy, but it’s what we’re called to.

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January 13, 2026 · 6:01 AM

Leaving Babylon

In Genesis 11 we read about the Tower of Babel. Verse 4 encapsulates the problem with the people of the city. They said, “Now let’s build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth” (GNT). They were building a city to have security without God, a tower in order to reach Heaven on their own terms and to make a name for themselves so they could have an identity apart from God. It wasn’t about building a tower. It was about being motivated by pride to accomplish something apart from God. When He walked through the city, He saw their hearts and sent judgement. From that time on Babylon has stood in defiance of God’s ways.

In the very next chapter, we meet Abram. He is the opposite of the person of Babylon. He’s willing to go wherever God asks him to, which is away from the security of his family. We know he is humble and obedient to what God says. Because his heart is right, God gives him what the people of Babylon wanted. In verse 2 God says, “I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.” Because he lived a life of surrender instead of one of pride, God gave him a name, identity and nation. Immediately after God shows us what not to do, he gives us Abram as an example of how to live in humble obedience.

James 4:6-7 says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you.” What is the motivation behind the things you’re trying to accomplish? Is it for your name to be known or His? Is it so you can create your own security instead of relying on God’s? God looks at our heart more than our actions. He’s looking for humble obedience. We must submit to His plans for our life if we want blessings like Abraham. We must resist pride from the Devil so it doesn’t corrupt what God wants to accomplish through us. God is not against you being successful or building something great. He’s against the spirit of Babylon that tries to rise up in each one of us to do things without Him or His blessing. We must leave Babylon and all it represents if we truly want to follow God.

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January 12, 2026 · 5:50 AM

Changing Directions

If you take a moment to think of a celebrity who has wrecked their career or self sabotaged it, you probably won’t have to think long. One young celebrity started having a public feud with her family. She began abusing different substances. She then started getting DUI’s stealing from stores and broke her probation. Her unresolved personal struggles created a cycle she couldn’t break for years and her past became the gravitational pull from which she began making decisions. It’s easy to sit in judgement because her story played out publicly, but many of us allow our past to dictate our decisions and the direction of our life.

We don’t have to live that way though. The Bible is full of people who broke that cycle. I can think of the woman at the well, Mary Magdalene and Peter who found a way to overcome their past. In Joshua 2 Israel had sent spies into Jericho before they attacked. They went to the home of Rahab, a known prostitute, to stay the night. When the king tried to get her to turn them in, she protected them. She asked for safety when they attacked her city in exchange. She followed their directions and saved herself and her family. More than that, she is listed in the genealogy of Jesus. She is a great example of someone who broke free and quit letting what defined her shape her future.

Philippians 3:13 says, “Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead” (GNT). The word “forget” here doesn’t mean erasing your past. It means you quit letting it dictate your future. We must each release the past’s authority to make our decisions and control the direction of our life. When we do that, we can head for what God has ahead for us. He has already cast your past away as far as the east is from the west. It’s time for you to release it as well. Your future is not determined by your past anymore. Once you’re forgiven, you are defined by God’s grace instead of who you were. Let go of who you were and reach forward to that which God is calling you to. You can change directions through Christ Jesus.

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