Tag Archives: christian living

June 18, 2026 · 5:30 AM

An “I Will” Attitude

One of my favorite shows is Alone. They take ten people, put them in a hostile environment with ten items and have them survive until everyone taps out. It appeals to me for many reasons, but one of my favorite parts is when the contestants have been alone and hungry for about 30 days. There is a huge psychological battle every contestant faces as they document themselves on this journey. Some grow to hate the location, the hunger, the isolation and the constant struggle for food and water. Then there are others who are in a similar location a few miles away that get ahold of the negative thoughts and begin speaking positive words instead. In every case, the ones who continue to speak negatively tap out of the contest. The one who can continue to find positive things through the struggle is the one who wins.

I’m not sure there’s another person in the Bible besides Jesus who suffered more than Paul. He was imprisoned multiple times in jails that were dark, nasty and had no humanitarian standards for prisoners. He was shipwrecked, beaten to a pulp many times, dragged out of cities, lied about, stoned, robbed, left for dead and abandoned. The things he went through, many of us couldn’t survive. However, Paul kept preaching the Gospel, writing letters and encouraging others through it all. My favorite story is when he was in the dungeon of a prison, bleeding and hungry, and he started singing praises to God for all to hear. No matter how bad things were, he found a way to praise and refocus his attention on God instead of his circumstances.

David was a lot like him too. In Psalm 34:1-2 David penned, “I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart” (NLT). He didn’t say, “I want to praise the Lord at all times.” He was saying, “I will,” as in he’s not going to give his mind the choice to do anything else. Do you have have an “I will praise the Lord at all times” attitude? You need to decide that attitude ahead of your circumstances, but even if you’re in the middle of hard times now, you can still choose it now. Praising God doesn’t change your circumstances, it changes you in the middle of them. It strengthens you and puts your focus on the One who is greater than what you’re facing. If you haven’t chosen to praise the Lord at all times, do it today and put it into practice. He deserves to be praised in the good times and the bad.

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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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June 17, 2026 · 5:45 AM

Meaningful Work

I’ve worked at enough jobs to know when I’m being handed busy work. I absolutely hate busy work with a passion. When there’s not enough real work to go around, they put you on fake projects that they will never use. It takes time, effort and energy to put something together that was never intended to be implemented. On the other hand, I love when my work is meaningful. I’ve worked for free at places when I knew the things I was working on were going to make a difference in the lives of others. It’s easy to have enthusiasm, to give it your all and to make it better when it’s meaningful.

Nehemiah was living in Babylon with the other Jews who had been exiled there. His job was to be a cupbearer to the king until he heard from those who had been to Jerusalem that its walls were still broken down. In that moment, he got clarity on what he needed to do. He went back to Jerusalem and rallied the people to rebuild the walls. When people tried to intimidate him to stop, he dug in and kept going. It wasn’t just a construction project to him. It was restoring their identity, creating a safe place for families to worship God and renewing their dignity. It looked like a construction project to others, but he was working for the Lord. He remained steadfast and persevered until the wall was built in record time.

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless” (NLT). Everything you do for the Lord is meaningful work. Whether it’s construction, teaching, cleaning or whatever. God calls us to impact people where he plants us. He doesn’t give us busy work. Are you being strong, immovable and enthusiastic in that work? Are you doing it for His glory? When we reframe what we do as kingdom work, it gives it purpose. I go in looking for divine connections, life changing conversations and for relationships that need to be built. God will use anyone at anytime in any place when we do our work for Him.

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June 11, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Fully Surrendered

One of the books I’ve just read is about discipleship and how churches can create them. The first section of the book helps to define the four areas where people get stuck in the spiritual continuum. Many people never move past exploring Christ. They stand at the edge of receiving Him, but aren’t willing to give their heart to Him. Others who have accepted Jesus struggle to reconcile their private faith with their public life. They have a hard time growing in Christ. Once people become a new creation and develop spiritual disciplines, their life transforms and they move close to Christ. However, the next move is the hardest. It’s one thing to live for Christ, but it’s a totally different thing to completely surrender to Him living a Christ centered life. It’s where we quit asking God for direction and give Him control.

Think of the story of the rich, young ruler who came to visit Jesus in Matthew 19. He asks Jesus what he needs to do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments. The guy then wants to know which ones. Jesus rattled off several of the 10 commandments. The ruler got excited and let Jesus know he’s been following the rules his whole life and feels like there’s more, so he asks what else. Jesus then tells him to sell everything he has, give the money to the poor and then follow Him. The young man went away sad because he was willing to follow the rules of Christianity, but he wasn’t willing to surrender his life completely to Jesus. He wanted Christianity and eternal life without fully surrendering his life.

Psalm 37:5 says, “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you” (NLT) We usually look down on the rich young ruler for not giving up his possessions, but you and I hold things back from Jesus all the time. We seek Him for guidance, but are we giving Him the right to direct our life? It’s like my driving navigation app. When it tells me to turn, sometimes I go straight because I think I know better. I’m driving and it’s guiding. When we approach Jesus that way, we may be living a life that is close to Christ, but it’s not fully surrendered to Him. God is calling you and I into a deeper relationship with Him that requires more surrender the closer we get. To fully surrender to Him is to fully trust Him.

Photo by Caleb Oquendo from Pexels.

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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May 28, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Lessons From Zacchaeus

If you grew up in church, you know and sang about Zacchaeus. In Luke 19, Jesus was entering Jericho. The crowds had gathered around Him as He was walking through town. They wanted to see a miracle, hear a sermon and to see what important religious person He would visit with. Some even thought He was going to start a revolution with Rome that very moment. The crowd was so big, and Zacchaeus was not very tall. He saw where Jesus was headed and ran up ahead in front of the crowd. He found a sycamore tree to climb in so that he could just see Jesus. When Jesus arrived to that spot, He looked up and saw Zacchaeus. He told him to come down so He could stay at his house. The people were mad because Zacchaeus wasn’t a religious person at all. In fact he was despised by people because he worked for Rome and stole money from his own people as the chief tax collector. When he saw Jesus, and Jesus saw him, everything changed including his heart.

Two things stand out to me in this familiar story. The first is that Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus and was willing to do anything to see Him. How hungry and determined are you to see Jesus? Like so many before him, he wanted to get a glimpse of God. Moses was that way too. In Exodus 33:18-19 Moses said, “‘Please, show me your glory!’ And God said, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before you; for I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion (lovingkindness) on whom I will show compassion’” (AMP) When we are determined to see God, He will show up with His glory and presence. He wants to be found, and will reveal Himself to those who seek Him.

The second thing I noticed in this story is that Zacchaeus was proactive and anticipated where Jesus was headed. Many of us try to go where He has been, but Zacchaeus ran ahead and waited on the Lord. In Jeremiah 29:13, God said, “Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” When we anticipate and seek God’s presence, we will see Him and He will see us. What is God wanting to do around you today? Where is He headed? Go and start being the hands and feet of Him there. Remember the laborers are few. There’s a lot God wants to do, but He needs us to know His heart, anticipate where He wants to reveal Himself and start there. When you start loving people there, God will show up and you will see Him.

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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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May 21, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Rivers Of Living Water

When I was 18, I was blessed with a camping trip to the Canadian Rockies with my brother and some friends. We stopped along the way to see the sights. One of them was the Continental Divide. There was a river that broke into two parts. For the first time in our lives, we saw a clear water river. We were more amazed by that than the divide. We all ran down to the water, cupped our hands and started drinking it. Our chaperones tried to stop us, but we couldn’t help ourselves. The water was cold and refreshing, and of course clear and moving, which meant clean in our minds. I’ll never forget that experience.

In John 7, Jesus was in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast Of Tabernacles. On the last day of the feast, which was the most important one, He began to shout into the crowd. Verses 37-38 say, “All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!” TPT They must have been physically thirsty from all the feasting, but Jesus was referring to their spiritual thirst. He not only wanted to satisfy that thirst, but to also produce in them, and us, rivers of spiritual water to quench the thirst of people around us.

We all have rivers of water flowing from us. Is yours crisp, clean and refreshing or is it polluted? Does your river make people want to come and drink? Most of us live such busy lives that we forget to check the quality of the water that’s flowing out of us. We must make sure that the source is the Holy Spirit rather than ourselves. He gives fresh water that’s full of revelation, healing and restoration. When those flow from our lives, people want to be around us. They want to drink deeply from that river because it satisfies something deep in their spirit. It will then lead them to the source of that river and then they too will have a river bursting forth from their inner most being satisfying the thirst of people around them.

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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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May 19, 2026 · 5:44 AM

Kingdom Over Calling

History is littered with people who have been given great dreams to accomplish. Some become so obsessed with their dream that it consumes them. They get so focused on their dream dream that it becomes the source of their identity. When that happens, the dream giver becomes optional. Think of Samson whom God called from birth to rescue Israel with his strength. As he grew up, he began to love his strength more than the one who empowered him. That pride became his downfall. I could listen to modern people who fell into the same trap that he did. We all must be careful not to let our gift become our god or our calling to become an idol that we chase.

David was a young man when Samuel anointed him to be the next king of Israel. It wasn’t long before he defeated Goliath and was a regular in the king’s home. David must have thought it was happening then, but God saw fit to send him through adversity to prepare him for his calling. David lived in hiding, moving from cave to cave instead of palaces. He commanded a rebel army of outcasts and rejects before he commanded the national force. In the process of adversity, he learned to quit chasing the dream and to start chasing the dream giver. Twice he had the opportunity to kill King Saul and ascend to the throne, but he did not touch God’s anointed. David had a heart after God rather than the throne. When he was ready, God gave it to him. Throughout his life, he showed he was owned by God and not the throne.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus said, “But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also” (AMP). Have you found yourself chasing your dream or calling more than the One who planted that in you? God’s order is to seek Him first, then all these other things will be given to you. There’s a process that we go through that reveals and prepares our heart. When we bypass the process, we become like Samson rather than David. We find ourselves seeking the calling rather than the creator. God gives dreams and callings for the Kingdom. If you’re in a season of preparation or waiting for the calling to come to pass, seek God and His kingdom. When the time is right, God will give it to you and cause it to come to pass.

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May 18, 2026 · 5:47 AM

Safety Devices

When you start to think about it, we are surrounded by safety devices. Our homes have smoke detectors to alert us when there’s a fire. We’ve made it the law that you have to wear a seat belt in the car. There are railroad crossing arms nearly everywhere a road crosses the tracks. Just about every place and activity have some form of safety around it, yet people still choose to ignore or not use the safety devices. We don’t replace batteries in smoke detectors. We rationalize not wearing a seat belt on short trips. We go around the railroad crossing arms when we’re in a hurry. In every one of those scenarios people have paid the price of ignoring the safety device. Some have sued when they’re the ones who ignored it. The safety devices are there to help us, yet we feel inconvenienced by them at times.

In Judges 2, God told the Israelites not to make a covenant with the other nations in the Promised Land. When Joshua died, it says, “Another generation arose after them who did not know (recognize, understand) the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and worshiped and served the Baals, and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt” (AMP). God had given them the Law, leaders and even met with them in the form of an angel to warn them not to do things opposite of His ways. They went through several generations and leaders who kept trying to bring the people back to God’s ways so they would receive the blessings of following Him. However, time after time, they ignored Him and suffered the consequences.

Proverbs 13:13 says, “Whoever despises the word and counsel [of God] brings destruction upon himself, But he who [reverently] fears and respects the commandment [of God] will be rewarded.” God’s Word is a lamp, a warning system and a guard rail for our lives. When we ignore it, we face the consequences. When we follow it, we are rewarded with blessings. It’s not always convenient and we don’t always understand the guardrails He’s given us, but we must live by them if we want to get the most out of this life He’s given us. We can’t pick and choose what parts of His Word we obey and what parts we ignore. “All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage].” His Word is for our good and our safety. We can’t afford to ignore it like other safety devices. This one has eternal consequences.

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May 5, 2026 · 5:30 AM

A Foundation Of Love

I was at celebration of my aunt and uncle when a lady walked up to me. She said, “You don’t know me, but I know you. I grew up in your grandfather’s church.” She shared some stories with me about him, and then she said, “He gave that church a foundation of love.” That phrase resonated with me for many reasons. I couldn’t help but think of how you and I are the Church. It’s important that we build our faith and our lives on a foundation of God’s love. If we don’t do that, our lives can become full of meaningless rituals or a cold relationship with God. When that happens we must return to our first love.

In Luke 7:36-47, Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s house. A lady who was a prostitute came in, bowed at Jesus’ feet, cried tears on His feet, then dried them with her hair and poured perfume on them. The Pharisee was stunned that Jesus allowed this to happen. Jesus told him a parable of two men who owed a debt to someone. One owed a little and the other a lot. The creditor forgave them both. Jesus then asked the Pharisee which person loved the creditor more. He replied that the one who was forgiven more. Jesus agreed. He then looked down at the lady and told the Pharisee that her many sins had been forgiven and this was a display of her love.

In Ephesians 3:19 Paul concluded a prayer by saying, “And [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself]” (AMP). You and I can’t just have a head knowledge of God. We must experience His love and forgiveness in our lives. When we do that, we will experience God’s presence and be filled with it. When we have the foundation of His love in our lives, we can make a greater impact on the people around us.

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I’m taking a week of rest of rest and recuperation. Please enjoy these previously written devotions that I’ve hand picked for this week.

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April 30, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Conditioning

When I was in high school I played basketball. I loved being on the team, but I always hated the start of the season. I’m not talking about the first few games though. When we were allowed to start practicing, coach would spend the first few weeks conditioning our bodies and getting us back into shape. We ran sprints, horses, long distances, did calisthenics, jumped over benches and more exercises. I don’t remember touching a basketball those first few weeks. It was painful and my body was sore. I spent a lot of time soaking in epsom salt trying to recover. However, once the season started, we were better conditioned than any team and could out run them and wear them out giving us lots of victories. It turns out coach had a plan the whole time.

We read the story of Joseph in the late chapters of Genesis. When he was just a teenager, God gave him dreams that his family would now down to him. Foolishly, he told his brothers all about them. Being the younger brother, he probably rubbed it in while wearing the special coat his dad made for him. It’s clear that he wasn’t ready to lead at that time. His brothers then decided to kill him, but sold him into slavery instead. He was then falsely accused of trying to rape his master’s wife and thrown in prison where he was forgotten. He went through this period of conditioning for 13 years before God exalted him to be second in command of Egypt. When he ruled Egypt, we see a very different person because of what he went through.

Psalm 66:12 says, “You’ve allowed our enemies to prevail against us. We’ve passed through fire and flood, yet in the end you always bring us out better than we were before, saturated with your goodness” (TPT). God allows us to go through storms and difficult times in order to condition us for the plans He has for us. His plans are good, but we are often not ready to fulfill them yet. In His processes, we are changed for the better and made ready to receive His promises. If you’re going through a tough time right now, hang in there. God is building your endurance and your character so that you’re able to handle what’s coming and help others. Conditioning doesn’t last forever. Victory is on the way.

Photo by Adolfo Florêncio on Pexels.

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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April 28, 2026 · 5:46 AM

But Lord Moments

I was reading in Acts 9 where God met Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul had papers in hand with permission to persecute believers and throw them in jail when God blinded him and called him to be a minister of the Gospel. God then spoke to a believer in Damascus named Ananias to go pray for Saul to receive his sight. Ananias responded like many of us, “But Lord!” He reminded God who Saul was and what he had come to do. Then God told him what He had in store for Saul. The Bible says that Ananias then went to find Saul and pray for him. Saul regained his sight and was baptized.

Ananias isn’t the only one to say, “But Lord,” to God. When God called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, he said, “But Lord I can’t speak.” When Gideon was called upon to deliver Israel from Midian he said, “But Lord I’m too weak.” When Jeremiah was called to be a prophet, he said, “But Lord I’m too young.” When Peter was told to cast his nets on the other side of the boat, he said, “But Lord, it doesn’t make sense. I’ve been fishing all night.” In each of these instances, they did push back, but they also obeyed. Instead of trusting what they thought to be true, the believed what God told them. Each time, God responded to their hesitant faith.

When I’m faced with those same moments of hesitation, I think of Psalm 56:3. It says, “But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you” (NLT). Honestly, our hesitation is born out of fear. We’re afraid of the same things these people in the Bible were afraid of. We think we can’t speak, we’re too timid, too young or that we will look foolish. We can be honest in those moment like the psalmist and admit we are afraid. However, we must also take that next step of faith and say, “Nevertheless I will trust you, Lord.” When we take that step of faith, God will strengthen you and meet you just as He did in each of the stories above. You can trust Him because He’s already standing in the place He’s called you to.

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