Tag Archives: daily devotion

May 10, 2016 · 5:30 AM

You Are Powerful


I’ve read how you can re-map what your brain believes by changing what and how you think. When asked why we can’t or won’t do something, we say, “That’s not who I am” or “I’m not wired they way.” We’ve been fed a lie by someone, repeated it to ourselves and others, and believed it until it has become who we are. That same process can be used to undo the damage caused by the lie we believed before. We can become who we are not, by changing what we believe.

If you read the Psalms, you see two versions of David. You see one who is downcast and scared, and you see another who is proclaiming they are strong and mighty. I believe David struggled with the lie that he was just a shepherd boy instead of a king. I believe he heard the voices telling him he belonged in a pasture than on the battlefield, and it created that struggle within him. He wasn’t so different than you or I.

God calls us to do mighty things, but our self doubt kicks in and tells us we can’t. When we allow the words of people to echo in our minds louder than the words of God, we remain stagnant and afraid. That’s the plan of the enemy to immobilize the Church. If he can get us to buy into the belief that we are weak, unworthy, unable, and insecure, then he can keep us from stepping out in faith into our full calling. He uses fear, intimidation, and the power of mind mapping to keep us from our destiny.

I believe David recognized that and that’s why we read so many of his self affirmations in Psalms. He knew that if he repeated God’s truth enough times, he would believe it, and it would become who he was. In Psalm 118:14 he proclaimed a truth each of us need to proclaim as well. He said, “The Lord makes me powerful and strong” (GNT). God has made you more powerful than the enemy. He has made you more powerful than the lie you’ve been told. He has made you powerful enough to become who He has said you are and to accomplish what He has called you to do. 

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May 9, 2016 · 5:30 AM

God Listens


Have you ever been talking to someone only to figure out they were looking at you, but not listening? It’s frustrating. You’re going through the emotions that you feel, describing each detail to them, and they aren’t even paying attention. Would you go back to that person the next time you needed the support of a listening ear? No! You wanted someone to listen and to help you, and they weren’t even giving you the respect of listening.

Have you ever felt like God was that way? Have you felt like you poured out your heart to Him in prayer, but it was like He wasn’t listening? It’s frustrating to be in prayer and to feel like your prayers aren’t escaping the room you’re in. Maybe you’ve tried praying louder or just sat there weeping in that place crying out to God for mercy. In any case, God is not like us. He does not have selective hearing. He hears every prayer, even those that seem to fall flat on the floor.

In Psalm 116:1-2, the Psalmist wrote, “I love the Lord, because he hears me; he listens to my prayers. He listens to me every time I call to him” (GNT). God hears every prayer you’ve ever prayed from the silent ones that you could barely muster the energy to say to the loud “can you hear me” prayers. When you and I pour out our heart before God, we have a guarantee that He hears us and listens to us.

We are not guaranteed to have every prayer answered, but we are guaranteed an audience with God every time we pray. Since He gives us an audience and hears us, we should have confidence and approach His throne where we will find mercy and grace to help us just when we need it (Hebrews 4:16). We don’t have to leave prayer frustrated because we know He hears us, and if He hears us, He will give us the grace and mercy we need for whatever our situation holds.

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May 5, 2016 · 5:32 AM

Christlike Compassion


A friend recently told me how a mutual friend of ours had made some wrong choices and called them for help. I said, “You didn’t help them did you?” They said, “No.” I said, “Good! They need to learn they can’t keep making these choices and think everyone is just going to bail them out.” Immediately I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Where was the compassion in my heart? Where was the good in me that wants to help others? I was choosing who deserved it, and God was getting on to me.

What if God had that attitude toward me? What if He said, “I’ve already forgiven you of this same sin over and over. I think I’ll just let you deal with it instead of me helping you. Maybe then you’ll figure it out”? That would be devastating because when I sin, I run to God, beg Him to forgive me, and ask Him to bail me out when it comes to the consequences. I want Him to hear my prayer, see my heart, and to have compassion on me. For some reason, I fail to have that same compassion on others.

When I read of Jesus, one thing that always stands out to me is how He had compassion on the crowds. He was tired and hungry, but when people came to Him, He was moved with compassion to help them. As a CHRISTian, I am to be like Christ. To me, one of His greatest attributes was His compassion and His goodness to any who went to see Him. In Psalm 145:9 David wrote, “The LORD is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation” (NLT).

If the Father is good to everyone and the Son showed compassion to everyone, wouldn’t it make sense that I do the same? Even if I can see someone’s choices and consequences, I can’t see their heart. If God has had compassion on me after I’ve made the same boneheaded mistake over and over again, I need to show that same compassion to others. I may never fully be Christ like, but I can at least move in that direction. One of things I can change is how I show compassion to those who I don’t feel deserve it because none of us deserve God’s. Thankfully He gives it to us anyway.

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May 4, 2016 · 5:30 AM

Doing God’s Will


Too often we think it’s hard to know God’s will. We say we want to find it for our lives, but I wonder if that’s just an excuse we use to keep us from doing something. We don’t like change. We like things that are comfortable for us. We rationalize that if God opened the heavens, gave us a clear sign, and spoke to us in an audible voice then we could do the things that are uncomfortable. We put parameters like that on how to know God’s will so that we can remain inert.

The truth is that we know what God’s will is if we’ve read any of the Bible. We know His will for how we should live, we know His will for how we should treat the least among us, and we know His will for what we should do with our knowledge of Him. What we don’t know is how to do it. So the real question isn’t, “What’s God’s will”, it’s, “How do I do God’s will?” That’s the real problem most of us have, but we just can’t admit it because if we know what His will is, we are responsible for doing it.

I do an exercise with managers at work to illustrate the difference in telling someone to do something and teaching them how to do it. I create a long tube out of easel paper, tell them to hold out their fingers, put it on top of them, and tell them to take it to the ground. The problem is they can’t do it. They know what I want them to do, but they can’t. I keep telling them my will, but they don’t know how to do it so they get frustrated. Many walk away from the exercise frustrated because they aren’t successful. They give up because something that seems so easy is do hard to do.

After letting them struggle for about 10 minutes, I finally teach them how to do it. They then are able to do it with some struggles. I think it’s similar to doing God’s will. It should be easy to love our neighbor, defend the orphan, or tell others about Jesus, but it isn’t. I think David struggled with doing God’s will too. That’s why I think he prayed this prayer in Psalm 143:10. He prayed, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing” (NLT).

I can relate with David. I know God’s will and I want to do it, but I struggle with doing it. Maybe you’re in that boat too. You want to do what He’s called you to, but you just don’t know how. Let David’s prayer be your prayer. Change your question from, “What’s your will” to “Can you teach you how to do it?” We still might struggle with doing it, but I’d rather fail at trying to accomplish His will than to fail God by doing nothing. Pray today to ask God how to do His will, then look for opportunities to do it. God will teach us and give us opportunities too.

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May 3, 2016 · 5:30 AM

Doctor’s Visit


Imagine you had a medical issue that worried you. The first thing you would do is visit your doctor and ask them to examine you thoroughly. You’d want them to run tests to find the problem, then to tell you what the solution would be to bring healing to your body. We would want the doctor to be honest with us about the problem and the treatment, and we would be willing to endure just about anything to be cured.

Now imagine you went to God in prayer and asked Him to examine your life, your thoughts, and your heart to find anything wrong. Why did the thought of that make you uncomfortable, but the thought of asking a doctor the same thing didn’t? For some reason, we think we can hide things from God. Adam and Eve tried it in the garden, and we’ve been trying it ever since. We think of we don’t invite God into those areas, we can keep doing things our own way.

Since God knows everything, He already sees the areas of our lives we try to keep hidden. He knows the thoughts we think and the attitude of our heart too. So do we not ask Him to examine us because we don’t want to hear what He will tell us? Imagine if you used that same logic with the doctor. If we wouldn’t do that with our physical body, why would we with our spiritual life? If you pretend there’s not a problem, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It just means you’re not addressing it.

In Psalm 139:23-24 David prayed one of the toughest prayers. He prayed, “Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way” (GNT). He knew the only way to get better spiritually is to ask God for an examine. He wanted God to dig into the dark, hidden places of his life so that God could lead him in the everlasting way. If we want God to do the same for us, it’s time we gave Him permission to examine us and to give us the cure.

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May 2, 2016 · 6:17 AM

The Journey Of Success


As you know, David was told by God that he could not build the temple. God had told him that his son Solomon would build it. In II Chronicles 22:5, David recognized that his son Solomon was young and inexperienced. He then decided to make preparations for building the temple. He ordered everything that Solomon would need in order to build the temple. Even though Solomon had everything he needed to be successful, it was up to him to do something with all the material if he was going to build successfully.

Success doesn’t lie in having the things God gives us, it lies in doing something with them. In Matthew 25:14-30, we read the Parable of Talents. Jesus told the story of three men who had been given bags of silver from their master according to their abilities. Two of the servants took that material and invested it while one hid it. When the master returned, it was the ones who did something with the material who were considered successful, not the one who let it sit.

I Corinthians 12:7 says, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (NLT). God has given each of us the materials to be successful just like David did for Solomon and the master did for his servants. The question is, are you going to let the materials sit there or are you going to do something with them? You can’t let the fear of being unsuccessful to prevent you from doing anything. If you do nothing with what God has given you, you’re no better than the man ho buried his bag of silver.

If God has given you a dream, quit often it’s as big as the task given to Solomon to build the temple. You may look at yourself and think you’re too inexperienced to do what God called you to. If you read the Bible, the greatest heroes of faith were the ones who didn’t let their inexperience keep them from their calling. They trusted God to do His part, so they did theirs. It’s up to each of us to take the gifts God has given us and put them to use. The greatest successes in life start with the smallest of steps. What can you do today to get started on your journey of success?

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April 28, 2016 · 5:50 AM

Watching And Waiting


Have you ever been around a person who loves to hear the sound of their own voice? How does it feel when you try to engage them in conversation and they never give you the opportunity to speak? After a while, you either quit trying to talk to them or you just don’t say anything at all to them because you know it’s going to fall on deaf ears. When you see them approaching you or their caller ID shows up on your phone, you almost sigh because you know what’s coming.

If we don’t like it when people do that to us, then why do we think God likes it when we do it to Him? Think about your prayers to God. How often do you stop talking and start listening? Prayer should be a conversation between you and God, not a wish list of things you’d like to see done to make your life easier. There’s a time for you to talk and a time for God to respond. If it’s been a while since you’ve heard God speak to you, ask yourself, “When’s the last time I was quiet in my prayer time?”

I know it’s a hard concept to some because we think of prayer as a list of things we want, but prayer is so much more than that. It’s designed to be the time you communicate and have a conversation with the creator of the universe. It’s designed for us to spend time with Him getting to know His heart. We have to learn that it’s ok to spend your prayer time listening. If we never listen, how will we know His heart, His desires for our life, or His thoughts on how we should respond to social issues as His representatives on earth?

David said in Psalm 5:3, “In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart]” (AMP). David understood that God wanted to hear his prayers and that God wanted to speak to His heart so he built time to watch and to wait into his prayer time. God wants us to do the same so He can speak to our hearts. If it’s been a while since you’ve heard God speak to you, try watching and waiting today to see what He says.

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April 27, 2016 · 5:30 AM

No Patience

I’ve always heard that patience is a virtue, but in today’s world, it’s a virtue too few want or have. Just recently I needed a part for my car. I called around to all of the parts stores looking for it. Each one said that it would take about a week to get it. When they asked if they should order it, I said, “No. Amazon has it and can get it here in two days.” I don’t have the patience to wait a week when I can get it in two days. The fact is, I didn’t want to wait two days so I was trying to find out where I could get it same day.

It’s one thing to be impatient for things we want, but when that same impatience affects our spiritual life there’s a problem. While technology has sped up the process by which we get most things, it has not decreased the time to receive spiritual things. Those still require the discipline of planting, watering with prayer, and reaping. Spiritual discipline requires patience that today’s fast moving world isn’t used to. There’s no technology that can make things happen faster in the spiritual realm.

In Psalm 40:1, David wrote, “I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry” (NLT). The Message interpreted this verse as, “I waited and waited and waited for God. At last He looked; finally He listened.” There are times when we have to wait for what seems like forever to hear back from God. It requires patience that today’s world doesn’t produce. It requires stick-to-it-iveness and lots of prayer. You can’t go on Amazon and bypass God to get what you want faster.

Spiritual discipline is what we need today more than ever. We have to push past our desire for immediacy and have patience for the process. There’s more going on that just you saying a prayer. Daniel 10 gives us insight into what goes on when we pray. Principalities are fought in the spiritual realm that require us to have patience and to keep praying. We have to learn to pray until we’ve prayed through rather than praying until we’re through. Yes, patience is a virtue that worth having in today’s impatient world, especially if we are going to pray for something.

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April 20, 2016 · 5:39 AM

A Place Of Abundance

  
When we go through hard times, we all want to know why. What did we do to deserve it? Why does it have to last so long? Did God abandon us? Has He forgotten us? How much more can we endure before we break? These are all questions we think about when we go through the fire of trials. It’s been my experience that it’s not until well after that I begin to get any insight into it, if at all. So why does God allow us to face unbearable conditions?

In a word, it’s transformational. There can be no transformation in our lives without hard times. They mold us, purify us, and move us from one place to another. As my nephew says, “No pressure, no diamond.” The problem is, we want the diamond without the pressure. We want the transformation without the trial. We want strength without having to endure heavy lifting. We want things now instead of later, but that’s not how God works, nor is it how we were designed.

In Psalm 66:10-12 it says, “You have tested us, O God; you have purified us like silver. You captured us in your net and laid the burden of slavery on our backs. Then you put a leader over us. We went through fire and flood, but you brought us to a place of great abundance” (NLT). It was God who tested them, put a heavy burden on them, and sent them through the fire and flood. He does the same to us today. It’s not fun, it hurts, and it’s hard to get through at times, but God has a plan.

As the psalmist wrote, He’s purifying us in order to bring us to a place of abundance. You can’t get to the abundance without going through the purification of fire. When those times come remember that if you will endure it, God is working it out for your good. He’s bringing you to a place that you could never get to without having gone through it. Also remember his promise in Isaiah 42:3, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” He’s there with you in these times and won’t let them crush you. Hang in there, abundance is coming.

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April 19, 2016 · 5:30 AM

God’s Secret To Happiness

  Since I was a kid, I heard people tell me, “You become like those you run with.” It was great advice then and now for choosing who you hang out with and listen to. We’ve all received bad advice from someone in our life that has put us in a situation we didn’t want to be in. Some of us have a momentary awkwardness and others have a lifetime of regret because of the consequences of that choice. Either way, we got into the mess by taking advice from someone we shouldn’t have been hanging around.

Psalm 1 is one of my life chapters. What I mean by that is that I see it as a promise from God so I’ve tried to build my life on it. The chapter starts out by telling us, “Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people, who do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God” (GNT). If you want to be happy, stop taking advice from people who don’t know the principles found in God’s Word. Find better people to hang out with if you want your life to change.

If you’ve followed this site for a while, you know the struggles I went through years ago. When I hit rock bottom, I worked my way backwards to find out how I got there. It all started with choices to hang out with and associate myself with people who had no use for God and what I believed. When I looked at my life, I realized I wasn’t happy. God took me back to this chapter and called me back to being who He called me to be in verse 2. It says, “Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the Lord, and they study it day and night.”

If we will get away from the wrong crowd and start living the way God’s Word tells us to, we’ll not only find happiness, but joy. But God doesn’t stop there. He gives us another promise in verse three if we live that way. It says, “They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do.” God promises productivity, success, favor, and happiness in our life if we will just live the way He wants us to and associate ourselves with like minded people.

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