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March 11, 2020 · 5:59 AM

A Fountain Of Wisdom

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One of the Bible verses my wife and I pray often is James 1:5. We are constantly asking God to give us wisdom liberally. When someone needs counseling, we pray that prayer before, and during, the meeting. When we’re trying to make ends meet, we ask for wisdom. When have decisions to make, you guessed it, we pray for wisdom. We often gain knowledge about things, but we understand we don’t know all the facts and that wisdom is knowing what to do with information. We never want to do things out of our own wisdom or knowledge, so we seek God to give us His knowing that He will supply it.

Proverbs 2:6 says, “Wisdom is a gift from a generous God, and every word he speaks is full of revelation and becomes a fountain of understanding within you” (TPT). God wants to give us wisdom, but we must seek it, then listen to what He says. There’s a period a quiet after asking so that the Holy Spirit can call to remembrance verses in the Bible that may apply (John 14:26). How can we hear the Holy Spirit if we’re still talking or praying? He gives the right words at the right time. People need a word from God more than they need words from us. Listening for scriptures or Bible verses is a way to do that.

Also Proverbs 20:45 says, “A man of deep understanding will give good advice, drawing it out from the well within.” We have to dig deep for wisdom. God has put His kingdom within each of us, but it is up to us to seek it and draw it out. When we read the Bible, meditate on it and put it in our heart, we are feeding that well deep with us. The story’s and words we read become a fountain of understanding that God will use in our own lives and in the lives of others. I pray each day for God to give me a deep understanding of His Word and for Him to help me read it with fresh eyes so I can see things I’ve never seen and make connections within it that I’ve missed. I know that when God reveals His Word to me, it isn’t just for me. It’s for anyone I come across who needs a word from Him. By putting it inside of me, I can draw on it through the Holy Spirit when needed.

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March 10, 2020 · 5:46 AM

Purposeful Preparation

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I don’t know if you ever played sports or not, but if you did, you had a coach. Some coaches are there to help you have a good time, others are there to teach you the basics and others help you elevate your game. Those coaches demand a lot out of you, and sometimes get in your face and yell at you when you’re not giving it your all. They’re so hard on you at times that you feel like quitting, but at the same time you know that would disappoint them, and you definitely don’t want to do that. Their discipline and training cause you to respect them and make you want todo more. In the end, you’re a better player because they pushed you beyond what you saw in your abilities. Those coaches you remember for life.

Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord’s training of your life is the evidence of his faithful love. And when he draws you to himself, it proves you are his delightful child” (TPT). God is always training us and preparing us for our future. You might go through an intense training at 35 to prepare you for an intense battle at 50. His training conditions our mind and spirit to be ready for those times in our life. At times it seems harsh and you feel like quitting, but God encourages us through these times because He loves us. He draws more out of us and gives us the strength to endure more than we ever thought we could because His grace is sufficient for whatever you go through.

The deeper your pain or the harder your struggle is will give you greater insight into who God is because you get to experience the depth of His grace and character more. You may hit rock bottom in life, but you will never hit rock bottom of His grace. Your times of training and difficulties only prove how strong His grip on you is and how deeply He loves you. His training grounds and discipline are designed to teach you how to dig deeper in your faith so that when the really hard times come, you have an anchor of hope in Him. Instead of being driven away by the struggles, you stay firm in your faith and your relationship grows. God understands what we need in our training in order to take us to places and victories we would otherwise never know. Keep trusting Him. You are His child whom He loves and He’s drawing you closer to Himself.

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March 9, 2020 · 5:37 AM

Moving Toward Your Destiny

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I spend a lot of time thinking about the future. Not just the future, my future and the plans God has for me. I wonder when the dreams and plans He has for me will happen. I try to make plans and prepare myself for the things He wants to do through me. Then there are times when I think about my past. I think about the ugly details and can’t help but wonder if my past is the thing keeping me from the future God has for me. It’s easy to look behind me and then mentally disqualify myself. It’s usually in those moments I hear the still small voice say, “You can’t undo my calling on your life. Just keep being faithful in the little things.”

Peter is a disciple we like to pick on, but his faith enabled him to do things that were written about. There were moments when he had great revelation and times when Jesus rebuked him openly. Jesus once told Him that He would use him as the foundation to build His Church on. Yet Peter is also the person who denied even knowing Jesus. I’m sure he wrestled with the same thoughts I do. Had he messed up so badly that God changed His plan him? That’s why I love that Jesus imparted the blessing to him by asking Peter if he loved Him. When Peter said yes, Jesus comforted him and told him that the deal was still on by telling him to feed His sheep. His past didn’t matter. His heart did.

Psalm 139:5 says, “You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past. With your hand of love upon my life, you impart a blessing to me” (TPT). Man looks on the outward appearance of things looking to disqualify ourselves or someone else from their calling, but God looks at our heart and the plans He has for us. He prepares the way and opens the doors for us. He uses the mistakes of our past, no matter how bad they were, to help us reach broken people with authenticity. He speaks His blessings of approval over us like He did for Peter. Do you love Him? Then go do what He’s called you to do. Quit worrying about all these other things and focus on your love for Him. He’s already prepared your way, so get moving on it toward your destiny.

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March 6, 2020 · 5:44 AM

Letting Go Of Troubles

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If you’ve ever been to Israel, you know there are a lot of sites to see. As you go through the tour, there are a few places where you know for certain that it is is the exact place where something happened. One of those is the Pool of Bethesda. I love the story because those who were sick or lame would be around it waiting for an angel to come trouble the water. When that would happen, the first person in the pool would be healed. I love that the King James used that word “troubled”. It paints a great picture of what being troubled does. It disrupts the serene peace of still water. That’s what it does to our lives too when we are troubled.

Over and over in the Bible we are told not to be troubled. We are to guard against things that would come into our lives and stir them up disrupting the peace that passes understanding. Being troubled is a symptom of not trusting God. In order to be troubled, we have to let go of the burden He gives us and pick up our own. We take God out of the equation and try to handle the situation on our own. The Bible is telling us to guard against that mentality. It takes up valuable strength needed and erodes the faith we have in God. If you’re troubled, spend time looking up God’s promises, find one that you can hold onto and plant it deep in your heart.

Here are some Bible verses on letting go of trouble.

1. He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.

2 Corinthians 1:4 GNT

2. Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly). Believe [confidently] in God and trust in Him, [have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and] believe also in Me.

John 14:1 AMP

3. Pile your troubles on GOD ’s shoulders— he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out. He’ll never let good people topple into ruin.

Psalm 55:22 MSG

4. I cried out to you in my distress, the delivering God, and from your temple-throne you heard my troubled cry. My sobs came right into your heart and you turned your face to rescue me.

Psalms 18:6 TPT

5. 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

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March 5, 2020 · 5:30 AM

Following Footsteps

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When you do something that’s been done before, we say, “You’re following in their footsteps.” I have friends who have followed in their dad’s footsteps to become police officers, others who followed their mom’s to become teachers, and others who have followed in a mentor’s to become entrepreneurs. Each of us are following in someone’s footsteps. Have you considered whose they are?

I believe we each should have someone ahead of us that we look to in order to challenge us to be better. I also think that we should have others behind us that we’re leading. I’ve heard it said that successful people do what successful people do. In fact, many books like “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “From Good to Great” have been written so we can follow in the footsteps of people who have successful habits.

While that’s important, I believe having spiritual mentors is more important. There should be Christian people in your life, whom you look up to, that you can emulate. Their prayer life should challenge you to pray better. Their Christian walk should encourage you to keep going. Their acts of love towards others should ignite a desire in you to do the same. Their understanding of Scriptures should cause you to study more. You may already have someone like that in your life. If you do, let them know. If not, find someone who can be that person.

Proverbs 2:20 gives us this advice, “Follow the steps of good men instead, and stay on the paths of the righteous” (NLT). If we want to stay on the paths of the righteous, we need to be following in the steps of those who are on them. Look around your life for the people that God has placed in it for you to follow. He doesn’t leave us alone in our pursuit of Him. He’s given us people to follow. Reach out to them, find out their habits, and follow in their footsteps as they follow Christ.

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing 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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March 4, 2020 · 5:50 AM

Fully Surrendered

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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, “Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust him along the way you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!” (TPT) 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.

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March 3, 2020 · 6:01 AM

Changing Our Thoughts And Words

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I was recently speaking with one of the pastors at my church about our church’s core values. Then the conversation switched to personal core values. He said, “One of the things I want for my life is have worship come out of my mouth if I was to suddenly be in a crisis.” I couldn’t help but think of the internal process we go through before we speak. When a crisis, or any other situation comes up, the first thing our brain does is to interpret it and then begin speaking to us. Those thoughts immediately produce how we feel about the situation, and those feelings then turn into words and actions. Most of us try to have a filter to protect what words and actions come out, but in a crisis, our brain usually bypasses it. What we think about is usually what comes out.

I don’t know if King David knew about this process or not, but he understood the importance of our thoughts. Psalm 19:14 says, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (NLT). He was concerned about the process and the output as well. Like my pastor, he was telling a God that he wanted his thoughts and his actions to line up with the faith he professed. Since our words start out as a thought, it’s important to guard what you think about. It’s not just our words that are important to God, it’s our thoughts as well. We need to make sure we’re thinking about things that are true, respectful, just, pure, lovely, admirable and praiseworthy so that our conversation will reflect those things (Philippians 4:8).

Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, “For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.” If we’re going to change the words that come out of our mouth, we have to change what’s in our heart. We must change the thoughts we think. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to bring every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. The way we start is by meditating on (thinking about) God’s Word. What does it say? Why does it say it? How can I apply it? Going through this process will change how you think, how you act and ultimately how you speak. It helps us to hide God’s Word in our heart and mind so that we won’t sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). If all of our behaviors start with a thought, then let’s pray what David prayed in Psalm 19 about our words and thoughts.

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March 2, 2020 · 5:50 AM

Jesus Revealed

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If you’ve followed my devotions for a while, you know that there was a period in my life of nearly a year where the bottom kept failing out from underneath me. Some of it was due to my own failures and sins, and other parts just felt like everything was piling on top of me. During that period, God course corrected my life. He also brought people into my life who would speak to me for Him since I was unable or unwilling to hear Him. By the time the storm ended, I knew more about God than I ever had, and I had been in church every time the doors were open since I had been born. I found the depth of His grace was deeper than my sin, the joy He could give me was greater than any pain I had experienced and His strength was more than enough in my weakness.

In Luke 8, Jesus was traveling all over Israel with His message. He had already been baptized with God audibly speaking for all to hear. He had raised a dead boy to life and healed countless sick people. The disciples had caught a boat load of fish by casting their net on the other side and had been following Him everywhere He went. So when He told them to get in the boat to travel to the other side, they didn’t think anything of it, at least until the storm came. They panicked and did all they could to keep the boat upright. Finally someone noticed Jesus was missing. They found Him sleeping in the hull, woke Him up and asked if even cared that they were about to die. He got up, rebuked the wind and the storm stopped. Luke 8:25 says, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you fearful? Have you lost your faith in me?’ Shocked and shaken, they said with amazement to one another, ‘Who is this man who has authority over winds and waves that they obey him?’” (TPT)

We can look in disdain at the disciples for doubting who Jesus is. It’s easy for us to do as we sit in a dry house and read the story, but I believe there’s something in their question for us. When God takes you through a storm, He reveals more of who He is to us. The disciples didn’t blame Him for the storm. They went to Him for help in it, and He revealed that He didn’t just have the power to heal the sick or raise the dead. He showed them that even creation is under His authority. You and I can never know God fully in these bodies. We can’t handle it so He reveals Himself to us in ways that change the lenses through hutch we see Him. He allows things to happen to bring us closer to Him so we can know Him more. It may be fearful or painful at the time, but the end result is to reveal to you parts of His nature that we’re previously unknown to you. If you’re in the storm, quit fighting it yourself. Go to Jesus the way the disciples did and look for Him to reveal Himself to you through it.

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February 28, 2020 · 5:55 AM

Guarding What’s Important

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Hurricane Harvey took out around 500 homes in my neighborhood. While we had warnings of its potential, the waters rose faster than anyone anticipated. Many of the people in my neighborhood and surrounding areas fled at the last minute leaving behind their valuables. That became attractive to looters. They began to break into houses and steal what little these people had left. The police were preoccupied with keeping the city moving during the disaster, so our neighborhood organized a group of people on golf cars to guard the houses. I don’t remember how many they caught, but I do remember them holding looters at gun point. They put up a sign at the entrance saying the houses were being guarded, and the looting stopped.

1 Peter 5:8 tells us that our enemy, Satan, roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Jesus said in John 10:10 that he also comes to steal, kill and destroy. I heard it said that he wants to steal your joy, kill your joy and destroy your destiny. Knowing he’s out there trying to loot you of what’s valuable to you, it’s important that we are on guard against him. We must protect our mind, our heart and our words. James tells us that if we resist him (think of someone resisting arrest), he will flee. Our enemy is not passive, therefore we can’t afford to be.

Here are some Bible verses on guarding what’s important.

1. Guard your words and you’ll guard your life, but if you don’t control your tongue, it will ruin everything.

Proverbs 13:3 TPT

2. Guard against turning back from the grace of God. Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows up and causes many troubles with its poison.

Hebrews 12:15 GNT

3. So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood —over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.

Acts of the Apostles 20:28 NLT

4. When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe.

Luke 11:21 GNT

5. So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.

Proverbs 4:23 TPT

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February 27, 2020 · 5:37 AM

Immediate Obedience

One of the things my wife and I decided after we had a kid was that we weren’t going to use the Three Count Rule. We wanted our son to obey the first time we said something, and not for him to think he had until the count of three to obey. Our reasoning was that if a car was coming and he was running towards the road, we wanted him to obey immediately. Kids are often distracted and unaware of their surroundings. As parents, we are constantly looking out for his safety and need him to obey without understanding why.

You and I are not so different as God’s children. We get distracted by the things of this world and our lives. We have a Heavenly Father who watches out for us and asks for our obedience without our understanding why. Instead of obeying, we often argue or don’t do what He asks because we don’t understand the why behind it or because it just doesn’t make sense. We could all learn a lesson from Peter who obeyed without understanding.

In Luke 5, Jesus was teaching near the Sea of Galilee. The crowds kept pressing in until he had no more room to stand. Peter and his fishing buddies were there mending and cleaning their nets from an all night fishing trip. Jesus asked to get in the boat and to then have him push off land a bit so He could teach the crowd. After He taught them, Jesus asked Peter to go out a little further and then cast His nets. It didn’t make sense to Him because the prime fishing time had already passed plus he had already cleaned his nets. He was tired and wanted to go home.

In verse 5, Peter said, “Master, we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again” (NLT). He didn’t argue even though he didn’t understand. He simply obeyed. The result of his obedience was the catch of a lifetime. That trust he had in obeying Jesus, no matter what, also led him to be able to walk on water. He understood that God knows better than we do. He sees things we can’t see. We may not understand the why behind what He’s asking, but we still need to obey or we will miss out on some of His greatest blessings.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing 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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