Tag Archives: Devotional

March 3, 2022 · 5:30 AM

Faith’s Eyes

As Christians, one of the hardest things for any of us to do is to walk by faith and not by sight. I’ve read that 90% of all information we send to the brain is visual. So it’s only natural for our brain to trust what we see instead of what we don’t. I loved the scene from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where he has to take a leap of faith off the cliff. He looks down and sees a huge drop that will kill him, but he steps off anyway. He drops about a foot and a hidden ledge catches him. More often than not, that’s how God Call’s us to live.

Abraham in the Bible is a person who believed what God said. His eyes were sending information to his brain that was contrary to what God was telling him. No one could get pregnant at Sarah’s age. In fact, Sarah laughed when she heard that she was going to conceive. It was impossible from their perspective, but they didn’t let that keep them from acting in faith. Less than a year later, Isaac was born. He was a constant reminder to them that God is able to do what He promises no matter what our eyes tell us.

Romans 4:18 says, “Against all odds, when it looked hopeless, Abraham believed the promise and expected God to fulfill it” (TPT). Abraham was human just like us, but he chose which information to believe. I don’t know what impossibility hopeless odds you’re looking at today, but if God promised something other than what you see, choose to believe His Word. You may have to be like the man who told Jesus in Mark 9, “Lord I believe, but help my unbelief.” Learning To look through faith’s eyes is never easy, but it is the only way for believers. Trust God more than what you see.

Photo by Greg Rakozy 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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March 2, 2022 · 5:52 AM

Making A Trade

I’ve watched a few videos over the last couple of years where someone starts with a bobby-pin and makes a series of trades until they get a house. I think that’s both cool and interesting. There are websites and pages that are dedicated to trades. Ive heard of people going to swap meets as well to make trades. I’ve never been, but it sounds interesting. The idea that there’s someone out there who values something I have enough that they’re willing to trade something they own with me is intriguing. I’m always afraid I’m going to get the short end of the stick though. Fear keeps me from doing trades.

In Genesis 25, we read the story of Jacob and Esau. Esau was the first of the twins to be born, which was very important in those days. The first born received a double portion of their family’s inheritance because they were to become the new patriarch and would need to care for the wives and property of their father. The Bible tells us that Esau had been hunting and came home starving. His brother Jacob had made a stew. When his brother asked for some, Jacob proposed a trade. He offered a bowl of soup for Esau’s birthright. Esau accepted. He traded away his future, his monetary blessings, his material goods and spiritual blessings for a simple bowl of soup. What a terrible trade!

In Luke 14:33, Jesus proposed a trade to you and me. He said, “Likewise, unless you surrender all to me, giving up all you possess, you cannot be one of my disciples” (TPT). The trade He offers requires us to give up everything in exchange for being a disciple. Think about that. Have you traded everything to Him or have you held some things back? Each of us probably have some things we try to hold onto, but we must surrender everything and trade it to Him. Our future, our time, our money, our talents, our family, everything is what He requires for this trade. If we want to experience what being a true disciple of His is, we have to make that trade. The good news is that when we do make the trade, we get so much more in return, but it starts with an act of faith.

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March 1, 2022 · 5:30 AM

Surrendering Your Yoke

One of my favorite deficit learning activities to do with managers is to put them into two lines facing each other. I give them some simple instructions and ask them to work together to put a pool noodle on the floor. The instructions are easy to understand and follow and the objective is clear. However, when you get a group of people who like to give direction rather than take it, the noodle goes in the opposite direction. The more it does that, the more they get worked up. They blame each other, yell at each other and bicker. I’ve let it go on for up to twenty minutes before. To get the job done, they simply have to let one person lead and talk while they follow directions. Simple, but difficult.

Following Jesus Can feel the same way. The Bible is pretty clear and has great instructions for how we’re to live. However, we don’t like to be told what to do. We’d rather tell Jesus what to do than to listen to Him. We end up arguing with other believers, become mad at God and get burned out. It can be frustrating trying to follow what He says on,y to find ourselves going the opposite direction that we’re supposed to. We end up not only fighting our flesh, but God as well. It quickly gets frustrating and we become tired trying to perform a bunch of rituals or formulas that we think will help. The solution is simple, yet difficult for us to do. Submit ourselves to Him and His authority over our life.

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light” (GNT). The life and rest we’re looking for starts with coming to Jesus admitting you can’t do it on your own. Then you must surrender to His yoke, bending your will to His so you’re working together. After that we follow in His footsteps learning from Him rather than trying to teach Him about our life. When we do that, we find His burden is easy, His yoke is light and we move in the right direction.

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February 28, 2022 · 5:44 AM

A Personal Revival

About 4 years ago, I was given a Peace Lily plant. If you’ve ever had one, you know how hard they are to keep alive. I have rarely seen these closet plants live for long. So I put it in a corner hoping it would survive with indirect sunlight. Every once in a while, I walk into that room and see it drooping. I then have to stop what I’m doing, get a glass of water and pour it on it. It usually takes about 30 minutes and the plant revives. All the shoots and leaves stand back up and it’s good to go again until I forget about it. So far I have been able to revive this plant countless times over the last four years even when I think it’s dead.

We have the ability to revive things in our own lives. Seeds that have been planted long ago, shoots that sprung up and even roots that began to grow under the surface all have the ability to be revived. However, we often look at those things once promised or given by God to us as dead dreams or things of the past. We think of them as dead dreams or lost hopes, but if God gave them to you, there is still life in them waiting to be revived. They need to be watered through prayer, cultivated through use and grown with faith. When you look at them, you may see drooping leaves or deadness even, but God sees an unfulfilled promise He’s waiting to revive.

Psalms 85:6 says, “Revive us again, O God! I know you will! Give us a fresh start! Then all your people will taste your joy and gladness” (TPT). If you’ve felt like your calling, your gifts or even your God given promises are dead, it’s time to call out to God for a personal revival. It’s time to ask Him to revive you and His calling on you. Your circumstances, your choices, nor what’s been done to you can negate or kill God’s calling on your life. They may feel lifeless and gone, but one breathe from God and they will live again! It starts with you calling out in faith to God to revive and restore what the enemy has tried to steal, kill and destroy. Those parts of your life and not dead and gone. They’re waiting for revival!

Photo by Uwe Conrad on Unsplash

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February 25, 2022 · 5:30 AM

A Changed Heart

It always bothers me when I hear someone say, “That’s just how I am.” That is one of the biggest lies that people believe about themselves. When you become a Christian, you become a new creation. A new person! The old you is gone. That means that you are able to change, and that it starts in your heart. Because God cleanses our heart and Jesus moves in, we are no longer bound to the lie of who we were. We can now become who we were created to be as long as we allow God to make those changes in our life. He wants to change your heart, transform your thinking and elevate your life so that you can help others to find Him and have changed hearts too. Don’t cling to who you were. Take hold of who you’re becoming.

Here are some Bible verses on having a changed heart.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26 AMP

2.  Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.

Ephesians 4:23-24 GNT

3. God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live.

Deuteronomy 30:6-7 MSG

4. Create a pure heart in me, O God, and put a new and loyal spirit in me.

Psalm 51:10 GNT

5. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Ezekiel 11:19-20 NLT

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

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February 24, 2022 · 5:30 AM

An Elijah Moment

As I stood on top of Mount Carmel looking across the valley, I remembered the story of Elijah where the land hadn’t seen rain in three years. The now fertile valley was dry and bare then. King Ahab was looking for grass to save his horses from dying of starvation. Elijah, whom the king wanted dead, told him to gather all the prophets of Baal and to meet him on top of Mount Carmel. The prophets of Baal made an altar and so did Elijah. They were to pray and ask for fire to ignite the altar. The god who answered would be the real god. After the prophets of Baal had prayed all day with no fire, Elijah poured water on his altar three times then called down fire from Heaven. It consumed the altar from top to bottom drying up all the water as well.

In 1 Kings 18:21 Elijah addressed them, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” (NLT) When I read that, I can’t help but internalize it. Our lives are a constant battle between our flesh and our spirit. We waver between wanting to give into the desires of the flesh and doing what God requires. As long as we go between them, we are miserable as Paul described in Romans 7. Also, according to James 1:8, it also makes us unstable in all our ways. That’s not the way that God wants us to live. In order to live His way, we need to have an Elijah moment in our lives where we force ourselves to choose the way God wants us to live.

Colossians 3:5 says, “So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.” We need to put to death the things that we have put before God. Verse 10 tells us, “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” We all have this choice to make. Either we will continue to live unstable, idolatrous lives or we will put on the new nature that’s been given to us. It starts with calling down fire from Heaven into our lives consuming the things that are not of God. It’s a continuous process, but it starts with an Elijah moment.

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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February 23, 2022 · 5:56 AM

The Great Protector

In the last few weeks we’ve had some crazy things happen. Both of our cars have been in accidents to the point they have to be in the shop to get repaired. In between the accidents, we came home from dinner one night to find the center beam in our living room had fallen. In each of these cases, things could have been much worse than they were. A friend remarked, “Can you imagine if that beam had fallen a few days earlier at the birthday party?” Times like these can easily instill fear if we think about what could have happened. Instead, we have chosen to focus on the goodness of God in protecting us in each situation, preventing things from being worse.

When the Israelites left Egypt, they appeared defenseless. They had no walls or weapons really. They looked vulnerable as the wandered through the desert in between cities and countries. I’m sure there was the temptation to have fear as well. Moses kept his trust in the Lord though. He penned Psalm 91 during this time as a reassurance to himself and the people of God’s ability to protect. In the psalm, there are affirmations written by Moses and spoken by God that let them and us know how God is active in watching over us as a great protector. We don’t have to fear when bad things are happening.

In verse 15, God says, “I will answer your cry for help every time you pray, and you will feel my presence in your time of trouble. I will deliver you and bring you honor” (TPT). He doesn’t put us in a bubble so that trouble won’t come near us. Instead, He invites us to call on Him when danger is all around us. He promises us that we will feel His presence so we will know He is near us walking with us in those times. It’s easy to look at the danger and to focus on it, but God calls us to trust Him instead. He is our great protector keeping things from being worse than they could be, drawing us closer to Him and elevating us through the process.

Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash

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February 22, 2022 · 5:53 AM

Living By God’s Code

When I was in my teens, I was introduced to what it meant to live by a code. I was taught that it was important to have a set of guiding principles by which to live your life. I didn’t know then how much they would shape my life and help me through making decisions. All these years later I still have the code memorized and think of the characteristics often. They are still the words I live by because they are so fundamental. These words apply to my mental, physical and spiritual life. They are: alert, clean, honest, courageous, loyal, courteous, obedient and spiritual. Each has its own saying that defines it and how I should live.

When the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they didn’t have a code to live by. After living in Egypt and slavery for so long, their guiding principles were what the Egyptians told them to do. So the first place God led them to was Mount Sinai to meet with them and to give them some principles to live by. Today, we call them the Ten Commandments. You can find them in Exodus 20. These commandments were a set of rules to live by to ensure that people did the right thing by God, themselves and others if only they would follow them. He further defined the Law through Leviticus, but these were the core ones to guide their lives.

Today, we have the entire Bible to show us how to live. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (NLT). The word “hidden” means to store up and treasure as your most valuable possession to the point that it governs your life. God’s Word is not just a mere set of morally good ideas and principles that we should just read. It’s inspired by God and is to be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). It is what we need to treasure above all other things in our heart because of the eternal impacts it has on us. When we value it and place it in a position in our life to govern our decisions, we will live the way God called us to. It is our Code for living.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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February 21, 2022 · 5:55 AM

Chasing Bethel

I was born and raised in church. It seemed like we were there every day because if the doors were open, we were going to church. I spent most of my church time reading the hymnal, counting knots in the wooden beams or counting ceiling tiles. Then, when I was around twelve years old, I went to kids camp in Kerrville, Texas and had an encounter with God. Suddenly I felt His presence and He became real to me. Each night of camp, I was more excited for the services than the games. Camp became a place where I wanted to go each year so I could experience God like I had before.

In Genesis 28, Jacob was on the run. He had stolen his brother’s birthright, and Esau was looking to kill him. He camped near a city called Luz. That night, he had an experience with God. He saw a ladder descending from Heaven and the angels were going up and down it. He also saw the Lord standing beside him. Verse 16 says, “Jacob woke up and said, ‘The Lord is here! He is in this place, and I didn’t know it!’” (GNT) He changed the name of that city from Luz to Bethel, which means house of God. He returned there later and had another experience with God as well.

If you’ve been a believer for a while, you can probably point to your Bethel where you experienced God like never before. I know many people who are chasing Bethel. They’re looking to recapture it by going to all the conferences, worship concerts or certain churches. They’re looking for that place where they can experience God’s presence in a tangible way. What we forget though is that God’s presence is everywhere. We can experience Bethel wherever we are when we position our hearts, give God freedom to meet with us and wait on Him. We don’t have to chase Bethel by going to a certain place. God is ready to meet with you where you are so you can experience and encounter Him consistently. The Lord is in the place where you are today making it your Bethel.

Photo by Aliane Schwartzhaupt on Unsplash

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February 18, 2022 · 5:35 AM

Honor God

Have you every known someone who threw their weight around to get something done? The word for honor in the Bible has the same connotation. When it tells us to honor the Lord, it’s telling us to give Him significant influence in our lives. His Word and will should carry weight with us. Also, almost every time the Bible tells us to honor God or someone, it has a promise attached to it. When we properly honor Him, we will receive the blessings He has in store for us. When we let Him have His rightful place in our life, things fall into place. It’s always good to examine your life to make sure you are truly and properly honoring God by giving Him full authority in your life.

Here are some Bible verses on honoring God.

1. Honor the Lord with your wealth And with the first fruits of all your crops (income); Then your barns will be abundantly filled And your vats will overflow with new wine.

Proverbs 3:9-10 AMP

2. He who offers a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way rightly [who follows the way that I show him], I shall show the salvation of God.

Psalms 50:23 AMP

3. He supplies the needs of those who honor him; he hears their cries and saves them.

Psalm 145:19 GNT

4. He will bless everyone who honors him, the great and the small alike.

Psalm 115:13 GNT

5. Honor me by trusting in me in your day of trouble. Cry aloud to me, and I will be there to rescue you.

Psalms 50:15 TPT

Photo by Peter Dlhy on Unsplash

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