Tag Archives: what does the bible say about

April 14, 2026 · 5:52 AM

Praying For A Miracle

For the first several years of my son’s life, he would cry at restaurants when the staff sang “Happy Birthday.” He also would act like you were hurting him by brushing his hair or by patting him on the back. We finally found out he was allergic to gluten, dairy and eggs, and they were heightening his senses. We had to make dietary changes. For years we struggled to find the right food wherever we went. One day we were at a family member’s house and said he couldn’t eat what they made. After we explained why, he asked if we liked living that way. He anointed my son with oil, prayed and asked if we all believed. We did. Then he asked for a glass of milk. It didn’t affect him. We then took him back to the doctor for more testing, and it was verified. He was no longer allergic to those items.

In Luke 5, Jesus was teaching inside someone’s house. Every room was packed by people listening to Him. People were even gathered around the house listening through doors and windows. That’s when a group of friends showed up carrying their paralyzed friend on a stretcher. Since they couldn’t get to Jesus through a door or window, the climbed onto the roof, tore a section off, and lowered their friend down to Jesus. He saw the faith of his friends, forgave his sins and healed him. Verse 26 says, “Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, ‘We have seen amazing things today!’” (NLT) I love this miracle because it was the determination and faith of others that helped him be healed through Jesus, and the testimony spread pointing others to Jesus.

James 5:14-15 says, “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.” I believe this verse is still true today. I’ve seen it with my son and with others. If you need a miracle, seek a minister or mature Christian to pray in faith. I’ve found there are times we need to rely on the faith of others to place our need before Jesus. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If He did them in the Bible and for others in the past, He can do them today and in the future. Keep believing and praying for a miracle. I believe He will do it.

Photo by Clement Eastwood on Pexels.

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April 13, 2026 · 5:50 AM

Trust What’s Inside

At one of the jobs I’ve had, I was sent to a month of training. After that month of training, I went to the store to have one week of shadowing someone and then a week of them helping me as I typed everything in. I’ll never forget that next week. My boss told me that I was going to be on my own helping customers, but if I had any questions throughout the day, they would help me. I was terrified wondering about messing up. I told him I needed more time working with someone else because I wasn’t ready. He said, “Yes you are! Trust the training. You’ve got this.” He was right. Everything I had learned helped me get through my day successfully.

In Deuteronomy 30, Israel was about to walk into the Promised Land. God told them that they were going to fight and that they were going to experience all the blessings He told them about, and all the curses. During those times, all they had to do was return to Him and they would experience blessings again. I’m sure they didn’t feel ready to go and take the land. They had been wandering for forty years. When the moment arrived, God told them He would make them successful. They wondered how they would follow His orders and if was too far away from them to remember. Then in verse 14 God said, “No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it” (NLT). They needed to trust what they had been taught. It was inside of them.

In Jeremiah 31:33, God says again, “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days, I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Each of us have a calling on our life. God asks us to step out and obey, but He proceeds it with a time of preparation. When the times comes, don’t let fear rule the day. Don’t let insecurity hold you back. God has given you what you need in order to accomplish it. He had written His Word on your heart and given you the instructions you need. You don’t need to know all the steps in order to get started. You only need faith to take the first one. Trust what He’s spoken and trust His Word. It’s inside of you and the Holy Spirit will remind you what He said and give you the words to say too.

Photo by Maxim Boldyrev on Unsplash

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April 9, 2026 · 5:30 AM

True Direction

When I was in my teens, I learned how to use a compass and follow a course. My favorite memory of that was being handed a five mile course through some woods I wasn’t familiar with. I went through creek beds, up hills and through some dense woods. I found each marker right where it was supposed to be. To stay on course, I looked ahead to a fixed object and made my way to it. I learned that on short distances, the compass worked well. However, if I were to use that compass to go to the North Pole, I would end up about 500 miles away because compasses follow magnetic north and not true north. Magnetic north shifts constantly and often causes travelers to lose their true direction over time.

In Genesis 6, the world was only a few generations in when sin took over. Mankind had quit following God and had started following their own way. Each person had their own version of north and that led them away from their creator. Verse 12 says, “God looked on the earth and saw how debased and degenerate it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way on the earth and lost their true direction” (AMP). When true direction is lost, you need a compass and a fixed point to find your way back. Mankind wanted neither and God sent a flood in order to start over hoping we wouldn’t lose our true direction again.

Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value].” The way you and I keep our true direction in a world that has lost theirs is to keep our focus on heavenly things. We must set our sights on the truth of God’s Word that never changes. When each person has their own truth, we lose our true direction. We end up following our paths instead of His. Don’t let the distractions and worries of this world throw you off course. Put God’s Word in your heart, fixate on it and follow it no matter what. Our true direction is heaven, so let’s keep our eyes fixated there as we navigate this earth.

Photo by Ali Kazal 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 8, 2026 · 5:19 AM

Return To The Shepherd

A sheep’s greatest need is not food and water. Their greatest need is a shepherd. They cannot survive without one. They naturally flock together, but without a shepherd they tend to get distracted at times and wander from the heard. They’re also a defenseless breed. Without a shepherd to protect them, they are easy targets for predators. Also sheep must be sheared at least once a year. Without a shepherd doing that, their wool will get matted up and become too heavy to bear. They will either succumb to the weight of it or get sick from the diseases that wil be acquired from the matted wool. The last reason why sheep can’t survive without a shepherd is because they wouldn’t be able to find pasture or water for themselves. Without a shepherd they would eventually starve to death.

In Mark 6, Jesus and the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. Verse 34 says, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things” (ESV). Jesus saw the people and knew they couldn’t survive without a shepherd and needed spiritual food. After teaching them, the disciples saw they were hungry and asked the Good Shepherd to send them away to find their own food. Jesus, who was trying to teach the disciples how to shepherd people, told them to feed these sheep. They replied they didn’t have enough money to feed them all and they only had five loves of bread an two fish. In the Good Shepherd’s hands, that was enough to care for a flock of five thousand. These sheep need their shepherd to provide spiritual and physical food.

Zachariah 1:3 says, “Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” Have you wandered away from the flock and the Shepherd? We all do it at times. We get distracted by the cares of this world and we sometime put a greater priority on earthly things. You need the Good Shepherd if you’re going to survive. You need the flock of your local church as well with God’s under shepherd. You can’t survive on bread alone. I know because I’ve tried it before. God is calling to each of us, searching for us to bring us back into His flock. We need His loving care so we are not weighed down by the cares of this world. We need to return to Him so we can find lie down in green pastures and rest beside streams of water. Our natural place is with Him. If you’ve been separated for whatever reason, call out to Him today and return. He is a loving shepherd who won’t be mad at you. Instead, He has compassion for you each time He sees you and wants to be your shepherd.

Photo by Luke Yang on Unsplash

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April 7, 2026 · 5:54 AM

Stop Going In Circles

I’ve been in leadership long enough to know you can’t expect different results by doing the same thing. I’ve coached and counseled people telling them that what they are experiencing today is a result of the processes they have in their life or organization. There are times when I point out a behavior or process that they need to change, that people willingly do it. Others will defend their position or attack me because that position is something they’re so dug in on that they won’t change. I try to explain if they want to change results, they have to change behaviors. You can’t simply change the direction by going in circles. At some point you have to break the cycle, break the pattern and break the behavior.

In Deuteronomy 2, the Israelites had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years. They had their own pattern that kept them there for so long. They would feel inconvenienced on the way to the Promised Land, then they would complain, then they would talk about how their life was better in Egypt, God would discipline them and provide, and then they would repeat it. Their sin and struggle had kept them there wandering until all those who had refused to go to the Promised Land had died. Now a new generation had grown up and God was preparing them to go take the land. In verse 3 God says, “You have circled this mountain long enough; turn northward” (AMP). For forty years, nothing had changed until they changed direction.

When we follow where God leads and change what He’s convicting us of, we don’t just change direction. We change destination. When we quit circling the things that are important to us and start doing what’s important to Him, we change our destiny. We all have mountains we’ve been circling that are keeping us from the Promised Land that God wants to lead us to. We just have to quit excusing our behavior, repeating what has failed and respond to what God has asked us to do. Your mountain won’t move until you change direction and turn north. Don’t just be a hearer of God’s Word. Be a doer. Today is your Deuteronomy 2:3 moment. Stop circling. Break the pattern. Follow where God leads. It won’t be easy, but it’s better than going in circles.

Photo by Akhmed Chalandarov on Unsplash

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April 6, 2026 · 5:46 AM

Shifting Your Trust

One thing I’ve learned is that the longer I worry about a situation, the less strength and energy I have. It’s like my body allocates all its resources to try and get me out of whatever mess or situation I find myself in. People will say, “Give it to God,” but I never understood how to until I read Philippians 4:6-7. It says, “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life” (MSG). When I dwell on worry, it zaps my energy because I’m trying to fix the situation. When I let it cause me to pray, I hand it off to God and give Him the responsibility to fix it.

In 1 Samuel 1, we’re introduced to a lady named Hannah. She was married to Elkanah along with another woman named Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not. All she wanted in life was to have a child. Each year they traveled to the Tabernacle to worship. Elkanah offered his sacrifices and gave meat to his two wives. Hannah worried so much about not having kids that she couldn’t eat until one day when she decided to let her worries become her prayers. Eli, the priest, told her to go in peace and trust that God would grant her request. Verse 18 says, “‘Oh, thank you, sir!’ she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad” (NLT). She’s a great example of what Philippians 4:6 looks like in action. In due time, God granted her prayers and gave her a son named Samuel.

In Psalm 28, David was going through a tough season. The first part of the chapter is him telling God about his problem. Then in verse 7 he says, “The Lord is my strength and my [impenetrable] shield; My heart trusts [with unwavering confidence] in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I shall thank Him and praise Him” (AMP). Just like Hannah, he experienced a shift in his confidence when he gave it to God. Their circumstances weren’t changed in that moment. What did change was who they trusted to handle it. Worry is a symptom that comes from us trying to solve a problem and it’s beyond our abilities. Peace is the symptom of trusting God to do what we are incapable of. Let Him displace worry and thank Him in advance for what He’s going to do. Your circumstances won’t change immediately, but there will be a shift in your attitude when you shift your trust to God.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

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April 3, 2026 · 6:01 AM

Paid In Full

After Jesus had hung on the cross for several hours, His last words before He died were, “It is finished!” The Greek word written in the Bible is “tetelestai.” What it fully means is, “Paid in full. Nothing left owed.” It was a declaration that the price for our sins was paid in full by the spotless Lamb of God. Our record of wrong doing is wiped clean through His shed blood on the cross. While it looked like one of the darkest days in the history of the world in the moment to the onlookers, Jesus was letting them know He was fulfilling His purpose of taking away the sins of the world. Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved” (GNT). No matter how badly or how much you have done wrong, there is forgiveness for you because Jesus paid your debt in full.

Here are some Bible verses that show your sins were paid for on Good Friday:

1. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT

2. In Him we have redemption [that is, our deliverance and salvation] through His blood, [which paid the penalty for our sin and resulted in] the forgiveness and complete pardon of our sin, in accordance with the riches of His grace.

Ephesians 1:7 AMP

3. Blessed and happy and favored are those whose lawless acts have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered up and completely buried. “Blessed and happy and favored is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account nor charge against him.

Romans 4:7-8 AMP

4. You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:20 AMP

5. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 2:14 NLT

Photo by Google Gemini.

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April 1, 2026 · 5:56 AM

Breaking The Jar

In 1995 David Burgess, who is an award winning violin maker, was transporting one of his newly finished violins. Somewhere during transport, the violin suffered a hairline crack. It was small, but it changed the sound of this expensive instrument. Burgess could either patch the crack or break the entire top off and rebuild it from the inside out. It was costly and it looked like he had destroyed the violin in the moment. However, once it was rebuilt, the violin actually sounded better than before. The breaking and rebuilding of it released a sound it had never had.

Less than a week before Jesus’s crucifixion, He was having dinner when a woman came in with an alabaster jar of perfume that was worth a year’s wages. Instead of taking the top off and using a little bit, she broke the jar open, and poured it all out on Jesus. People complained that the perfume was wasted and that they could have sold it to give money to the poor. However, Jesus had a different response to this sacrificial act of worship. After rebuking them, He said, “When she poured the fragrant oil over me, she was preparing my body in advance of my burial. She has done all that she could to honor me. I promise you that as this wonderful gospel spreads all over the world, the story of her lavish devotion to me will be mentioned in memory of her” (Mark 14:8-9 NLT).

Romans 12:1 says, “Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship” (TPT). A living sacrifice doesn’t offer only part of itself. It offers the whole thing. It opens itself up to be fully broken and poured out as a genuine expression of worship. That is our proper response to what Jesus did for us. Are there parts of your life that you’ve been holding back while only surrendering part to Jesus? This Easter, it’s time we truly open ourselves up and give ourselves to Him. It’s time to break the jars of the hidden places in our lives. It may feel like destruction in the moment, but it will produce a sacrificial life of worship.

Photo by Google Gemini

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March 31, 2026 · 5:52 AM

Untying Your Donkey

In the late 1950’s, a small town pastor felt like God was asking him to give up his evening TV time. Instead of just giving it up, he sold his TV and dedicated that time to prayer. As he was praying one night, the Lord led him to open up a magazine he had. When he opened it, he saw an article about several young gang members in New York City on trial. He heard the Lord tell him to go help them. He did what God asked him to do. He preached to the gangs of New York City and won many to Christ, including a leader named Nicky Cruz. This young preacher named David Wilkerson also started an organization called Teen Challenge to help people get off drugs. To this day, those ministries are still active and helping people because he gave up something God asked.

In Luke 19, Jesus was on the Mount of Olives headed for a small town called Bethphage. He told two disciples, “Go into that village over there. As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it’” (NLT). As soon as they untied it, the owner asked why they were untying his young donkey. They replied just as Jesus told them too, “The Lord needs it.” There was no more discussion. They gave it up for the Lord because He needed it. That young donkey was used to fulfill a prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. As Jesus rode it into Jerusalem, the people laid out palm branches and their coats shouting, “Hosanna!”

Psalm 24:1 reminds us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.” When God asks us to give Him something or give up something for Him, it’s good to remember that it already belongs to Him. He’s not really taking it. He’s asking us to release what’s already His. We are just stewards of it until He needs it. The Bible is full of miracles God performed because people gave up something as small as a lunch of five loaves and two fish. If He can feed 5,000 people with that, save gang members in New York City because someone gave up a TV or fulfill a prophecy using a donkey, imagine what He could do with what He’s asking you to release. When the Lord says He needs it, are you willing to untie it and let it go?

Photo by Google Gemini

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March 30, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Surrendering Your Tomb

We all have things in our life that we thought would be part of us forever. We’ve had dreams that ended in despair, fires that were buried under disappointment and promises from God that we’ve given up on. Each of us have a tomb full of things we’ve let go of. We’ve accepted them as endings, but what if God isn’t finished with them yet? What if He is wanting to resurrect them? I’m sure the disciples must have felt that way when the guards took Jesus, beat Him and made Him carry His cross through Jerusalem. Their plans and hopes for the future were crucified right in front of them. Like us, they lived in the tension of what was and what was supposed to be.

Enter Joseph of Arimathea. Luke 23:50 says he was a good and honorable man. He had watched Jesus from afar and even had questions for Jesus because he didn’t understand everything. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” something awakened in him. When everyone else ran in fear, he stepped forward in boldness to ask for the body of Jesus. Joseph had already planned ahead for his own death one day. He had a tomb in a beautiful garden just outside of town. The place where he expected his story to conclude was surrendered to make room for Jesus. That tomb stands empty today as a testament that God has the power to bring dead things to life. It’s a reminder that with God all things are possible and nothing is ever final until He says it is.

Abraham is another example of someone who had to surrender his ideas of what the future held and trust God’s resurrection power. Romans 4:18 says, “Against all odds, when it looked hopeless, Abraham believed the promise and expected God to fulfill it. He took God at his word, and as a result he became the father of many nations” (TPT). The heart of surrender lays down what looks hopeless and dead at the feet of Jesus. It takes God at His word and has the full expectation that God will fulfill that which He has promised. It’s time for us to give Him the things we’ve placed in our tomb. Surrendering is letting go and letting God have the final say. Resurrection is God’s work, and surrender is ours.

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

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