Devotionals

July 15, 2019

Colossians 1:9-14 The Voice

I dearly love knowing that people pray for me; I feel the love of God when I am lifted before the Lord in prayer. Life is tough; circumstances can overwhelm any one of us and cause our faith to be shaken. The enemy tries to isolate us, but the Spirit gathers us and calls us into prayer. That is why God calls us to live as a family under his authority; we are stronger and healthier together as we focus on Christ. We overcome the challenges of life, because we use our faith to pray for one another in order to remain strong and victorious.  By faith, we grab ahold of the L.I.F.E. Jesus promises.

Our passage today is based on a prayer of thanksgiving penned by the Apostle Paul. In his prayer, he prays for the church at Colossae. But, my friends, this prayer is also for us. So let’s take time to pray for our loved ones and all fellow believers to hang onto L.I.F.E.  

Read more

July 12, 2019

Acts 7:9-16 The Voice (VOICE)

When you face the hard places in life, do you still know God is with you and working in your behalf? Every place of trial stretches our faith and trust in God. I have many loved ones who are facing hard places right now. They must fight every feeling of having been forsaken by God. Jesus taught his disciples and he teaches us, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 

Yesterday, we explored how the Lord is our Rescuer.  We touched on how sometimes the Lord rescues us by intervening in our circumstances. However, sometimes the Lord rescues us by covering us with his grace and wisdom, so we can stay in the hard places and be a witness to God’s power working in and through us.  It is God’s heart to draw all people to himself; his ways are not our ways (Is. 55:8).  If you are going through some hard times, please recognize you have an opportunity to reveal God’s presence to others.  Stay humble and trust the Lord to overcome in your life.  Be encouraged by our lesson today from the life of Joseph.

Read more

July 11, 2019 John 3:16-21 The Voice (VOICE) Every day I enjoy God’s miraculous creation. I enjoy nature and relationships. Yet, as beautiful and diverse as God’s creation emerges each day or as much as I enjoy my relationships, I never lose an awareness that this world is rebellious against God and, therefore, headed toward destruction. According to Scripture, the world and its inhabitants needs to be rescued and the Rescuer is Jesus—the Son of God. In our passage, today, John reminds us about our need to come to the Light or Word; to see things from God’s perspective. Shining this Light is the work of the Rescuer. When we come to Jesus, he illuminates the darkness of the world and draws our attention to the sin hiding in our own souls (mind/will/emotions). Jesus is such a Gift, because without him we would arrogantly walk around deceived all the time and ignorant that we are headed for our own destruction.

Read more

July 10, 2019 Psalm 119:73-80 The Message (MSG) It is really good to be back from vacation; however, John and I completely enjoyed the mountains of Georgia and the solitude of our little log cabin in the woods. Interestingly, before arriving to our restful cabin, we endured a major traffic challenge. The traffic in Atlanta was horrendous, but eventually (note, we endured for a period of time) that tremendous traffic “blockage” caused us to change our planned course of travel. Jesus brought us a lesson. We got off the main highway and headed along a new route; an uncharted route for us. This route was exponentially better than the original path we had planned to take and still delivered us to our cabin of rest. That which we initially saw as extremely negative—traffic mayhem—actually served to help us see the working of the Word in our behalf.

Read more

July 9, 2019
Jeremiah 8:4-13 New Living Translation (NLT)

There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. The world contains a great deal of knowledge, and we benefit from that which is good. However, wisdom is supreme as it comes from God and it can only be obtained through His Word.

Read more

July 8, 2019
Psalm 6:2 New Living Translation (NLT)

Watching someone we love battle physical pain can be extremely difficult. In those moments, we often find ourselves wanting to fix what our loved one is going through. Attempting to “fix” anything in our own strength will only cause us to become physically, emotionally, mentally, and/or spiritually weakened. Instead, we need to call on the Lord in prayer so He can bring His wisdom, guidance, and the fruits of His Spirit to sustain everyone during the battle. Psalm 34:17-18 reminds us that “The LORD hears His people when they call to Him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”

Read more

July 5, 2019
Psalm 66:1-5 New Living Translation (NLT)

How often do you find yourself praising the Lord? Take a minute and think about your week so far… If you had to divide your week into how much of it has been spent in praise to the Lord, versus how much of it has been spent asking of the Lord, where would you be? I’m sure the greater percentage for many has been spent asking of the Lord.

Read more

July 4, 2019
Romans 7:21-25 New Living Translation (NLT)

Happy 4th of July! Today we celebrate our independence as Americans. It’s amazing that we get to live in a free country with the ability to openly worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So many of our brothers and sisters in Christ across the world must hide their faith and worship for fear of dying. The beauty of our God is He allows each of us an opportunity to choose Him. He doesn’t force His way into our hearts, He gently nudges us, and then we get to decide if we are going to allow Him a permanent home where we can grow in an everlasting relationship with Him. Once that decision is made, we become dependent on Him to guide us to do what is right. We are sinful people living in a sin filled world, so our human instincts are to sin. We need the power of the Holy Spirit, which is Jesus Christ our Lord, living within us to overrule the power that wants to hold us as captive slaves to sin. As we celebrate our independence as Americans today, let’s also celebrate our dependence on God’s law that connects us in eternal life to our loving Lord, Jesus Christ.

Read more

July 3, 2019
Matthew 10:16-20 New Living Translation (NLT)

In our passage today, the Apostle Matthew provides us with direct instructions from Jesus that were given to the twelve disciples. As I was reading over today’s passage, The Whole Armor of God kept coming to my heart. Yesterday, the Apostle Paul reminded us of the grave importance of Living by the Spirit’s Power, and one chapter over from that lesson, He taught that we are to put on The Whole Armor of God so that we can stand firm against all strategies of the devil. The enemy is cleaver and cunning, he doesn’t just test and fight our flesh in the earthly realm, he battles against us in the spiritual realm (much of which we cannot see) and so we need to be equipped to stand firmly against him. Every day we must arm ourselves with God’s: 1. Belt of Truth, 2. Breastplate of Righteousness, 3. Shoes of Peace from the Good News, 4. Shield of Faith, 5. Helmet of Salvation, and 6. Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-18). Once armed we can live out Jesus’s instructions in today’s passage. He knows that we are His sheep walking amongst wolves. He wants us to beware, to be on guard against people of this world, to understand that worldly people will try to stop the sharing of the Gospel, He wants to use us to witness to them, and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through us. It’s exciting to know that the same Spirit that Jesus imparted to the disciples lives and moves in us!

Read more

July 2, 2019
Ephesians 5:15-20 New Living Translation (NLT)

Yesterday, the Apostle John reminded us that we are to live in the Light of Christ. Today, the Apostle Paul teaches us that when we chose to live in the Light of Christ, we are “Living by the Spirit’s Power”. These 5 verses from the 5th chapter in Ephesians, are AMAZING! I see verse 15 as an instruction guide to a 4-step daily process found in verses 16 – 20:

Read more