Daily Devotionals

Focus Verse: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NIV)

“That’s why you’re not moving forward in life because you can’t seem to get your life together. You’re still struggling with that? You’re pathetic!”

The tears began to fall as I whispered to God. “Forgive me, Father I don’t want to be here forever God. I don’t want to look up a year from now and I’m still here. Why can’t I get this right?”

I had found myself here again, a place that all of us are familiar with; SIN.

Then I heard the words, “there is, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus… all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God… It’s because of My mercy that you are not consumed.” Instantly waves of peace and love consumed me.

How many times have you found yourself in this position? Heavy-hearted and remorseful battling between condemnation and the truth of redemption in Christ Jesus? Questioning how to continue through the day knowing your recent actions go against the nature of God and who He created you to be in Him? Trying to figure out how you will make it up to Him.

The only resolution to this problem, that we all face, is to accept it. Accept that you are going to sin, daily, multiple times. And there is nothing you can do about it. Outside of God. Accept the fact that Jesus covered all of your sins before you were even born. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the wages for your debt to sin. And when you accept Him as Lord and Savior you are no longer obligated to cover the charges.

Once you have repented, accept God’s forgiveness and mercy and move on. Don’t stay in that place of condemnation and judgment. Isaiah 43:25 teaches us that God forgives our sins and remembers them no longer. And that’s just what you have to do as well, forgive yourself, accept God’s forgiveness and move forward in striving for a righteous life in Christ!

Biblical References: Romans 2:23; Romans 8:1; Lamentations 3:22

Prayer: Most merciful Father, thank You for Your forgiveness and unfailing love. I have hurt You with my choices to sin against You and Your Word, please forgive me. As I walk into your mercy, help me to accept the fact that as long as I live on this earth I will sin, but Your redemption paid the price for my sin and I am no longer responsible for that debt. But I can walk confidently in righteousness through You. It is in Your son, Jesus’ name that I pray, Amen!

Focus Verse: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

During this time, more than ever before, we as believers have to commit ourselves to prayer. However, one of the biggest parts of prayer, we sometimes overlook; the listening part. There is so much going on right now and God needs his people to listen and be alert to see where He is leading. The Word of God is clear that we should not lean to our understanding or what we think, but we are to acknowledge God and He will direct our path. Acknowledge in this verse comes from the Hebrew word “yada” which means, to know or to be instructed. Additionally, the Aramaic translation means to communicate. When one is being instructed and for communication to be successful, listening has to occur.

Although many of us pray, the listening part is something that we have not all yet mastered. Some of us have never waited to hear what God is saying in our time of prayer with Him. God is consistently speaking to His people and revealing His plan; He desires to direct our path.

As you are going throughout your day today, I challenge you to pray and then wait to hear what God is saying in your respective situation. If you have been praying about something and you feel like you missed God’s instruction, ask Him to reveal it again and wait to hear what He says.

Prayer: Father, thank You for reminding me how important prayer is, specifically the part where I listen. So many times I have prayed and moved on my own understanding without acknowledging You and waiting to hear Your instructions, please forgive me. As I go throughout this day, help me to take the time to listen so that I know where You are leading. In Your son, Jesus’ name, Amen!

Bible Reading: Matthew 25:14-30

Often times, when we hear The Parable of the Talents, it is in the context of using the gifts that God has blessed us with to show Him that we can be trusted with more. However today, we will look at it from the context of our subject, preparing for what we pray for.

In this text, we see a comparison of a master and his relationship with three of His servants as it pertains to their talents. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and the other one, see Matthew 25:15. As we continue to read the text, we see that each of the servants did with their talents what they had prepared to do. We can draw this conclusion because in Matthew 25:15 when the master was handing out talents, it says “he gave them according to their ability.

Servants number one and two, we see, prepared to multiply their talents. Their master gave them five and two talents and they returned to him, one ten, and the other four talents. However, the servant that was given one talent, we see, had not prepared for his talent. His mindset had not shifted to a place where he was able to receive the blessings of God.

There are so many things that we are praying for and expecting God to do for us in this season of our lives. Some of us are praying for new homes, relationships, careers, and opportunities. But we have to remember that with blessings come responsibility. In order for us to show God that we can be trusted with the new responsibility, we have to show Him that we are prepared to receive it, and we do that by showing Him how we handle what we already have.

As it pertains to a new home, how are you using the one that you have now? Have you opened it up to be a blessing to others? Are you faithful to the career or job that God has blessed you with now? What is your character like on your current job? Are you completing assignments on time? Are you operating outside of your job description, willing to do what it takes to advance the organization? Do you arrive on time? As it pertains to relationships, are you considerate of others? Are you in the mindset that relationship requires servitude? How are you showing God that you are prepared to receive what you have prayed for?

Prayer: Thank You, Father, for this word. There are so many things that I am praying for and believing You for in this season of my life. Help me to remember that I have to be prepared to receive what I pray for. Reveal to me areas of my life I need to work on so that I am fully prepared to receive the blessing You are preparing for me. In the name of Jesus, Amen!

 

 

 

 

Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17 (CEB)

Whenever we have a promise from the Lord, there is still a process that we have to experience. All throughout the Bible are people that received a promise from God but still has to endure the process to receive the promise. Sarah and Abraham (Genesis 18-21), The Children of Israel (Exodus 2:23-Joshua 24), David (1 Samuel 16:12-2 Samuel 8:15) Mary and Martha (John 11), and even Jesus had to go through a process before the promise of God was fulfilled in His life. Very rarely, if at all ever, do we receive a promise and not have to experience a process associated with the promise.

With every promise from God for our life, we have to respect the process. Just because we may know the outcome, doesn’t mean we don’t have to go through every step of the process God has pre-ordained for us. God may have promised you a new home, a new job, the baby you and your spouse have been diligently praying for, but you still have a process that you must go through.

How are you embracing your process? Is God able to be glorified through your process? Are you making His name great during your journey to the promise He has spoken over your life?

Prayer: Father, thank You so much for Your promises. Just like with so many others in the Bible, You have associated a process with the promises You have proclaimed over my life. As I walk in obedience to Your call on my life, help me to embrace the process and know it too, is a part of Your plan for me to get to the promise. In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen!

Focus Verse: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22 (NIV)

One of the biggest mistakes of The Christian is that we don’t always apply what we know. I have been guilty of it.

I know that I do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places, according to Ephesians 6:12. But at times, I still try to fight spiritual battles physically, totally neglecting the armor that I’m encouraged to put on in Ephesians 6:13. No wonder I’m weak.

I know the things that I say are supposed to be that which line up with the Word of God, because life and death begin with what I speak, Proverbs 18:21. But I find myself saying things that are contrary to His word. No wonder some areas of my life are barren.

I know that I am supposed to think about things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, praise worthy and of good report. But I have been known to worship my problems, allowing them to consume my mind more than Christ. No wonder I struggle with possessing consistent mental peace, my mind isn’t consistently on Him, Philippians 4:7-8

What about you, have you been a hearer and not a doer in any of these areas? Where are you battling to apply what you know? Ask God today to help you apply what you know so that you are a doer and not a hearer only.

Prayer: Almighty Father, Your word is Great! Thank You for giving me everything I need to be a powerful contributor to Your Kingdom! I know what Your Word says, but it’s not enough just to know the Word, I have to also apply it. This is were I come up short sometimes. Help me today to be mindful to apply all that I know so that I can continue to do great things for Your Kingdom. In the name of Jesus, Amen!

 

Focus Verse: ‘Do not fear [anything], for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you; I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand [a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation].’ Isaiah 41:10 (AMP)

I was talking to a friend a while ago about one of her past relationships. After hearing some of her concerns, it was apparent that the relationship moved way too fast. When asked why she wasn’t willing to slow down, her response was one that was stemmed from fear.

Whenever our decisions are based on fear of missing out or what could or will not happen, we can be confident that God is not in it. Yes, fear is a normal emotion and God gave it to use to be used for protection from harm. But we have to be careful that our actions aren’t based out of fear.

Any promise and blessing from God can be received with faith. If it’s from God, we don’t have to be afraid that our mate will end up with someone else if we decide to pause our relationship to pursue His desires for our lives. If it’s from God, we don’t have to worry about someone else getting our job because we chose to operate in integrity during the interview process. If it’s from God, we don’t have to offer more than a house is worth in order to make our contract look more appealing to the seller. If it’s from God, we can have confidence that He is working everything out on our behalf, even if the circumstances appear to be the complete opposite of what we know to be true.

Fear involves believing, just in the wrong things. What are you believing? Declare on today that all of your decisions will be stemmed from your belief in faith and not fear.

Prayer: Father, You are the everlasting  God. You have all power in Your hands. Thank You for reminding me that You are working everything out on my behalf, even those things that I can’t see yet. Forgive me for allowing fear to drive some of my decisions in the past. I declare on today that all of my decisions will be driven by my confidence and faith in You. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, Amen!

Bible Reading: Joshua 1

I have been seeing this picture on social media a lot within the last few weeks. So many times as believers we will:

• drag our feet with doing what God called us to do,
• partially do what God called us to do.

Secretly hoping that God would change His mind. Sometimes even thinking that we can convince Him to do so with our logic and rational.

As I was reading Joshua 1, something stuck out to me, as soon as God stopped speaking in vs 9, Joshua started moving in vs 10. There was no pondering the directions, no questioning if what he heard was really from God, no trying to figure out when would be the best time for him to move. He didn’t try, like Moses, to convince God that He wasn’t the man for the job. God spoke, he moved.

Alternatively, in 1 Samuel 15, we learn about Saul and how he caused God to regret making him king because he did not fully obey Him. Saul was given clear instructions in verse 3 to attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belonged to them. He was not to spare anyone, all men, women, children, infants, cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys, everything was to be destroyed. We see later in verse 9, Saul spared Agag and all the best livestock, everything he judged to be good.

Have you, in the past, been more like Joshua or Saul? Think about the most recent instructions God gave you, where you fully obedient to them immediately? Have you ever given God a reason to regret His decision to use you?

Prayer: Most sovereign God, thank You for being my God. Thank You for the reminder that the only way to obey You is to do so immediately and fully and anything else is disobedience. God, I never want You to regret any decisions You make to use me. Allow me to have a heart like Joshua. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen!

Focus Verse: This was so that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grasp for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and exist [that is, in Him we actually have our being], as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children. Acts 17:27-28 AMP

Lately, God has been speaking to me differently from how He has in the past. It was kind of frustrating to me at first, because I had gotten so accustom to that voice and how He spoke, additionally, I had learned exactly what I needed to do to get to that place to hear Him clearly.

Leading up to the transition, I sensed a shift was occurring, but I didn’t know exactly where there would be a change. Honestly, at first I had mixed feelings about this shift, so many thoughts went through my head. I was angry, scared, confused. “Why are You not talking to me? What have I done to make You silent? Should I change my approach?” These were all some of the many thoughts I had. Imagine building a relationship with someone and you are consistently in communication, so much so, that you no longer have to question their motives or intentions, because you have grown to know them so well that their persona becomes second nature to you. When you first notice the change, it may not be as alarming, but then after a while, you start to question what’s going on. That’s the best way I can describe how I felt.

After I put my anger, fear and pride to the side and started to really look closely at things, I realized God never stopped speaking to me, He was just speaking to different areas of my life, in different ways than before.

Through this process, I was reminded of a few things. Although God never changes, the way He does things may. Just because He did it one way, in the past, or a certain way for someone else, doesn’t mean He will do it that same way for you, or the next time He does it. Don’t get comfortable in the way things have always been. When you do, you tend to overlook the very things He could be saying. Isaiah 43:19; Isaiah 55:8 When shifts like this occur, you really have to get in a posture to understand what is going on. Because of this you grow closer and deeper in Him. When you first started walking with Christ, what you used to do to develop your relationship, isn't alway enough to maintain it, as you go deeper. Click To Tweet I was reminded of just how much I really needed Him! Some of my most desperate prayers were simply, “Listen, God, real talk, I’m lost out here, and me not hearing You right now, coupled with the fact that I slick already think I know what I’m doing, really isn’t beneficial for any parties involved, so what we doing?” This caused me to consistently seek Him, to make certain I wasn’t getting in the way. 1 Chronicles 16:11

Everything God does is for a reason and with a purpose. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I do, and I’m grateful for the process. Be open to how and when God is moving in your life so you are able to move with Him!