God stands alone. He is a supreme being uncontrolled by any other being, including you. We are at the mercy of His will. We may allow things to get in our way of giving Him the power that He deserves and make other objects or beings our gods, but they are not God! Any power that you allow to rule over your life is a false power unless it is God Almighty. Humans have the tendency to try and assert their own will upon you and push you to do their bidding, but as a follower of Christ, your only ruler is God and your King is Jesus. All efforts by humans to control you will fail if you only give power to our Sovereign God. There is no other true god. He takes counsel from no one. He's the creator not the created. Stand strong against your adversaries, because you stand in the counsel of the Almighty, the ruler of the universe. Discomfort and pain are only momentary, change your focus to eternity.
"Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' Isaiah 46:8-10
Who is God? He is too incredible to describe. Our comprehension is limited to our experiences, what we see of His creation and what He tells us through His Word. He lowered Himself to a description, which is completely inadequate, so we as humans might have a limited understanding of Him. In our current existence, we will not fully understand who He really is, it's impossible because of the restrictions of this fallen and evil world. Oh, that we might have had the opportunity to walk with Him in the garden before our fall, then we could have a little more knowledge of His holiness. We have to be the ones to make the effort to get to know Him. Remember, He is holy, completely pure and we are tarnished by sin and must look for Him with a pure heart, void of all filth, purified by our Savior. Seek forgiveness, then seek Him. May you feel blessed as He reveals Himself to you.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3
We've all had disagreements with others. This makes for a rocky relationship. Sometimes these differing opinions will cause irreparable damage and leads us to sever ties with that person. When it comes to our relationship with God, because we know He is forgiving, we tend to take advantage of His good nature and push our relationship with Him to the edge, not considering that He is the one who brings us peace. God teaches us how He feels through the Bible, it's His Words! If you are at odds with what He has written in the scriptures, you are in disagreement with Him; that's not a good place to be if you want peace. The problem is that most people never even crack open their Bible to find out how God feels. You do not know God if you haven't sought to find out. The best way to really know Him is to hear what He says about Himself through His Word. He wants you to know about Him, so open up your Bible.
"Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. Job 22:21-22
God will often stretch us beyond where our minds intend for us to go. He allows us to feel discomfort and uneasiness to help train us for His service. We open the door to that by letting Him use us as a tool to increase His kingdom. I've heard His voice telling me to try something new, a different way of communicating the message of His love. Almost as soon as I heard it, the enemy jumped in to try and overtake me. I almost fell for it because for just a moment, I thought to myself, I won't have to do battle if I just ignore this voice and turn my back on my promotion in His service. Then I remembered, this is not my battle! This is God's battle, I just have to stand strong by removing my own will, and let Him fill me with His strength and power to help sustain me during this process of growth. If you are not in a battle at this time, rest up! You will face challenges during a period of growth, but keep in mind that the battle belongs to God.
For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed. Psalms 18:39-40
Make your plans with a willingness to yield to change. So often we set our minds on a specific outcome and find ourselves heartbroken when things don't turn out as we had planned. This happens a lot with couples and families, especially when you're not working in sync. Then, on top of that, God has His own will for our lives and if you don't tune into His voice you may miss His cues and end up disappointed. As an example, I had plans for an adventure on the river looking for artifacts, and to my disappointment the rain came in and dashed those plans. I looked at it as if God had something better in mind and raised my expectation for an amazing outcome because of His involvement. His plan is always better than ours anyway! We must always be flexible so we don't break. Besides, there may have been a big old alligator waiting on the bank ready to take off my leg; God just helped me avoid that tragedy
yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." James 4:14-15
Water, what a powerful gift from God. Vast oceans are teaming with amazing life, rivers flow creating powerful energy, and a cup of water quenches our thirst. As powerful and essential as that water is, it cannot sustain your life forever. The women who collected the water from the well for her family and their livestock understood how hard it was to gather the water daily. When Jesus told her that the water He gives is so powerful that she would never thirst again, she wanted to hear more about this living water. He was, of course, referring to Himself as that essential water that brings eternal life. He also said the river of living water will flow out of our hearts, which means that we also have the power to share the living water of eternal life with others. Don't keep the river that flows through you a secret, share the life it brings with others so they may also have a spring welling up from within them.
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" John 7:38
What are the qualities that unite you with others? Do you come together for a common good or are there evil intentions? In the story of the Tower of Babel, the evil banded together against God to build a structure to reach the heavens. In that day, evil was running rampant and those who followed God were being overtaken. Rather than have the earth swallow them up, in His mercy, He decided to confuse the language and scatter them throughout the earth. This made it harder for them to continue in their evil schemes. You see similar things happening today. Many have banded together to promote their evil desires, but God has placed roadblocks in their way to slow their plan. God will only allow evil to have its way for so long before He intervenes. If you are dealing with people who have evil intentions, wait for it, their schemes will be thwarted because God is on the side of those who love Him.
The story about the Tower of Babel is in Genesis 11:1-9. According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives. Isaiah 59:18-19
I'm doing a clean sweep of my house, emptying closets and getting rid of the junk. Over the years, things can really accumulate! All the extra stuff makes it harder to keep the house clean, especially when you open a closet and things fall out. I've decided that everything unnecessary must go! Our minds can also become cluttered with unnecessary thoughts, full of hurts and shameful reminders of our past. As Christ followers, we have been redeemed and all of that has been cleansed and is no longer our responsibility. For you to keep returning to it and wallowing in self pity is a waste of precious time. Stop dwelling on the past, that time is gone and there is nothing you can do to get it back. Each day is a new opportunity to live free and let go of the bad things jumbling your mind. Pray for God to help you regain your freedom and break the chains that are binding you to the past.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3
It's time for spring cleaning in my house. We had twenty years worth of old papers and receipts that needed to go into file thirteen, but, placing them in the garbage didn't seem like a good idea. So, I decided to build a nice fire to dispose of them, back to my country way of thinking. I live near the city and I started hearing fire trucks and a helicopter flying right overhead. I thought that there was a big accident out on the highway until a nice gentleman walked into my back yard dressed like a fireman! One of my neighbors, bless their heart, had called the fire department thinking my house was on fire. It made me realize how fortunate I am to be in a country where we have such amazing public servants ready to jump into action to save me and my home. Though this could have been quite serious, I have to admit that it was kind of humorous, but, I still felt bad for all the ruckus it caused.
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:43-45
We have all had thoughts that God couldn't possibly forgive us of a certain type of sin. Especially if we have already been before Him and repented of that same sin. We tend to believe that God thinks the same way we do, in that, if someone sinned against us the way we sinned against God, we could never forgive them again and would always remember their offense. God is so full of mercy! What if He wasn't merciful? What if we had to pay the penalty for our sin immediately? Just one bad thought would strike us dead! He even lets us carry our sin around without repentance, like a badge. Then when the burden is too much for us to bear, we finally turn to Him for forgiveness. He doesn't turn us away, but welcomes us back and forgets our sin. Our Father has such compassion for us and wants to forgive us. Don't wallow in your sin too long, go to Him and He will forgive you.
"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:6-8
We must live our lives as a testament to the goodness of God. How fortunate are we that He chose us as a part of His kingdom? That we, an unclean people, be allowed to come near an awesome and holy being that is perfect in every way. There is no one or no thing more precious than our King and Savior Jesus. And He, a most holy Lord, was willing to become the greatest sacrifice ever known, so that we might be cleansed by His blood and provide us a way to come near to God. Great are you Lord! Isn't that enough for you to live your life for Him? He is worth the struggle, the fight we are in, and the battle we face every day. If you would come to the realization that this life you're living is not about you, and that it's about Him, the struggle would have new meaning. How do you know what pleases Him? You pick up your Bible! Everything you need to know about God and delighting Him is in there.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10
I get up early every morning to spend some quiet time with the Lord, praying, reading The Word, and expressing my thoughts as He guides me. It takes obedience and consistency to do what He has called me to do. It's not hard most of the time because He has equipped me for this work. But, as with anything, there are days that I prefer to stay in bed. However, I know that if I don't get going early, the demands of others will overpower me and interfere, and the quality of my time with Him will diminish. If I ever just lay there for an extra amount of time, I'm always sorry. Then I feel like complaining and grumbling because of the distractions when all along it was my own fault for staying in bed. Paul calls grumbling and disputing a blemish! We are to stand out and shine as lights among a crooked world; if we allow negativity to escape our tongue, it makes us appear to be part of the world.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:14-15
I've never been a person who finds ceremonies to be necessary, I'm just not into all the pomp and circumstance. However, there are a couple that Jesus commanded us to do; one is baptism and the other is communion. Don't neglect these things. I was privileged to be a part of a beautiful service where our church, which is a new start-up, was commissioned to serve. We were each anointed with oil by our pastor and then prayed over by an elder. Something amazing must be happening in Heaven as some types of ceremonies take place. I was so overcome with joy that tears flowed like rain. We must be causing the angels to go to war to hold off the enemy as we open the doors of our hearts for the work of the Holy Spirit. There is so much that takes place in the world that is unseen so don't neglect the beauty of the ceremony. God leans in a little closer to hear our prayers and to observe our worship of Him.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. John 6:53
I have a couple of friends that are shell artist. The beautiful things they create are quite incredible. One of the things they create is what's call a sailors valentine. The tiniest shells are arranged in such a way that an artful design comes to life. It's a tedious, time consuming craft that takes patience and a steady hand. Once a year a big show is held on Sanibel where crafters and artist from all over the world go to compete and show off their talent. Not only do they show the valentines but other amazing shell art as well. My friends are quite award winning and take home many prizes for their craftsmanship. They didn't get where they are overnight, it took effort and practice. God has given each of us talents and abilities to suit our personalities and He has a plan and a purpose to use them for His glory. So whatever your talent is, remember where it came from and glorify Him every chance you get.
and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. Exodus 35:31-33
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
I know in past devotions, I've mentioned my love of seashells and paddleboarding. Combining the two sends me over the edge with enjoyment. We were on a new moon cycle where the tide was at an extreme low. I had finished my chores just in time to hit the bay at its lowest point. It was so low that I ended up walking most of the time dragging my board behind me. I barely get out of the mangroves when I find my first shell; it was huge, about a foot long! I always find big shells, but most of the time they're occupied but not this time! That was just the beginning! By the time I had paddled a mile, I had collected more than sixty large, very beautiful shells. What amazing fun! I guess I did inherit the hunter gene after all, just not for wild game. The Father knows us so well and though this earth is not our forever home, He still shows us His goodness by gifting us some of our superficial desires. Now, because of His wonderful generosity, I'm gifting those shells to some dear friends.
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. Proverbs 11:24-25
One thing great about living in Florida is that you're never more than an hour and half away from the coastline. Most of us who live here have our favorite beach, it's usually a place that our parents took us for vacation or even a day trip. Childhood memories take us back to a time when life has been just a little easier and less complicated. With spring break just around the corner, many are getting ready to create more memories and cause a longing for gentler days. Building sand castles, collecting shells, and riding the endless supply of waves is all just part of the anticipation. The thing that keeps most of us trudging and working day in and day out is the longing for the peace you get while spending time relaxing on vacation. God has built into us a desire for rest and has given us that through Jesus. He is our rest for eternity. When vacation seems so far away, rest in Jesus.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Hebrews 4:1
During our lifetime, we encounter some truly miserable and harsh individuals. These are the people that do nothing but complain, criticize, and shake their finger at you. They don't have a shred of happiness in their lives; if you see them smile, it's probably because they've come up with a witty line to use against you. Sometimes these people even claim that they know Jesus. When I have to deal with these types of people, I have to keep reminding myself that God loves them too. They have a lot of chains to break before they reach the joy that's available regardless of the circumstances dealt. My first thought is to get away from them as quickly as possible, but that's not always possible. My best advice is to pray through every step. As long as they are not a physical threat, you can look at the situation from a kingdom prospective and worry about the outcome as it presents itself.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. John 3:20
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1
One of my favorite scenes in the Bible is the vision that Isaiah saw of the Lord sitting on His throne. His description gives me a visual like no other. Sometimes when I'm having trouble sleeping, I imagine myself in the throne room of the temple where the Father dwells and where He welcomes me to rest under His careful watch. The scripture describes the train of His robe filling the temple, so instead of counting sheep, I curl up in one of the folds of His robe and rest easy in the comfort of His presence. Everything that has your mind tied up in worry seems to disappear and the hope of a new day waits upon the dawn as you focus on Him. Things that were once important, gently fade into the background when we honor the One who created it all and hide in His shelter. So, whatever is causing you stress and strife, lay it down and enter into the throne room for peace and rest.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Psalms 31:19-20
For the past several years I have been privileged to be a part of an amazing group of women. We met on Facebook through a private group because we all have a similar interest in and a love for the beach and seashells. We gather for lunch a couple of times a year and share our shell crafts and camaraderie. It started out with just a few but has gown to quite a large group. Now we have people from all over Florida and the northeast making the trip to Sanibel just to meet and enjoy some time together. No one cares what you look like or even your ability to craft the perfect gift, no, it's about friendships forged from nothing but common interest. God has a plan for this group, though only a few understand who He is, but that's part of the fun. Your mission field is wherever God decides to send you. Just say "yes" and "here I am Lord, send me!" He sent me to the beach! He knows my hearts desire and He knows yours too.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me." Isaiah 6:8
We have a limited number of days on this earth. If you're like me, most of them are wasted doing foolish things. We are never promised tomorrow and are arrogant to think we have any power to control our existence. As a child our time seems to go by so slowly; like waiting for Christmas. As a young adult, you feel invincible and spend your time indulging in selfish pleasure. When you get to the point in your life that you can finally make a little sense of it all, the clock seems to be working against you. Even then, none of these days were ever promised and we are fortunate to still have breath. We seem to be close to the end of time and in my own arrogance proclaimed that I'm not going to die; the Father was quick to point out that no matter what I think, He's in control and I have no say. The best use of your time is worshipping God, everything else will fall into place if you put Him first.
yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." James 4:14-15
