Daily Bread Archives

May 9, 2023May 8, 2023

What’s The Measure of Your Faith?

¹⁹Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. ²⁰Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.” ~ Daniel 2:17-19^NLT

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s lives were on the line because King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that one of his enchanters, sorcerers, magicians, and astrologers tell him the disturbing dream he had. Then they were to explain it to him. But when no one could do it, he called for all of their execution. Daniel’s response wasn’t fear; it was to fervently pray to his God in faith.

When things go wrong, and we’re at the end of our rope, how many of us have the faith to pray fervently to God? How many of us are willing to put all of our faith in the Almighty? Daniel’s hope was gone. His request was impossible. Nevertheless, he had hope. He believed that his God was the God of the impossible.

We serve that same God today. That same God that did the impossible and saved them. And our God does not change. If He did the impossible yesterday, He’ll do the impossible today. He’ll make a way where there’s no way. He’ll open shut doors. He’ll return what the Devil stole from you. He’ll answer your prayers if you would only have faith and put all of your trust in Him.

Dear LORD, please forgive me for my lack of faith. Please strengthen my faith so that I may see the answers to my prayers. Help me to discipline my body, mind, and soul so that I might produce more fruit. So that I might produce more gifts. So that I might hear from You and You might hear me. Help me to seek You with all that is in me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Do You Regard The LORD’s Anointed?

³⁷In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. ³⁸And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. ~ 1 Samuel 25:37-38

David was in the land of Carmel. It was a feast day, so he reached out to a rich man in the land with whom he and his men had interactions with the rich man’s shepherds. So, David sent some of his men to ask Nabal for anything he could spare, but Nabal had no regard for the LORD’s anointed. In fact, he even disrespected the LORD’s anointed saying,

“Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. ¹¹Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”

1 Samuel 25:10-11

Nabal had no regard for the LORD’s anointed, so David was going to take his men to attack, but Nabal’s wife pleaded with David. So, David steadied his hand, but the LORD took aim Himself when Nabal had sobered up to fully grasp and understand what was happening. The LORD came to fight on His anointed’s behalf. Nabal’s response and mistreatment of David, the LORD’s anointed, caused His heart to die within him, and he became like a stone. The LORD didn’t kill him just yet, though, God gave him 10 days. He gave him a set amount of days to repent, or at the very least, have a repentive heart. But when he didn’t, the LORD struck him down.

Today, many of our attitudes and actions have caused our hearts to die within us so that we become like stone. We stop feeling things. Our hearts stop breaking for what breaks the heart of God. Our souls stop yearning for God and His righteousness. We become spiritually paralyzed, but the LORD gives us a period of time to cry out to Him. To repent. To let our hearts beat again before we spiritually die. This is His promise to us in Ezekiel.

²⁶And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

Dear LORD, please forgive me of all of my sins. Forgive me of all of my trespasses against You. Help me to notice Your anointed and have regard for them. Help to not be like Nabal or Pharaoh. Help me to have regard for You, Your people, Your teaching, and Your ways. Help me to be hospitable and loving, filled with a Spirit of Discernment that I might not sin against You. Please replace my heart of stone with a heart of flesh that I might love You and follow You the way You deserve. Thank You for all that You’ve done for me, are doing for me, and will do for me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Notice The Ammonites

⁴After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. ⁵And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁶And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.” ~ Judges 11:4-6

The elders of Gilead went and brought Jephthah back from the land of Tob. Now, the Ammonites were the incestuous descendants of Lot’s son Ben-Ammi by his youngest daughter. Abraham’s nephew Lot had two daughters, but after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, they fled and lived in a cave. The eldest daughter convinced her younger sister to get Lot, their father, drunk and sleep with him and thereby have children.

Moab and Ben-Ammi were the product of those two incestuous relationships. The name Ben-Ammi means son of my people, and it is from him the Ammonites descended. Understand that Ben-Ammi looks like the people. They talk like the people. They even claim to represent the people, but the proof is always in the pudding. They are not for the people.

Do not let wise and crafty words blind your good judgment, and never let smooth, persuasive words lead you down the wrong road. Words can be carved to look like whatever the speaker wants you to see, but the end results are what really matter. We have to see through their sheep-like disguise in order to find the wolf underneath.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Notice The Ammonites.

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Run to God

²⁴And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, ²⁵who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? ²⁶The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against His Anointed’—²⁷for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, ²⁸to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. ²⁹And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, ³⁰while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” ³¹And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. ~ Acts 4:23-31

The chief priests and elders had just threatened Peter and John for preaching in the name of Jesus after they had healed the lame man by Gate Beautiful. After they were released, they reported all that was said to their friends. And when they heard it. When their friends heard all the threats that were made by their chief priests and elders, they went straight to God in prayer.

When you receive bad news or when you receive threats, do you go immediately to God in prayer? Or do you try everything else, and finally, after everything has escalated, you say, there is nothing else for me to do but pray?

Prayer is not a last resort. Prayer is the first and foremost thing on our list. When the trials of life come against us, when things are not going as we plan, the first thing we must do is to get on our knees and pray. Seek the face of God, call upon His name, for He will hear, and if He hears, He will answer.

Look at the believers’ prayer. “Look upon their threats…” In other words, listen to what they have said and take note, oh, LORD. Then they ask that they be granted boldness to continue to speak the word of God so that their mission is not thwarted by government threats of punishment and imprisonment.

Our whole mission is to bring, take, and carry the good news of Jesus Christ to all people and all nations with boldness and accuracy. But they did not leave it there. They asked for more. In other words, they said, give us boldness to do our part, and You, Oh God, do Your part by stretching out Your mighty hand to heal the sick and to perform signs and wonders in the Name of Jesus Christ so that His name be lifted up, and glorified. And you know what happened? Their prayer was answered.

Oh, that we would run to God with our burdens and our cares. To seek wisdom and boldness to do what He has called us to do, and that healing, along with signs and wonders, would be a staple in our services and daily lives. So that Jesus is magnified and glorified.

Heavenly Father, grant us boldness to preach Your word. Grant us understanding to discern the times and wisdom to know what to do. Stretch out Your hand to heal the sick and to perform signs and wonders and all sorts of miracles in the name of Jesus. For it is in His name, we ask it all, amen.

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Never Alone

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry. ~ Psalms 34:15

Do you sometimes feel like you are all alone in the world? Like no one sees you? Like no one hears you? Like there is no one you can turn to? Well, lift up your head and straighten up your back; there is good news. The LORD God said in His Word, “My eyes are towards the righteous.” In other words, He sees you right where you are. He sees what is being done to you, and He is taking note.

Then He goes on to say that His ears are toward their cry. Meaning, He hears you when you call to Him. Your prayers that you think are just going up and bouncing off of the ceiling, well, to put it bluntly, they are not. They are reaching the very ears of God. Not just the throne but the ears. Because your letters can reach the White House, you know, they could even reach the Oval Office, but they could stop right there and never reach the ears of the President. So close, but yet so far.

But the righteous are not like that; their ways are known to God. Their being is always before Him; their prayers and their cries are always heard by the LORD. There is not one prayer, one cry, or one moment of your life that your God is unaware of if you are a Christian following Jesus.

Verse 8 of the same Psalm says:

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Psalms 34:8

It is an invitation to come and test the LORD and see if He is not all that He said He is. You will be blessed and highly favored. Come to the LORD, taste, and see that God is good and that He loves you and cares for you. He hears your cries, and He sees you where you are at. So, the next time you feel down, remember you are never alone.

Father, we come in the name of Jesus, Your son, calling out to You. Provide our needs. Provide what is lacking in our lives. Touch our body and heal us, for by Your stripes, we are healed. It has been paid for. Calm our troubled minds so that depression, anxiety, or panic attacks may not come upon us. Help us to find strength in Your joy. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Sound and Heed The Alarm

¹ Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, ~ Joel 2:1

The coming of the LORD is nearer now more than ever before. It draws nearer and nearer with each and every day. Why? Because the more we remove His presence from our societies, the more we usher in the darkness. The more we persecute His people and spiritually kill the innocent. And soon it will be too much. The LORD will have to once again get up off of His Throne and intervene. But this time, He won’t set His Godliness to the side. He won’t come as a humble carpenter. This time He’ll come in all of His glory and majesty. The kings of the earth will tremble at His greatness when He returns for His people and removes the barrier between mankind and God. What a frightful day for the unbeliever. For those who do not follow Him or His ways.

So, the LORD, through Joel, warns His Church, His people, blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm. Let them know what’s coming. Let them know what’s at stake. Do whatever you must do to get their attention. Shout over the noise. Shine into the darkness. Don’t let them go on with their lives, unaware of the coming destruction. The coming plagues. The coming wrath.

The LORD is coming soon, but He hasn’t come yet. He’s given us a chance. He’s given us an opportunity to heed the warning of the trumpet. To heed the warning of the alarm. To heed the warning of the LORD and run to Him. To repent from our wicked ways. To turn to Him in humility and a sorrowful heart. The LORD has given us a chance to be saved. Don’t miss the opportunity for salvation. Don’t miss the opportunity to warn others of the times we are living in. Today is the day of salvation; tomorrow is promised to no man.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Sound and Heed The Alarm.

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Release The Fire From Your Bones

⁹ But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it! ~ Jeremiah 20:9^NLT

Jeremiah lived during the time before the Babylonian exile. The LORD came to Him and warned Him about the coming exile of His people because of their sin. Jeremiah passionately warned his people and the people persecuted him for it. They condemned him. Threw him into a cistern. Put him in the stocks. They even whipped him, yet Jeremiah never lost his passion.

He did all the LORD commanded, yet he still saw Judah taken into captivity by Babylon because they refused to believe. Because they believed his words were too harsh. Because they believed the love God had for them would never be removed regardless of how they lived their lives. Then one day, Nebuchadnezzar took the entire city of Jerusalem and, in doing so, conquered Jerusalem.

Jeremiah never stopped warning the people. He was so filled with the Spirit of God that if he were to remain silent, it would be like keeping a fire shut up in his bones. Today, the Church doesn’t have this same kind of passion. We preach God loves everybody, so He’ll never send you to Hell for sinning. God loves and accepts everyone, so there’s no need to change. And if anyone feels that passion begin to burn in their bones and they begin to passionately preach, teach, and warn the people, they are attacked. They’re intimidated into submission by faceless and nameless bullies online. They’re doxed and harassed by people passionate about the wrong things. Things that lead them and others farther and farther away from God.

Don’t let that passion in you for the things of God die. Don’t let the flame burn out. Don’t let the fire in your bones dwindle. Release the passion. Speak the Truth. Warn the sinner. Wake up the saint. Be passionate for the LORD. All other communities are allowed to be passionate about their beliefs, so why can’t Christians be passionate about the things of God?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Release The Fire From Your Bones.

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Don’t Forget To Say Thank You

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. ~ Philippians 4:6^NLT

We always quote to never be anxious about anything, but in all circumstances, make your request be known to God. This is a common teaching in the Church, yet the Church is ridden with fear and anxiety. We worry about any and everything, just like the world. Why? Because we aren’t making our requests known to God accurately. We are to make our requests known with thanksgiving.

When was the last time you prayed a prayer of thanksgiving, thanking Him for all that He’s done for you? All that He’s doing for you? And all that He will do for you? We are to enter His gates with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise. Maybe we don’t have His peace because we don’t know how to receive it. Maybe if we focused more on the things we are thankful for rather than the things we believe we need in that moment, the peace of God will begin to work in our lives.

Even secular studies have shown that the more thankful a person is, the less anxious, stressed, worried, etc., that person is. Today I challenge you to not just bring complaints before God and expect Him to change things for you. Instead, start each morning out with thanksgiving. Thank Him for keeping you safe as you slept. For His mercy and grace that gave you breath this morning. Thank Him for all He has done, is doing, and will be doing in your life. Then make your request to the LORD. Then thank Him for hearing you. The more thankful you are, the more you will see yourself and your life change.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Forget To Say Thank You.

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Never Give Up The Battle

³⁴Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’ ~ John 8:34-36

We’ve all heard, ‘The Truth will set you free.’ Or ‘Whom the Son sets free is free indeed,’ but what does that mean? What does it mean to be set free? Jesus is saying that we are freed from sin. We are freed from the chains of sin so that we can overcome as He overcame. Our freedom is from a Spiritual yoke of slavery since we are in a constant battle in the spiritual realm, according to Ephesians 6:12.

Even though we’ve been set free, that doesn’t mean we no longer have a battle before us. Instead, according to Paul, we are in a constant battle. In fact, the author of the book of Hebrews says that we still have to run the race set before us. But because whom the Son sets free is free indeed, when times become difficult, and obstacles are in our way, we can look to Jesus for help.

So, even though we still have a battle set before us and a race to run, we can still overcome because sin no longer has a hold on us. We are overcomers through Christ Jesus. It won’t always be easy, but it will be possible. So, don’t give up. Never stop fighting those attacks from the enemy. Yes, sometimes it may seem impossible. Sometimes the battle may take more than one night. Sometimes, the battle may even seem hopeless but don’t lose hope. It’s always darkest right before the dawn.

Therefore, put on your spiritual armor and go to war. Fight for your soul because that’s what’s at stake. Use your two silver bullets, ‘the word of your testimony’ and ‘the blood of the Lamb.’ We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, who first overcame so that we might also overcome through Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Never Give Up The Battle.

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Call Mary to The Teacher

²⁸When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to Him. ~ John 11:28-29

Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days when Jesus finally showed up. When Mary and Martha heard Jesus was on His way, only Martha got up and ran to Him, but Mary remained morning in the house. After speaking to Jesus, Martha returned to get Mary. That’s when Mary got up and went to Jesus.

See, Martha was grieving her brother as well, but she could handle it. She could deal with it. She still had faith in Jesus regardless, but Mary was struggling. She only got up because Jesus called her. Sometimes, we have to be Martha. Situations and circumstances happen that will attack our faith, but if we remain strong, we must help our brother or sister.

Martha knew where her hope was. She knew in whom she trusted. So, after speaking to Jesus and being renewed, or at the very least comforted by the Comforter Himself, she left her safe place and went to get her sister so that she could also get to a place of safety.

This is our job as Christians. We’re to hold on to Jesus, but we’re also to go help our brother or sister and lead them back to Christ when they stray. This is why we’re the body of Christ. We are to help our brothers and sisters fight when they can’t fight anymore. We’re to help encourage, lead them back to the Master, and help them find green pasture. We’re never to leave our brother and sister behind without trying to help them.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Call Mary to The Teacher.

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