Devotional Archives

August 7, 2024August 19, 2024

Be On Guard

³ How long will you threaten a man? Will all of you attack as if he were a leaning wall or a tottering fence? ⁴ They only plan to bring him down from his high position. They take pleasure in lying; they bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly. Selah ~ Psalms 62:3-4^CSB

Sometimes, those around you filling your ears with flattering words and compliments aren’t always for you. Sometimes, they are your greatest enemy in disguise. See, the Devil doesn’t always show himself as evil. Sometimes, the Devil disguises himself as an angel of light. Someone on your side. Someone defending you. Excusing your flaws. Saying kind words to you to your face, but little do you realize inwardly, they are speaking evil to you and on you.

Here’s the thing. They may not always know they’re doing this. They may be blinded by society’s corrupt version of love. They may be deceived by the enemy and believe they’re doing the right thing. This is why you have to be on your guard. You have to be spiritually aware so that when someone comes into your life, you are well aware of who brought them and their purpose in your life.

Remember, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And the Devil is the father of lies. When you put these two attributes together, you get a deadly enemy.

Therefore, be on guard always. Don’t allow sweet words and seemingly innocent compliments to lull your spirit-man to sleep. Wake him up. Put him on high alert through prayer, worship, reading your Bible, and fasting. That way, when the enemy sends someone into your life with the intent of destruction, you will be able to spot them before they can cause damage to you and/or your loved ones.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be On Guard.

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Cast Your Cares

⁷casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. ~ 1 Peter 5:7

God loves us. Jesus loves us and invites us to cast all of our cares, concerns, and worries on Him, for He is able to bear it all. He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day.

Worries and concerns stem from a place of mistrust and will always give root to doubt, but the Scriptures say to

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

The LORD is good, His mercies are everlasting, and He will never mislead you, nor do you wrong, for His love endures forever. Therefore, put your trust in the LORD. He will guide you. He will uphold you with His righteous right hand.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Cast Your Cares.

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Be Of The Light

⁴ You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ~ James 4:4

What you do not hate, you will defend. What you defend, you will support. What you support will consume you. What consumes you will define who you are. This is the way it has been from the very beginning. Sin is always crouching at your door, desiring to be a god to you, but you must rule over it (Genesis 4:7).

Oftentimes, hating sin is difficult, especially when it involves a friend, loved one, or ourselves. We want to justify instead of correct. We want to make excuses instead of making changes. Why? Because we love our flesh. We love the darkness instead of the light. We don’t want to offend anybody or make anyone feel like they are living in sin.

But this isn’t the way God intended us to be. There are no grey areas with God. Everything is in black and white. It’s either right or it’s wrong. And all wrongdoing is sin. And all sin we must abstain from. We must shun the very appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Why? Because there cannot be unrighteousness with God. There cannot be evil with God. There cannot be unholiness with God. So we have to consecrate ourselves. We have to stay away from sin and reject it. We cannot make excuses for ourselves or anyone else. We have to be children of the Light (1 Thessalonians 5:5).

Don’t allow any form of darkness to separate you from the love of God. For it promises you and those around you happiness, but happiness is relative and conditional. It’s not stable but wavers from day to day. Only True joy is unshakeable and our strength. And true joy can only be attained in Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Of The Light.

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Have Faith In Him

⁶And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. ~ Hebrews 11:6

Trust is the foundation on which all relationships are built. It is impossible to share true intimacy with someone that you do not trust. The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that we cannot please God without faith. Faith and trust go hand in hand.

Think about it, a lack of faith and a lack of trust amount to the same thing with the same results, a distrust of God. Faith believes that God can do all things, and trust believes that He will do it for us. It means that you believe that if He did it in the past, He will do it now.

This is the foundation of our relationship with God. Without faith and trust, we can never grow close to God. We have to believe it’s possible, that He is real, and that He loves us if we want Him to hear us when we call.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Have Faith In Him.

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Allow Christ To Redeem

¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ~ Romans 5:10

We were NOT all good people. We have all gone astray. We have all done some horrible and awful things against our God.

We have betrayed Him
We have let Him down
We’ve forsaken Him
And we have committed spiritual adultery against Him

But He chose to overlook all of our faults and all of our transgressions against Him, and He chose to honor us by dying for us, and now He expects us to do the same to others.

He could have said, “It is too much; I refuse to pay the price for them; let them die for themselves.”

Then what would we do? We would not have a leg to stand on, so to speak. There would be no hope for us at all. Absolutely none!

Paul looked at who he was formally, and what he saw was not a pretty sight. So, he stopped looking at himself and looked to Christ. It is only Christ that can change us. It is only Christ that can redeem us, save us from our sin, and redeem us from our past.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Allow Christ To Redeem.

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Lay It All Down

⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ~ Philippians 4:6

We cannot add one inch to our stature, nor can we add one more minute or even one second to our lives by worrying. Worry and concern profit us nothing.

Statistics tell us that 91% of all worries never come true. Therefore, it causes more damage to our immune system than it is worth.

You cannot add one second to your life, but you can subtract years from your life through worrying and fretting.
This saying is true because we are so important to the Father; He will ensure that we are provided for.

Therefore, we need not be anxious about anything but take it all to God in prayer and supplication. That is the only way we will find His peace.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Lay It All Down.

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Worship The LORD

¹⁴Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. ¹⁵And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. ¹⁶Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” ~ 1 Samuel 16:14-16

Notice that the Spirit of the LORD had to depart from Saul before the harmful spirit could torment him. That means the Spirit of the LORD no longer protected him. Saul was now left spiritually vulnerable. Now notice, It had to be his choice to do something about it. Saul had to command his servants to seek a man who was skillful at playing the lyre. They could not just assume to have the authority, they had to be commanded to seek the worshiper on Saul’s behalf.

Understand that they were not just looking for any old lyre-player; they were looking for a worshiper of Yahweh, the LORD God. Because demons and tormenting spirits must flee when we worship the LORD. It is our choice, it is our decision, no one can make it for us, we have to decide, and when we do, the LORD will show up. The servants of Saul understood these things.

They went out and found a worshipper, the shepherd boy David. He was skilled at playing and writing music and hymns that we now call the Psalms. They brought him to King Saul, and whenever the tormenting spirit came upon Saul, David played and sang, and the spirit had to depart.

I would encourage you today to put on some worship music and begin to worship the LORD God and see how much better you feel. Not just listen but actively participate in the worship. Raise your hands, turn your face to heaven, and worship. Remember, God will never leave us nor forsake us, but He is enthroned on the praises of His people. So, when God is lifted up in our hearts, He will come, and He will make His home with us, and nothing or no one can pluck us out of His hands. We are His.

Father, deliver us from evil. Rebuke the devourer on our behalf, and cause us to worship the One True God, You, O LORD God Almighty. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Shift

⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ~ Philippians 4:6

Anxiousness is overcome by trust and faith. Trust and faith are both built through a prayerful relationship with Jesus and keeping in His Word. Why? We have to know what God’s promises are before we can believe them and have faith that He will fulfill them.

We have to read His Word in order to get to know Him and trust Him. God isn’t a far-off, distant God. He is a close God. He desires a relationship with His people. We truly understand that we’ll shift our faith from being in whatever our anxiety is screaming at us to the many good promises of God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Shift.

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Wrestle In Prayer

⁴⁴ And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. ~ Luke 22:44

Prayer gives you the power to go toe to toe with the enemy. There is no doubt that prayer is a lot of work. It is hard and laborious, but it is worth it, and it’s the only way you, if you want to operate in the supernatural.

So, do not be fooled, you cannot operate in the supernatural by throwing up arrow-prayers every now and then. It’s imperative that you find a time and a place of daily prayer and summit yourself fully to it.

Jesus was found praying daily. Even while it was still dark, He was up and praying. His disciples followed suit and found themselves a time and a place of prayer.
Therefore, we need to make sure we are doing the same thing as well. We have to follow in their footsteps if we want to see and do all that they did. We have to work hard in prayer.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Wrestle In Prayer.

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Be After His Heart

¹³ Samuel said to Saul, “You have been foolish. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. It was at this time that the Lord would have permanently established your reign over Israel, ¹⁴ but now your reign will not endure. The Lord has found a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people, because you have not done what the Lord commanded.” ~ 1 Samuel 13:13-14^CSB

When people think about God’s standards, they either think that He is a pushover just letting everything go or a malicious dictator just waiting for you to mess up. The Truth is God is neither. See, God is perfect. Therefore, He demands perfection from His creation, but because we can never be perfect, God’s requirement for us is to just seek His heart.

In other words, even though we will never reach perfection on this earth, we strive for it. We crucify the flesh, we seek the LORD and His Kingdom, we repent and strive for Holiness. We chase God.

God knows that we aren’t perfect, so He Himself came down from Heaven and made a way for us to be saved. A way for us to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. A way for us to seek His heart.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be After His Heart.

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