Tag: Devotionals

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The Power of a Testimony

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” ~ John 4:39‭-‬42

One of the most powerful weapons we have as Christians is our testimony. You don’t have to know the Scripture better than the greatest preacher. You don’t have to be able to explain every controversial verse in the Bible. All you need to witness is your testimony because in it is the power of God. That’s all this woman used. All she did was say what Jesus had done in her life, and many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of what she said. It stirred something in them to seek Jesus out for themselves. That is a powerful thing.

The enemy will try to tell you that you’re not good enough to witness or you don’t know enough Scripture to witness. All you need is your testimony. That’s it. There is power in a changed life. It’s even more powerful to live your testimony. I remember being a child and not really liking my uncle. He was rough, to say the least, but when he got saved, there was a physical change in him. His language changed. He was loving. He was kind. I genuinely enjoyed his company. If his testimony didn’t affect anyone else, it affected his 13-year-old because I truly saw the power and love of God change Him. Your testimony isn’t just for you. It’s so that others can see Christ in you. Don’t keep your testimony to yourself. Share your testimony with others. Live your testimony as my uncle did. Let your light shine so that others might see Christ in you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Live Your Testimony.

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Keep The Faith In Every Season

For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. ~ Jeremiah 30:12-18

When you go through a season of tribulation and hardships, the Devil will whisper in your ear that God doesn’t care. He’ll tell you that God’s forgotten about you or that God can’t be real because if He was, this wouldn’t have happened. But if we return to God and remain faithful, the LORD will redeem us. We were once separated from God, but now because of the redeeming blood of Jesus, we are called Children of God.

Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. Don’t look at the circumstance or situation you’re in. Focus on God. Focus on the promises of God. Focus on the love of God. Focus on God. Don’t let anything distract you or separate you from Him. Cling to the LORD, and the LORD will cling to you.

LORD God, please give me the faith to endure any and every season that comes my way. Give me the faith in the good and the bad. Strengthen my faith, LORD God. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Pray and Watch For Restoration

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. ~ Job 42:10-11

Job has one of the hardest stories to grasp in the Bible. He was such a righteous man that he was the wager of God and Satan. Satan is allowed to torment Job and afflict him for a certain amount of time. It wasn’t just superficial things that Satan took from him and afflicted him with. Job lost everything. He lost his children. His fortune. His health. It was so bad that Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. Job’s response is, shall I only accept good from God and not also the bad? Wow. What a response. In spite of it all, Job didn’t lose sight of the God whom he served. And because of this, Job’s reward was double what he had.

I used to think this was the end of Job’s story, but there was more. Job wasn’t an only child. He had siblings. Nevertheless, they didn’t come to him. They didn’t check in on him. They didn’t comfort him. There was no communication between Job and his siblings until after the LORD restored to Job all that he lost and more. So many of us would see that as them using him. I know I sure would feel used, but what if Job’s trial was used by God in order to restore his relationship with his siblings? God takes what the Devil meant for our evil and makes it for our good.

Job’s siblings didn’t just come to him after he was restored. They comforted him and had sympathy for him. Their love for their brother was restored. Not only that, but they also brought gifts for him. Why would they bring gifts? Could it be an apology for the distance? Maybe they were jealous like Cain was of Abel. Maybe they were bereaved by the blessings and favor Job had received from God. Maybe they felt less than around him. The Bible doesn’t say, but we can safely assume there was distance between them. And when God restored Job, He restored his relationships with his siblings as well.

Be encouraged. Lay your desires of reconciliation at the feet of Jesus. Pray for His favor. Pray for His forgiveness. Pray for His restoration.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray and Watch For Restoration.

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Be Satisfied In His Love

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! ~ Psalms 90:14-17

The love of God satisfies us. It’s the miracle grow that brings forth all of the other Fruit of the Spirit. Often time, we want the favor of the LORD and for Him to establish everything we do, but we don’t want to first be satisfied by His love. Without dwelling in His love, we can’t produce any fruit or receive His promises. We have to first dwell in His love and produce His love from our hearts.

In other words, the love of God has to change you. You have to have a desire for the things of God, enjoy the things of God, seek the things of God, and remain in the things of God. The things of the world are shiny, and they often distract us, but they don’t last. They, and the earth itself, will one day flee from the presence of God. One day, they will be no more, but the promises and the good things of God will never pass away. When you dwell in the things of God, they carry on into the next life because seeking the things of God prepares treasure for you in Heaven. And where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

LORD God, please help me to leave behind the things of this world. Help me to become attached only to You and Your kingdom. Let Your kingdom come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Remove any desires from me that aren’t of You. Help me to be satisfied in Your love and to stop seeking out the world and its poison apples. Teach me to love You the way You deserve. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Pray For Comprehension

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ~ James 1:5

So many of us read the Bible and never fully understand what God is saying to us. We know Bible verses, but we don’t know how to put them into practice or how to use them. The Bible is our sword; therefore, when we don’t know how to use our sword, we are like a child wildly wielding a sword, expecting to defeat our well-trained enemy.

We can’t overcome our enemy if we don’t know how to use our Heavenly weapon from God. It’s only by these Heavenly weapons that we have the chance of overcoming the enemy. And it’s only through understanding how to use our weapons that we can overcome our enemies. Therefore, spend time in prayer seeking the wisdom of God. Seek the wisdom of understanding the knowledge that you already have.

Dear LORD, please open my spiritual eyes so that I may see the spiritual connotation of Your Word. Show me what You mean when You wrote, and not what I want to see or what I believe. Teach me according to Your Word that You spoke, not what I interpreted. Remove the blinders of my biased beliefs from physical and spiritual eyes so that I might see Your Truth, Your way, and to fully comprehend it all. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Confess In Court

16 For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. 17 Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. 18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, 19 creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him. ~ Isaiah 57:16-19

God looks down on us and sees our hearts. He sees the filth we think about and the evil sins we commit. God sees what we do in secret that we’re ashamed of and what we do in public and are proud of. God sees it all, yet, God still loves us to the point of death. God bore our punishment on Himself so that we might be saved from our sins. None of us are deserving. None of us are worthy. None of us are better than the other. We are all flawed, and we are all filled with sin, but God’s love can penetrate that sin and cleanse you.

We may be red as crimson with our sin, but the love of God will cleanse us and make us white as snow. But we have to first confess our sins to God. Yes, He already knows them because He sees us committing them. We’re not confessing so that He can hear us. We’re confessing so that the Devil can hear that there is nothing He can hold against us. We’re confessing our sins so that we might bring them up in court, and the court might rule in our favor to have our record expunged. Because of the redeeming blood of Jesus and the molding of His Holy Spirit, we are no longer that person but a new creation.  

LORD God, help me confess all of my sins before You so that the Devil may never use them against me again. Expunge my record and throw it into the Sea of Forgetfulness. Cleanse me of all of my sin, LORD God, that I might dwell in Your Holy presence. Thank You for redeeming me, even though I am so unworthy. Thank You for Your love and compassion. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Remain

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ~ John 15:4–5

The main point of the lesson is Abide. Abide in me, and I in you. This word abide is the Greek word, μένω which means:

“To remain in a place,” “to tarry,” as opposed to going away.

But before you can remain in a place or tarry in a place, you have to get to that place or be in that place. Therefore, Jesus is also talking to us Christians, those of us who believe in Him and have accepted Him as LORD and Savior. Yes, His words were directed toward the disciples, but they are also meant for us.

We Christians cannot produce good fruit apart from Jesus, who is the Vine, and neither can we have the Holy Spirit, who is the Sap. All of the nutrients come through the Sap, which equates to power. No Spirit. No power.

LORD God, help me to remain in Your love. Help me to understand that there is nothing I can do apart from You. Lead me in the way that I should go, and teach me to follow You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Run With Endurance

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ~ Hebrews 12:1-2

Your best life is ahead of you, not behind you, so don’t look back, keep looking forward. Living in the past or yearning for the past disrupts your future. God has something better for you, but longing for familiarity, disobedience, and fear can disrupt this future.

There is a little phrase that plagues the whole human race, and that is “What if….” It’s so popular that Matthew West has a song called “What If.” What if I can’t? What if they laugh? What if I look foolish? What if I fail? What if… What if…

You cannot get to where God has for you if you are constantly looking backward. Stop thinking about the wrong decisions you have made in life. You can’t change them. Start thinking about the right decisions that you will make in your future. The past is dead and gone; the future is bright and promising in the LORD.

Here is the thing, if you try walking looking behind you, you cannot walk a straight line. You will stray. You will swerve off. Now look forward at a specific point and walk toward that point; you will be able to walk a straight line.

The bottom line is: As Christians, under no circumstances, are we to look back longingly. Under no circumstances are we to stop regretfully! We are to keep moving forward, not backward, but forward toward the prize that is before us. God has greater things than we can imagine in store for us; run toward those things. Now is not the time for stopping and resting. Now is the time for fighting for and running toward the prize.

LORD God, help me to run the race set before me. Help me to look forward instead of backward so that I might run a straight line to You. Please help me to give You my past so that I can receive my present and, one day, my future. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Let Go To Receive

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained. ~ Philippians 3:13–16

Paul said, this one thing I do: I am forgetting everything that has happened to me. All my missed opportunities. All my failures. All my broken dreams. All my hurts. All my pain. All the bad things that have happened to me. Every disappointment. And every teardrop that fell. I’m forgetting all those things, and I’m pressing on to the good things that God has ahead for me. I’m looking forward, not backward.

Is there anything in your past that is worth holding on to? What I mean is this. Is there anything in your past that is worth more than what God has in front of you? What He has in store for us in eternity? I understand that there are some hurts that seem hard to let go of. Maybe a nagging pain when the face of that someone who has done you wrong came into your mind. Or maybe you endured a painful divorce. Or maybe someone willfully slandered you. Maybe someone you cared for betrayed your trust. Or your promotion went to someone way less deserving.

But I want you to know it is not worth holding on to. Now what I want you to do is to symbolically take those thoughts out of your head and crush them. Roll them up in a wad and toss them to one side. Do not look at where it lands because where it lands is where it will stay, and the Holy Spirit will clean up the rest.

You are now forgetting that which is behind you, and you are now looking forward to what is ahead of you. Good things. Bright things. God-centered things.

I want you to make a commitment now that your past will no longer define who you are in Christ. No longer will your past keep you from achieving. No longer will past failures keep you from trying. No longer will the taunts of your past depress you. No longer will whisperings behind your back sidetrack you. No longer will someone else’s carelessly thrown words knock you down. No longer will fear and doubt paralyze you. No longer will popular culture hold you back. No longer will criticisms trip you up. No longer will someone else’s image of you define who you are.

Because no longer will you put the power over your joy, your peace, your life in someone else’s hands. No longer will you let someone else have that kind of power over you to determine these for you. You are a child of God, and it is God who defines who you are. You are blessed and highly favored. God is for you, and He worketh all things to your good. This will be your best year yet. Believe it. Live it.

LORD God, my past is holding me back, so I give it to You. I understand that I can’t receive the good future. You have in store for me if I’m holding on to my past. Help me to not just say I give You my past, but show me how to actually lay it at Your feet. Show me how to move forward, LORD God. I don’t want to live in the past anymore. I want to live in Your perfect and holy will for my life. Help me to do so. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Let Your Faith Lead You

4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was 5 and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. 8 If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. 9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10 In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. 11 Then the Angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’” ~ Genesis 31:4-13

Jacob was an honorable man. He lived his life according to the will of God, and for this, the LORD loved him. Because Jacob put his trust in the LORD, the LORD was always with him no matter where he went or what happened to him. Jacob could have been angry and disgruntled at Laban and allowed the Spirit of Rejection and the Spirit of Resentment to come upon him, but he didn’t. Jacob fully and wholly put his life in the hands of Almighty God. Jacob’s faith kept him from falling into the temptation of the enemy because Jacob understood no matter what Laban or any other man did to him, his life was in the hands of the LORD, and the blessing of the LORD was upon him. Jacob had faith in his blessing.

We’ve all been given blessings. They’re the promises of God written for us in Scripture, but often times we miss out on them for lack of faith. We put our faith in our own abilities or in situations or other people. The only person that can keep your blessing from you is you. Don’t believe the lie that if God has something for you, you’ll receive it no matter what. You have to do something. You have to have faith. You have to continue working regardless of what the enemy tries to take from you. Laban cheated Jacob and changed his wages ten times. If Jacob had given up or gotten upset instead of putting his faith in the LORD, Laban would’ve successfully cheated him, but Jacob stood on his faith in the LORD.

Is there something or someone that keeps cheating you or changing your wages? Does it feel like you’re losing your blessing or your promise, no matter how hard you try? Put your faith in the LORD. Don’t look with your natural eye. Don’t look at the situation you are in. Look at the promise you have been given from God. Keep your focus on His word, and the LORD will bring you through. Keep going. Don’t give up. The LORD will neither leave you nor forsake you.

LORD God, teach me to keep the faith. Help me to focus on your call, blessing, and promise for my life instead of the situation or stumbling block that is in front of me. Help me to not see the times I have been cheated or done wrong. Help me to see what’s on the other side of the obstacle. Please give me the faith to overcome everything the enemy throws at me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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