Devotionals Archives

September 28, 2020September 21, 2020

God Bless America

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” ~ Psalms 33:12

America was established on the principles of Truth. Our Founding Fathers established that we would be one nation under God. And ever since we have been extremely blessed. We have become one of the great world powers. We’ve defended those who could not defend themselves, and we have come to the aid of our friends. We have been blessed beyond measure, yet just as anyone does, at times we stray away and forget our first love.

But just as the Israelites were given a way to redemption, so are we. Our redemption comes from remembering the beliefs that our nation was built upon. Remembering all of those who have given up their lives for our freedom. And having respect for everyone’s own personal beliefs. Our nation has become divided, intolerant, and blinded. We may not all agree with our President, but us refusing to stand or sing our National Anthem won’t solve any problems we do have. Because now you’re not just going against The President, you’re going against every person who died fighting for your rights, you’re going against America and every American. I believe in Freedom of Speech, no matter what side it comes from. Why? Because the moment you try to take away the Freedom of Speech of the other side, that’s when you take away your own Freedom of Speech.

The President isn’t perfect, by no means. But he is still our President. If you don’t like him, maybe you should try praying for him so that he can become the man that you could be proud of. We should all pray for our leaders, especially on this day as we celebrate Freedom. We should be thankful that we still live in a country that is free. That gives you a trial before you’re deemed guilty. A country that gives chances to all people no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality. That’s why we call it “The American Dream.” That’s why other nationalities will risk their lives to come to America. We have something great here, let’s not forget to be thankful for it. And more importantly, let’s not forget who blessed us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth because God Blessed America.

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Awaken Your Sleeping Spirit

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” ~ 2 Peter 1:3

Could it be that the reason some people feel so ill-equipped for life and find godliness an unachievable feat is because of the lack of knowledge? The lack of knowledge of God? And could the lack of knowledge of God stem from the fact that so little Bible study or Bible reading is factored into our daily life?

Just maybe all we really need to do is, to be honest with ourselves and evaluate the amount of time we spend in the Word compared to…say watching T.V. Just maybe it’s time to get back to the basics and dust that old Bible off and open it up and begin reading (Just maybe). Awaken that sleeping spirit inside of you.

Heavenly Father open our eyes to see and our ears to hear, and give us the desire to seek Your face. Guide our thoughts and direct our steps in Jesus name I pray, amen.

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Deny Yourself

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” ~ Matthew 16:24

Wow! Some hard words that we automatically reject without even thinking about it. Why? Because we live in a time when it’s all about me -what’s in it for me. We compromise our beliefs, our faith, and our relationship all for entertainment. We’ve become lovers of self more than lovers of God. Maybe it’s time for us to turn the tv off and wean ourselves off of feeding our minds on the lives of movie stars and the rock stars and begin feeding on the Word of God.

Heavenly Father, You said if Your people who are called by Your name will humble themselves and pray and seek Your face and turn from their wicked ways, then You will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. We need You to hear O God, for our land needs healing, Your people need healing, Your Church needs healing. Come to our rescue and deliver Your people O God.

For I ask it in the name of Jesus, amen.

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You Shall Reap

“When He [Jesus] had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets'” ~ Luke 5:4-5

Jesus had just finished using Peter’s boat to preach to a huge crowd of people, and now it was time for payment. God never uses anybody or anybody’s things for free, anyone He uses will receive compensation. Peter and his men had worked hard all night and caught nothing. Besides that, they had just finished cleaning all their equipment, including those big bulky nets. He very well could have said, “You know, Jesus, we are tired, we’re hungry, we just want to go home to our families now, but next time for sure.”

Instead, Peter was obedient and did what seemed like a useless task. The reward was that they caught so many fish that the nets began to break, so they had to call for their partners to come and help. Then the two boats began to sink from the amount of fish they hauled in. What a payday! So never feel like the volunteer work you have done, the finances you have given, the help you have freely lent is all for naught because it’s not. Your labor is not in vain with the LORD, you will reap a harvest if you don’t give up.

Father, remember those who give of their time and effort. Those who give of their finances and their possessions, LORD let their payday come and come quickly. For Your Word says for us to cast our bread on the waters and in many days, it will return to us, press down, shaken together and running over, because we know we can never out-give You.

Thank You, Father, in Jesus name I pray, amen.

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Look To The Eastern Sky

“¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18

I heard a man once say that we need to stop preaching End Times messages. Enough with the rapture messages, because we are only taking away hope from our up and coming generation. Oh, how The Church has strayed… Paul said, “encourage one another with these words.” How can it be taking away hope if it is encouragement?

The message that we aren’t forgotten, that soon enough the Bridegroom will return for His bride, now that, that’s encouraging. We always get caught up with the things of this world. And why shouldn’t we? It was perfectly designed for us, but we messed it up. We continuously talk about how horrible the Earth is. How wicked humanity has gotten, yet the thought of being taken away to a better place for celebration and everlasting joy, is taking away hope. I don’t think so.

It’s not even that we will be with the LORD forever. Or that we will get a new perfect Earth. It’s that even though we ruined God’s masterpiece. Even though we destroyed ourselves and this beautiful Earth that He gave us, He didn’t just abandon us here to rot. He promised that He would be back. Jesus even went the extra mile and gave us clues on when this would take place. If it isn’t encouraging that the God of the entire universe would think us valuable enough to come back for us and save us from our own mistakes, then I don’t know what is.

At the end of the day, everyone will have their own feelings about this, but I do implore you, don’t get caught up in this world. Don’t get stuck seeking out the things of this world if it causes you to no longer desire His return. Because this, this is all temporary. This won’t last, but what He wants to give us, now that, that is worth putting up with this crazy, messed up world for. Jesus returning, now that is the most encouraging thing I can think of.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look To The Eastern Sky.

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Choose To Be Happy

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” ~ Psalm 118:24 KJV

The Psalmist is saying, “We WILL rejoice in this day that our LORD God has made,” not necessarily because we are happy or because everything is going our way, food is on the table, bills are paid, and all our enemies have called a truce and decided to support our endeavors. But because it is a gift from our God. Therefore, rejoicing is a choice, we choose to be happy or to let the enemy steal our joy.

Psychologists suggest that if we are angry on the inside, but smile on the outside and act happy, our equilibrium will soon match and we will become happy on the inside. Same is true with the opposite. If you’re happy on the inside but act angry and look angry on the outside, you will soon become angry on the inside as well. Being happy is a choice we can all make daily. So choose to be happy, choose to rejoice because of the gift of life and salvation that is freely offered to us all. Always see the glass as being half full instead of half empty.

Heavenly Father, make us an instrument of peace and encouragement, and a source of joy and comfort that others may see and hear and live and not die, in Jesus name I pray, amen.

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Be A Dreamer

“But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. ‘Here comes that dreamer!’ they said to each other. ‘Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.’” ~ Genesis 37:18-20

Joseph had two dreams that he told to his brothers. They didn’t appreciate the gesture at all. And so it is still today. When you excitedly tell others about your dreams and what God spoke into your life, they will not feel the same excitement as you do. They will find a way to discourage you and to successfully kill the dream. But God keeps watch over His Word to ensure it comes to pass.

Don’t lose hope, and don’t be discouraged no matter what people may say, for God is able to bring to pass everything He has said and everything He intends to happen, we just have to be patient and obedient.

Heavenly Father, thank You that You who watches over us and keeps us neither slumbers nor sleeps. Neither are You swayed by popular opinion, but rather, You use the simple to confound the wise, and the weak to overcome the strong. Thank you that Your Word will not return unto You void, but will accomplish everything You desire it to accomplish. In Jesus name, I pray, amen.

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Plant

“⁴The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” ~ Proverbs 13:4

We, as a Church, tend to have a problem with those who thrive spiritually. Signs and Wonders follow them. Prosperity wherever they go. The sick are healed. The Spirit flows. We see these things, and we get upset. Why? Why do we feel some type of way when someone else is Spiritually rich? Is it because we are Spiritually poor?

How often to do we pray? How often do we seek after God? Is He the first thing on our mind and the last? Do we spend time with Him during the day? Do we read our Bible? We want to have such a strong spiritual connection with God, but we don’t want to for it. We want God to do all of the work, and we simply accept the benefits. A harvest with labor doesn’t exist. No matter how badly we want it to, it will never happen. We have to plant our own seeds. We have to water them, protect them, tend to them, and in due time the harvest will be ready. But a harvest will not come out of thin air.

If you don’t see a harvest, ask yourself these questions: Do I pray every day? Do I spend time with God every day? How much time do I spend with God? Do I take the time to read my Bible? How much time do I sit in the presence of God and wait to hear His voice? How often do I worship God? Do I only ask God for things, or do I give Him the thanks, praise, and honor He deserves?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Plant.

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Parent

“¹³And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” ~ 1 Samuel 3:13-14

We have gotten to the state in our society where parents no longer correct their children. We make excuses for our children saying that they were born this way, or they’re just going through a phase they’ll grow out of it, or boys will be boys, or they’re just kids testing the limits.

We make excuses for our children not realizing that one day that kid who’s just being a kid is going to grow up to be an adult just being an adult. We no longer discipline our children because it’s now child abuse to spank your child, or to simply tell your child that they are in fact, a girl even if they feel like a boy. We no longer are parents, but instead, we are letting our children parent themselves. We let our children choose their gender from young ages like 3 years old, we give them counseling and hormone therapy just because they feel that they are the opposite gender.

We do this not taking into account that they are 3. They don’t know what they are. At 3 years old they still believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny. At 3 years old they wanna put their hands on the hot stove not realizing that it’ll burn them. They wanna play with the outlets. They want to be princesses and pirates and helicopters at that age. How can we allow our children to dictate their own life with zero guidance?

We constantly say that the human mind is not fully developed until around 25 years old, so why can a small child know that they are not the gender that they are. We’ve stopped parenting because we believe our children know what’s best for them. A child may see a pretty snake and want to play with it, but as a parent, you should tell them, “no, honey, that’s a coral snake, very dangerous.” We need to correct our children when they are wrong. We need to be parents again, guiding them instead of letting them blindly run through the dark.

Eli never corrected his boys, and they grew up to be men who did not know the LORD. Eli didn’t teach his sons how to respect the LORD, so they didn’t. Eli didn’t teach his sons how to love the LORD, so they didn’t. Eli wanted to be his sons’ friend instead of their father. Eli failed as a parent, which lead to his entire household was punished. Both of his sons were killed on the same day, and Eli was to die and have no heirs. His family lost everything all because he refused to be a father. What is your family losing?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Parent.

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September 19, 2020September 18, 2020

Praise Him In The Bad

“¹⁰And 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.” ~ Job 42:10

Sometimes the LORD will allow us to go through times of difficulty, sorrow, pain, and suffering, so that the accuser may test us. See Satan accuses us day and night, and the LORD allows for him to take us through hardships that we don’t think we’ll be able to make it through. But that only lasts for a season, and if we still hold on to God. If we still trust in Him and give Him the praise and glory He deserves, He will take us through to the other side. And once we enter that other side, there will be a reward like we haven’t seen before. Whatever the devil took, God, will repay us, but with interest. Thank the LORD. For Job didn’t just receive back what was given to Him, but He received twice as much as before.

Times of trouble will come in each of our lives, but it’s how we react to those times of trouble that matter. It’s who we become in those times of hurt and pain that determines where we will end up, whether it be on the other side with less or on the other side with more. Don’t turn from God, for His benefits are everlasting. Praise in the good. Praise Him in the bad. And see if things will not change before your eyes. God honors the righteous.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Praise Him in the Bad.

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