Devotionals Archives

April 2, 2024April 3, 2024

I Am Healed

²Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. ~ 3 John 2

God’s desire is that you be prosperous and healthy not only spiritually but physically as well. Have you ever heard someone praying for the sick and in their prayer, they say, “LORD, if it is Your will, heal this person;” that always troubled me. Think about it. Why would Jesus pay such a heavy price for our healing but then say, “Just kidding, it really isn’t My will to heal you.” That does not make much sense. If you think about it, that is not a prayer at all, that is really a disclaimer. It is like saying, I’m going to pray for you, but if you don’t get healed, it’s obviously not God’s will for you.

I don’t believe that is the way God operates. He doesn’t dangle a carrot before us. He doesn’t give us false hope. If it doesn’t work, the fault is not with Him; it is with us. All of His promises are yea and amen towards us, His blood-bought, the redeemed. He says what He means, and He means what He says. Peter, quoting the prophet Isaiah, said,

²⁴He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:24

Peter said it is already done. We have been healed.

If you are experiencing any kind of illness, place your hand on the place and believe as we pray.

Heavenly Father, I believe You sent Your Son Jesus to not only die for my transgressions, but the chastisement that brought me peace was placed on Him, and with His stripes, I am healed. Help me with my unbelief. Teach me to receive all that You have for me. Please help me to receive my healing right now. Thank You, Father, in Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Scars

²⁷ Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.” ~ John 20:27^CSB

Many of us are ashamed of our past. We’re ashamed of all the times that we fell into temptation. We’re ashamed of all of the things of our past, so we try to cover our scars and keep them hidden from the eyes of the world, but why?

Scars don’t mean you lost the battle; scars are proof of your victory. They are your testimony to the world that you endured the temptation and made it out the other side. Never be ashamed of your scars, for these scars are your Testimony. The Word of our Testimony is the second most powerful weapon we have against the enemy, the first being the Blood of the Lamb.

Our scars are our evidence of all that you have overcome. Christ kept His scars and proudly displayed them for Thomas to see and truly believe, so why should we do any other?

Dear LORD, thank You for Your scars and thank You for my scars, for in them is the proof of Your love and faithfulness towards me. Thank You that You’ve remained faithful, even when I haven’t. Thank You that You always make a way for me to return to You. Thank You, LORD, for all that You’ve done for me. Please help me to never be ashamed of my scars. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Our Risen Savior

¹ Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See, I have told you.” ~ Matthew 28:1-7

Early Sunday morning, the day we Christians call Resurrection Sunday, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb of Jesus. But they found an empty tomb. Jesus was not there; He had risen as He said He would. He lived, though He was dead, and now He is alive forevermore. Paul said that if Jesus indeed had not risen from the dead, then we have no salvation, and we are still in our sins, and we Christians are most to be pitied of all people. Not only that but they are found to be false witnesses about God because they testified that He raised Jesus from the dead.

Friends, I want to assure you that Jesus did die a physical death; He was buried and laid in the tomb for three days and three nights, and He did rise again, holding the keys of death and Hades in His powerful hand.

There is something else I want you to notice. The Scriptures declare that an angel descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. But the account does not say anything about Jesus coming out of the grave at that time. Instead, it says,

… the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay …”

Jesus had already risen by the time the angel got there. Because, after all, it was not the angel’s job to let Jesus out, but to let the believers in, and to prove to the world the empty tomb. If the angel had not rolled the stone away, the world would never know that the tomb is empty. But the soldiers saw the angel come down. They saw him roll the stone away. They saw that the tomb was empty but did not see Jesus emerge from the tomb, yet they had seen His dead body go into the tomb, and they feared greatly, so much so that they became as dead men. There was no denying that Jesus had risen from the dead. The empty tomb proved it for them.

You and I can rejoice in knowing that what we believe is true. What we hold on to is not a cleverly devised lie but the everlasting Truth. We can be assured that what was passed down to us about the Resurrection is an eyewitness account. So, rejoice in your salvation, and rejoice in the resurrection of your LORD and Savior.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, who was obedient to You and accomplished everything that You sent Him to accomplish. I accept His free gift of life, and I rejoice in the fact that He is alive forevermore and that He is coming back for me. Help me to live for You and to serve You wholeheartedly without becoming disillusioned or weary. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Make It Sure

⁵But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; And with His stripes we are healed. ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. ~ Isaiah 53:5-6

There was no other way because we all, like sheep, went astray, and each one of us turned to our own way. Therefore, there was no more hope for us unless the Father laid all of our sins and all of our iniquities on Jesus.

Jesus bore the punishment for our sins and iniquities with the blows that He took and with the nails that pierced His hands and His feet. He suffered the punishment that brought us peace by bringing us back into right standing with God the Father and with Himself.

Then, to top it all off, Jesus was whipped with a terrible beating on His back that purchased our healing. We don’t have to live in sickness; our healing was purchased by Jesus Himself.

Look at what He suffered on our behalf. To be cut off from the land of the living means that Jesus suffered literal death. Jesus did not just look like He was dead; He was dead for three days and three nights before being resurrected on the third day.

That is true favor. That God, the living Creator God, would leave His throne on high to come and suffer such a violent death in order to give us a blessed and highly favored eternity. We’re not talking about 70 or 80 years. We are not even talking about 120 years. We are talking about eternity.

When we’ve been there 10,000 years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first began

That, my friends, is true favor. You can’t buy it with gold. You can’t purchase it with silver. You can’t borrow it. You can’t steal it. You can’t even find it. You must receive it, and only from Jesus.

Eternity is a long, long time. Are you preparing for eternity? Are you living your life as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable? Are you ready to enter eternity? Each day is a gift from God; tomorrow is promised to no one, so don’t put off your salvation. This Easter, make your salvation and eternity sure.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Make It Sure.

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Behold Your King

¹⁴Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” ¹⁵They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” ¹⁶So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. ~ John 19:14-16

It was the day of Preparation. The Passover was to start in about three hours. Pilate had cross-examined Jesus and found nothing to condemn Him for, especially capital punishment. He thought he would try one last attempt. He had Jesus flogged mercilessly, then he presented Him to the Jews and said, “Behold your King.”

He thought that would prick their hearts to see Jesus so pitiful, and being their King, surely, they would have pity on Him and change their minds. But instead, they hardened their hearts and cried out, “We have no king but Caesar.” So, Pilate delivered Jesus over to them to be crucified.

Today, you are being presented with that same statement, “Behold your King.”

Will you accept Him as King? Will you continue to accept Him when the flow is against Him? The majority are yelling out, “Away with Him. We do not want or need this man.” Will you be caught up in the heat of the moment? Or will you stand out like a very sore thumb—a twinkling light in a sea of darkness?

Jesus died so that you might live. He took your sin and my sin, and all the sin of the world that whosoever will, can come and receive mercy. Jesus is coming back to get those who are waiting for Him. Those who are not crying out, “Away with Him.” So, again, the Holy Spirit is saying, “Behold your King.” Because it is one of the Spirit’s jobs to remind us about Jesus. Therefore, make sure that you are not with the crowd crying out away with Him but with the few who are saying, “I receive You, dear LORD, and I accept Your sacrifice on my behalf.”

Dear Heavenly Father, please help each and every one of us who are clinging to You to go against the grain. To go against the crowd and to swim upstream against the flow. Help us to live for You, and to speak out for You, and tell others of Your great love. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Trade Tradition For Truth

⁴² He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. ⁴³ He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now — if He takes pleasure in Him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ~ Matthew 27:42-43^CSB

As Jesus hung on the cross, the chief priests, elders, and scribes all mocked Him. By mocking Him, they unintentionally mocked God the Father as well. See, this was the very thing the Father sent Jesus to do. This was the very purpose the Father sent Jesus for, to save them from their sins, yet they mocked Him.

By saying if He was chosen by God and had favor of God, they mocked the very plan of God. They mocked the salvation plan that God wrote to save their souls, yet they couldn’t see because of their tradition. Their traditions had blinded them to the Truth, so arrogantly mocked their savior and their God without even realizing it.

This Easter, let us strive to throw out the old wine and allow God to fill us with new wine. Let God show us His Truth instead of our tradition.

Dear LORD, thank You for taking my sin upon Yourself. Thank You for loving me enough to stay on the cross. Thank You for interceding on my behalf. Please search me and correct anything in that contradicts Your Truth. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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In Return

³⁹ Those who passed by were yelling insults at Him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” ~ Matthew 27:39-40 ^CSB

Jesus was hanging on the cross. His body had been flogged and beaten unrecognizable. He was so weak He couldn’t even carry His own cross. A crown of thorns was pushed into His skull and beaten with a staff. Now, He was hanging on the cross struggling to breathe. Each breath is painful. And now those passing by are mocking and ridiculing Him.

They’re not just hurling insults at Him, they’re now taking what He said and twisting it and throwing it back at Him. Imagine it, these are the very people Jesus had come to save that are twisting His words and throwing them back at Him. He could have easily come down off of that cross shown them exactly what He had said that they were twisting, but He didn’t. He stayed on that cross and took every insult. Every lie. And then prayed for them.

Imagine that. Praying for those tormenting you because you love them. You know that if you get down off of that cross or even try to defend yourself, it’s over. So, you remain silent. You take the harsh words and hate. Then when you speak, you pray for them.

Dear LORD, please help me to love the way You loves. Help me to not return anger and hate with more anger and hate. Help me to love. Help me to bless when people curse me. Help me to pray for those who persecute me. Help me to remain silent when attacked. Help me to be more like You and less like me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Seek The New Covenant

²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. ³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished,” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. ~ John 19:28-30

Each Gospel describes Jesus receiving the sour wine while on the cross, but only John explains why this takes place. John states that Jesus knew all was now finished and then asked for sour wine to fulfill the Scripture.

The night before He was crucified, Jesus said that the cup represented the New Covenant. This is important to understand why Jesus said that all things were finished. Jesus wasn’t saying all prophecies were finished because He still had more prophecies to fulfill. In fact, there are still some prophecies and feasts that have to be fulfilled in the future. Therefore, Jesus wasn’t talking about fulfilling every single thing in this one action. Jesus was saying that He knew all things were finished. He sensed something in the Spirit.

We proclaim Christ’s death because in His death we died to sin, and because He raised to life again, will live to Him. In other words, we are no longer subject to sin, but sin has now become subject to Christ, who lives through us. And since we are no longer subject to sin when we die, death has no power over us, but instead, to be absent from the body is to be with the LORD (2 Corinthians 5:8).

The night before Jesus was crucified, Jesus spoke of a New Covenant for the first time. Before that Jesus never mentioned a New Covenant. Jesus waited til the last night before His death to mention the New Covenant because it hadn’t yet grown old and ready to vanish away. But after speaking of the New Covenant and making the old one obsolete and ready to vanish away, He went to the cross.

Jesus knew that the Old Covenant had grown old and was ready to pass away or vanish, not that every prophecy and law were fulfilled. This is why John added to fulfill Scripture (Psalms 69:21) right before He wrote Jesus’ words:

“I thirst.”

Jesus was fulfilling David’s prophecy that they would give Jesus sour wine to drink. Now, I want you to understand the importance of this. Jesus sensed in His Spirit that all things had been finished; in other words, the Old Covenant had grown old (Hebrews 8:13), so what did He do? He checks. How does He check? By asking for something to drink. And what do they give Him? Sour wine, and He accepts it. John specifically, in verse 30, says that He received the sour wine.

No longer are we under a covenant where sin uses what God created for our good against us (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). Now, we are under a new and better covenant (Hebrews 12:24) that isn’t based on works but on faith in Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). If Christ had not died on the cross that day 2000 years ago, the Old Covenant would have soured, and we would be without a covenant with God. We would be without hope at all. It is only through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus that we have eternal life through following Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek The New Covenant.

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Don’t Overlook

²⁷“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” ~ John 12:27

Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled.” Jesus knew what awaited Him. It came as no surprise. I did a comparison with that one sentence, “Now is my soul troubled.” And every one of the different translations said the same exact thing. “Now is my soul troubled.”

Something was deeply troubling Jesus. Some say that it was because Jesus would be separated from the Father for the very first time. And that may be so, but that was not the only reason. The word ‘troubled’ doesn’t give us a fair picture of the extreme stress that Jesus was under, especially that last week we call passion week.

Think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember, this is after the great Triumphant Entry celebration. The cursing of the fig tree. And the last supper. Judas has just betrayed the Savior. Jesus is praying just before He is arrested. This was it. The time had finally come. The time determined from eternity past. The time of mankind’s purchase back from death to life.

Jesus is praying to God the Father that if He is willing, if there is some other way, if only He didn’t have to go through what He was about to go through, please save Him from His great destiny, yet He prayed, not my will but Your great will be done.

Please notice that an angel from heaven came to Jesus to strengthen Him, but it was not enough. This was, as we say, where the rubber hits the road. This was the beginning of the cup He was to drink.

He was in so much anguish that He fell to the ground and His sweat became drops of blood. The path Jesus had to take in order to redeem us wasn’t an easy one. It wasn’t just a walk in the park. This was an extremely difficult load He was carrying. It was literally the weight of the entire world weighing down on His shoulders, yet we live our lives for ourselves.

We call ourselves devout if we pray before each meal and before bed. We should be living our lives as a thank offering before the LORD. Our freedom is only in Him, for it is only He that gives us life and life more abundantly.

Dear LORD, thank You for taking my sin upon Yourself. I’m sorry for all the times I didn’t live my life for You. Please help me to live my life as a living offering holy and acceptable to You. Help me to live each day thankful for all that You’ve done for me. Please help my heart not to grow cold. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Lay Down Your Clothes

⁷They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it. ⁸Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields. ~ Mark 11:7-8

When we think about Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, we think about the Palm Branches and Jesus riding on a donkey. Oftentimes, we overlook that the Scriptures imply that the majority didn’t lay palm branches in front of Jesus, but instead, they laid down their clothes. By saying many did this and others did this, the author is implying that the many are the majority. The majority laid down their own clothes. They laid down all that they had before the LORD.

Early in Jesus’ ministry, He taught on faith. Specifically casting your anxiety onto God and having faith that He will clothe you and feed you (Matthew 6:25-34). They were putting this teaching into action, either knowingly or not. They threw their clothes before the LORD as they praised His name. They were building the Kingdom of God in faith, not caring about losing their earthly possessions.

Praise is one of the few things all with breath are to do (Psalms 150:6). This was their praise offering. They didn’t just declare Jesus the Messiah and praise His name; they praised Jesus with their actions. Their hearts were yearning for, seeking after, and following the Messiah. They praised Him with all that was in them because they understood who He was. This is the same kind of praise God desires from us. He desires us to praise Him with more than just our voices but with our actions.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Give An Offering of Praise.

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