Devotionals Archives

March 18, 2024March 17, 2024

Be A Willing Vessel

²⁰ But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. ~ Acts 11:20

Simon of Cyrene was forced by a Roman soldier to carry Jesus’ cross. Simon didn’t just go back to his everyday life after coming in contact with the Messiah. No. After this, his two sons became disciples of Christ. Men from the same city as him found Christ as well. So much so that when they came to Antioch, they preached Jesus to the Hellenists.

Today, the Church desires and attempts to keep their encounter with the Christ a secret in the name of tolerance, respect, and love, but this isn’t the purpose of the Church. We are to be the light of the world, for we are to tell and lead people to the Light, Jesus. We are to state the good news and all that He’s done for us. We are to be like Simon the Cyrene, who didn’t keep his encounter to himself but instead told all willing and allowed Christ to shine through him as a willing vessel.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be A Willing Vessel.

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A Paid Cleansing

²⁹ What is left of the oil in the priest’s palm he is to put on the head of the one to be cleansed to make atonement for him before the Lord. ³⁰ He is to then sacrifice one type of what he can afford, either the turtledoves or young pigeons, ³¹ one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, sacrificing what he can afford together with the grain offering. In this way the priest will make atonement before the Lord for the one to be cleansed. ³² This is the law for someone who has a skin disease and cannot afford the cost of his cleansing. ~ Leviticus 14:29-32^CSB

Imagine sin is a spiritual skin disease. It causes you to be unclean, to be separate from those who are clean, and to only be around those who are unclean. See, not everyone could pay the price to be cleansed from their skin disease under The Law, but God didn’t leave them hopeless. He created a way for them as well. This is the same with sin.

God knew none of us could pay our debt, so He sent His Son, Jesus, born of a virgin without any sin, within Him in order to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He gives us salvation free of charge. Our debt has been canceled, and our future secured; all we have to do is follow Jesus. There’s never a time that God doesn’t give us an opportunity to receive salvation. Today is the day of salvation; tomorrow is promised to no one.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Accept Your Cleansing.

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Praise The LORD

¹ Praise the LORD. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens. ² Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness. ³ Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise Him with the harp and lyre, ⁴ praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and pipe, ⁵ praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with resounding cymbals. ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD. ~ Psalms 150:1-6

This is a hymn of praise to the LORD. The Psalmist is imploring everyone everywhere with everything to praise the LORD. In the little church that I grew up in as a young boy, we did not have musical instruments like electric guitars and drums; everything was done a cappella. But that is not God’s way; He wants us to praise Him with all of our instruments; Psalms 100 says to make a joyful noise unto the LORD…come before His presence with singing. Look also at the last verse of the Psalm we just read, Psalm 150:6, which says, Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

I was on vacation one time and visited a church. They, too, did not have musical instruments, but they even took it a step further. No one in the congregation raised their hands in praise or worship. No one said, “Amen,” in agreement with what the pastor was preaching, or even utter a word of encouragement for him. But God didn’t even make a distinction between the Christian or the sinner; in fact, He was very specific; He said let EVERYTHING that has breath praise Him. If you have breath in your body, you ought to be praising God.

The thing to remember here is not to get confused with intercessory prayer and praise; they are different. Prayer – except for the prayer of repentance – is for the saints; praise is for everyone, so go on and praise Him today.

Heavenly Father, I lift up a shout of praise to You today for all the blessings I enjoy, all the prayers You have answered, and for all the times that You have been there for me when no one else understood. I praise You, LORD, for who You are and for what You have done for me. I praise You and give thanks for the great work of salvation that You so freely give to everyone who will accept it. LORD, may Your great and matchless Name be lifted up in my life and among the nations, and may Your praise never depart from my lips. May songs of rejoicing continually be in my mouth, and may You be exalted in all the world, for You are good, and Your mercies endure forever. Be glorified in my life. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

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God Is Concerned About You

⁷ The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” ~ Exodus 3:7

Have you been crying out to God? Has He not answered yet? Maybe you feel like He doesn’t love you or even care about you. Please be assured God HAS heard your cries, and He IS concerned about you. The time will come when He will rend the heavens and come down to see about you. He will send you a deliverer, someone who is in a position to help you or to open a now-closed door. He may send someone just to encourage you, to lift up your spirit, or to let you know you are not alone.

The Father has done it before, and He will do it again. He will come to your rescue. In times past, He saw our misery, even though we ourselves did not see it, but our sins and iniquities had condemned us to an eternity in the Lake of Fire with no chance of release or parole. We needed a Savior, but there was none. The Father knew and understood that we needed a Savior, and so He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the Cross for us. We were all lost because of sin. We were all separated from God because of disobedience, but in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to die so that we might live. We had no hope, but the Father gave us Hope in the form of His Son, Jesus, who was crucified but was raised to life on the third day.

Make no mistake—God knows where you are. Keep trusting, keep doing good, keep on keeping the faith, and know for sure your good deeds are not in vain in the LORD. Since the Father sent Jesus to die so that we might live, do you think He will withhold any good thing from us? The answer is no. No, He will not withhold any good thing from those who seek His face and call upon His name.

Heavenly Father, I pray for persistent faith today. The type of faith that overcomes all adversities, crushes all obstacles, and cannot be moved but can move mountains. LORD, revive the faith that may be dying or has died, and breathe life into our dry and thirsty souls. Let Your Holy Spirit be known, and let no doubt remain that it is profitable to serve You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Blessed To Sleep

⁴ When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. ⁵ You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. ~ Deuteronomy 9:4-6^CSB

It’s very easy to justify sin when you’re seeing a harvest of plenty. Everything you do seems to be profitable. You have no lack, nor do you have fear. So, when you’re corrected, you justify your actions by the way you’ve been blessed. Blessings from God don’t always mean you have His favor and support for your life choices and decisions. How is that possible?

Jesus said that the Father pours out rain and sends the sun to shine on both the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). Blessings from God don’t always reflect our standing with Him, but sometimes they are the fulfillment of prayers, promises, and gifts from the generations before us. Sometimes the LORD blesses us and elevates us, not because of us, but because of the prayers and faithfulness of our ancestors and the promises the LORD gave to them. And if we’re not careful, these generational blessings will lull us into a spiritual slumber because of the false safety they fill our hearts with. It lies to us, having us believe the darkness in us is actually light. If the light in you is actually darkness, how great is that darkness?

Even though we receive blessings from the LORD, we can still be outside of His covering blood. We can still be outside of His love and on our way to an eternity without Him. This is the importance of continually asking the LORD to search you. To bring anything that is unclean to the forefront that you might remove it from you and from your life all together. We will never reach perfection on this earth, but we never stop seeking it because if we aim for perfection but miss it, we will land among excellence.

Dear LORD, thank You for all the times You blessed me, and I didn’t deserve it. Thank You that no matter what I do, You always want me to come home to You. There’s never a time You abandon me or discard me as unimportant or undesirable. Please search me, and show me anything within me that must go. Please remove from me anything that isn’t of You. Please give me a Spirit of Discernment that I might rightly discern good and evil. That I might have a heart for the things of God and not the things of the world. Please awaken my spirit man within me that I might overcome the flesh. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Alone And Forgotten

¹ There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. ² There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. ³ He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. ⁴ His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
¹³ Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴ and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, ¹⁵ and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁶ While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁷ While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁸ While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹ and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”²⁰ Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” ²² In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. ~ Job 1:1-5, 13-22

Have you ever felt really alone, like God isn’t hearing your prayers? Like maybe God has forgotten you and maybe doesn’t even want you anymore? Things keep going wrong? Your heart feels heavier and heavier each day? Memories that you once suppressed have resurfaced, and God doesn’t seem to help you deal with them? I’ve been feeling this way lately. Many nights and days in tears. Then, finally, I told my parents how I was feeling, and my Dad sat me down and encouraged me.

He reminded me that even though Job sacrificed on behalf of his children continually, all of his children died. Even though Job was righteous and ran away from evil, everything he had was taken from him. Job could have easily been discouraged. He could’ve easily claimed God abandoned him and forgot about him. He could’ve easily felt like God no longer wanted him because the very thing he was praying and sacrificing to protect was taken away in a single day, along with every other thing Job had.

During this time, God remained silent. Job cried out to God and received no reply. His friends sat and accused him, yet God still remained silent. Job’s own wife even told Job to curse God and die, and God still remained silent. God didn’t respond to Job until Satan had finished testing Job.

Each of us will be handed over to Satan for a time of testing. It won’t be easy. You’ll feel alone, forgotten, and even forsaken by God, but no matter what the enemy tries to discourage you with, God’s promises are True and steady to stand on. When we’re being tested, God remains silent so that He might see what is truly in our hearts. This is why we store up the Word of God in our hearts so that when God feels distant, we can encourage ourselves with His promises. We can cast down every word spoken against and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Because no matter what the Devil throws at you or tells you, God has not forgotten you. God has not abandoned you. God has not changed His mind and no longer wants you. God loves each and every one of His creations and desires that all repent and come to the acceptance of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Dear LORD, thank You for never leaving me nor forsaking me. Thank You for wanting me and calling me to You. Thank You that even when I’m being tested, You are with me; even if I don’t feel like You are, You are with me always. Thank You, LORD, for loving me and wanting me. Please help me to hold fast my integrity no matter what great I must stand. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Small Is Large

⁴¹ And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. ⁴³ And He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” ~ Mark 12:41–44

One day Jesus was sitting across from the treasury at the Temple in Jerusalem. As He sat, He watched the people putting money into the offering box. This was a voluntary offering, not a forced and compelling government proclamation. Jesus was sitting close enough to see how much money the people were putting into the offering box, and this is what He observed. Many rich people came and put large sums of money into the box, but they didn’t even notice it was gone, so little in comparison with the amount God had blessed them with. But then along comes a poor widow and put two small copper coins, which were only worth a half penny each. This caught Jesus’ attention.

Here is Jesus’ opinion about the whole matter. All of those people who came before may have put fifty, sixty, or maybe one hundred dollars into the offering box, but this woman, and not just a woman, but a widow woman, which means she lost her primary income when her husband died. She was now forced to make ends meet with the meager income she made from doing odd and ends work for probably those same people who were putting in huge amounts of money. She, on the other hand, put in all she had. It was not the amount that impressed Jesus; it was the amount relative to what she had to live on. The rich gave out of their wealth, while she gave out of her poverty. The story doesn’t tell us what happened, but I would assume she received a special blessing from the LORD for her faithfulness.

So, the next time you are moved to give, but you feel that it isn’t enough or it is too small, don’t worry; small is large in the hands of our LORD, and you will receive a large blessing in return.

Father, help us to give according to our blessing and not be concerned about the amount. Thank You, Father, that You do not judge us according to man’s standards, for he looks at the outside while you look at the heart. Thank You for Your faithfulness. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Value Of A Kind Word

¹¹ A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. ~ Proverbs 25:11

I’m sure if you’ve been around church for any amount of time, especially those of the Pentecostal or Charismatic movement, you’ve heard the phrase, a now word. It simply means either a prophecy about a specific thing or words related to what’s happening in a specific person’s life or a certain situation. Well, this is what Solomon pictured when he wrote this Proverb. He was encouraging the encourager to continue to encourage his or her fellow person, friend, or family member. It is important to encourage the brethren when you see them troubled or discouraged. To speak a word that is relevant to that person in that situation can almost be priceless.

I know that there are times when I feel like I’ve been pouring myself out, and now I’m feeling drained and maybe a little discouraged. Then, someone will send me a text, say something to me, or even leave a nice comment on one of our posts, and it means the world to us. That word that is aptly spoken is so fitting to the situation that it immediately brightens the day and serves as the fuel to continue to try even harder.

That is not just the encourager speaking, but the Holy Spirit speaking through the encourager. Because God knows the heart and soul of every man and woman, boy and girl, and He is concern about each and every one of us, and if we need encouraging, He will send it. So, don’t hold back a compliment or a word of encouragement from those you are in contact with.

I know that there were times when I saw someone wearing a really nice outfit or looking extra nice, and I paid that person a compliment, and it changed their whole attitude and their whole outlook on life that day. Now, this is not to say that you ought to be insincere; we must always be sincere when we give a compliment, or it will make matters worse, not better. Flattery, for flattery’s sake, is not good. It causes more harm than good. Just be sincere and say something nice to someone today. Just like apples of gold in settings of silver are very aesthetically pleasing to the eye, so are encouraging words aptly spoken extremely pleasing to the soul, and brings hope to the heart. So, then, let us make a special effort to encourage each other whenever we get the opportunity.

Heavenly Father, thank You for sending that someone who encouraged me in the past. Thank You for using me to encourage others. May we always look for opportunities to say something nice to someone else that will brighten their day and let them know that Jesus loves them, for it is in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

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God Planned It For Good

²⁰ You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result — the survival of many people. ~ Genesis 50:20^CSB

Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery and then deceived his father and their father into believing that he was torn to bits and killed by some wild animal. They had no pity on him, even though he begged and pleaded with them for his life.

Can you imagine a more horrendous situation to be in? Not only did the ones who are supposed to love you and protect you betray you, but they sold you into slavery. That’s like, in our day, to sell your sister into the sex trade industry. The words that she would feel are indescribable. A wrong that is hard to make right. A sin that is hard to forgive. Yet Joseph said, you did it with evil intents, but God did it for God.

Imagine being that close to God that you can see the good in everything that happens, no matter how awful it really is. Even if it is the worst thing that could happen to you, understand that God never meant it for evil but for good for the majority. And then, depending on your reaction to the situation, will determine which seeds you will sow, whether good seed or bad seed, because the fruit depends on the seed. Bad seed, bad fruit. Good seed, good fruit.

The key is to determine beforehand how you will react to the situation that you are thrown into. Always know that it is never God’s intention to harm you or to make you suffer loss. We live in a broken world filled with evil men and women who have no regard for life or for the things of God, but know this: God is always looking out for your good.

Father, help me to look for the good in every situation. Help me to not hold wrongs against those who have done me wrong. Help me to sow good seed that I might reap good fruit. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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A Prayer

¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ~ Psalms 119:105

What the Psalmist is saying is that God’s word is like a flashlight that is used in the darkest of nights to shine on an obscure path that is shrouded in shadows and gloom and is hard to see. But the light from the flashlight shines on the path and illuminates the way for his feet to safely tread on the way that he is traveling.

Have you ever had days that seem darkened by trouble or the past? Is your mind crowded with things that steal your peace? Maybe it is a project at work that you are responsible for, and it is not working out the way you need it to. The deadline is quickly approaching, and the boss is breathing down your neck for results. The pressure is on, and the time is short; your path looks dark. Maybe it is a monetary problem. Your bills are stacking up, and the bill collector is calling, and you got passed over for the promotion at work. The path looks dark ahead.

Or maybe there is a conflict at work or in your family. Words are said, accusations have flown, making things seem more difficult and more concealed than they really are. Remember that God’s Word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Pick up His word and have a read. Read an encouraging devotional that will remind you of the Power and the grace of Almighty God. Nothing flusters Him. Nothing fazes Him. He is as consistent as His Word that will light up your path. So, do as the song writer said and have a little talk with Jesus and tell Him all about your troubles. He will hear your faintest cry, and He will answer by and by because you mean that much to Him. He loves you and cares about you. He died for you and took the chastisement that brought you peace. So, go to Him; He is waiting.

Father, Your promises give me hope in times of trouble, and your faithfulness keeps me when I’m weak. Who, then, is like You, oh LORD my God? Strong in battle and faithful in love. There is none that I can compare You to, none that is Your equal. Be with me and my family today; guide and lead us, I pray. Be with all those who read this prayer today, and harken unto their needs. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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