Recent Devotions
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” Proverbs 3:5-6 How many times have you cried out to God, in heartbreak and despair, that you just don’t understand His ways. I’ve done it plenty of times. When my life wasn’t turning out the way I thought it would. When I miscarried the first time, then the second time, and especially the third time. When my heart hurt so badly I wasn’t sure it would ever heal. I’m…
I love the LORD because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” (Psalm 116:1-2 NLT) This Scripture beautifully reminds me of one simple, but absolute, TRUTH: that when I pray, God is near.…
Ever feel unaccepted? “When God has selected you, it doesn’t matter who else has rejected you, or neglected you. God’s favor outweighs ALL opposition.” – Author unknown The angel Gabriel was sent by God to visit Mary (Luke 1:26-28), and he had three high compliments for her: (1) “You are…
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God does not prepare His people in one day. God prepares His people over time. He uses waiting, hardship, prayer, obedience, loss, and testing. Sometimes the preparation feels gentle. Sometimes it feels painful. But through every season, God is working. In Genesis 21-25, the lives of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau show us that God is faithful to His promises. God also shows us that the waiting season is never wasted. While we wait, God forms our faith. While we walk through trials, God teaches us to trust Him. While we obey, God reveals His purpose. God…
“And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites,” says the Lord” (Isaiah 66:21). To understand this verse, we need to look at the beginning of the previous verse. Verse 20 begins with, “Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations.” The verse includes a list of everything that will be brought, and in verse 21, God says He will bring people from all nations and make them priests and Levites. In the Old Testament, you could only be a priest and serve the Lord in the Temple…
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (II Corinthians 9:8, ESV) I learned a new word this week. I’ve known the concept for a long time, but I had not come across the word that encompasses the concept. The word? Shrinkflation. As you can guess, it combines the words shrink and inflation. It’s when manufacturers shrink a product to offset rising manufacturing costs. The unobservant consumer may not realize that even though the price is the same, there are…
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1 As we finish our week of looking at some lessons we learn from the Psalms that David wrote, we cannot forget the one that most of us know and love. It is the one we turn to when we are going through times of sorrow or discouragement. For many of us, it was the first portion of scripture that we memorized. In I Samuel 30:6 when David was going through a time of trial, it is said that: “David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.” I can imagine him…
