Today's Devotion
When I was younger, I remember driving down back roads with my dad. At one point, we passed a beautiful, crystal-clear lake tucked away in the wilderness. Feeling spontaneous, we parked the car and decided to hike toward it. There were no power lines, no buildings, no people — just untouched wilderness stretching in every direction. It was breathtaking. But after about ten minutes of walking, the grass grew taller and taller until it nearly reached my shoulders. Suddenly, my imagination began running wild. I started wondering what might be hiding in the grass: snakes, wild animals, or something worse.…
A stronghold is an area in which we are held in bondage to a certain way of thinking. A stronghold means a fort or fortress; a fortified place and place of security. Strongholds are formed from our thought patterns of imaginations, logic, emotions and perceptions. When sin or emotional wounding…
“While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and lying face down on the ground in front of the Temple of God, a very large crowd of people from Israel—men, women, and children—gathered and wept bitterly with him.” (Ezra 10:1, NLT) After years of exile in Babylon, Artaxerxes, king of Persia, decreed that any of the people of Israel who desired were free to return their homeland. Ezra, a priest and scribe, led a group of fellow Jews back to Jerusalem. Their journey took four months, but they were finally in the land God had given them long ago. What…
“Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.” Acts 27:29 For fourteen days, the wind and crashing waves had bombarded the ship. They cast everything they could spare overboard. Fear filled their hearts. It looked like all hope was gone. But one man among the two hundred and seventy-six aboard had a promise that he would reach Rome. In the night, God appeared to Paul with a message: Verse 23-26 “For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom…
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” (Psalm 141:3, ESV) As I passed a lady in the grocery store aisle, I overheard a snippet of her phone conversation. “Now I’m going to tell you this, but please don’t share it . . .” I turned the corner about that time, so I never learned whatever juicy bit of gossip she knew. I also wondered how quickly her friend would pass it on. (Now to be clear, most of us do not gossip. We share “interesting information” from time to time. Or perhaps…
Genesis 29:31, “And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated (loved less or neglected), her opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.” Unrequited Love In Genesis 29, we read a gripping narrative of deception, silent suffering, and the most tormenting kind of love: unrequited. Every time I read the story about Leah and Rachel’s competing beauty, their father’s disregard for propriety, and Jacob’s overt declaration of love for Rachel and his dismissal of Leah altogether, I cannot help but feel compassion for the two sisters. It would be awful to be Leah, living in someone else’s shadow, never being…
