Category: Daily Devotions

Psalm 119:166 NKJV

In his book Traveling Hopefully, Stan Mooneyham writes: “I will go, when – I will give, after – I will obey, but first – one can always find reasons for delay, and sometimes they may even seem to be valid reasons. A close friend of mine and I were called to preach about the same time, and we went to university together. I was out mutilating homiletics in rural Oklahoma churches during those four years of study, but my friend insisted he wouldn’t preach his first sermon until he had received his PhD. That was over thirty years ago. I am still mut ilating homiletics, but my friend isn’t preaching at all. He never did. Preparation is important, but doing is a vitally important part of preparation. In the Old Testament we hear much about offerings of ‘first fruits.’ God’s portion came right off the top. Nowadays we are more likely to be known by and for our ‘lastfruits.’ Near the hold button on the hotline to heaven, these classic words would be appropriate: ‘If not I, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?’ Are you waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ to come before you step out in faith and obey what God has told you to do? Obey God. Now! It’s not enough to say you believe God’s Word, you must obey it. It’s not enough to accumulate Bible knowledge, you must apply the knowledge God has given you to your daily living.” James writes, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves …a doer… will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22, 25 NKJV). The blessing comes by “doing.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV

Gratitude doesn’t come naturally to us, but grumbling does. No one had more cause to grumble than Joseph. Abandoned, enslaved, betrayed, and estranged. Those are the chapter titles for his life story. Yet when he talks about it you won’t hear a tinge of bitterness. Instead, you’ll hear the opposite. In naming his two sons, he makes them living, breathing, lifelong testimonies of his gratitude to God. “Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said, ‘God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father’s family.’ Joseph named his secon d son Ephraim, for he said, ‘God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief'” (Genesis 41:51-52 NLT). Notice two things. First, Joseph looked at the past and gave God thanks for what He had brought him through. And you need to do that too. Whether it’s stuff others did to you, or stuff you did to them, God’s grace brought you through it. There’s only one good reason to bring up the past, and that’s to remember how God guided, protected, and blessed you in it. Second, Joseph looked at the present. “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.” Do you remember a time when you thought you wouldn’t make it? And when others thought you wouldn’t make it, too? Look what the Lord has done in your life! In spite of the obstacles and the opposition He has blessed and taken care of you. Turn off the complaining faucet and turn on the thanksgiving faucet. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God…for you.”

1 Chronicles 16:11 NIV

In Catherine Marshall’s book A Closer Walk, her husband Leonard LeSourd writes about the beginning of their marriage. “Catherine had huge adjustments to make. She sold her Washington dream house to move to Chappaqua, so I could continue to commute to my job at Guideposts in New York City. My children – Linda, ten; Chester, six; Jeffrey, three – had been through a deeply unsettling two years, adjusting to a variety of housekeepers. They had mixed feelings toward moving into a new house, and especially toward ‘the new mommy that Daddy’s bringing home .’ Catherine’s son Peter, who was nineteen, was going through a period of rebellion at Yale…Catherine and I had so many things to pray about that we began to rise an hour early each morning to read the Bible and seek answers together. Her current journal lay open beside us in these predawn prayer times, recording our changing needs, and His unchanging faithfulness.” As the pressures of life mount, you need to pray more, not less. Jesus rose before dawn to pray. Sometimes He prayed all night. Other times He left the demands of the crowd to pray. Why? Because your power, peace, joy, and effectiveness are directly related to the time you spend in prayer. Then why don’t we pray daily? For the same reason people join a gym in January and quit by February. Prayer requires discipline that only you can put in place. But it brings great rewards. Hymnist Fanny Crosby wrote: “Oh, the pure delight of a single hour, that before Thy throne I spend. As I kneel in prayer, and with Thee my God, I commune as friend with friend.”

Philippians 3:13 NKJV

As long as you’re holding on to the past, you’ll never be able to take hold of the future. The past can be an unbearably heavy burden when you try to carry it. The way to let go of it is to stop thinking about it. Get it off your mind and out of your conversation. Satan will constantly remind you of your past because he wants you to remain stuck in it. But you don’t have to. You can choose your own thoughts. You say, “I can’t help thinking about it.” Yes, you can! Before he met Christ, Paul destroyed churches and put Christians to death. Now h e was going back into some of those same towns, and who was waiting for him there? Widows. Orphans. People whose lives he’d devastated. Had Paul not been able to move beyond that, he’d never have fulfilled his God-given assignment. Now, Paul didn’t suffer from amnesia; he could remember the actual events. But knowing God had forgiven him, and that he’d forgiven himself, he chose to forget the past. “But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Note the words, “but one thing I do.” When you decide to forget, God will enable you to do it and give you the grace and peace to move on. Indeed, He will make you stronger and wiser as a result of it. If you’re struggling with guilt, condemnation, shame, blame, or regret about your past, let God forgive you, set you free, and enable you to move forward.