Category: Daily Devotionals

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!  Psalm 43:3

When the Word of God is spoken, the possibility for understanding and then transformation exists.  Whether or not that occurs in the life of a person is dependent on their response to the hearing of the Word.  Understanding what has been spoken depends on the person declaring themselves ‘simple’.  “Lord, I do not have any wisdom about my life apart from you.  I am a dark place without the light of your Word.  Teach me.” To this person, the Word comes as a sword and slices an opening in the soul where the shaft of light can penetrate.  When light touches darkness, the darkness is challenged.  And, if the light is then embraced, the darkness will be transformed.  The heart will be washed with the water of the Word and new thinking and feeling will occur.  In a short time, behavior changes.

Take any disciple who has immersed themselves in the Word over a long period of time and they will tell you that they no longer think like the person who lived a decade ago.  They will, most likely, have a hard time remembering how they were.  This is true of me.  The insecure and fearful woman of my thirties began to discover the life-shaping power of the Word of God and the light of God’s love touched my insecurity.  The strength of God’s character collided with my fear.  I began the journey of healing and am still discovering the cataclysmic effect of what happens when God’s Words unfold inside this simple woman.  Boldness, spiritual understanding, and joy have been the biggest changes.

Light can be soft, enveloping me like a warm blanket.  It can also be blinding and convicting.  No matter how it comes, I must not run from it.  Defending myself against the need of it would be my demise.  Even when it sears, it saves.  Running away for fear of change or exposure is my loss!

What Word do I need today?  Comfort, guidance, assurance of something?  My need exists because I’m aware of a dark place that is in desperate want of the Light.  Need takes me to Jesus’ feet.  Like Mary, I say “teach me”.  The simple student is usually the teacher’s favorite.  Is that not true?  So whatever the Master says, let me be a student that soaks it in like a sponge.

When my heart faints because I have no plan to save myself, I come simply. Let the unfolding of Your Word bring light into my darkness. I live in hope of Your instruction.  In Jesus name, Amen

The children of men drink their fill of the abundance of Your house.  You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.  Psalm 36:8

God offers me abundance.  Delightful abundance.  But you might be wondering, “How come I don’t have it yet?”  The promise is predicated upon admissions of need and my understanding of what abundance really is.  For example, to receive forgiveness, I must admit that I’ve sinned.  To receive salvation, I must agree with God that I’m desperately lost.  To receive wisdom, I must acknowledge my foolishness.

Spiritual bankruptcy is foundational if I want to experience God’s promise of prosperity, abundance, and well-being.  He explained it to the Pharisees in the language of spiritual blindness.  They were contesting every claim He had ever made.  They were denying having any need of Him.  Jesus told them this ~ If you claim to see, then you will remain blind.  But if you know you’re blind, I will give you spiritual sight.  When I deny my need of Him, I deny myself the benefits that come with that relationship.  And I can be sure that I don’t even control my unbelief. Satan sees my arrogance and considers it an open invitation to set up a stronghold in every place where I think I’m okay.  Unbelief metastasizes.

Each of us probably knows the saying, ‘Each man has his blind spots.’  A blind spot is any place where a person fails to admit their vision is skewed.  They can even be eloquent in their defense.  Any of us who have tried to argue with someone in the area of their blindness knows the utter frustration of going round and round and getting nowhere.  This is what Paul refers to in 2 Cor. 10:4-5 when he describes ‘every lofty thought that sets itself up against the truth of God.’  It’s their man-made logic, a kind of iron grid, that is only defeated with the sword of the Spirit tearing down the stronghold of deception.

When the sun rises, I remember that I am a child in the kingdom.  No matter my age, I am still small before God.  No matter my accumulation of knowledge, I still need the renewed mind that only He can fashion.  Abundant life is never where I think it’s going to be.  Narrow is the way that leads there and few there be that discover where abundant begins.

Search my heart.  Shine your light on my blind spots so that I may truly see and live in the abundance of Your divine life.  I want to feel the river of Your delights around my feet.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord.  Psalm 119:108

People who withhold words may do so to maintain a sense of power over others.  They refuse to affirm, or praise, and one never knows where you stand with them.  When those people are your parents, it’s very unsettling for a child.  You grow up unsure of yourself.   So when I approach God, am I repeating the past by being stingy with my own words?

• When someone loves me, I want to hear all about their love.  Why they love, what they love, when they first loved, and how committed their love is.  God is no different.  May I never just croak out a stingy form of expressed love by joining the crowd in singing, “I Love You, Lord.”  That won’t do.

• When someone has really hurt me and attempts to offer an apology, I don’t want a token “Sorry!”  It’s important to hear them express what they did and how they feel about the fact that they hurt me.  Feelings of remorse should be present if the apology is real. When I go to the altar to deal with my own sin, am I offering a token “Sorry!”, or am I willing to tell God what I did and how I feel about the fact that I’ve offended Him?  Am I brokenhearted because I broke our fellowship and will I tell Him so?

Hosea is one who encouraged plentiful words.  “Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.”  Hosea 14:2 If my words are few, I don’t have a speech problem but a heart problem.  It is the heart which dictates what lips say.  If my heart is full, speech is uninhibited.

I have been in awkward situations.  So have you.  Words have been stuck in my throat.  My heart was in conflict.  If I find myself ambivalent about God, loving Him one moment but feeling nothing the next, the most important thing I can do is admit it.  I am invited to pour out words in prayer that addresses my conflict.  If I’m just stingy because my heart has grown cold, then I must take myself to the Word and deal quickly with my spiritual condition.  The Spirit will show me when my heart died, and why.

Having been someone who lived for long periods of time in wordless places, I know the exhilaration of now having a language which bubbles over.  My passion for Jesus spills out in words; teaching, storytelling, pleading, encouraging, praying.  God has brought me out of a silent well to a spacious place.  The first thing I heard was my own voice.

Whether I weep or sing, my words are poured out toward your gracious heart for me.   In Jesus name, Amen

I have done what is just and right, do not leave me to my oppressors.  Psalm 119:121

This is the prayer of many today, maybe even you.  Each of us will taste of a season where oppressors torment us.  We will cry out, as David did, to be saved from our enemies.  Sometimes, God immediately delivers but in my experience, that is the exception.  Are we then to presume that God turns a deaf ear to our cries for help?  Continue reading “Is This Really A Prayer God Answers?” →

Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.  Psalm 119:78

There are those who have it in for one of God’s servants.  They will misconstrue what he says, find ways to make him look bad to others and envy his joy.  When he enters a season of God-appointed suffering, there will be private rejoicing in the house of his adversary.

Continue reading “Can I Really Pray This Prayer?” →

Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.  Psalm 37:34

In the midst of desert experiences, the call to wait on the Lord can sound hollow.  I want to know how long suffering is going to last?  King David doesn’t throw out this challenge without personal experience.  He had to wait over a decade to inherit his kingdom and had to also wait to see God’s purposes come to pass against his enemies.

James calls me to remember the prophets.  As an example of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  James 5:10   Abraham received a promise but he never saw it fulfilled in his lifetime.  Knowing that, would I ever say, “What a fool!”  Instead, his faith inspires me.  He believed that endurance would yield a nation, even if on the other side of his own death.

What about a parent who prays for a lifetime for the spiritual return of a child?  Fifty years of praying amidst little encouragement can appear to be futile. Yet, when that child returns to God, yet when that child comes to Christ, would they say that their patience in prayer was wasted? Continue reading “Patience. The Virtue of a Fool?” →