Category: Daily Devotionals

The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. John 1:9

The Hebrew word for light means ‘to illuminate.’   Jesus is the Illuminator.  At creation, when there was darkness and chaos, the Word said, ‘Let there be light.’ He shed some light on the world and brought order our of disorder.

Do you have a situation in your life that lacks clarity? Have you been asking God for understanding? Once He chooses to bestow the gift of light, His influence over darkened minds, seizes the landscape. He illumines what is cloudy. He puts a magnifying glass over the twisted strands of thread and all of a sudden, we can see the steps we need to take to untangle what is knotted.

Yesterday, we were lost in the fog. Today, we have discovered God’s plan. Yesterday, we were grasping at spiritual straws. Today, we have what we need in our hands. Yesterday, we had faith but no enlightenment. Today, our prayers have precision, and our faith has vision.

The Word of God gives light to the eyes. Today, God is going to be the Light giver across this dark landscape. For someone, He will cure spiritual blindness and allow them to see the light and glory of Jesus. For someone else, He will turn the light on a concept that correctly diagnoses what has held them captive. For a teacher, He will enlighten a passage and give spiritual understanding for Sunday’s lesson. For a mother, He will enlighten the spiritual condition of her child so that she can apply spiritual cures. For a business owner, God will enlighten the discord within his company and lead him to replace worldly business strategies with kingdom principles.

Light is a life-saving thing. When I need it, and when God gives it, I fall on my knees in gratitude. I am responsible to take the light to the darkness and bring the laws of heaven to this earth.

Oh, Light of the world, we are Your city on a hill. Amen

When [they shepherds] had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. Luke 2:17   What a person experiences after a spiritual mountaintop is often withheld from a storyline. After the shepherds saw the heavens open, and after they found Jesus, and after they witnessed what they saw, what happened next? Did they continue to believe? Did they keep track of Jesus until his parents took him to Egypt? We’re not told.    But we know the nature of faith and the nature of mountaintops and valleys. We know that not all the shepherds would have gone on to worship God with their lives. Holy moments dim with time. Daily living consumes.  Holy moments are rare.  Holy men who experience them and then go on to finish well are even rarer.   My own storyline has been dotted with more God moments than I deserved, and yet, they didn’t always carry me through the dark times.  There were moments I still doubted and battled hopelessness. It wasn’t that I didn’t remember the mountaintops. I did. But I couldn’t connect with them like I did just after they happened.    We’ll never know how many shepherds were on the hillside. We’ll never know if all of them left to go to Bethlehem. We’ll never know if they were all equally impacted by the baby in the manger. And we’ll never know how many went on to live changed lives from that time forward. But some did. God picks who will be privileged to witness the supernatural. For some of them, it will be the defining moment that forever changes the direction of their lives.   Take me back to the moments I need to review to be strengthened and re-purposed. Amen

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.  Isaiah 40:11

When an ancient king from the east made a trek through a desert landscape, the way was prepared beforehand by his people.  The road was inspected, repaired if needed, and all that would harm or obstruct his journey was removed.

Jesus came to prepare the way for His flock to walk the path to His kingdom.  The little Shepherd who napped in the manger would be the One who would make crooked paths straight.  He would remove each barrier of sin and condemnation.  He would defeat the foe who would lure people onto the wrong pathway.

Not only was He the little Shepherd but He was also the little Overseer of our souls.

For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.  I Peter 2:25 

He would be the caretaker of the inside world of those He loves.  He would expose sin, the sin that destroys us.  He would inspire repentance, a deep apology, and a heart change that restores life.  He would point to each crooked place in the human heart to make the paths straight without painful detours.  He would cheer on those who limped. He would pick up the lame until they could walk again.  He would help the feeble, working within each nuance of their emotional and spiritual limitations.  This little Shepherd would shepherd perfectly.  No one would be overlooked, and not one under His care would have reason to live in shame and dwell in hiding. 

Everyone has a deep desire to be known by one who loves them.  Because we were made for this, our soul strains to be under the care of one who sees it all and offers to shape an environment where we can thrive. 

You are the perfect Shepherd, the One who daily provides soul care if I let You. Give me the faith to let you define what is best for me without shunning Your influence.  Amen

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?  How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Psalm 13:1-2

The theme of waiting saturates the whole redemption story.  God waited so long to send a Savior after the fall of Adam and Eve.  Did they look for Jesus after they were banished from the garden?  If they understood the prophetic words God spoke over them, they did. 

In their lifetime, however, He didn’t come.  He didn’t restore them to paradise.  Things just got worse.  Their descendants loved to sin and the serpent, the god of this world, appeared to be the one who controlled everything. 

‘How long, O Lord?’ was the cry of God’s people.  Suffering appeared to have the last word as they waited for their Messiah.  It appeared that He was late and uncaring.  There was a faithful remnant who offered proclamations of faith in the darkness.  They endured the scourges of many enemies and the eventual captivity in Babylon.  They saw the destruction of their beautiful temple, waited four hundred more years through an interminable period of silence, and bent under the tyranny of Roman rule before Jesus came.  They didn’t recognize the Miracle when He came.  They never guessed that their answer was a baby sleeping in an animal’s cradle. 

Today, we still wait.  Emmanuel came once, stayed a while, but promised that He would come again. Why is He, again, waiting so long to rescue?  How can He restrain Himself from coming when evil is rampant upon the earth?  Waiting has so many unanswered questions. The challenge for me is to lament well and find the spiritual grit to make proclamations of faith. 

In every way you might be watching for His salvation this Christmastime, do not let Your trust in God be shaken.  Rest in the mystery of His timetable.  Grieve – but not without faith.  Expect ~ but not with a sense of entitlement.  Question ~ but not with a fist.  History will always reveal that love prevailed in the waiting. 

In my tears, give me the grace to trust You yet not live in denial and passivity.  Amen

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  Genesis 12:1

Jesus said that no one could follow him unless they were willing to leave father and mother, brother and sister.  Did He speak theoretically, or did He know, personally, the price of leaving kindred and the comforts of home?  He knew the cost.  Jesus knew that following His Father’s voice would prove to be stressful for family dynamics.   

Yahweh had divine rights to Jesus.  He shaped His identity.  He established parameters and boundaries.  He set future goals for Him, culminating in paying the price for sin on a cross.  He guided and encouraged Him all the way there, and then all the way home from the confines of a tomb. 

Obedience and honor were the responsibilities of this Son of God.  As Jesus modeled pilgrimage, there was stress. He set off on a course for which He had no roadmap.  He trusted God for the next step on His journey.  He never knew what the next day would bring.  It unfolded as He listened and followed directions.  He had to learn obedience.  It wasn’t hard-wired.  He knew intimately the stresses of following His Father’s voice. 

The call of Abram to leave his parents and family to establish a new allegiance was extended to Jesus and is still extended to every son and daughter of God.  When I was born into God’s family, I left the authority of my earthly father for my heavenly Father.  God’s commands took precedence over all other influences.  I submitted to His Fatherhood as He shaped me, established parameters, set goals, and corrected and encouraged me.  Obedience and honor are my responsibility, just as they were for Jesus.

The call of God will be burdensome when family loyalties are threatened and when Christian friends think my steps are too radical. That’s because the only one who hears the call is the very one to whom God speaks.  Jesus knew the disdain of His parents and siblings.  When at its worst, his family thought He was mad.  On one occasion, Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were waiting to see Him outside a ministry venue. He made it clear to those delivering the message that even mothers and brothers had no personal advantage because they were related to Him.  They, too, had to hear the call and set out on their own pilgrimage.

When my obedience is tested with famine, breathe over me Your encouragement.  As you did for Jesus, feed me with the manna of heaven.  Amen

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Messiah] comes.  Genesis 49:10

If I look for a biblical hero to emulate, Joseph is always a good choice.  His fidelity to God amidst great suffering has inspired believers like me down through the ages.  Of all of Jacob’s sons, Joseph gets the most attention.  Yet, it is not from the line of Joseph that Jesus was born.  The highly flawed sons of Jacob didn’t mess things up so severely that God disqualified them from His covenant of blessing.  The promises of God prevailed over sin. 

What was the purpose of Joseph’s life?  It was to save Judah and His descendants.  If Joseph had not assumed a place of power in Egypt, he could not have brought his father and brothers there to live.  Jacob and all his descendants would have perished in a great famine.  It’s hard for me to grasp that Joseph was used by God to save a scoundrel brother who had sold him into slavery.  That seems twisted.

But God is wild and wonderful. He exalts the likes of Judah.  He blesses adulterers like King David.  He forgives betrayers like Peter.  He saves persecutors and murderers like Paul.  Judah, at the end of his life, offered to give his own for the life of another brother.  He finally chose righteousness. The common thread in all of these stories was a heart of repentance.  God’s forgiveness was so radical that an entire past was put under His atoning blood.

No family is perfect. Some haven’t seen their children and grandchildren in years. They grieve. They feel embarrassed.  They fear they are entirely to blame.  They dread being asked about family when they’re out with friends.  Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to them? Is it relevant to us in the very places we long to see the righteousness of God revealed in the lives of our family members?   Yes.

This Christmas, as we hear the Christmas story and are tempted to zone out at the reading of the lineage of Jesus, let’s wake up and sit on the edge of our seats.  When Judah’s name is mentioned, let’s worship the God who works in family messes.  Let’s marvel, even if by faith, that no one is out of His reach.  Let’s put that faith into action by praying for a renegade’s forthcoming repentance.  God’s redemptive storyline spreads to the darkest corners of our lives.

For every family ‘Joseph’, there are tears of joy.  For every family ‘Judah’, there are tears of faith.  You are God over every family drama that is brought to your feet in prayer.  Amen

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. Genesis 37:23

Joseph was stripped of his royal kind of robe. Jesus was stripped of his robe, too. The momentary humiliation didn’t change the destiny or the spiritual identity of either. Jesus stayed in touch with his belovedness but I suspect that Joseph did not. History would prove that the brother’s destruction of the robe of many colors, and the brother’s criminal treatment of Joseph, would do nothing to stop his ascension to a royal position in Egypt. Their sin against him only set it in motion.

Jesus was God’s Son whether anyone acknowledged Him or not. If the accusation flew that he was only the illegitimate son of Mary, Jesus was still God. When the crowd publicly humiliated him by accusing him of demonic possession, Jesus was still God. When His family eventually turned on Him and believed Him to be mentally unstable, Jesus was still God. When He hung on a Roman cross and died the most degrading death in existence, His spiritual status did not change. Jesus was still God.

If ever there were a world in which I needed to settle my spiritual identity, it’s this one. It is growing more and more unfriendly to the name of Jesus Christ, and anyone associated with Him will experience discrimination. If a barb from a parent can lay me low for four decades, how will I survive a community that ostracizes me? Suppose unfair criticism from a local spiritual leader sends me into hiding. How will I sustain the intentional diatribe of non-Christians who are looking for things they can misrepresent?

No ill-treatment in this world can change my status in heaven. God’s kingdom is what counts; it is eternal. Things on earth should be discounted; they will pass away. Though I am hated here, not one ill feeling comes from the Father above who calls me His. While earth bestows the basest kind of shame, God bestows the heavenliest kind of honor.

The only way to stay in touch with these beautiful realities is to read a Word that is eternal, not temporary. Whatever it says is true forever and ever. Today, I may be Joseph in a pit. Tomorrow, I will be reigning with Christ.

Every time Jesus was crushed, He looked up until He felt Your favor. I lock my eyes on You. Amen