Devotional: Worship

The Lord said: These people approach me with their speeches to honor me with lip-service yet their hearts are far from me, and human rules direct their worship of me.        -Isaiah 29:13 (CSB)

Have you ever had someone tell you something very nice to your face, but then when they are whispering behind your back, you find out they are saying mean things? It happens a lot. People do not always say what they mean, think, or feel. It happens in schools, work places, and sometimes even at church. Sometimes we do it to God. We say "Praise God in the storm!" and turn and utter blasphemes in the aftermath.

God knows our hearts, he doesn't have to hear our words, but he likes to hear them. When we stick so strictly to the man made rules of worship in our churches, we forget how to really worship God. It is our actions and our hearts that we use to praise God. These are the tools we should be using to worship.

From bible.com

Sticking to "the way it's always been" means nothing to a God who sings new songs. Let's not let human made rules keep us from giving our hearts to the Lord. Do not let your praise and worship be only lip-service, but put your whole heart into life-service for God.

Lord, may the actions of my life and heart praise you.

Devotional: Be Strong

Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Do everything in love.              -1 Corinthians 16:13-14 

Keeping things close to your chest, being safe and relaxed is something, I think, all humans do. It comes natural to know we have something to fall back onto when we are troubled. Man caves, she sheds, even just having a roof over our heads, we all want the security and comfort of knowing it is there. When we step out of that zone, it is hard to be courageous. Asking someone out, trying something new, skydiving, there are all sorts of things to fall back into comfort and hide.

From bible.com

But God told us to be courageous. Being strong and courageous is often thought of with Joshua. But it is used a lot, the author of Psalm 27:14 added wait for the Lord. Paul added being alert and standing firm in the faith. We usually look at this quote as an encouragement, something to build your confidence up with, but God gave it as a command. Joshua 1:9 God reminded Joshua that it was a command to be strong and courageous. It isn't a choice Christians have, it is an command from God.

Paul added "Do everything in love." Indeed, with love like God's, we should be a mighty and strong army of believers. Where ever we go, people should look and wonder how we are so loving, and want a piece of this. Love is dangerous, but we have faith in God, who is the best love, and we can face the world with strength and courage. We can change the whole world by doing everything we do if we do it with a strong and courageous love.

Lord, help me go out this day with firm footing in you. Give me courage and strength to love like only you can do.

Devotional: Giving

But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.   -Matthew 6:3-4 (CSB)

People want instant gratification. They want to be in the spot light and be thanked for doing anything even giving to the poor. From time to time you will hear a news story about how a star in Hollywood has donated several thousand dollars to some charity for example making a tweet about how you are going to give $500,000 to charity. This is a good thing, but putting it out there is to get the people to reward you with their praise. Philanthropy is a great thing, but when we do it to get the gratification and instant recognition for doing it, we have already received our reward.

From bible.com

Jesus told us not to sound trumpets like the hypocrites do, but give in secret. Even to the point of hiding it from your own body. When you give in privately, God will be the one who rewards you for it. Just as doing good deeds in front of others so the
y see it, you have your rewards. They applaud you, smack you on the back and say "Good Job." But when you do good, when you give, God will give you a much better reward, and one that will last forever.

Imagine how cool it would be that when you get to heaven, Jesus shows you the place he prepared for you and behind it he shows you a giant warehouse. He turns to you and smiles, "Oh for all the good things you did in private, giving to the poor, doing good things to random people, my Father has given you everything in this building, rewards that are so beyond whatever you could have earned on earth." You get everything you could ever want and Jesus will be there to enjoy it with you. And it is just between you and the Lord of All Creation.

Lord, give me the chance to give in secret, to give with love like you give to us. Give me the chance to brighten someones day and share your great Grace to the world.

Devotional: Love

From bible.com

If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. -1 Corinthians 13:2 (NLT)

There are many superheroes in the (fictional) world today. We have a huge Marvel Cinematic Universe that has become a box office juggernaut. We have decades of comic books, nearly a century actually, to look at as well. Some of these heroes have powers or gifts we can only dream of, flying, laser eyes, able to climb walls, and teleportation just to name a few. The are, in a way, the pinnacle of humanity in what they can do and make us normal humans look like we are nothing. But according to Paul in Corinthians, if they don't love others, they are nothing.

God gives us many gifts to use to further His kingdom here on Earth. If you have never taken a spiritual gifts survey, it is a very good thing to do. It can shed light on things that you might not realize you would be good at. He gives us many things when we ask, Solomon had wisdom unparalleled, but despite all the gifts we have, all the wisdom we could ask for, we are nothing at all if we do not love.

Jesus loved us so much as to die upon the cross for us. God loved us so much that he sent his son to die. Jesus summed up all the laws when he reminded us the greatest commandment is love God with all you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love is always the answer. Let's be something more than we are, let's be superheroes in a world of hurt and pain, and love everyone with such an overwhelming love it can only be God.

Lord, as I go through the day, remind me to love. Teach me how to love like you do. Help me to be something in the world, a superhero even, by showing this world your overwhelming love. 

Devotional: Strong Refuge

From bible.com

The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust him."     Nahum 1:7 NLT

You ever feel like the world is crushing you with trouble after trouble? It is very easy to relate to other people through the troubles. The wildfires in California have devastated many peoples lives. Troubles do not come much harder than losing everything you own. Natural disasters all over the world have left so many people hurting, feeling destroyed, like God is out to get them. But hard times and troubles will come to everyone at some point. It is what we do during those times that make a difference in our lives.

Some people just drop, crying, blaming everyone and everything they can. While others lash out at people trying to help. Sadly troubles do not show the best side of humans. But Christians, we know that troubles come every day, while sometimes they are worse than others, we have a place we can go to find peace. God told the people of Nineveh of destruction and devastation that would befall them. Something that could happen to any of us at any time as well. But as the prophet told them about his anger, like a fire turning even the mountains to dust, He gave them a hope and a comfort.

The Lord is the refuge we all need when troubles come, and the fires devastate, the earthquakes destroy, and our loved ones die. If we trust in the Lord, we will have a peace amidst the flame. We have an assurance that we will be ok. A chance to remember that we are not of this world, but we are of Heaven, where all our tears will be wiped away, and we will be a peace forever. It is hard to deal with at the moment, but try hard to keep God close

Lord as I face daily troubles, and hope against the life changing kind, I ask that you pull me closer to your mighty refuge. That I trust in you completely no matter what comes my way. 

Devotional: By Grace

From bible.com

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. -Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT

Do you know someone who likes to boast about the things they've done? Maybe it is boasting about their Gamerscore, or how much money they make. Maybe it is about things they own, or some thing in their life they hold as very high importance. A lot of people boast about a lot of things. I understand boasting is more about showing how you are better than the person you are talking to. I have a problem with people when they boast to put others down, but I also know that I sometimes boast like this as well. And we are in good company, so did the early church.

It seems to me, that Paul had to remind the people of Ephesus that it the salvation that God gives us is not because of something we have done, but something God did for us, through Grace. Paul is reminding us that salvation is not something we earned, something we work day in and day out to get. No it was given to us by God because we believed in his Son. In fact, we have done nothing to even earn his grace but he loved us so completely anyways.

So if you have a feeling to boast about anything today, boast about the abundant love God has for us. How when we did nothing to earn it, God gave us a way to salvation through his Son and the love God has for us. God is truly something boast-worthy.

Lord, when I feel the need to try one up someone, remind me that the only thing I have to boast is you. Help me to share you with the world so they too may be able to boast You.

Devotional: Victory

Hey everyone, it, again, has been a long time. I have had a really hard time writing anything. I have many drafts of things that I haven't been able to work out yet. Yet nothing to post, so I thought I would try something new. I am going to take the daily verse from the bible app I use. I don't think these will be long, kind of like devotional size, or maybe not. We will see. I am hoping I can do this for more than one post.... We will see.

From bible.com

"No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is our through Christ, who loved us."

-Romans 8:37 NLT

It is easy in this world to feel broken, lost, defeated. Sometimes you feel so very far from Jesus, maybe even think he no longer loves you because of all the pain you face, but we have an assurance that few others have in hard times. Despite everything that can go wrong, everything that we can lose, we have the final victory through Jesus. The CJB version says we are superconquerors, I like that. We are not just the winners, we are in every way possible, so much over just being a winner, we have God's own promise of victory over death, and eternity with him.

How are we so sure that we have this "overwhelming victory" in every battle we may face? We have "...Christ, who loved us." This takes me back to John. How much did Christ Jesus love us? That he gave his life on the cross for whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. This is a guarantee. Jesus was the first to be risen, not by someone else, but by his own hand, and he is our key to a door we will open at the end of all things. And if Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to die for us, how much more the love of God is that he sent Him to die for us, to bring us back to Him.

No matter what takes you down in your day, be assured that things will get better. You will have the victory and peace in your life, when we become one with God. We can face anything that the world throws at us because we already won, 2000 years ago at the cross.

Lord, when I hit a hard time in my life, remind me that it will not last, that I already have victory through your Son and will have eternity to revel in Your victory.