Devotional: His Love Remains

For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

Isaiah 54:10 NLT

From bible.com

I have never been one to like change. I like comfort and ease of mind, not upheaval and uncertainty. But I am aware that things have to change and that things are changing all the time. Even the face of the earth is changing every day. Tectonic plates move, earthquakes tear scars into the land, mountains erode while hills become mountains. Only one thing never changes, God.

Though everything around is may come crumbling down. The mountains turn to dust and the rivers dry up, God is still there. His love has remained the same and he continues to pour his blessings on his people.

We should give up the comfort and ease of mind in our lives and place it all on God. With the assurance of God we can face the upheavals and uncertainties. We can face whatever the world throws at us and all of our weaknesses will show the world how great our Lord is. In our present sufferings, God is shown the strongest of all. God is our comfort and ease of mind. His love remains.



Lord send me your comfort today as I go out into an uncertain world. Remind me of your promises and your love every time I doubt. If the world were to end today, I take peace in knowing You.

Devtional: De-frag

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.

Psalms 119:105 HCSB

I was sitting in church one day and my dad, who I have mentioned before is the pastor, said something that got me thinking. What he said I have no clue any more, but it made me laugh at the thought that came to me.

From bible.com

For anyone who has used windows in the past, you know how terrible it's behind the scenes filing and storing system is. It saves bits and pieces all over the place and eventually make it so that things slow down and run bad. So bad that Windows actually added a program to keep things straight, Disk De-fragmentation. That is a big word to write. But what it does is takes the fragmented files, however they came about, like deletion and overwriting, and moves them into a place where the disk can get to the files faster. It basically makes windows faster by putting them in a better order. New systems no longer need to do this and its even better if you use an SSD.

This got me thinking a little. In life, when you are broken and worn down, when you feel like everything is crumbling and you are lost in your walk through life, God works as Life De-fragmentation. No matter how bad it is, God can get you back on track, but its a much better track than what you were on before. When God aligns your life, as opposed to you try to align it yourself, things work better. We need to let God rearrange us daily so that we avoid becoming fragmented 

Lord, keep me from fragmenting in my walk with you. Help me to be a light to draw others to you today.

Devotional: Faith

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

Hebrews 11:1 HCSB

Faith is something all gamers should have, and usually in abundance. We often follow games across their series, like Halo and Call of Duty, or we are often followers of a publisher, or developer, like Nintendo and Square Enix. We approach a game from its respective source with an assurance of a great game.

From bible.com

It is true though, not all games will deliver and meet the high expectations that we put around them. However, there is one who has never let you down, never broke a promise, and can meet any expectations you have. God, through salvation in Jesus, has given us the greatest expansion there ever could be and we are invited to be there, free of charge at it’s release.

The second coming is drawing closer, but still we know not the time nor the day, month, or even year that it will come, but nevertheless, it will come. Like so many other developers, It comes when it is done.

Today ponder one question, Will you be prepared on launch day?

Devotional: Treasure

I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.
Psalms 119:11 CSB

From bible.com

I have an old bible that I had received as a young teenager that keep in a cubby on my desk. In this old bible I have a card. It is a condolences card I got from the vet when my first cat had died. The card meant a lot to me, I loved that cat. Every now and then I look at it and remember my cat, her name was Thomasina. I keep this card so that I can use it to trigger those memories of her and keep my love for her a little longer in my heart.

Deep in our hearts is where we store things that we never want to forget. The things that mean the most to us. The psalmist wrote that he kept God's word in his heart, he treasured it, he didn't want to forget. God's word is the most important treasure there ever could be. It is a treasure of life, love and peace. In Christianity we know that God's Word is Jesus. And nothing more than Him deserves a place hidden in our hearts. If we keep Jesus there, remembering often, we can keep His love in our hearts longer. We can learn to keep it there, center of our hearts, and when we do, it will begin to overflow into the world. If we let so much overflow, there can be no denying God's love for the whole world.

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
— Thornton Wilder

Devotional: Darkness

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:5 NIV

Have you ever been outside at night in the country, it had just rained, the ground is still wet and the sky is still thickly covered in clouds? Everything is dark. It seems that no light can escape the darkness. The darkness feels heavy and oppressive. You are straining to see anything in front of you as you walk. Then suddenly way off in the distance you see a single small light cutting through the night. You aren't able to tell how far away it is yet, but you can see it and you begin to walk toward it. It is a beacon in the darkness and no amount of darkness could every put it out. Even this far away your pupils are drinking in the light as small traces of it are bounced off the leaves and the grass. 

From bible.com

In life, we find times when we are left in a figuratively total darkness. We have no idea where to go, what might be ahead of us and everything inside is saying either stay where you are or go back to where you know there is safety. It comes natural to us when we can't see whats next. But God is like that light way off in the distance. He is cutting through the darkness and nothing the darkness can do will dim His light in anyway. But we have to learn to focus on that tiny bit of light and let it lead us into whatever comes next. Let this single light guide our steps and our choices. When we get to the end off all of this, we will be safely home in the light. Where no darkness can touch us again. 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Devotional: Endurance

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.
Romans 5:3 NLT

From bible.com

Life brings us many hard times that we will have to face. It also brings us many physical illnesses, like cancer and heart disease, and mental illnesses, like depression and heartache. Sometimes it seems like we are being run down day after day with new problems in our lives. Sometimes we don't even want to get back up after being down so long. But there is some good that can come of the troubles.

As Christians, we have Jesus who can pick us up and support us. With Jesus by our side, we can face these troubles and build up endurance. Like a runner who is working on endurance for a marathon, the more we go through the stronger we will be when the next hard time comes. And when it is all over, we will have a great prize in Jesus and being members of the Kingdom of Heaven.

I know it is hard to rejoice when things are hard and we can barely see the next wave before it is crashing over us, but despite the pain, we can rejoice in the Lord always. We can face anything the world will throw at us because we have God on our side.

Lord, though I hurt inside and things are trying to keep me down, I know I can rejoice in you. You will give me strength when I need it and comfort when the tears flow. I thank you God for the endurance to keep moving until I come home to you.

Devotional: Brevity

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.
Psalms 90:12

From bible.com

As someone who is getting closer to middle aged than his childhood, I have come to realize how fast life moves. One moment you are graduating and becoming and adult. You have a bright outlook on life and excited to move forward. The next you are comfortable in your job, doing the same thing day in and day out, and twenty years has past and you are still trying to figure out what you should be doing with your life. Life is short. Sure we have eighty to ninety years of it, but compared to the age of the earth that's nothing at all. Compared to God it is not even a blink.

When we take a moment to look at how short life is, we should also take a moment to realize we need to start living every day. Not letting day after day go to waste as time moves ever forward. When we accept that life is short and we will live in each moment of it, and live fully, we will step out and live a real life. A life filled with God and family. Again, life is short and we need to share Jesus with as many as we can because we never know how little time we might have left.

Lord, help me to live each moment for you, and live it to the fullest. Let no minute of my life be left to waste while there are still people who might not know you.