Devotional Blog
Words of Comfort
How can we pray for you today?
“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.” (Psalm 61:1-3)
During the month of February, you cannot help but notice attractive displays of hearts nearly everywhere you go. Card shops, jewelry stores, flower shops, and bakeries carry sentimental heart shaped items ranging from cards to eye-catching necklaces. We purchase such tangible items for our loved ones as an expression of our love.
What about spreading God’s hope, comfort, and love to those who are sick and dying? Sad to say, many avoid those who are physically fading, not knowing what to say or do during this stage of life. At this critical point, they don’t need a tangible item…they need hope, comfort, and love from others.
As followers of Christ, knowing which Bible passages to share to console those needing comfort during this transitional time makes a difference. A compassionate heart, filled with God’s truth and love, brings comfort to His beloved children as He prepares to bring them home. Their physical body may cease but spiritually they live on. Below are passages that will comfort those in need of hope and assurance of God’s promises during this transitional period.
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26)
Additional passages to read: Psalm 23, 27, 84, 91 & 103, Isaiah 40, 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation 21-22.
Heavenly Father, May we be readily prepared to bestow hope, comfort and love to our loved ones during the end stages of life here on earth. May we not shrink, hide, nor fear death for we know that our real home is in heaven and we will live with you in eternity. In Jesus name, Amen
Question: Is there someone who you can share the message of hope with during this Valentine’s season?
Your Choice: Jerusalem or Babylon
“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.‘” (Revelation 17:1-2)
This is the time of year for planning and resolutions, though many will be broken by now. But, it is also a time for an overall trimming of the sails of life and aiming in the direction of the desired port. Where are you going? How do you plan to get there? What do you expect when you arrive?
A number of ancient cities are known for their character. Babylon stands for evil and is described in Revelation 17. The angel took John into the desert and introduced him to an earthly Babylon in the form of a reigning prostitute. Later the angel takes him to the eventual heavenly Jerusalem.
Sometimes when I read or watch the news I am convinced that we are living in a state of Babylon. It seems all we hear in terrorism, domestic abuse, corporate greed and the list goes on. Babylon represents the godless world system, obsessed by political power, religious seduction and self-centered affluence.
Each of us every day is pressured through the media and elsewhere to join in dancing the “Babylon shuffle.” The pressure is great in contemporary society. The prostitute is the perfect symbol of the godless system lurking all around us.
Love is reduced to a price tag. The joining of body parts is not the joining of lives, yet her attraction and allure are undeniable, for her trade is not sexual but rather commercial and even spiritual.
John moves beyond Babylon in Revelation 21: Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
It doesn’t get any better than that. So as we focus on our resolutions and living out this year, let us focus on and aim to Jerusalem. Let’s not be seduced by the clamoring and twittering of Babylon.
Question: The choice is yours. To which will you point your actions and focus throughout the coming year…… Jerusalem or Babylon?
What Are You Expecting?
How can we pray for you today?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
Not long ago I spent a lovely weekend in the magnificent beauty of the Alaskan mountains. I was privileged to be the guest speaker of a women’s retreat there. Precious women extracted themselves from their busy lives from Friday evening to Sunday noon. They took time they didn’t really have to come away…to let their hearts drink in rest and refreshment.
Life noisily demands our attention. It clamors, persistently moving us in many directions. It’s easy to forget that Jesus Himself has invited us to come and find rest for our souls.
Are you expecting His rest to refresh you today? Are you expecting to encounter His strength holding you today? Are you expecting His peace to sustain your heart even in what can sometimes be chaotic days? Are you expecting Him to meet your heart even as you read these words?
Let this invitation, to you from Jesus, steep into your soul like a pot of tea steeps to full flavor. You can expect God to deposit something into your heart even in this moment. Now read it again this way.
“Come unto me today, _____________ (Put in your name), with all the things that weary your body and burden your mind and heart and I will give you rest … for your soul.”
Today you can have the confident expectation that God will hold you as you COME to Him. You are invited. Come and receive:
1. C – CAST your concerns on Him:
1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your cares on Him for He cares for you.”
Lord God, today I bring you the questions on my heart about ______, I bring you my disappointment in _________ and I look, with expectation to You to help me because You care. Thank you!
2. O- OPEN your heart:
Philippians 4:6-7 “Don’t worry about anything but pray about everything. Tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank Him for His answers.”
Lord God, Today I need __________. I ask You for it. I trust in Your strength to hold me and I thank You that You will guide me and direct my path. I wait in expectation.
3. M-MAKE requests:
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Lord God, Your grace is enough for all I am dealing with today. You have promised that even in my weakness Your strength is made perfect. Today I feel weak in ___________. I trust You to strengthen me.
4. E-EXPECT:
Romans 15:13 “May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Lord God, I receive Your joy and peace in my heart right now as I fully trust You to be the Manager of my day today. In the strong name of Jesus I pray, amen.
Question: How do you COME to Jesus today?
Things or Memories
How can you be a better friend? Find out in “The Friendship Reflection”
“I thank my God every time I remember you…” (Philippians 1:3)
On the first Saturday of this past December, I opened the doors of the kitchen cabinet that is high above all others. In that cabinet I store the red plates and cups that grace our table each Christmas. It is not just their color that makes them appropriate for the holiday season. Almost twenty years ago while living in Germany, a friend called to invite me to travel with her and a few other friends to a famous factory where Christmas dinnerware was manufactured. Unfortunately, my schedule was full for that day, but I asked her to bring back three or four of the less expensive plates and mugs.
A week or so later I opened my front door to see Cathy standing there with a complete set of the deep red dinnerware! Conflicting emotions immediately surfaced: “How absolutely beautiful our Christmas table would look!” And, “There is no way I can pay for all this.” But before the latter words came out of my mouth, Cathy said, “This is my Christmas gift to you.” And so through all these years, Cathy’s generosity has come to mind as I set our Christmas table.
This past December I noticed that the dinner plates were no longer bright and pristine. Surface scratches could no longer be hidden with white dinner plates set atop. It was time to pack up the plates and donate them to the re-sale shop down the street.
Even while twinges of sadness rose in my heart, I was reminded that while things wear out, memories remain. If I found replacement red plates, they would not be the same ones given by Cathy, but her generosity and love would be remembered. The temptation to grasp things is strong, especially in later years when such things seem to be the only tangible evidence of the past. But letting go of things while treasuring memories is a healthy way to live.
Dear Father, Thank you for the gift of friendship. Help me to be a good steward of the people you have placed in my life. Amen.
Questions: Have you ever received an unexpectedly generous gift? Has God ever asked you to go above and beyond? How did you respond?
Know Thyself, Know Thy Limits
“Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, ‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.’” (Matthew 8:10, NASB)
Many have entreated mankind to “Know Thyself.” These words are quoted from the ancients: Chilon, Thales, Juvenal, Socrates, Plato and more recently Hobbes, Pope, Linnaeus, Franklin, Emerson, Coleridge and others. Many of these men would point to human capability as the goal of knowledge; Jesus would disagree. Knowing thyself is not completely sufficient.
The ultimate value in knowing yourself lies in knowing your limits. In response to your own limitations you can turn to Christ, the all-sufficient Lord who is able to meet those needs. Matthew chapter eight tells the story of a Roman centurion who believed that Jesus could heal his servant with only a word. The centurion was a powerful man and yet Jesus said he had the greatest faith: greater than any in Israel! Can you imagine how that must have sounded? A gentile, a Roman official, the enemy of the Jews and an unbeliever and he had the greatest faith? How could it be?
He believed. The centurion knew his power as well as his limitations and trusted in the Most High for sustenance and healing. He was a powerful Roman coming to beg at the feet of the Jewish carpenter. It came at the cost of his dignity but the reward of great faith.
Know thyself? It’s still great advice. But know thyself so thoroughly that the walls of your humanity loom tall before you and your faith causes you to fall at the feet of Jesus.
Father God,
You are mighty: high and lifted up. I honour Your name and adore You as the sovereign LORD. Thank You for designing me in Your image. I recognize my failure to be holy like You. My shortcomings are all too clear. I kneel at Your feet and ask You to do for me today what I cannot do for myself. Heal me. By your Spirit, create in me a pure heart O God. Restore me. Make me more like You.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Question: In what ways do your own limitations draw you closer to God?
Irrigation of the Soul
But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. (Deuteronomy 11:11)
Recently I was driving through a rural area with farmlands on both sides of the road. Both were planted with corn ready to be harvested, but I noticed a distinct difference. On one side was a field of lush green tall corn, while on the other side the corn was half as tall and partially browned from the lack of rain.
Why the difference? The answer was simple. One side had an irrigation system and the other did not. The difference was obvious. Crops need water to grow and more water to prosper.
There is a spiritual parallel here. As the roots of agricultural crops need to be irrigated with water, so too do the roots of our being need to be irrigated with the Word of God.
Joy is what we experience when our longing for eternity is satisfied by an encounter with the Lord. When we meet with God through His Word and draw close to Him through righteous living, we enter into fellowship with Him and get a taste of eternity. Psalm 1 reveals that those who take pleasure in and preoccupy themselves with God’s law will prosper and experience true joy. In other words, meditation on God’s Word irrigates our souls and makes us grow.
An encounter with God irrigates our soul. The Bible equates spiritual growth with natural growth. Just like a person is born a baby, so we are born again a spiritual baby. For you have been born again (1 Pet 1:23). Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (1 Pet 2:2).
No one is born a full grown adult. The same is true spiritually: no one is born again as a mature Christian. It takes time to grow. The way you grow is through the spiritual milk (irrigation) of God’s Word. The more you feed on it the more you will grow.
Two very important ways of cultivating our walk with God are through daily time spent with Him and developing meaningful relationships with other Christians. We should carve out time with God through study in His Word and spend adequate time in prayer, and we should spend time with other people who do likewise. Corporate worship is essential to spiritual maturity and development, but so is involvement in small groups and one on one discipleship. So often we learn best as we teach and disciple others.
Question: Do you want to flourish and prosper spiritually? Then take time each day to irrigate your soul.
T Before I
May we pray for you today?
“And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment–to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)
One of the things I love about the English language is how words can contain hidden meanings. The same letters, when arranged slightly differently, can give us a whole different perspective. Take the words UNTIE and UNITE for example.
By simply flipping two letters, the entire meaning of the word changes. One word is becomes the opposite of the other. One binds together, the other separates. Spell check won’t pick that up by the way, since both are real words. But oh, how different the meaning becomes when you mistakenly switch those two letters.
Two letters make all the difference. I like to think that the “I” stands for “me” and “T” stands for “their, they or them”. If I put their needs above my own, I take on the servitude attitude of Christ. But, as long as I stay in the two-year-old phase of my spiritual growth and think the world revolves around my desires I will separate people from me. My motives will be I-centered, not they-centered. Instead of being a unifying factor, I will push people away with my self-centeredness.
But, you say, “Wait. That doesn’t work. In the word UNITE, I is before T.”
True, it doesn’t work, unless you add the UN – which means not. Therefore, if I am “un” I, (or not me-orientated) I will unite. But, if I’m “un” T (or not them- orientated), I will untie what once united me to them.
So what does the “E” stand for since it is at the end of both UNITE and UNTIE? It stands for everything. Reread Ephesians 1:9-10.
As Christians we are in the uniting business. We are to unite our wills to Christ. We are to unite as a body of believers. We are to bring people together instead of letting pride, envy, greed, prejudice or anger separate us. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, and while not condoning sin, we should not let anyone’s sin cloud our judgment. We are to love the sinner into remission and help them back on the right path, uniting them back into the fold.
Christ is ultimately the uniting factor of all. He takes the unit (each of us) and makes it one. With Him as my guide, I can try each day to do that as well. T before I.
Heavenly Lord, You came to unite all of us to You, to reconcile us by Your sacrifice on the cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Help me each day to put “them” before “I” in all I do, say and think, so I may draw those around me into Your loving embrace. Amen.
Question: What will you deliberately do to be “un I” today?
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Mustard Seed
Do you have faith the size of a mustard seed? Do you believe God can use you to impact His Kingdom? We have an awesome opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of people each month. Will you help us impact this world?
“[Jesus] told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)
Jesus told many parables comparing the kingdom of God to something familiar to help people understand what Heaven is like. He said it’s like a tiny mustard seed (Matthew 13:31, Mark 4:30, Luke 13:18); like yeast that works through a large amount of dough (Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:20), and like the seed a man scatters, which grows even though he doesn’t know how (Mark 4:26).
God doesn’t build His kingdom through a complex international strategy with a slick business or marketing plan. It doesn’t make national news. Instead, quietly – starting with one person of faith – it grows and spreads.
It starts with a person like you, who may not possess great communication skills, but who believes Jesus’ sacrifice paid for your sin. As you live in the freedom that forgiveness brings, you influence your husband and your children. The peace and joy displayed in your life changes the atmosphere of your home. Impatience, criticism and selfishness begin to melt away. Friends and neighbors start to notice.
A teaspoon of yeast can make three cups of flour rise. A single mustard seed grows into a plant large enough for birds to sit on its branches. Flower seeds planted in the garden each summer germinate and sprout while we sleep! It doesn’t take much because God does the work. We don’t even have to understand how it works; we just need to surrender our lives to Him.
Holy God, help me to understand what Your kingdom is like. May I willingly allow You to spread Your kingdom through me. Amen.
Question: When have you seen a small step of faith produce something great?
Lifting Off the Weights
Are you carrying spiritual weight? Talk to us.
In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat. (Isaiah 10:27)
Well it is that time of the year again, an annual experience when I get a report on my most up to date physical condition. I have been to every kind of ologist there is and have too many times been asked to dress in an undersized grocery bag. I have been poked, prodded and stuck more times than I can imagine.
For the most part, all checked out well, but I still don’t like those sentences that begin ……”but for a person of your age.” I am blessed with good family medical history and I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t hang around with those who do. But, this year, as with most years, there is that one factor … weight. Some doctors refer to it as obese and refer to the charts. Those docs who know me on a first name basis use the word “fat.” I tell them that I am not overweight, just two feet short according to the charts.
So, here I go again, off to shed the pounds. It’s easy. I have done it many times and lost hundreds of pounds. Mark Twain once commented how easy it was to quit smoking, as he had done it hundreds of times.
No, it’s not easy. It is plain hard work and once you get to the target goal it is a bear to stay there. Let’s face it, I like to eat and that it the root of my problem. It creeps up gradually pound by pound and all of a sudden I am, well … fat again.
Sin is like that. Our natural man likes to do it and it creeps up on you sin by sin and soon you are drowning in it. We can try to wish it away, desire it to be away and even pray it away, but there is nothing passive about resisting sin. It, like losing weight, is just plain hard work. As humans, we like to sin, because Satan wraps it in such beautiful packages.
Physical weight has its consequences. Someone recently asked me how many fat people I knew who were over seventy. It was a sobering question. Sinful weight also has its consequences, often deadly. Isaiah (10:27) talks about a burden lifted from our shoulders. It is an image of deliverance from oppression and calamity.
It is time for all of us to throw off the sinful burden our shoulders and the yolk around our neck. Get serious. Get real. Sin will take you under and drown you, so we all need to work hard to throw it off.
As for me, I am a man on a mission … a mission to shed the pounds, so if you see me, shake my hand, but please don’t offer me a Twinkie.
When You Can’t, God Can
“With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
When we are going through a trial it’s hard to imagine how things will get better. God wants us to depend on Him in every trial we face. When we can’t, God can. Because God loves us as dearly loved children, He is willing and able to turn our situation around if we will depend on Him, trust in Him, and wait on Him.
In Genesis, when Pharaoh had a disturbing dream foreshadowing the seven years of famine that would come upon Egypt, he told Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” (Gen. 41:15) Joseph was the king’s last hope. I imagine the pressure on Joseph to interpret the king’s dream was intense.
Instead of making something up to humor the king, like other wise men probably did in hopes to save their neck, Joseph openly admits to Pharaoh “I cannot do it”. Clearly this was not the answer Pharaoh wanted to hear. However, Joseph goes on to say “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” (Gen. 41:16) “But God” — I bet those two words were music to Pharaoh’s ears. Joseph couldn’t give Pharaoh the answers he sought, but God would. Not only did God give Pharaoh the interpretation to his dream, He used Joseph mightily to prepare for the famine and exercise his gift of administration.
What are you facing today that only God can turn around? No matter what you are facing, no matter what you may face, no matter what your need—rest assured, when you can’t, God can. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5), but with God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26).
God thank you that no matter how discouraging my circumstances may be, I can have hope because You can turn it all around and make a way when there was no way. Help me Lord to do my part to trust you and wait on your deliverance. Amen.
Question: When you need help, which Bible verses do you turn to for wisdom and assurance?
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