Well, folks, it is less than 1 week before Election Day in America, and if you are like most, you think both candidates are a stinky choice for authority!
So let’s talk today about authority. We, as Christians, have to remember that God has ordained all the authorities put in place, including our government, our president, our church leaders, our pastor, our families, our parents, our husbands, our bosses and anyone else who is the authority in our life.
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” Romans 13:1-2
Boy, is this a heavy topic. I feel like our American culture has surely drifted away from respecting authority. We see it everywhere-the police, our parents, our bosses-everywhere. It is all about “me” and not many people are respecting the authority figures placed above them.
So back to the election…No matter what the outcome of this election, God is the one that put them in that place. (Remind me to reread this after the results are announced!) But seriously, we must remember that God’s plan is perfect, and He always works out every scenario in order to glorify Himself! Crazy to think that one of our Presidential candidates will be used to glorify God, right? But remember Pilate? He was placed in a position of authority, and God still received glory from his leadership. He was the one that crucified Jesus-glory to God!
So let’s put our faith in God and not in people, and remember that even through this election, God is in control!
God, thank you for the authorities you have placed in my life. Forgive me for not trusting in your sovereignty. Help me to trust in the leaders you have placed in my country, my home and all aspects of my life. Help me be faithful to pray for the authorities over me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Today, we are talking about how you dress and what that means for you and for others. Sorry gentlemen, today this post is geared more toward women, but read along and share it with your female friends too if you’d like!
Ladies, our clothing style can tell others who we are, our values and often what we believe. If a woman dresses risqué, she is typically looking for attention. If she is overly focused on her outward appearance, how others view her looks is often very important. 1 Timothy 2:9-10 tell us that we should neither dress immodestly or over-the-top in order to get attention.
Let’s take a closer look at those verses: 1 Timothy 2:9-10-“…likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modest and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness-with good works.”
What this doesn’t mean: It doesn’t mean that we are not supposed to look pretty. No, I firmly believe that you can look beautiful given the description above. It also doesn’t mean we can never braid our hair. Nor does it mean that we are not allowed to wear gold or pearls.
We have to consider the context of these verses and during the time these verses were written, women were out of control with braiding their hair and buying expensive jewelry in order to look better than everyone else. Their clothing was not glorifying God, but instead becoming a distraction. In these verses, Paul was addressing the behind the scenes reasoning for purchasing such extravagant clothing and jewelry because the women were being distracted by elegant fashion instead of doing the work of the Lord.
Don’t be distracted by the words Paul is saying, but listen to the point he is making. Gals, let’s dress modestly in order to not distract ourselves or others from God’s glory. His glory is more exquisite than anything we can ever put on anyway. Let’s allow others to see who we truly are-Godly women-instead!
God, thank you for your words of conviction and grace. Allow me to be an encouragement to others. Forgive me for being a distraction both to myself and to others. Help me to see the Godliness in others and not be distracted by them either. Pour out Your love through me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
I love this verse, so let’s just jump right in! Today, we are talking about praying to a BIG God.
Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
I want to encourage you today to pray BIG prayers. Trust in a big God, and know He is able to do far more than we can ever even imagine!
Let’s talk about this big God we can trust in for a minute. I am talking about the God that spoke the universe into existence. He spoke, and everything came into existence. Friends, nothing is too difficult or too big for Him, who created it all!
Not only did He speak everything into existence, He also raised Christ from the dead. Who else has ever raised someone from the dead to never die again?
The point of prayer is to ask God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God places us in situations we cannot handle ourselves, so we must trust in Him to accomplish the task through us, so it is impossible to ask God for too much.
It is also important to point out God can do immeasurably more than even the biggest prayers we pray.
So pray to our big God and have faith that He is going to come through. He will come through and bring glory to Himself.
God, thank you for being such a BIG God! Forgive me for lacking faith to pray BIG prayers. Reveal your power to me through my prayers in order that You may be glorified. Be glorified through me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
What is your view of God? Is He a God of wrath? Or is He a God of love?
Ephesians 2:4-7 gives us a picture of who God is. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Sure, God is a God of wrath. If we are not His child, we are His enemy, but if we follow Him, He loves us and pours out His mercy on us. We cannot do anything to deserve His love, but He chooses to save us by grace through Jesus Christ! Thank you, Lord!
We do deserve God’s wrath, “But God” sends us Jesus, so that we can be united with God again in Heaven! The verses above tell us we are raised up and seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. This verse means we are citizens of heaven when we become a Christian! That is so amazing! So if we know we are citizens of of heaven, then we must live like it each and every day. We must live like we are living in heaven today.
Friends, it will take us all of eternity to understand just how much God loves us, and then, I’m not sure we will even be able to fully understand! This is how much He loves us!
If you are a Christian, and you see God as a wrathful God and not a loving God, search God’s Word for His promises for His children and see if you view changes.
God, thank you for loving me. Forgive me for not living a life like You love me. Radiate Your love through me. Help me to love others as you love me, and help me to always remember how much you love me. Thank you for saving me, God. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Going off of the post from last Wednesday, He Knows You, we will look in Isaiah today, which tells us that God created us, formed us, redeemed us and calls us by name. If this statement doesn’t prove He knows us, I’m not sure what does?
Isaiah 43:1 says, “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'”
We do not have to be afraid because God knows us by name. He is our Comforter and He cares for us. He is for us and He loves us.
We should fear the Lord because we sin, but because we have been redeemed by Him, we no longer need to be afraid. Jesus fulfilled his promise to buy us back with the payment of His own body. He made up for our sins. He exchanged His life for our salvation! We are His! By grace He chose us! By grace He saved us! By grace He called us back to Himself. By grace He forgave us! We are His, friends!
God, thank you for choosing me! Forgive me of my sins. Remind me daily You call me by name. Help me to never forget of your redemptive love You pour over me daily. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Sorry to miss last Wednesday’s post. I had some things going on, and honestly was just too exhausted to get something up. I missed you all though!
Today’s verse is one I really need to be focusing on right now. In the middle of this crazy thing we call life, this verse is a great reminder. I hope it helps you out in some way too!
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14-15
I love that Jesus said he knows us just as God the Father knew Him. Think about it…Jesus the Son of God, who was there from the very beginning with God, when God created everything, Jesus was there. When God started to reveal His plan for saving His children, Jesus was there. When God flooded the Earth, Jesus was there. The relationship between Jesus and God is the closest relationship ever possible. We truly can’t even grasp how close the Trinity are together in Their knowledge of one another.
So this statement Jesus makes is such an amazing statement! He is telling you that He knows you intimately. He is telling you that He will always be with you. He is telling you that He understands your problems, and He knows the solution! Wow! Let this fact sink in for a minute!
For me, it’s so refreshing to know that Jesus knows us. He knows when we are going through a rough patch. He knows when we are down. He knows when we are afraid. He knows each one of us intimately!
So we must take all our problems, worries and difficulties to Him in prayer. He is there for us and He has the answers to everything we are going through. Don’t put your trust, faith and hope in anything else, put it in the Great and Almighty God!
God, thank you for knowing me and still loving me. Forgive me for taking this for granted. Pour out your love on me daily. Help me to remember that you know and love me intimately. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Like I wrote in last week’s Wednesday Devotional, Beauty Isn’t Everything. A person’s appearance doesn’t display what’s in their heart! Someone can have the most beautiful body, but the ugliest attitude. Another person might dress like a slob, but have the most amazing personality.
1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'”
In today’s world, we often lift up the most masculine man or the most beautiful woman, but God is telling us these things are meaningless to him. We idolize the strongest, toughest, fastest men there are, but if their heart is not pure, God will reject them. Women look at other women, who have the skinniest, tallest, most tone bodies and strive to look like them, but God does not see us the way we view each other. Self-image consumes men and women of our age.
But God only thinks about our inner beauty! Thank you, Lord! He doesn’t worry about what we look like on the outside; He only cares about whats in our hearts!
Outward appearance will not predict whether or not one will obey the Lord, but the actions from his heart are the only true measures of his obedience to God.
It is natural for us to judge people outwardly, but we need not be so quick to judge them in this flesh.
This week, try to stop judging people so harshly by what we can merely see of them on the outside. Begin to look into their heart before putting them on a platform or pushing them off a cliff. God is the only judge of the heart, so let’s begin to view others as God would view them.
God, thank you for looking at my heart instead of my outward appearance. Forgive me for judging people based on superficial standards. Help me begin to look inward to people’s hearts instead of merely at their outward appearance. Help me to notice the good works you have placed in them and help me to be encouraging. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
If you turn on the television, you are immediately whacked in the face with the world’s view of appearance. From advertisements with skinny women, weight loss products, to how to grow longer eyelashes. You name it, and someone on TV will tell you what you need to do to become a more beautiful you.
However, despite all these ads and other people’s opinions of what beauty really is, deep down we know that beauty isn’t everything. Beauty doesn’t give you a good attitude. It doesn’t make you any less prone to death. It doesn’t save you from hell. Outer beauty is not the same thing as inner beauty.
Beauty is also fleeting, meaning it will not last forever. Watch out because those wrinkles are coming, and like it or not, that body will eventually start sag!
Proverbs 31:30 tells us, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
God looks at our inner person, and we need to be doing the same. We need to do the same for ourselves and start looking at the inside of others.
The world tells us to focus on our outward appearance, but we need to spend our time focusing on our innards. We can spend all the time we want to in the gym getting skinny and spending all our money on the most beautiful makeup we can afford, but none of that really matters because one day it will all vanish! We won’t be able to take it to the grave with us. Should we exercise to stay healthy? Sure! Is it okay to wear makeup? Yes! However, God is looking at our heart, not our figure or our made-up face! He is looking for a relationship with us. He already knows what we look like because He created us, but He wants us to know Him more and more! He wants us to seek His face!
Let’s be women who fear the Lord and not women who fear the judgment of others. Let’s make our hearts confident in God. Let’s be content in the body and life that God has given us.
Our faith in God is what makes us beautiful, not some ever changing worldly status. God desires our faith even when we believe no one desires our outward beauty. God thinks we are beautiful because He created us in His image. True beauty comes from running hard after God. So lace up your running shoes of faith and start running hard after God!
God, thank you for making me beautifully in Your image! Forgive me for forgetting this fact too often! Radiate your beauty inside me, so it pours out onto others. Help me to notice my beauty every day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
For another take on this topic check out this link too!
If you missed last week’s Wednesday Devotional, don’t forget to check it out here!
Hi! I am so glad you are joining me for this Wednesday’s Devotional! I am excited about this one because I am doing something a little different today! I hope you enjoy!
Colossians 1:3-8 says, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing -as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”
In Colossians, Paul is writing to fellow believers encouraging them to continue to grow in their faith, thanking God for the growth they have and praying growth will continue to happen among them.
So today, I am going to do something a little different, instead of sharing something with you, I am going to share how I am praying in light of reading these verses.
Today, I am praying for you, who is reading this right now, thanking God for you. I am praying that you will understand God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
I am praying for you if you are not a Christian, that you will come to understand who God is, and He will change your life! I am praying you will begin to search for information about this God and Jesus that I am writing about.
I thank God for those of you reading this who already know Him. I thank Him for saving you. I thank Him for your faithfulness to Him. I thank God you are sharing your faith with others. I thank God you are searching out answers to the questions you have about your faith in order to grow stronger in Him.
I thank God that He protects us from false Christianity, and He gives us guidance on Biblical truths.
Thank You God for the people You have placed in each of our lives, who told us about You! Thank You for the people You send all over the world to share Your love with people who would otherwise have no chance of hearing it. Thank You for growing your kingdom because of the bold soles who are faithful to going where You send them.
God, I pray for the many people in Thailand, where I live, that they would be able to hear the Word of God and believe it!
I thank God for heaven! Thank You, God, that we will be able to live with you in heaven for eternity, and we are not forever thrown into an unimaginable, heart wrenching hell that we so deserve! Thank You for Jesus and Your gift of grace.
God, thank you for the many people you have placed in my life. Thank you for those who taught me about the Gospel and those who continue to teach me. Thank you for those you entrust me with to teach the Gospel. Forgive me for not always being intentional in teaching the Gospel to the people You place in my path. You deserve all the credit and thanksgiving for everyone who believe in You. Use me as a tool to share Your love to those You place in my path. Give me the eyes to see the people you put in my path. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Now I want to ask you to join me in praying for those God is laying on your heart right now? Maybe it is a friend? Maybe it is a group of people? Thank God for the people He has placed in your life and for giving you eternity with Him.
This scripture is a tough one, so let’s dive right into it! There is also so much packed into this short passage, so read Luke 6:27-31 below.
“But I say to you who hear, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from the one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”
These verses start out with a BANG! It starts by saying, I should do good to those who hate me! Wait a minute…I have to be nice to those who HATE me? He is not just saying that I don’t have to hate them back, refuse to retaliate and just ignore them; He is calling us to do GOOD things toward them. Seriously? Yes, seriously, but He doesn’t just stop there…
After He tells us to “do good to those who hate” us, then He tells us to “bless those who curse” us. A blessing is giving God’s favor to another person. But doesn’t it really feel much better for us to ask for God to bless or have favor on a person, rather than heap burning coals on their head? If we really think about it, I think our answer would almost always be “Yes.”
But wait…He is still not done yet…He asks us to pray for those who mistreat us. Pray for them that their attitude would change and they would repent from their sin. Okay, that might be a little easier.
Still He keeps going…if someone slaps you in the face, you should turn to them the other one! Okay, that might be one of the most radical things I have ever been asked to do. If someone slaps me in the face, the last thing I would want to do is turn to the other side and let them do it again! However, Jesus isn’t necessarily talking about a true slap in the face, but in Biblical days, a slap in the face was an act of insulting another person. This illustration is used to tell us if someone insults us, we should not retaliate or insult them back. It is basically saying, if someone insults you, just do not respond. Okay, now that it is broken down in that way, I think I can handle it a little better. Bite my tongue. Got it!
There is still more…He says if someone takes your clothes, give them more. We must give to others even if they are mistreating us. It is hard to give to people who mistreat us, but Jesus is telling us not only to give, but to give even more than what they take from you.
Then, He says give to everyone who asks, and if they take something from you, don’t ask for it back. How do I give to everyone who asks? This scriptures seems to say this, but when we cross reference it with other scriptures, we see that we are to give to those who ask, but not those who do not work for themselves. This passage also shows us to live above worldly standards, so when someone asks for something from you, we should not turn around and ask for something just because we have given something. We should place less value on possessions, so if someone asks for something from us, we would not be so concerned with getting them back.
One final thing these scriptures tell us is to do to others as you would want them to do to you. It’s much more than not doing something if we don’t want someone to do to us. We have to go beyond this thought and do nice things for others as opposed to simply refraining from doing negative things to them. You want to be treated nicely, right? Lovingly? You wouldn’t just settle for someone not treating you negatively, would you? You would want them to care for you and love you instead of just existing in your space not giving any niceness and love back to you. To take it a step further, we are called to make the first move. We cannot just sit back passively waiting for people to “do unto us”. We have to be proactive in doing to others.
This is what Jesus calls us to do-Love God & Love Others. So let’s get busy loving others by doing good to them, praying for others, biting our tongues, giving generously and showing an unmistakable Christ-like love.
God, thank you for loving me. Forgive me for not loving others the way I should. Pour out your love for others through me. Help me to give my love generously to others. Help me to pray for others even when I don’t want to. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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