Prayers Devotionals

The Idols That Impede Your Faith   As we direct our focus to the Father and wait patiently for His will to open wide the way in our lives, we may discover that there are many things standing in the way of deepening our relationship with God and exercising our faith in Him.  These strongholds—or idols—are very subtle. They steal into your life covertly, rooting themselves in your emotions and becoming more important to you than God.  No one can identify an idol except the Lord … and He sees your heart clearly. Anything that competes for your total devotion to God is an idol in your life. So what is it in you? What are those things—hidden or known to you—that stand in your way of waiting patiently for the Lord’s will to manifest in your life? Ask the Father to reveal them to you. He’s promised He’ll be faithful to show you if and where an idol exists. But be very careful that you don’t rationalize away what He reveals to you. If the Lord puts His finger on something in...

“Carrying Your Cross Daily” Why is it that so many believers are struggling to live victorious lives? Because they are leaving the cross at the benediction. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) He didn’t say that you are to pick up your cross and then set it back down. This is an ongoing identification as Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 15:31 where he said, “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” The cross represents the connection to and identification with Jesus Christ and the purpose of His life, death, burial and resurrection. It is acknowledgment of total dependency on Christ and recognition of our sin. Jesus wants to be more important to you than your own comforts. He says in Matthew 16:24, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” You must carry your cross, not Jesus’ cross. Prayer: Heavenly Father, ...

Distorting God’s Word “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’” (Genesis 3:1). A story is told of the comedian W. C. Fields and how, shortly before he died, he was flipping through the pages of a Bible. When asked what he was doing, Fields replied, “Looking for loopholes.” In the same way, I think the Devil has been reading the Bible for a long time, looking for loopholes. In the Garden of Eden, he twisted the Scriptures. He took God’s words to Adam, which invited him to eat from every tree in the Garden (with one exception), and he twisted them into a prohibition designed to cast doubt on God’s goodness. He said to Eve, in effect, “If God really loved you, He would let you eat from any tree you want. But because He is saying that you can’t eat from that tree, He clearly doesn’t love you.” The Devil’s first words to Eve ended in a question ...

Take Your Ambassadorship Seriously Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 People can't refrain from talking about the things they are passionate about.  Paul says that by knowing the fear of God - a healthy respect for who He is - we persuade men.  He says the love of Christ controls us.   When we are passionate about Jesus and His love for us, we won't be able to stop ourselves from sharing that with others, and through our testimony, they will see God's glory.  If we go day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, without representing God, we cannot be passionate about Him, we cannot "go unto all the world" as Christ commanded us.    God has called each one of His children to be ambassadors for His Kingdom with the goal of winning folks over.  We must fuel our passion for Him, so we can effectively call people out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.

Hope Beyond Death The righteous hath hope in his death. —Proverbs 14:32 We don’t like to talk about death; it’s the forbidden subject of our generation. Yet it’s real for all of us. Sometimes on television I see motion pictures featuring actors who are no longer living. They seem very much alive in the picture, but they are dead. Some of them were my personal friends. Death is real, and when we die, that is a battle we have to fight all alone. Nobody can be with us in that hour, but David said he had found an answer that would take the fear of death away. David said that there is an answer to death, there is a hope beyond death. That hope is centered in the risen Christ. Paul wrote that to be “absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord.” So the fear of death is removed. Prayer for the day Lord Jesus, with complete trust I look toward that day when my soul will be with You for eternity. B.G.

Make Room in Your Heart Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven . . . —Matthew 5:43–45 When H. G. Wells summed up the influence of Jesus in history, he said, “Is it any wonder that this Galilean is too much for our small hearts?” And yet the heart of man, though small, is big enough for Christ to live in, if man will only make room for Him. Christ instilled the spirit of Christian love in His followers, so that they lived without malice and died without rancor. The love that Christ talked about can only be given to us by God. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. When you come to Jesus Christ, He transforms you. Your past is forgiven. You receive a power to love men, beyond your natural ability to love. Prayer for t...

Reasons to Surrender 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 As we learned yesterday, God tells us to surrender our lives to Him. This is no small task. All our plans, every desire we feel, each entitlement that once seemed our right—everything is put aside in order to make way for our King’s will. But perhaps you have wondered why God can ask this of us. The Lord has every right to demand that we give Him our all. First, Scripture teaches us that He is sovereign—the King and Ruler over the entire universe. As a result, we are under His authority, whether we choose to submit or not. Next, through His death and resurrection, Jesus saved us from our sin and its consequences. Therefore, we are indebted to Him more than we could ever repay. And finally, He sustains us; we should consider each breath and heartbeat a gift from Him. Undoubtedly, God is entitled to ask that we yield our life to Him. At the same time, surrender is in our best interest. The Father promises that following Him leads to hope and an ...

Hearing His Voice “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” ( John 10:3 ). As you get to know your Shepherd, you will come to realize that when He calls you, it is always worth obeying. When He says something, it is for your benefit. If He says, “Go this way,” it’s because He has green pastures and still waters for you. If He says, “Stop! Don’t do that,” it’s because He is trying to protect you from potential danger, possibly something that is even life-threatening. The fact that God speaks to us is clear throughout the pages of Scripture. To some, like Moses, God spoke audibly. To others, like the prophet Elijah, He spoke quietly on at least one occasion. Often we look for the big events, the earth-shaking circumstances in which God speaks. And many times He is speaking to us, but it is in a still, small voice. We should try turning off the television, the radio, and the telephone and just listen. With all the no...

  If the first and lowest operation of pain shatters the illusion that all is well, the second shatters the illusion that what we have, whether good or bad in itself, is our own and enough for us. Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us. We ‘have all we want’ is a terrible saying when ‘all’ does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St Augustine says somewhere, ‘God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there’s nowhere for Him to put it.’ Or as a friend of mine said, ‘We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.’ Now God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as he leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call ‘our own life’ remains agreeable we will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do i...

Hearing God “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). There are a lot of people today who say they hear the voice of God telling them to do this or that. But what we must remember is that God never will contradict His Word. He always will lead us according to what the Bible says. Some people come up with some lame concepts, such as “We’re not married, but God has told us it’s okay to have sex.” I could assure them that God didn’t say that because in His Word, He says, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). God won’t contradict His Word. Let’s say you were hoping for a letter from someone. You stand at the window, waiting for what seems like an eternity for the mail carrier to come by. Finally, he drives up, and you bolt over to your mailbox. You’re looking for that letter. Maybe it’s from someone you’re in love with. Maybe it’s an answer to a job application. Maybe it’s something you ordered in the mail. Maybe you’ve won the sweepstakes. But imag...

We went to several meetings, and one night the speaker said that we don’t earn God’s love. He takes us as we are. It was then we realized it wasn’t a matter of clocking up a certain number of hours doing good deeds. Instead, we have to make ourselves available. Through faith, we had to let Him take over. It came together all at once, when we accepted Christ as our personal Savior. We know that God is in us in everything we do. Prayer for the day By faith, loving Father, we ask You to take over every part of my life—draw us closer to Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ. B.G.

Have Mercy On Me https://biblehub.com/parallel/psalms/51-1.htm

One of the greatest dangers in our churches today is for religion to replace an intimate relationship with the Savior.  God knows we aren’t perfect. Admit it to yourself – you are not a perfect Christian. No one is perfect, and no one ever will be. You will run into situations where you doubt Christ, where you feel like God isn’t there, or you sin against Him. This is all normal for Christians to go through, and doesn’t make you any less a child of God Hebrews 5:7-9 h ttps://biblehub.com/parallel/hebrews/5-7.htm https://biblehub.com/parallel/hebrews/5-8.htm https://biblehub.com/parallel/hebrews/5-9.htm

Why did God Kill My loved one? Why did God allow my husband to die? I prayed for him. Why did God no answer my prayer? Why did God take my child whom I loved? Why would God be so heartless and cruel? How could a loving God do such a thing? Why does God allow suffering? Does God even exist? Why??? I have heard these kinds of questions many times. Someone gets sick and dies, and the surviving loved one goes on a "Hate God" rampage! You have no more of a right to get angry at God when your loved one dies, then when you stub your toe. Stated differently, it is as logical to get angry at God for stubbing your toe, as it is to be angry at God when your loved one dies. First lets clear a few things up. Life on earth is not predestined where God chose before the earth was created who would live, and when and how they would die. Fate and predestination are both false doctrines of Calvinism. Second, God did not make your loved one sick, neither did he kill him as a direct act. (Althoug...

How Should Christians Approach the Death of a Loved One? Can God give us hope during this painful time? The pain of a loved one is something we all must face at some point in our lives. While grief is an expected response to a significant loss, the unfamiliar emotions that arise can lead to feelings of helplessness, fear and isolation. As Christians, we can f ind hope in God and use Him as a source of comfort. For many, though, they struggle with understanding how to take those steps. When dealing with the death of a loved one, there are some basic truths that God wants us to understand. This will help you cope with the loss, and move forward when you are ready to do so. Understand that we all grieve differently. Grieving the death of a loved one is an individual process. Some caregivers initially feel numb and disoriented, then endure pangs of yearning for the person who has died. Others feel anxious and have trouble sleeping, because they are dwelling on old argum ents or words they ...

Why Does God Allow Christians to Die In Accidents?  One of the most difficult aspects of following God is when we see something bad happen to people that we love. When suffering or tragedy strikes close to home and people whom we know love God and follow Him die in a sudden, unexpected or tragic way—it can cause us to question where God was and why he did not intervene.  Scripture tells us that God never leaves us or forsakes us (Deuteronomy 31:6). He is our refuge and our strength, and a help in time of trouble (Psalms 46:1). He is our Shepherd: guiding us, providing for us and protecting us (Psalm 23). So how do we rectify these two things? On one hand is the absolute truth of God’s divine protection and provision, and on the other hand is the fact that our Christian brothers and sisters sometimes die in sudden, unexpected and tragic ways. Life as a Christian isn’t easy. Nowhere in Scripture are we promised a life free of pain, suffering and tragedy. In fact, Scripture state...