Daily Devotion for January 7

January 7

Proverbs 16:24

“Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”

We live in such a negative world.  Turn on the news—all negative.  Listen to people talk—more negative than positive.  Even among Christians we often hear more grumbling than we do praising.  We shouldn’t be that way.  We read in Proverbs that pleasant words (positive, encouraging, etc.) are sweet to the soul and health to the bones.

Have you ever noticed that when you are around a negative person that you leave feeling bad or depressed even if you were in a good mood when the conversation started?   We need to be careful that we are not the one who brings everybody else down.  When we speak words of affirmation; words that are uplifting, words of encouragement or just silly things, we contribute not only to the health of ourselves but the health of others also.

As you go through the day today, think on your words and let them be sweet as honey.

Daily Devotional for January 6

 January 6

Matthew 26:41

“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

I recently heard that research shows most people break their New Year’s resolution by January 12, so today is about halfway to that breaking point.  Some never make it through the second day.  The truth is, for most of us, we think we can do whatever we set out to do but sheer willpower but that is not the case.  

Jesus had taken 3 of His disciples to watch and pray with Him at Gethsemane.  When He returned to them, he found them sleeping not just once but twice.  It was after the first time that He said verse 41 to them.  We sometimes think that these 3 men were slackers.  I mean, really, how could they not stay awake for Jesus?  However, Jesus knew why—their flesh was weak.

What about us?  How often have we felt in our spirit what we needed to do, yet our flesh just couldn’t see it through?  The flesh IS weak.  Rest assured that Satan will use every temptation, every opportunity, every little crack he can see to try to get us to do his will instead of the will of Our Father.  So, let us each take care today that we do not allow the flesh to take over and that we focus on doing what God would have us to do.

Daily Devotion January 5

January 5

Matthew 17:20 

“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

What is your mountain that you need moved today?  Jesus said all we have to do is have faith that it will be removed and it will happen.  Most of us don’t need a physical mountain moved from one place to another, but we all have emotional or spiritual mountains in our lives.  According to Jesus, it only takes a small amount of faith, yet we often fail in even that small amount.  Believing that God not only can, but also will, move our mountains should offer a sense of comfort to each of us.  When you think back over your life I am sure there were times when you thought you would never survive a situation, but now you see that God was there all the time and took you through it.  The same is true for whatever mountain we are facing today.

God not only has the ability to help us in those trying situations, but He want to help us.  Today, have the faith that God can move whatever mountain is in your way and trust Him to provide whatever strength you need. 

Daily Devotion January 4

Isaiah 41:10

^“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

We spend much of our time being afraid.  Afraid of what might come along in the future, afraid of things we don’t know about.  But God tells us not to be afraid because He is with us all the time.  He will give us the strength we need to face whatever comes along.

Many times as we begin a new year, along with the excitement of what lies ahead, we also often feel at least a little tinge of fear.  However, if we are focused on God, He will alleviate that fear.  He will give us all the hope we need and will hold our hand as we make our way through the upcoming days.  He will give us all the strength we need to make it day to day.

Learning to let go and just follow’s God lead is sometimes frightening to us, but once we fully accept that He is in control, life gets easier to face.

Daily Devotion January 3

Daily Devotion for January 3

James 1:3

“Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”

Have you ever thought about how faith and patience work together?  I will be the first one to use that old saying of “Never pray for patience!” because I did and God sent me an unwanted opportunity to learn it!  But we are told in Galatians 5:22 that longsuffering (patience) is one of the fruits of the spirit, so surely we want to have patience.  But here James tells us that it is the trying of our faith that brings about patience.  A dear preacher friend of mine would often tell me that a faith that can’t be tested is a faith that can’t be trusted.  I agree with him (although at the time I was tired of being tested!).  

When we go to God in faith then we must have patience in waiting for Him to work in His time.  So as we go through this day, let us have more faith and be more patient in knowing that God will provide exactly what we need at the perfect time.

Daily Devotion January 2

Psalm 130:5
“I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.”

I hope everything turns out ok.  I hope you are feeling better.  I hope, I hope I hope.  How often do we say that word-hope-in a given day?  What is hope, anyway?  Webster defines it as:  “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true; to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment; to expect with confidence.”

In Psalm 130 we read that it is in God’s word that we should hope.  Of all the people we come to know in our lifetime, there is only One who will never steer us in the wrong direction and that is the Lord.  When our hope is in Him and Him alone, we can wait knowing that everything will work accordi.ng to God’s plan.  Do bad things sometimes happen that we have no way of understanding?  Yes, every single day.  Is it easy to always patiently wait on the Lord?  Not for me and probably not always for you either.

Today, let us each focus more on putting our hope in the Lord and waiting for His direction through the day.

Daily Devotional January 1

Isaiah 43:18-19 

¹⁸ Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Happy New Year!  As we begin a new year, it is normal to look back at the old one.  But God reminds us in this verse that perhaps we should not get too caught up in the old things.  He further promises that He is going to do a new thing.  A new year and a new thing from God.  

What new thing are you asking God to provide in the new year?  More importantly, are you trusting Him to provide what you need more than just what you want?   A new year is a time to start anew in whatever area of our life we feel we might have failed.  We make goals in all other areas of our lives, it makes sense that we should make goals in our spiritual life.  

As we begin this new year, let us focus on what new things we need for God to do in our lives to make us be a better servant for him.