Daily Devotions

Dear God, what powerful promises these are. Even in the midst of fear, You lift us up, You extend Your hand to us, in a very personal way. You are our God!

If and when we suffer for declaring You, Jesus, among men, we know that our tribulations bring glory to You. We never can out give You. What You did to redeem us exceeds anything we could have hoped for. Our manifest love for You is our response to Your love for us.

We know this earth is Satan’s domain and that You have given him great latitude to bring us and our children down. We are born into sin with hearts of flesh but Father, thank You for sending Jesus to us and teaching us that we can stop being a slave to sin.

Father, You have taught us that we are Your Temple and that you reside in our hearts. It does not surprise us that this temple should not be dragged into sinful situations. If we claim we are Yours, help us to not desecrate the temple, to not embarrass You, and eventually ourselves, by our bad choices.

On many occasions You teach us not to be anxious about anything. Given the number of deep sighs, hands wringing, and perplexed looks we manifest, it seems anxiety and stress are more common than not. But what do You say Jesus, about anxiety? You say, repeatedly, “don’t worry” and then You teach us why.

What we notice Father, is that You place pride and disobedience in the same list as sexual immorality and murder and say the same penalty awaits all sinners. Father, we know that sin is sin and that all sin separates us from You. You have told us that You will not permit sin to come into Your presence.

Father, this much quoted “love” chapter has some wonderful promises. When we immerse our spirit in Your Spirit, this gift of love lifts us to levels of caring and commitment well beyond anything we can achieve in the flesh.

Father, we celebrate Independence Day in the United States as a way of marking our freedom from the control of others. When we accept, by faith in Jesus, Your grace and salvation, we celebrate a different kind of freedom. We believe that freedom from dominance by Satan marks that day as the most important day in our existence.

You ordained John before he was born. You set him apart and Father, when he proclaimed the coming of Jesus, You had already seen the entire scene. It is Your omniscience, Your knowledge of the beginning, the process and the end that we are witnessing.