Devotionals

1 John 2:15

If you want to stay clean, even when you're walking alone in the dark, low-ceilinged coal mine of the corrupt and secular culture, you need to remember a few practical things—four come to mind.

1. Pay close attention to what you look at.... Our eyes seem to be the closest connection to our minds.  

2. Give greater thought to the consequences of sin than to its pleasures.... Nobody ever mentions the ugly underside of pleasurable sins. 

Genesis 6:17-18

God informed Noah of His plan: He was going to destroy the world with a flood. 

So for 120 years, by faith, Noah followed the Lord's leading. He gathered the materials; he built the ark, probably to the ridicule of everyone around him. After all, this was a world that had never known rain; the earth was watered from beneath. 

Ecclesiastes 8:17

There are numerous riddles in life that remain wrapped in mystery and shrouded inside an enigma. 

The sea, for example, is an unexplainable phenomenon.... There are diseases that still remain a mystery...yet we seem to have little trouble going on through life with dozens of riddles still unanswered, hundreds of mysteries still unsolved.

Psalm 37:3

If you wish to be a man or woman of God who desires to live a godly life that will leave its mark upon this world, you must stand in the shadow of your Saviour. 

Trust Him to work through the trials you encounter, through the extreme circumstances you cannot handle on your own. He is still the God of impossible situations. He does what no earthly individual can do.

You must approach the impossible with calmness and contentment, with gentleness and self-control, with faith and humility.

2 Timothy 1:5

Paul knew Timothy’s heritage. He knew that the things that characterized the grandmother and the mother characterized Timothy. That’s the way sincere faith works.

Listen to this, moms! Please read my words carefully.

A church, a Christian school, a circle of Christian friends can deposit facts into heads. But they cannot translate truth into authentic living. Those avenues can’t make it “real.”

Truth doesn’t weave itself into real fleshed-out life until it flows through you.

2 Corinthians 4:7

Do you know what an earthen vessel is? It's nothing more than a clay pot.

That's a reference to our bodies and our abilities in the strength of our flesh. That is all you and I have to offer God...a pot. A perishable container.

You may be like brittle, delicate china. You break and chip easily, and you could show the glue marks because of those broken times. 

Then again, you may be a rugged, scarred hunk of heavy pottery—not very attractive, but boy, are you useful. 

Ecclesiastes 9:11

Proverbs 13:18 

Discipline is one of the most hated terms of our times...right alongside patience and self-control. But have you noticed how often it comes up in the testimonies of those who win?

Here are some key uses of discipline:

No runner completes the training or a race without it.

No weight-loss program is maintained without it.

No human body is kept fit without it.

No mind is sharpened without it.

No temptation is overcome without it.

Psalm 140:7

If you determine to live according to biblical standards, be sure that your enemy is seeking to devour you. You will encounter the darts of the Devil. 

Someone put it this way: "Whoever desires to walk with God walks right into the crucible." All who choose godliness live in a crucible. The tests will come. But all is not lost. Far from it! 

Our great hope and assurance is that the One in us is greater than the one in the world.

Romans 11:33-34

The New American Standard declares that last phrase: "How unfathomable His ways!" 

Maybe you've come to discover this in your own experience. You've tried to "trace out His path" and you can't pull it off. You've tried to fathom His "unfathomable" ways and you can't. It just doesn't compute. It blows your microprocessor.