Devotions

[Lil angel]

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Courageous Because of Who God Is
February 3, 2025
by Trillia J. Newbell

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 (ESV)

To be the first person to do anything can be daunting.  As Joshua and the Israelites prepared to head into the promised land for the first time in the Old Testament, they were fearful, just as most of us would be. While we may never go into battle against people in a fortified city, God gave them and us this reminder:  “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

The command “do not fear” is one of the most direct orders if not the most direct in the Scriptures. The Lord has a lot to say about fear.  God understands that we will face frightening circumstances. The Lord knows we will face situations, diagnoses and people that will tempt us to fear. Otherwise, there would be no reason to tell us not to fear. Jesus Himself was tempted in every way, though He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15), and He understands. Knowing that ought to bring us comfort.  And God doesn’t command us not to fear without providing the way out of our fear. The way out for Joshua and the people of Israel, and for you and me, is God Himself. God provides His presence (Isaiah 41:10).  History is full of men and women who faced their fears, and as we start Black History Month in the United States, it’s good to remember one small, brave girl named Ruby Bridges.  At 6 years old, Ruby became the first African American person to integrate schools in the recently desegregated South. On November 14, 1960 six years after Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separating students by race in public schools was unconstitutional Ruby took the long walk into an all-white public elementary school.  The night before, Ruby’s mom, Lucille Bridges, tried to prepare Ruby, through tender reminders, not to fear.  The next day, Ruby and her mother were escorted into William Frantz Elementary School by four federal marshals. Through human barricades and shouts of hate, little Ruby took that long walk and changed the course of history for children in the U.S.  Although little Ruby wasn’t facing a battle for land like the Israelites, she had to walk through a massive sea of adults yelling, which likely felt like going up against a fortified city. She needed great courage, and I believe the Lord went with her.  The same God who went before Israel and prepared a way is the same God who is with us in our fear. Like Ruby and Joshua, we can be courageous not because of who we are or because of our strength but because of who God is. And the good news is that He is with us.

[Lil angel]

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Love Is Patient
February 4, 2025
by Gary Chapman

“Love is patient, love is kind.” 1 Corinthians 13:4a (NIV)

I recently had a chance to practice patience. After dinner, my wife asked, “Honey, do you remember that we agreed that I would pay the bills while you were traveling last month?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, I paid some of them, but I found this stack of unpaid bills in my closet, and some of them are now overdue.”

With a smile, I replied, “Karolyn, thank you for all the bills you paid. I’ll take care of the other ones, late fees and all.”

What earlier in our marriage would have been a catastrophic evening turned out to be pleasant. Over the years, I’ve learned how to choose patience and express it with positive words.  Most of us have far more experience with impatience than patience, yet the Scriptures indicate that “love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4a).  One of the best places to exercise patience is within a marriage. Patience is giving another person the freedom to be human. As humans, we’re all made in God’s image, but each of us is also uniquely created. We have different ideas, emotions, thoughts and perceptions. If I’m patient, I give my spouse the freedom to be different from me. If I’m impatient, I expect her to think and act like me.  Patience means caring enough to listen empathetically with a desire to understand what’s going on inside our spouse. Such listening requires time and is itself an expression of love. Patience might mean remaining calm when their words are hurtful. Patience says, “I care enough that no matter what you say or how you say it, I’ll listen and try to understand.”

Every time we’re frustrated, we can lash out with hurtful words, or we can ask questions, listen, seek to empathize, and then choose to speak words that bring healing.  Here are four practical steps that have helped me grow in patience and maybe they will help you too:

1.  Apologize when you realize that you’ve been impatient. When you acknowledge what you did and ask forgiveness, you’re less likely to be impatient next time.

 2.  Find a method to break negative patterns of impatience. This may mean counting to 100 and taking a walk around the block when you first realize you’re about to say something out of impatience.

 3.  Replace impatient behavior with patient behavior. Learn to speak in a soft voice rather than loudly giving full vent to your emotions (Proverbs 15:1), or write your thoughts and feelings rather than speaking them.

 4.  Focus on the solution, not the problem. Patience emphasizes loving solutions.

God is extremely patient with us. Romans 5:5 says, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (NIV). When we open our hearts to the love of God, we grow in learning patience with our spouse and others.

[PippaJane]

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Breaking the Patterns That Break Us
February 5, 2025
by Tori Hope Petersen

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Many of us have had patterns of dysfunction to some degree handed down to us. Maybe one of your parents was an alcoholic. Maybe your grandmother spoke harsh words to your mother, and now your mother speaks to you the same way.  That was my case: Harsh words were passed down and spoken over me. Even when I decided that pattern would stop with me and I committed to speaking life over my children, the words still bled into thought patterns I couldn’t seem to control.

I would think to myself:
I am unlovable.
I am not good enough.
I don’t belong.

These thought patterns would flood my mind like a hurricane, causing me to sink into self-hatred. I thought maybe this was a form of humility. But a mentor wisely told me, “Humility is simply agreeing with who God says you are. Nothing more and nothing less.”

Her words helped me understand that God doesn’t hate me, so He wouldn’t want me to hate myself. When God made humans, He called us good (Genesis 1:31), and in agreement with who He says we are, we can declare that surely God did a good job making us. Humility is not self-hatred. Sometimes we may confuse the two, especially if we grew up in homes where love was not freely given, but God has declared through His love for us that we are indeed lovable.  Mark 12:30-31 says, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

For some of us, loving others comes naturally. We can speak encouragement over others. We can offer a friend a gift and spend time caring for family, but we would never consider doing the same for ourselves. Yet in this scripture, we see that just as God loves us and calls us to love our neighbors, loving ourselves is also an assumed part of His command.  For years, I’ve mentored youths who’ve grown up in hard situations. I’ve told them that they’re worthy of God’s love and that they should believe God has good things for them. However, after saying it so many times, I realized that though I believed God’s love to be true for everyone else, I never believed it for myself. Friend, God’s love, which is accessible to everyone, is as readily available to you. I invite you to believe that the worthiness you offer others, God also generously offers you.  Thoughts of self-hatred can break us, but thoughts of loving who God has created us to be can heal us.

[PippaJane]

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The Familiar Stranger: The Holy Spirit in You
February 12, 2025
by Tyler Staton

“… Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22 (NIV)

The Holy Spirit is not a New Age, mystical teaching introduced after Jesus. The Spirit was present at creation, named in the Bible’s opening lines in Genesis: “And the Spirit [ruakh or breath] of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2, NIV).

In Exodus, God instructed Moses to build a “tabernacle” for Him, which is translated from a Hebrew word meaning “tent.” This was a revolutionary thought in Moses’ Ancient Near Eastern world. The ancients imagined deities bound by location, like a sun god and moon god, the god of the stars or the sea. A tabernacle meant Yahweh was personal God walking and staying with His people, among His people.  This makes John’s wording in the opening of his Gospel even more remarkable: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14a, NIV). The English “made his dwelling” is a translation of the Greek skenoo, which means “to set up a tabernacle.” Another translation is, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (TLV).

The Old Testament pattern was for people to build a tabernacle, and God would fill it with His glory and presence. John describes Jesus as a tabernacle filled with God’s glory and presence. The glory of God that filled the tabernacle has now filled the body of Jesus. He is the living, breathing, walking, talking tabernacle.  As the rest of John’s Gospel shows us, Jesus got in a lot of trouble with Jewish priests for saying He was the tabernacle. He made an even more provocative claim when He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19, NIV). Jesus was saying, “What I’ll build in three days through my death and resurrection is the reality to which the temple building was always meant to point.”

And there’s more. After His resurrection, Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).

Just as Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, acted as a living temple, so now He commissioned His disciples to be filled with the Spirit and act in this world as living temples indwelled with the presence of God. He has made us the containers for God’s presence.  The rest of the Bible is essentially a bunch of ordinary people “tabernacling” ordinary people filled with the Holy Spirit carrying out the ministry of Jesus. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19a, NIV).

Your individual, physical body is now the dwelling place of God through the Holy Spirit, just as God planned when He breathed His ruakh into the first humans in Genesis.  Every follower of Jesus has been filled with this familiar stranger, the very Spirit who filled Jesus. What does that mean for how you live today?

[PippaJane]

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Jesus Invites Us to the Feast
February 11, 2025
by Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young

“When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over.” Ruth 2:14b-c (NIV)

I’m a foodie, and the way to my heart is definitely through my stomach. I grew up in the kitchen with my mama, grandmas and aunties. My mama would let me stir ruby-red ragù and help her stuff pasta shells with ricotta cheese. Grandma Cora made me her helper when she rolled lumpia or added ingredients to her pancit. They taught me that hospitality was a pathway to love people and nourish souls.  Now, I love cooking these favorite dishes with my daughters. We frequently host friends, sports teams and neighbors at our table. We savor laughter, tears and good stories at our feasts.  In Ruth 2:14-17, Boaz generously invited the widow Ruth to feast at his table. Keep in mind Ruth’s situation: She and her mother-in-law, Naomi, left Moab because they were alone and without resources after the death of their husbands. They had grown accustomed to hunger pangs. They traveled a great distance because they heard there was a harvest in Bethlehem, which meant more food or at least some food for widows like them.  Ruth 2:14 tells us Ruth ate at Boaz’s table until she was satisfied: “When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over.”

She savored every morsel! Imagine the contrast. Ruth came to the field of Boaz to glean basically to gather up scraps but then was invited to the table with the field owner and his workers. It was not common for gleaners to be included this way. In their hierarchical society, it probably wasn’t common for the landowner to come and eat among his workers either. But Boaz was a different kind of boss.  For Ruth, this was likely at the top of her list of best meals ever. There were even leftovers to take home, along with the grain she gathered.  When we share a meal with someone however elaborate or simple there is an intimate and personal connection that often happens. This is why Jesus, too, often chose to minister to people at the table. He welcomed and nourished them. He turned water into fine wine at a wedding (John 2:1-11). He served bread to His friends as an example of how His body would be broken for them (Matthew 26:17-30). After He rose from the grave, He ministered to His disciples’ bodies and souls by hosting a fish fry on the beach (John 21:10-14).  Friend, like Boaz was Ruth's redeemer (Ruth 2:20), our Redeemer meets us at the table, and He has an abundance to offer us. He gives us a portion of His righteousness, love and peace. What He provides is always more than enough! Let’s not settle for the scraps when we are invited to a feast He has prepared for us.

[Cocopops]

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The King of Your Heart
February 14, 2025
by Ann Voskamp

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ ...” Ephesians 3:17b-18 (NIV)

Your heart answers to what it loves. Whatever you make much time for in your life ends up being the king of your life.  Ultimately, you crown what captivates you.  Is Love Himself your King, or have you overthrown Love Himself only to throw your heart at the feet of cheap lesser loves?

What if Jesus stands before you now, heart bound to yours, eyes searching yours, heart whispering to yours: Am I the King of your heart?

What have you crowned with your time, attention, interest and heart even though it can’t raise you to real life in the end? Have you seen what I have done for you to move you closer to My reviving heart?

Has My love moved and changed your heart?

Have you listened to all the ways I’ve been wooing you away from that which doesn’t satisfy and back toward divine love, holy wholeness and the fullest life?

These questions beg for a real answer.  He is the One who lived the perfect way you always hoped you would, and now He offers the record of His life to be your life. He’s the One who died the painful way that could have been yours, and He has absorbed all your pain as His own. He’s the One who heals broken hearts, the One who gives sight for every single one of your blind spots. He’s the One who walks on the waves of your every storm, feeds you soul-sustaining bread in the midst of a multitude of troubles, crushes the head of every hissing lie, and raises your dead hopes back to life.  This is your everyday resurrection, your everyday reality, your everything. Don’t miss it.  Jesus is your King, Redeemer, Restorer, Sustainer, Lamb, Lover and Lord the only One whose passion has ever loved you to death and back, resurrecting to offer you to the safest, realest life. He is life. And He has saved us for Himself.  Don’t miss Him. Pilgrimage into the palace of His presence, and bow down.  “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ …” (Ephesians 3:17b-18).

Jesus is the One who gets all of you all your loyalty and complete allegiance, your whole heart, whole life, whole self so you get to be whole. The King died to be the King of your heart the King of your everything.  This changes everything starting right now.

[Cocopops]

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The Way Forward Is Back
February 17, 2025
by Jodi Harris

 “.... Seek His face continually. Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done …” 1 Chronicles 16:11-12 (NASB)

My brain’s favorite time to process problems is bedtime.  Many nights, while drifting off to sleep, I’m jarred awake as my mind attempts to resolve issues and control my unknown future. As soon as I’m tucked in, all cozy under my covers, quiet, still and sleepy bam! I’m wide awake, mulling over fears.

Interest rates going up and cars breaking down.
Kids getting sick and parents aging.
Global wars abroad and natural disasters at home.

It’s all too much.  I quickly advise others, “God’s got this.” It’s easy to say, “Don’t worry!” until it’s 3 a.m. and everyone else is asleep but me. How do I practice what I so easily preach?

On one such night, I remembered a movie about a college rowing team training for the Olympics. Eight rowers sat in the boat with their backs to the finish line while their coxswain (steersman) faced forward, calling out commands.  To win, these rowers had to trust and obey their coxswain’s every command, giving their all, rowing as one. And the coxswain had to know his rowers well enough to change his voice's tone and cadence as needed to motivate each one differently, from one stroke to the next.  Isn’t that just how God wants to steer us to and through our unknown future?

In the 21st century, we often think of our future lying ahead of us, out in front. But in the Old Testament, the Hebrew concept of time was reversed: God's people saw the future at their backs. Similar to the rowers with their backs to the finish line, focused on their trusted coxswain to guide them, the Hebrew people focused on their trusted God, who had kept His promises before, to back them into their unknown future.  Today’s key verses say, “Seek His face continually. Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done” (1 Chronicles 16:11-12).

King David spoke these words to the people of Israel in a psalm of thanksgiving to God, who had brought Israel out of captivity and into their promised land. David wanted them to remember God’s faithfulness even when they had been faithless.  The God who was faithful in the past and throughout all Scripture can be trusted with our futures too.  If you find your mind fretting over life’s unknowns, visualize yourself in the boat, facing God as you row with your back to your future. Here are three simple ways to “seek His face continually” and “remember His wonderful deeds” (1 Chronicles 16:11-12):

1.  Remember past times in your story when God came through for you or others.

2.  Name what He’s already done throughout His Word and in the world.

3.  Read or listen to Psalm 46. Let God’s Word wash over you as you drift off to sleep.

Today, let’s practice seeking the God who never steers us wrong and remembering all He’s done so we can back confidently into our unknown futures where He already resides.

[PippaJane]

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Creating Safe Space for Men To Be Emotionally Free
February 19, 2025
by Jason Wilsonl

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)

You may not always see it, but the men in your life might be wrestling with emotions they’re too afraid to reveal.  When your husband, son, father or brother says, “I’m tired,” it doesn’t always mean they need more sleep.

It’s sometimes a quiet cry for rest an unspoken plea for relief from the unseen burdens weighing on their hearts.  Tragically, the real meaning behind “I’m tired” often goes unnoticed by friends and family. Men, so often seen as pillars of strength, can silently crack beneath the emotional weight they carry.  As boys, they are free expressive and joyful. But misleading mantras like “big boys don’t cry” condition them from a young age to hide their pain. Over time, they begin to see suffering in silence as a badge of honor.  When boys become men, their expressions of pain are often labeled as weakness, fatigue is dismissed as laziness, and venting is seen as complaining. When tears flow, they’re called “soft.” Eventually, men might even stop following the good in their hearts and turn to unhealthy outlets for release or simply give up.  While you can’t change the men in your life, you can inspire them to see that real strength isn’t found in hiding their struggles but in having the courage to share them with people they trust. By applying the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:11, you can play a vital role in creating that safe space for the men in your life:

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

This journey to emotional freedom isn’t easy. It requires time; patience; love; and most importantly, faith. But over the last two decades, I’ve seen thousands of men break free from emotional incarceration a self-imposed prison where they confined emotions that didn’t fit the mold of “masculinity” and isolated their hearts from the world.  The Most High can help men redefine strength rooted in faith and authenticity. Men are coming to realize that the journey to emotional freedom is not one they can walk alone. But Yeshua, Jesus, is the Shepherd who can lighten their burden and give them rest for their souls (Matthew 11:28-30).  So how can you help?

Take every opportunity to acknowledge and affirm the men in your life for their character and qualities not for what they do but for who they are as human beings.  Remind them that they can lean on God and trust you as they navigate the challenges of emotional growth. As they wrestle with the question, Who am I? … you can point them to the truth. They are sons of the living God, called to be comprehensive men courageous, compassionate, strong yet sensitive, and fully alive in His purpose.

[PippaJane]

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But, Lord, I Can’t Do THAT
February 20, 2025
by Lysa TerKeurst
President and Chief Visionary Officer of Proverbs 31 Ministries


“Moses said to the LORD, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10 (NIV)

Do you ever feel like who you are is not enough to carry out God’s purposes for your life?

Our insecurities may differ, but we all have them. These qualities about ourselves that make us lack confidence or assurance can be a positive call to action to make healthy changes in our lives. However, insecurities can also hold us back from stepping into the assignments God calls us to.  That’s exactly what happened to Moses in our key verse today.  Moses knew with absolute certainty what God was calling him to do. God had confirmed it by speaking to him audibly through a burning bush: “Bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10, NIV).

Moses knew exactly what to say, knew what God planned to do, knew God would be with him, and knew God would provide for the Israelites with plunder from the Egyptians. So what could hold him back when things seemed so very clear?

It was the same thing that sometimes holds you and me back: Moses doubted God had created him for the calling God gave him.  In Exodus 4:10, Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

The Lord replied with these powerful words: “Who gave human beings their mouths? … Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:11-12, NIV).

God did more than answer Moses’ doubt; He reassured Moses of who He was.  When we doubt that we have what it takes to do what God calls us to do, we are doubting His creative abilities. He knew from the beginning of time what He would call us to do and how we would need to be formed. God does everything with purpose and precision.  The exact way He made you is in keeping with how He will use you.  Trust this. Embrace this. Even if you don’t know all the details of your calling quite yet, thank God for making you perfectly equipped for your assignments ahead.  And when insecurities start to make you doubt, flip the script and pray, God, I may doubt myself. But I will not doubt You. So I will let Your perfection override my feelings of imperfection, and I will do what You instruct me.  Like Moses, we can come to God with our doubts. God may not respond with the answer we want, but we can be confident He will remind us of who He is.

[heartbroken]

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Giving Space to Our Trials
February 21, 2025
by Carole Holiday

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:4 (NIV)

When Christians mention favorite Bible verses, I’m guessing James 1:4 doesn’t get many votes. I doubt it regularly appears on gift shop shelves where sweet spiritual promises find themselves emblazoned on mugs or tea towels.  In the more-often-recited neighboring verses, James advises welcoming trials:  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2-3, NIV).

If I’m honest, I want to rush trials. But James 1:4 proposes just the opposite giving trials time and space, allowing them to do their work: “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Ugh. You won’t find me dancing in delight as I read that message.  But James understood the difficulties and struggles of the early Christians to whom he originally wrote this scripture. The Church was reeling from persecution, and he addressed their response to those hardships.  The idea of inserting joy anywhere in the vicinity of tough times may have seemed exhausting. It exhausts me. Furthermore, the suggestion that I allow perseverance to wring out the best in me pushes me to the limit.  And the limit is right where God can meet me.  When I don’t think I can take any more hurt, God promises to transform pain into perseverance the ability to endure. It’s endurance that teaches us good things take time.

Developing our character takes time.
Growing in our relationships takes time.
Understanding holiness takes time.
Healing from emotional injury takes time.

I remember sheepishly confessing to a kind friend how embarrassed I was that I didn’t seem able to “get over” my ex-husband. Others wondered aloud how I could want someone who didn’t want me.  Here I sat, tying all of my hopes and dreams to someone who had discarded me. I felt ashamed as a woman and as a woman who proclaimed Jesus as Lord.  My friend leaned forward and softly said, “It takes a long time to heal a broken heart.”

I straightened a bit in my chair, realizing she was right.  This isn’t a period of unfruitful heartache. This is a period of perseverance maturing me on the inside. Completing my growth. Filling my empty cup with new purposes.  Sometimes we have to suspend earthly logic and rest in faith that God’s Word makes mysterious promises. Unseen, tiny wheels and gears turn in our deepest parts, unsticking our stuck places and stretching out space for the Spirit of God.  I can say I have endured trials I thought I could never endure. I have witnessed the maturity that follows that endurance. And I want to encourage you with these words, as I have met many women who say the same:  I guess James was right all those years ago.  That’s why you can say with assurance that no pain in your life will ever be wasted.