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Praying in the Spirit
Dear Heavenly Father, Sometimes we allow our lives to become so busy that we don’t talk with You as much as we should. We must remind ourselves that our whole reason for existing is to be in relationship with You through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Life teaches us…
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Overcoming the Discomfort of Dissatisfaction
Discomfort is often a calling card for change. This is a truism that we need to be reminded of constantly. We’re creatures of habit, and we like being able to count on the familiar. Even individuals we consider to be spontaneous and impulsive have made a habit of not adhering to plans and schedules. Inevitably,…
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Depending on You
Dear Heavenly Father, Your Word tells us in Lamentations 3:25(NLT), “The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.” I don’t think many people have grasped the importance of totally leaning on You for everything. This hit home for me the other day when I came across a…
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Love to the Very End
It is believed that the Gospel of John, chapters 13 through 17 cover a short period of about 36 hours of the life of Jesus Christ, prior to the Garden of Gethsemane experience. It is a short period, but boy is it an important one for us to keep in our minds and hearts. Heavenly…
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Because You Love Us
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us Your Spirit. We can’t live a successful Christian life without Your precious Holy Spirit living on the inside of us. He guides us into all truth. He is our teacher, comforter, and friend. In John 16:8(NLT), You tell us another one of his occupations. This verse states,…
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The Lord’s Purpose Will Prevail
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Solomon wrote in Proverbs 19:21(NLT), “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” Making plans is what we humans do. We have plans to get married, have children, land our dream jobs, pursue goals, and live happy lives. We…
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What God Requires from Us Today
In Acts 2:17(NLT), God made a promise to born-again believers living after the ascension of Christ. He said, “In the last days…I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” We are in truth living in…
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Your Amazing Grace
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in 2 Timothy 1:9 that You have saved and called us to live a holy life. We didn’t deserve to be handpicked by You, but You did it because this was Your plan before the beginning of time. It was always Your plan to show us amazing grace through…
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A Season of Change
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in Ecclesiastes 3:1(NKJV), “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” I began to think about seasons, and how every new season will usher in change. You have woven this into Your creation, and therefore, we must learn from it. Most of us are…
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The Difference Between Faith and Hope
Our Heavenly Father begins His Word, the Holy Bible, with the Book of Genesis. Most of us think of this book as His Creation Story, and while this is true, Genesis is also designed by God to lay the first layer, if you will, of the foundation of our faith. God teaches us by His…
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Uprooted from Her Hilarious Unbelief
Sarah, also known as Sarai, is the wife of Abraham, who is known as the Father of our believing. He is named in the Great Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrews 12:1, because he was fully persuaded that whatever God said, He is able and willing to perform. During the period in which Abraham and Sarah…
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The Stress of Dealing with Life
Dear Heavenly Father, Sometimes it is challenging to know how to handle some of the situations that life throws our way, but You have given us a strategy in Your Word. You tell us in Philippians 4:6(NLT), “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all…
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What Do You Hunger For?
The dictionary defines the word ‘hunger’ as a craving or urgent need that is caused by a lack of food or a certain nutrient. It is certainly fitting that this definition of hunger relates to food specifically, because food is necessary for survival. It also causes us to develop cravings towards one type of food…
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Thankful for Being Your Children
Dear Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18:4(NLT), “So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Humility is an attitude or action that demonstrates a person’s willingness to place the needs of others before their own. It is also a quality of recognizing Your…
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Prosperous and Pleasing God
John 10:10 tells us that Jesus Christ came that you and I would have access to a more than abundant life. This is good news indeed! For many years, hundreds of years in fact, religious thinking has taught us that poverty equals piety. The thinking that equates poverty with pleasing God has been burned in…
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Human Pride Will Be Brought Down
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in Your Word that arrogance is a sin, and it is one that You strongly dislike. We think of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience as being the first sin to betray You, but the devil betrayed You first. Called Lucifer, he was once an angel of light in heaven, and…
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Releasing Dead Things
Dear Heavenly Father Through the Apostle Paul, You tell us in 2Corinthians 5:17(NLT), “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” You are talking about our human-spirits in this verse. Our human-spirit is the part of us that is most…
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Avoid A LOVE Breakdown
In Genesis 1:26(NKJV), God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God is having a conversation…
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Surrendering Our Sinful Ways
Dear Heavenly Father, “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts of the Apostles 2:38 NLT Repentance is a lot deeper than just…
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Three Things that Build Your Faith – Part 1
Part 1 – Understanding the Power of Your Words In Mark 11:23(NLT), our precious and powerful Lord and Savior said, “I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have…
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Thank You for Our Christ Authority!
Dear Heavenly Father, 1Corinthians 14:33 tells us that You are not the author of confusion. You are a God of order, and order is supreme with You. It’s how You run heaven, and it is also how You want us, as your children, to do things as well. Everything that has Your stamp on it…
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Thank You that My Child Is Not a Mistake
Dear Heavenly Father, I recently came across a video about a woman that was absolutely terrible to her kids. The things she did to them should never be spoken, but it made me think very deeply about my own child, and how much I love and appreciate his life. I gave birth to him at…
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Seeking God’s Will for My Life
It was a hot Sunday in the middle of summer and the church was packed, unusually so. It was 1977, and services had typically been well attended, but for months our choir was missing the best soprano probably in the entire state. The closest thing to a celebrity in our book, Deborah had a voice…
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Your Grace Is All We Need
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in Ephesians 6:12(NLT), “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Father God, You do not want Your people to be ignorant concerning the…
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The Demolition of the Word ‘IF’
In Mark 9, we can read the record of a child possessed with a demon and was brought to the disciples. They were perplexed because they could not cast out the demon. This account, also in Matthew 17 and Luke 9, is the subject of many sermons and teachings, and there is little doubt in…
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The Time for Weeping is Over!
Many of you are waiting on something phenomenal. You have a strong sense that God is going to deliver the mega-load of blessings in your life, and it’s going to make all the struggle, suffering, confusion, and heartache make sense. It’s been a rough road, and you’ve seen some times that you never want to…
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Thank You for the Discipline of Fasting
Dear Heavenly Father, In the Old Testament Book of Daniel, You tell us about him, a prophet who was very loyal in his service to You. The Babylonians worshipped idol gods and did not honor You. When in captivity under Babylonian rule, Daniel was expected by the kings he served to adopt and follow the…
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Closed Mouths Don’t Get Fed-What about Closed Hearts?
On hot summer days in the south, there was no way that my grandmother would allow us grandkids to stay inside. With visiting cousins from up north, sometimes there would be seven or eight of us around, doing what children do—driving grown folks crazy. We were banished to the yard, and we had better not…
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Thank You for Hearing Our Prayers
Dear Heavenly Father, This week, I noticed a change in one of my good friend’s mood. Usually, he’s in a good mood, joking and laughing with me, having good conversation. It was different this week, and I mentioned to him that I had noticed a change. I asked if I had inadvertently said or did…
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Thank You for Forgiving Us
Dear Heavenly Father, There is so much to learn about being a Christian. As I grew to understand more about what You require of us, I must admit that at first, I was very confused. I heard a lot about the forgiveness that You offer, and it seemed to be a perpetual theme. In 1John…