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Getting It Right with Humility
1Samuel 15:22 tells us that obedience is better than sacrifice. Our humility to the Will of God is expressed through our faith in His Word and our obedience to follow it. Jesus Christ tells us in Mark 10:15 that anyone who doesn’t humble themselves like a child to receive the Kingdom of God cannot enter…
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You May Want It but It’s Not Good for You
God designed the human body to naturally have certain desires and cravings. We all know what these feel like. Whether it’s craving food, power, fame, money, a favorite drink or a particular person, sometimes we crave things so strongly that we will do just about anything to acquire them. Our Lord and Savior has given…
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No Other Choice
I owe a debt of gratitude to the village of spiritual veterans that surrounded my childhood and adolescence. I’m inspired everyday by their examples, but this isn’t to say that these individuals were perfect. I learned from the good and the bad. I saw rampant infidelity, and I witnessed with my very own eyes the…
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Motherly Wisdom
Dear Heavenly Father, I am so thankful for the wisdom that is in Your Word. In Proverbs 15:5, You tell us, “Only a fool despises a parent’s discipline; whoever learns from correction is wise.” Personally, this verse hits home for me. Growing up into my early teens, I was one of those persons that despised…
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Shut It Off!
It probably comes to no one’s surprise that the popularity of social media has skyrocketed during this current season. With less physical contact and interaction among each other, we’re spending more of our time looking at what others are doing, and they are all too happy to keep us entertained. It starts easy enough. We…
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Praying for Generations
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in Exodus 34:7(NLT), “I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.” You…
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God Will Answer Our Prayers!
In Matthew 7:7-8(NLT), our Master Jesus gives us a clear picture of what faithful, persistent prayer is supposed to look like. He said, “7 Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone…
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God’s Unfailing Love
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for blessing us in every season—both the calm and the storm. We may be walking through a season of shaking, but we know that You have not changed. You are still good, still faithful, and still God, Yahweh—the Great I Am. You said in 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT), “Then if…
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Set Aside the Baby Bottle and Chew on the Meat
Hosea 4:6 tells us that God’s people are destroyed because they lack knowledge. This can sound very harsh to an untrained ear, but it shouldn’t seem harsh at all. Society places a great deal of emphasis and priority on education, so much so that we put our little ones in an educational environment almost as…
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Bigger Fights and Even Bigger Victories
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in 1Peter 5:8(NLT), “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Many of us have not heeded Your warning in 1Peter 5:8 and have succumbed to the enemy’s tricks. We didn’t recognize his attempts to…
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What Comes After the Rest?
One of life’s most fundamental pieces of wisdom is that if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re not able to prepare for the destination. Every person that is living and that has ever lived is on a spiritual journey. Jesus Christ tells us in John 4:24 that God is Spirit. God created everything that…
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Like A City on A Hilltop
My sister lives in an area close to where we grew up. While talking with her the other day, she mentioned bumping into one of my high-school classmates, and she asked about me. This classmate knew that I had moved away some years ago and wanted to know how I was doing, since we hadn’t…
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When God is Well Pleased
Dear Heavenly Father, You want us to have the same mind that Jesus Christ had when He walked upon this earth. You have given us wonderful ministers to equip us so that we can measure up to the full stature of Christ. We should believe as he believed, live as he lived, and give as…
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Are You Creating A Space for Love to Land?
“I’m thirty-two, and I’m the only one in my group of girlfriends that’s still single.” This statement, or something like it, is one many of us have heard from at least one of our single friends. Now more than ever, we’re being told that loneliness is an epidemic, and some have bought into this hook,…
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No Excuses
Dear Heavenly Father, Through the Apostle Paul, in Hebrews 4:1(NLT), You tell us, “God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it.” Prior to this pandemic, the world was moving so fast that it didn’t know how to catch up…
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Dealing with Sadness and Uncertainty
The famous writer and poet, Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true.” It speaks to me now just as much as it did when I first read it in high school. I’m old enough to have learned some serious lessons from life’s mistakes and its triumphs. One of the important lessons that is evident…
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Time to Get Close to You
Dear Heavenly Father, In Old Testament times, Psalm 60:2 says that You allowed the earth to tremble and break, and only You can heal it. Today, in our time, the world is shaking, and many people are afraid. One of the laws of physics is that for every action in nature there is a reaction.…
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I Say YES!
Dear Heavenly Father, Many people that call themselves Christians are not really following Christ. Some consider it just a label, and they wear it because their other family and friends have become believers. Others have some sort of personal agenda, and they are looking to profit from the Christian community. There are many shallow spiritual…
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Is God Punishing Our Sin?
1John 4:1(NLT) tells us, “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.” One of the statements I’ve made many times over the years is regarding the importance…
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The Guidance of Your Word
Dear Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 4:4(NKJV), “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” No matter what he faced, Your Son always came back to Your Word. Your Word is life to us, because it is alive. As…
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Lids Ripped Off Our Little Boxes
In Mark 11:24(NIV), Jesus Christ says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This is an extraordinarily wonderful truth! Our Great Big Powerful God has made it very plain that we have access to Him. So much so that when we…
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The Right List
Dear Heavenly Father There are so many things that I want to accomplish in my life. Like many of your sons and daughters, sometimes it feels like I’m taking one step forward and two steps backwards. The demands on my time are increasing, and my resources don’t seem to be keeping pace. This can be…
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Where Do We Go from Here?
Wherever we are in our spiritual walk with the Father through Jesus Christ, He’s calling us to go further—to become more deeply rooted in Christ. God wants us to do this so that we become spiritually stronger, and so that the vision He holds for us becomes clearer. This is so important because some of…
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A New Dimension in Prayer
It should never escape the minds and hearts of any believer that prayer to God is meant to be an expression of our total lives in Christ. The habit pattern for many of us, though, is to portion off our lives into categories. We label most of it as stuff we can handle, and other…
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Deeper Gratitude and Adoration for God
Dear Heavenly Father, Isaiah 26:3(NLT) says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” There have been many days that I have allowed situations to cause my thoughts to stray away from Your Word. You warn us not to look on the prosperity of the…
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God Will Show You What He Can Do!
Proverbs 19:21(NLT) says, “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” Making many plans is what we humans do. We’re constantly making decisions and choices that we think will lead us where we want to go. God tells us in Proverbs 19:21 that we can certainly do this, but we must always…
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Take It By Faith!
Dear Heavenly Father, In Ephesians 2:10, You call the creation of humanity Your masterpiece. You tell us that we are Your finest work, and You created us as brand new creations in Christ Jesus. You want us to do the good things that You planned for us, and You planned these good things long before…
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What Matters Most
Dear Heavenly Father, In 1Corinthians 12:28(NLT), You tell us, “Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those…
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Can’t Nobody Do Ya’ Like Jesus!
Charlotte called her dad a very mean dry alcoholic. When they were children, before he got sober, he would whip her and her other siblings frequently for no reason. She said when she asked him why he was punishing her, he said if he whipped one, he had to whip them all. They were terrified…
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Truly Walking in Freedom
We have big problems these days, and it’s not just on a micro level, but on a macro one. We’re seeing the enemy’s plots on a very large scale and his tactic of divisiveness and lies is more transparent than ever. But society is revealing to us that there are very few people with their…