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Please Don’t Let Us Go Too Far
Dear Heavenly Father, I am continually overwhelmed by the tender way in which You love us. You have helped us throughout history through people like Abraham, Moses, and David. These men provided great leadership as shepherds. The occupation of a shepherd is mentioned many times in Your Word. King David, the psalmist, beautifully tells us…
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3 Essential Truths for Single Women
As a young woman, getting her feet wet with dating, my family matriarchs and spiritual mentors reminded me often about the scripture in 2Corinthians 6:14(NLT). It straightforwardly tells us, “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers.” I loved the Lord, but I didn’t understand what was so bad about dating someone whose faith wasn’t…
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Rewards Set to Automatic
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in 1John 4:8 that anyone who doesn’t love doesn’t know You, because You are love. You also tell us in 1John 4:16 that everyone that lives in love lives in You, and You live in them. This is beyond wonderful, Heavenly Father. Thank You for loving us the way…
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Never Put Anyone or Anything Before God
In Luke 14:25-35, our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, teaches us about the cost of being his disciple. During the time in which this passage took place, there was a weeding process going on—a thinning out process if you will. Lots of folks followed Jesus Christ for the wrong reasons. He was terrifically charismatic…
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We Must Be Led!
Dear Heavenly Father, I heard a word this week that I absolutely fell in love with. It was inspiring to hear because I see this a lot with people who have a candy store mentality when it comes to Your blessings and empowerment. They neglect the empowerment of Your Word, and only want the rewards…
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Choosing Your Destiny Partner
The person that we choose as a partner is not necessarily who God would choose for us. We typically have no idea how monumentally consequential this statement is. We do the pickings, and then we ask God to cosign, and that’s not how that thing works. I think some of us take this approach not…
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Let Go of Mistakes and Sorrows of the Past
Dear Heavenly Father, In the Old Testament, You told Your people in Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV), “18 Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in…
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You Will Have It All Again
There is little in life that is more emotionally painful than going through divorce. For many people, it’s a tremendous loss. God tells us a little bit about how He deals with our losses in the encouragement of Joel 2:25-26(NLT). In this passage He said, “25 I will give…
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How Bad is Bad? Really Bad!
From the Book of Job in the Old Testament, we can learn tremendous principles and great divine truths. The drama of Job’s record begins in Chapter 1, and there we learn that Job lived in the land of Uz. God’s Word also tells us that Job was perfect, a man of solid integrity. Job had…
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Showing Our Love for You
Dear Heavenly Father, Many people say they love You, Heavenly Father, but they do not show it in their actions. We are all guilty of having attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors that don’t please You, but instead of repenting of these in humbled submission, we say things like, “God knows my heart.” This is true, but…
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Why Are You So Sad?
There are only two books in the bible named after women, Ruth and Esther, in the Old Testament. I personally love them both, but the Book of Ruth is the one from which I draw the most relatable encouragement. I marvel continually at Ruth’s devotion to her mother in law, Naomi. I’m also deeply in…
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The New Creation that is YOU!
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in Romans 12:2 (NLT), “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” You are telling us…
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The Treasure You’re Looking for Is Close
The notion of a ‘Critical Question’ is something we talk quite a bit about in our teachings. The word ‘critical’ in this context is not referring to an unfavorable or harsh judgment. It is related to something that is desperately urgent. A critical question is one for which the answer is so monumentally significant to…
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No Weapon!!!
There are some people who don’t like surprises of any kind. They don’t want surprise ingredients in their foods, don’t want surprise birthday parties, spontaneous trips, or surprise gifts. The idea of being presented with anything unexpectedly is a no-go for them, and they are not amused. The irony is that in life, some surprises…
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God Doesn’t Accept Leftovers
Dear Heavenly Father, As I think about what I’ve witnessed in my significant relationships, as well as those of some of my friends, we often make assumptions that ultimately cause us heartbreak. We don’t give ourselves time to find out if the person we’re attracted to is someone You’ve presented as a destiny partner. Instead,…
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Courageous in the Face of Dissatisfaction
Dear Heavenly Father, So many people that I know personally are sad because they are not satisfied with their lives. Some of them have tried to accomplish goals but have failed. Others feel very alone, and they are down on themselves because they don’t have a significant person in their lives who has their backs.…
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Press Forward
Jesus Christ gave a strong, but short and to-the-point warning in Luke 17:32(NLT). He said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” For this warning to hit our hearts and minds as impactful as it must, we need to know a little bit more about Lot’s predicament. He was Abraham’s nephew, and when Abraham left his own father’s land…
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Craving You
Dear Heavenly Father, You have delivered many of us from a multitude of dark and negative issues, and we still carry idols with us into our deliverance. I personally know individuals that have moved to a different area, job, relationship, or place of worship; and remnants of the same issues will pop up in their…
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Sometimes Our Desires and Dreams Need to be Tweaked
John 10:10 is a verse of scripture that is probably on every believer’s list of ‘scripture favs’. In this verse, our Master Jesus speaks so plainly about who the devil is and what the devil came to do; and most importantly, Jesus Christ tells us very poignantly why he, himself, came to the earth as…
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Recharging Our Batteries
Dear Heavenly Father, In Genesis 2:2(NLT), You tell us, “On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.” Your Word also tells us that You are Spirit, therefore, You don’t need rest in the physical sense. We need rest for our physical bodies to continue to…
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When the Lord Tells You Not to Do Something, and You Do It Any Way
I was moved by a testimony of a woman who met a man after she had given up on the prospect of ever getting married. He is someone who had almost given up on life himself. His name is James, and he lived in a small southern town where he had been a high-school football…
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Never Beg A Man for His Time
Many of us partition off our lives into sections. We categorize them in terms of the areas where we want God’s involvement and the areas where we do not. When it comes to relationships with men, many of us tell Heavenly Father, “I got this.” We proceed along the routes that feel organic or comfortable…
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The Blessing of Abundance
Dear Heavenly Father, I was taught something today about Your law of Giving equals Receiving, and it really blew my mind. Your precious Son told us in Luke 6:38(NLT), “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into…
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One out of Ten Got it Right
Dear Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 17:11-19 about the ten lepers that were healed from the disease of leprosy. None of us can truly understand the impact in earlier biblical periods of having this disease. Those who had it were looked upon as utter outcasts. They were isolated and not allowed to…
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God Is Your Provider
Believers should take time every day to reflect on what God has done for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. We should be so incredibly thankful that He has saved us, and not only this, He has chosen us to be His sons and daughters. Romans 8:29(NLT) tells us, “For God knew his people in…
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It Is Better to Give Than to Receive
Dear Heavenly Father, Acts 20:35 tells us the amazingly wise words of Your Son, Jesus Christ. He said it is better to give than to receive. Father, this is a very basic lesson You’re teaching us, but we still don’t have it firmly in our consciousness. You have charged us with the call to feed…
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Trust in God!
Dear Heavenly Father, Your Son said in John 10:10(NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” You sent Your Son to earth to make a more than abundant life available to Your…
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Do You Need A Course Correction?
Proverbs 14:12, 16:25(NLT) says, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” The path that seems right is the one most people will take, and it is the one that most people are on today. It’s a comfortable path, one that our fore-parents and parents may have been…
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Pressing-in to God
Dear Heavenly Father, You said in Acts 2:17(NLT), “‘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.” The ‘last days’ refers to the period after the ascension of Jesus Christ. He promised to…
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Can You Get Him Back?
Jesus Christ asked in Mark 9:23, “What do you mean, ‘If I can’? Anything is possible if a person believes.” In this healing miracle that transpired in Mark 9:14-27, a father asked Jesus to cast out a demon that had possessed his son, but this father was not fully convinced that it was indeed…