Friday, January 4, 2019
Devotional for Friday, January 4, 2019
“What’s In Your Cup?”
Yesterday one of my friends on Facebook shared this wonderful post. I just felt to pass this on to you today to bless you, and exhort your heart!
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“You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shaking your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? “Well because someone bumped into me, of course!” Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.
Had there been tea in the cup, you would’ve spilled tea.
*Whatever is inside the cup, will spill out.*
Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
So we have to ask ourselves… “what’s in my cup?” When life gets tough, what spills over?
Joy, gratefulness, peace, and humility?
Or, anger, bitterness, harsh words, and reactions?
You choose.
Today lets work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation; and kindness, gentleness, and love for others. “ CHOOSE joy, SPEAK life, and KEEP MARCHING!”
“You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shaking your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? “Well because someone bumped into me, of course!” Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.
Had there been tea in the cup, you would’ve spilled tea.
*Whatever is inside the cup, will spill out.*
Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
So we have to ask ourselves… “what’s in my cup?” When life gets tough, what spills over?
Joy, gratefulness, peace, and humility?
Or, anger, bitterness, harsh words, and reactions?
You choose.
Today lets work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation; and kindness, gentleness, and love for others. “ CHOOSE joy, SPEAK life, and KEEP MARCHING!”
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I encourage you to think about what is in your cup today.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Devotional for Thursday, January 3, 2019
“Under His Shadow I Shall Live”
The other morning I was immediately drawn to meditate upon Psalm 91. Thinking about how important it is to remain close to my God. Thinking about His shadow, and if I desire to remain within His shadow I MUST walk right beside him and stay beside Him at all times. We must always remind ourselves how easy it is to step off of His perfect path and do our own thing. It is then that we are not abiding under His shadow and perfect guidance. His wondrous Light provides His Almighty Shadow!
As we just celebrated the birth of Christ, let us reflect upon His Name being called Emmanuel which means “God with us.” He is with us and He promises to never leave nor forsake us!
“A virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and His name will be Immanuel (which is a Hebrew name that means “God with us”. Matthew 1:23 – The VOICE
Today I encourage you to think about walking close to your God. He is light and in Him there is no darkness. Under the shadow of the Almighty God lies security and the promise that He will keep us. I leave these scriptures with you to meditate upon as you ponder walking closely to Him.
“He who takes refuge in the shelter of the Most High will be safe in the shadow of the Almighty.”Psalm 91:1 – The Voice
“Your strong love, O True God, is precious. All people run for shelter under the shadow of Your wings.”Psalm 36:7 – The VOICE
“The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.”Psalm 121:5-8 -NLT
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Devotional for Wednesday, January 2, 2019
“Do You Know What Weighs You Down?”
by Dona Hake
I wanted to share this testimonial of a gentleman of his amazing weight loss. I heard this a few years ago, and I thought it would be good to meditate upon in light of entering a new year. This gentleman shared his story of his plan to confront his temptations of overeating …it was effective and I found it interesting. He had lost eighty pounds and he never felt better in his life. Okay, here is what he learned from his victory. Did he rid of all his food temptations just because he lost weight and attained the victory he pursued? Absolutely not! He said there were many times he would walk into the kitchen and he would be hit with the temptation to eat wrong and not remain on course . He understood that he was winning, and to give in to these temptations would set him back in his victory. His solution…he laid eight ten pound bowling balls on the floor in the kitchen. Whenever tempted he would walk over and begin to pick a few up and walk around. He felt how they weighted him down, and that extra weight made him feel exhausted. These bowling balls served as a reminder to him of the weight that he no longer carried around. This is the scripture I immediately thought of when I heard this man’s story…
Hebrews 12:1
“So we must get rid of everything that slows us down,
especially the sin that just won’t let go.
And we must be determined to run
the race that is ahead of us.”
We are all in the race, and it is called God’s will and purposes for our life. Each of us have our own battles and weaknesses that we need to purpose to overcome. No matter what the weakness is, it will ultimately slow us down doing what we are here to do. It is a good thing to remember that God desires that we identify our weaknesses, and sins that weigh us down so that He can walk hand in hand with us toward victory. Let us take hold of His help to bring down anything that weights us down or hinders our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the will of God set before us!
Sunday, January 30, 2018
Devotional for Sunday, January 30, 2018
“His Hands… Full Of Good Things”
by Dona Hake
“You open Your hand and they are filled with good things.”
Psalm 104:28b
Let our hearts be as a small child and open and hearts and hands to receive all that God desires for us without any inhibition. Today, are you expecting from Him to touch your life in ways it has never been touched before? Is your heart being kept full, strengthened and maintained by the power of the Holy Spirit? He desires to open His hand and touch you for His hands are filled with an abundance of good things! Many times we may be walking in lack simply because we are not drawing from the provision of our loving Heavenly Father.
I shared in our last devotional how the Lord desires that we depend on grace just as the air we breathe. May we look at every provision of our Heavenly Father in the same light. May we be full of His love, His peace, His strength…all that He is! Oh that we do not accustom ourselves to living in lack. It can be so easy to fall into endeavoring to do things in our own ability and strength. When we stop trusting God for the littlest of things, it eventually snowballs into every area of our life. God desires to fill us that we bubble over with hope as we trust in Him. As He fills us there will be new strength. Our youth will be renewed as the eagle. I encourage you to receive from His hand today. God is so good, trust in Him!!!
Romans 15:13 ERV “I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace as you trust in him. Then you will have more and more hope, and it will flow out of you by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Devotional for Saturday, December 29, 2018
“You Aren’t Equipped For Life Until…”
by Dona Hake
“You aren’t equipped for life until you realize you aren’t equipped for life. You aren’t equipped for life until you’re in need of grace.
In the moment of realizing your limitations, your shortcomings, you’re inescapable sins, all that you aren’t—-In that moment of surrendered lack, you’re given the gift you’d receive no other way: the gracious hand of an unlimited God. Repentance, turning around, is the only way to be ushered into grace.”
excerpt from “The Greatest Gift” by Ann Voskamp
God‘s desire is that we live in a place of constant awareness of our need for His grace. He also desires we stay away of how we can do nothing without Him. Yet with Him we can do the impossible! But we must always beware… pride will try to pull and tug at our hearts at times. Sometimes it is so subtle that we miss pride’s work and it’s voice. Pride will try to trick us into thinking that we can live without grace. Pride will keep our hearts from living a life of repentance. Pride will keep us in a place of depending on our own ability.
Oh that we come to the place of seeing His grace as needful as the air we breathe. Oh Lord, Your grace is one of the most wonderful provisions you have provided for us that we may live this life for You. It will be sufficient for anything we deal with today, and we thank You for that.
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Devotional for Wednesday, December 26, 2018
“God’s Word – Our Mirror”
by Dona Hake
James 1:22-25 (Amplified)
“But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].
For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror;
For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then
goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.
But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law]
of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking
into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an
active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing
(his life of obedience).”
There may have been a time that you have heard the Word of God, and your heart was encouraged and lifted up. There may also have been times in which the Word of the Lord has greeted your heart with an invitation to take a second glance for your soul may have need of extra attention. You see, as we hear the living Word of God, many times the Holy Spirit will speak to us in a more challenging way, and reveal things that we are unaware of. While this may be unpleasant to our souls, it is needful that we deal with this prompting of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we are aware of hindrances to our soul yet we become masters of covering up, and putting off dealing with it. As the scripture says…we would be…
“betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning
contrary to the Truth].”
“betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning
contrary to the Truth].”
We cannot afford to deceive ourselves and live contrary to God’s Word. Know that when the Lord brings something to our attention, He is also our provision of all the grace and help we need to change it. We must always keep in mind that it is our choice to let Him change us into His image.
If we do not act on the challenge of God’s Word, we can end up being a hearer and not a doer of the Word of our Lord. It is the same as seeing ourselves in a mirror, and observing the reflection of our spirit and soul, and walking away, therefore forgetting the condition of our soul. My friend we must never walk away and forget what we saw in God’s mirror. Hearing the Word without obedience following will never help us change. Action by faith in Him must follow!
As we look into the glorious mirror of the living Word of God, and it reveals what we need, let us ask the Holy Spirit, our Helper for the wisdom, understanding and direction to deal with the change that our hearts need. He who has shown this great light of His Word will be faithful to accomplish the change we need, and we will be blessed and changed into His image as we obey Him.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Devotional for Friday, December 21, 2018
“Seek and Inquire of the Lord”
by Dona Hake
Psalm 105:4 (AMP)
“Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and
His strength (His might and inflexibility to temptation);
seek and require His face and His presence [continually] evermore.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“No man ever prayed without learning something.”
As we ponder the scripture from Psalm 105:4 along with this quote we can see that as we truly seek the Lord in prayer, reading, and the hearing of His Word that there is much to be found, and we will most assuredly learn in our time with Him. Even if you have read a scripture many times over, there is always freshness and newness of life that it can bring to our soul…if we allow it to. The truths to be found in our Lord have endless depths, and as we pray and seek Him, He will take us into deeper revelation of the truths in His Word.
Do you desire to go deeper and deeper in the things of God? Today I encourage you to crave Him and His strength. Think about those things you love to eat. Sometimes it will hit me and I will start craving a particular food because I love it so much. So it should be with our love for our Lord and everything about Him! The more we seek Him the more we will find ourselves needing to seek Him more. The more you experience HIS strength and HIS ability, the more you will crave to turn your face to Him and receive all that He is! Remember that all that He is, and all that He does is brand new everyday. He desires to teach you continually and answer all the questions of your heart. Crave Him, step into His presence, and prepare yourself to learn and receive His portion for you today. God is good!
Jeremiah 33:3 (CJB)
“Call out to me, and I will answer you —
I will tell you great things, hidden things
of which you are unaware.”
Monday, December 17, 2018
Devotional for Monday, December 17, 2018
“Favor Like a Shield”
“Because you, Lord, bless the righteous.
You cover them with favor like a shield.”
Psalm 5:12 – CEB
Psalm 5:12 – CEB
He covers us with His favor as a shield! Another translation said His favor is as a canopy. I love that! Let us look at the word shield defined in light of the scripture.
“A broad piece of armor, varying widely in
“A broad piece of armor, varying widely in
form and size, carried apart from the body,
usually on the left arm, as a defense
against swords, lances, arrows”
Today I encourage you to think about times that you have seen the favor of God in your life. I can remember once hearing a Bible teacher share that many times God’s favor was exhibited in ways we may not always understand. This makes me think of the scripture that plainly states that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. This teacher proceeded to share of a time in which he was in a hurry, and he felt the Lord was leading him to take a different route. This route actually was going to make him late. While he tried to reason it away he remained obedient. He found out the route he was going to take had a very bad car accident in the very moments he would have been on that road…it caused him to think that he could have very well been affected by that accident. He then said, “This was God’s favor!” His favor is our defense in ways that we may never understand. As we pray for God’s favor we can expect Him to sometimes interrupt our plans, and keep us out of trouble and inconveniences that would waste our time or spare our life from danger.
Let us daily praise Him and acknowledge His favor in order that we may see His hand at work in ways we may never understand. It is your shield and He promises to cover you as you walk in His paths of righteousness for His Name sake.
” Lord, you bless those who do what is right. You protect them like a soldier’s shield.” Psalm 5:12 International Children’s Bible
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Devotional for Sunday, December 16, 2018
“Be Still That You May Hear”
By Dona Hake
As we purpose to dwell in His presence we will most assuredly hear His voice even when it is a soft whisper or tug on our heart. I love to meditate that my Lord walks beside me, and He shows me His loving direction in every step that I take. Some days I know that my angels are working overtime to guard my back and keep me safe from trouble. I especially thank the Lord when I get in my car that His angels are encamped around about me.
There is great power in the awareness of leaning on His instruction and His direction for every moment of our day. There is safety in heeding to the “stop signs” that He puts before us. Many times His stop signs can come as a lack of peace in a situation. I believe in those times He desires that we heed to those quiet tugs upon our hearts to keep us from being harmed or making a wrong decision.
Today I would like to share a testimony of His protection over my life a few days ago. I was coming home, and I was going to make a left-hand turn at a green light. There was no on coming traffic so obviously I felt I had the right away, and could make the turn. But what was more obvious to me was the prompting within me that I should pause and move extremely slowly. The light had been green, and there was no oncoming traffic so just as I decided to make my turn I felt not to move, and it seemed out of nowhere a SUV that was going way over the speed limit came flying right through the red light he had at the intersection where I was ready to make my turn. Had I not stopped where I did I would most definitely been hit. The thing that amazed me most was the peace that totally enveloped me in that moment.
I immediately began to thank the Lord for warning me to stop and not move even though I had the right away. It is important in these moments and times that we do not let “the what if’s march”. What if I would not had stopped, what if…what if… When we do this we invite the “what if’s” to trample our hearts with fear, and fear will begin to occupy our minds. That will surely rob us from staying in faith, and walking in the peace that He has blessed us with.
There is great power in the awareness of leaning on His instruction and His direction for every moment of our day. There is safety in heeding to the “stop signs” that He puts before us. Many times His stop signs can come as a lack of peace in a situation. I believe in those times He desires that we heed to those quiet tugs upon our hearts to keep us from being harmed or making a wrong decision.
Today I would like to share a testimony of His protection over my life a few days ago. I was coming home, and I was going to make a left-hand turn at a green light. There was no on coming traffic so obviously I felt I had the right away, and could make the turn. But what was more obvious to me was the prompting within me that I should pause and move extremely slowly. The light had been green, and there was no oncoming traffic so just as I decided to make my turn I felt not to move, and it seemed out of nowhere a SUV that was going way over the speed limit came flying right through the red light he had at the intersection where I was ready to make my turn. Had I not stopped where I did I would most definitely been hit. The thing that amazed me most was the peace that totally enveloped me in that moment.
I immediately began to thank the Lord for warning me to stop and not move even though I had the right away. It is important in these moments and times that we do not let “the what if’s march”. What if I would not had stopped, what if…what if… When we do this we invite the “what if’s” to trample our hearts with fear, and fear will begin to occupy our minds. That will surely rob us from staying in faith, and walking in the peace that He has blessed us with.
I encourage you today to be still, enjoy the peace of your Lord and learn to live by it. Many times our minds can be so busy with the plans of our day that we do not heed to the advice and prompting of our Lord. May we continue to learn to walk in a place that we are able to hear His still small voice.
Friday, November 23, 2018
Devotional for Friday, November 23, 2018
“HIS WORD NEVER CHANGES”
by Dona Hake
God’s Word is true, and He is faithful to it. He promises that He will stand behind it, and He will never change or waver. Even as our Lord promises His faithfulness to His Word, there are those that seek to figure their problems out in their own ability. They have come to trust themselves rather than God for life’s answers.
God Word is a powerful seed! We need to plant it, and permit it to flourish within us that we will be thriving in the blessings He has intended for us. His Word will not lose its potency due to time or the increasing knowledge this world has to offer as a solution to our problems.
I recently read where this individual watched a documentary on Egypt. It showed how wheat seed was found in pyramids. These seeds were dated to approximately 2,500 BC. It was amazing to hear that when the seeds were planted in fertile soil, the 4,500 year old seeds grew! And so it is with the Word of our Lord…how awesome it is to know that God’s Word does not lose its potency overtime but He continues to powerfully reproduce His kingdom in the lives of those who purpose to sow it. I encourage you today to purpose to diligently sow God’s Word within your heart that it may grow and flourish in your life and keep you standing strong in Jesus Name!
This is a good way of teaching the kids to forgive each other(Matt. 5:7). I like the power of this gentle scripture and lesson… Thanks!!
thank you Lisa for sharing. I am blessed that this was a blessing to you!
Ralph &I are really enjoying your devotional together.
So glad this is blessing you both!
Oh, what a wonderful reminder! I want to break the magnifing glass of worry and trust God for each step I take.
It is interesting Selena how the more we worry the bigger and more magnified things get in our minds. Oh how important it is to trust our God for the smallest of things! Thank you for sharing!