by Dona Hake

The Lord desires that we diligently care for our hearts, minds and tongues.   It is up to us what we deposit into our hearts and minds.  If you are a person that takes it seriously to guard your heart than you well understand the battle that it can be.  Daily we are bombarded with things that serve to pull us away.  Thoughts can seemingly come out of nowhere and sometimes we think too highly of our own opinions.   Thoughts and opinions can war against our soul.   If left unguarded we will soon be speaking from our mouths things that could harm our faith or possibly offend someone.

There is also another area in which we can struggle with and that is failing to see ourselves as God sees us.   I spoke earlier this week about embracing God’s vision, and it applies to this devotion as well.    We must see ourselves as a people that are blessed with the precious gift of forgiveness.   Oh but how many times do we make a mistake and miss the mark, and we can be tempted to be unable to forgive ourselves.   As we meditate upon negative thoughts about ourselves that negative will grow bigger and bigger in our mind.  The strength of any negative will be an arrow that the devil will use against us.   One of his main tools will be our own tongues. You may begin to speak things about yourself and you put yourself down.  Eventually the more you hear those words from your own mouth, you will begin to believe them.

Proverbs 4:24(ERV)
“Don’t bend the truth or say things

that you know are not right. 

by Dona Hake

  Today I had several opportunities  that tried to  distract my heart from the most important thing and that was keeping my mind on things above, and keeping it simple.    It is interesting how easily the things of this world can distract us and pull us away from dwelling in the Secret Place.  Today I encourage you to keep your mind on things above.  I am finding that the more I keep my eyes on things above the more  I enjoy the simple joys and pleasures of this life.  Serve the  living God with a glad heart and praise Him today.   He desires that we enjoy  His presence as He walks beside us!  God bless you richly this day!

Colossians 3:2  (TLB)
 “Let heaven fill your thoughts;

by Dona Hake

Here is one of my favorite quotes and it is so powerful…”Worry casts a big shadow on small things.”  Worry has the ability to magnify things and it has the power to deceive us.  I would say that we should view worry as a real danger to our souls.   God did not design us to deal with our problems through worry but rather He desires that we see all things through His eyes, and deal with them in faith.

God desires that we keep everything in His perspective and the only way that will happen is if we purpose to see things through His eyes.     As we ask Him to help us see through His eyes, our vision will be vision that is sharp and full of faith.  Today I encourage you to ask Him to fill your eyes with life giving light…His light.  As He fills your eyes with that light, determine to keep your eyes fixed on Him!

 Psalm 119:18 (VOICE) 
“Let me see clearly so that I may take in

Matthew 6:22-23  (TLB)

by Dona Hake

Today let us meditate upon the power of the blood of Jesus.   Oh the power of His blood that purifies our hearts and cleanses us from sin and sets our hearts free from the torment of guilt.  Guilt is like a prison and it is a horrible thing for the one that is imprisoned by it.    Memories and thoughts of the wrong you may have done seem to have voices, and these voices will haunt you until you know how to deal with them.    It is when one understands the power of forgiveness that the power of sin will be broken.    If you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, you can partake of His wonderful forgiveness.  Let us treasure within us how wonderful it is that the Lord will forgive us when we mess up and He will always cleanse our hearts.  As we humble ourselves to Him admitting our wrongs and shortcomings, He is desiring so much to bring you back to that place of cleansed and free.

Let us look at David in the Psalms.   His plea to God was for restoration of his heart in a time in which he majorly messed up and  his heart was heavy with guilt and anguish.

Psalm 51:7, 8, 10

Today let us treasure the power of forgiveness from the One who is able to cleanse.  I love how verse eight says “Let me hear sounds of joy and happiness again.”   This is what restoration  is about.  When we experience freedom from guilt we are able to experience the joy that was robbed by our sin and guilt.  Only God is able to create within us a pure heart, pick us back up, and cause us to press on in His will.  Thank God for the power of forgiveness!

 “Believing Is Seeing”

by Dona Hake

Today let us meditate upon believing before we see.   This is what faith is all about.   As we pray and ask our Lord, may we rest upon Him knowing that His timing and ways are above our ways and timing.  When we are in faith it is important that we not judge how the Lord is working on our behalf simply by what we see with our natural eyes.    Many times the Lord is beginning to unfold answers to our prayers, but because of our preconceived ideas of how it is going to happen we may miss what He is trying to do in our life.  Sometimes the answers to our prayers simply come in a whole different “package” than we expected.  I believe that many times we miss the treasures of His wisdom in the midst of a trial simply because we want out of the problem.   From my own experiences I can say that many times it was in that time of waiting for the fulfillment of my prayer that the Lord spoke and ministered to my heart in such a sweet way.

Hebrews 11:1 (TLB)
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something

we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what

we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.

Hebrews 11:1 (VOICE)
Faith is the assurance of things you have hoped for,

the absolute conviction that there

are realities you’ve never seen.

 One thing that we can be assured of is that we need to know that God desires to bless our faith  yet He understands more than we will ever know that His timing and our waiting is so important.    It is also of great importance that our asking is in line with His will for our lives.   Today I encourage you that if you are believing Him for something to wait with an assurance in your heart that He will bless your faith.  Let us stand as we pray knowing we have absolute conviction that believing is seeing!

by Dona Hake

I can remember as a little girl when my Grandmother would take my sister and I to the  Fair.  I can remember how she would put us on the Merry-go-round and stand and watch us. Each time we would pass her, we would wave and there would be joy all over her face as she would wave back at us. There was one thing though that I could remember , and that was the faster the Merry-go-round went I could no longer seem to find her in the crowd of so many faces watching.  Round and round we would go and it seemed like everything around me would seem blurry and it was hard to focus. I was always glad when it finally slowed up and even though it was fun, I was glad to get off, and be back with my Grandma.

Sometimes I think life can be like a Merry-go-round. The demands and responsibilities of this life can cause us to lose sight of what is right in front of us.   God desires for us to enjoy our lives and the many blessings yet He does not want us to get so caught up in them that we forget to look for Him.

Yesterday I shared with you about the race that is set before  us.   As a believer we all have weights that try to keep us from running the pace that the Lord desires of us.   May we be mindful that sometimes the many things we think must be done can become the weights that Paul was talking about in Hebrews.  Being busy can become a weight, therefore let us meditate upon the power of living a life of contentment and quietness before Him. May we be consumed with the desire of doing only that which we know the Lord is requiring us to do.  

Let us not make ourselves so busy that this life swirls so fast that we can no longer find Him in the midst of the whirlwind that we have created. We have so many things to be thankful for and many are the materialistic blessings we enjoy yet He does not want them to hold our attention to the point that our focus is off of Him. We have all heard it said that there are things we have in this world that we love but we cannot take them with us when we die.

 Today I encourage you to desire a heart that is content with Him.  He is all that we need as we run the race of this life which we call God’s will. May we seek to know in our hearts that we are being busy about the things that the Lord has called us.  Lord we thank you for blessing the work of our hands as we seek to walk in contentment before You.

by Dona Hake

We may feel alone, but we aren’t. We are surrounded by an army of witnesses. They have run the race of faith and finished well. It is now our turn.

Now stay focused on Jesus, who designed and perfected our faith. He endured the cross and ignored the shame of that death because He focused on the joy that was set before Him; and now He is seated beside God on the throne, a place of honor.

What does it take to run the race that God has set before us?   Each of us have our very own race, and we need to understand what it takes to run this long race that requires   an endurance that will take us to the finish line.   This endurance and direction that we need can only come from above. Let us follow Paul’s instruction in this race that we are running.  This scripture in Hebrews makes it pretty plain. First, we must drop unnecessary weight or anything that is keeping us from moving forward. We all have things that are trying to weight us down and we as individuals need to recognize what it is. I can remember hearing ” 50% of a problem is solved just understanding what the problem is.” As we acknowledge what our weight is, and humble ourselves to God and ask Him for help, He will surely help us. God loves to help us take off unnecessary “weight” and He has the perfect plan for us to lose that weight!

Secondly, we must stay focused. Anything that draws us away from keeping our eyes on a goal will be our hindrance. The devil understands our weaknesses and he knows how to distract us. He is crafty and understands how to throw us out of the game if we are not diligent to keep it right in our hearts and minds. He roams about like a roaring lion seeking ways to devour us. I love this quote I found relative to maintaining strong focus.

 “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
Henry Ford

Obstacles can serve to obstruct or hinder our progress or we can use it to make us stronger than before. Today I encourage you to run the race in the strength of the Lord. Take these two tips from Hebrews 12, and we will run strong in this race that the Lord has put before us. *Drop unnecessary weight and stay focused on the finish line!!!   Let us go forward in our race set before us knowing our loving God is with us, and will help us cross the finish line victoriously!   

 Today I want us to meditate on the fact that we are blessed of the Lord!   God desires to bless us above and beyond all that we dare ask or think.  When I look around and see the work of His mighty hand I often wonder how one could not believe there is a God in Heaven. I am thankful that He desires His hand of blessing is upon our life. It is such a comfort to know that His loving eyes are upon us at all times.

While reading these verses my heart is especially blessed when I read “You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest.” Today as you go about your day I encourage you to be mindful of His plans for you as He works through your life. Be mindful and obedient to stop and rest as He instructs you to do that He may refresh and renew your strength. Many times we can get so focused on the work that we forget that our spirit needs refreshed and our body needs rest. He desires to continually empower us with His strength and wisdom that we would not get weary in doing His will. God bless you as you ponder His blessings in your life!  Praise God for we are the blessed!!!

Colossians 3:15-Amplified version

“And let the peace soul harmony which comes from Christ

rule act as umpire continually in your hearts deciding

and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds,

in that peaceful state to which as members of Christ’s