Friday, May 17, 2019
Devotional for Friday, May 17, 2019
“His Grace Is Amazing”
by Dona Hake
God’s grace amazes me. In a time of my life when I knew I was to step out and do something beyond my ability… fear of failing tried to grip my heart to the point of being tempted to not step out in this area God was indeed calling me to. I can still remember the hot summer day that the Lord sent Emma Okorie to the hallway of our Christian school. After he greeted me and inquired how I was doing, I answered him honestly. I know my countenance was full of uncertainty, and he spoke these words to me, “Sister, there are surprises that God has put within you that He wants to unlock and release.” It was those words that were spoken in a most timely moment that God infused me with the courage I needed to step forward, and do the will of the Lord.
Are there things in your heart that God wants to release? We all have special gifts and talents that are for specific purposes and appointed time, and you are the vessel in which they reside. Exciting isn’t it? God wants to show the world the gifts He has planted in you since birth. Our God is always ready to pour out His grace that you need to do that which He desires to release in you. One thing for sure…He needs our cooperation, He needs us to step out in faith and believe that we can in fact do His will with the help of His wisdom, direction, strength, and His amazing grace.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Devotional for Tuesday, May 14, 2019
“His Word Endures Forever!”
Psalm 119:152-153NIV
Yet you are near, Lord,and all your commands are true. Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them to last forever.”
Isn’t it good to know that we serve a living God, and all of His Word and commands ALWAYS hold true, and He established them to last forever. No time limited warranty in which His Word ends, (thank God for that!) but rather there is no end, and He promises that His Word will be faithful and work for us under the most stressful things this life can bring. Nothing is too hard for our Lord! His Word endures forever.
Today I encourage you to look at the temporal things that bless you in this life, and let them remind you that while they may be a blessing they do not last forever nor can you take any of them with you.
Things come and things go. They serve us to be a blessing and may help lighten the load, but they will never ever outlast the power of His unchanging truth and our eternal inheritance. Let our love and affections be on our Lord and His Word. All that He is and ever was will never change, and He established everything concerning His kingdom to last forever!!!
Friday, May 10, 2019
Devotional for Friday, May 10, 2019
“The Power of the Abundant Life”
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. Therefore, we must soak up God’s Word in an abundant way. It is then that our mouth will carry words of abundant life, light and love.
Daily we are bombarded with things that serve to pull us away from living the abundant life that we are meant to live. Thoughts can seemingly come out of nowhere and if our heart is not rock solid with His Word, we will not know how to properly discern right from wrong.One of the areas that I know we can be tempted with is thinking incorrectly about ourselves. For instance, if we make mistakes we can be tempted to be unable to forgive ourselves and we dwell upon our mistakes. If our meditation is stuck in a negative mode we will spin our wheels in the mud so to speak. 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 our soul. One of his main tools that he uses will be our 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.
While we know it is wrong to lie let it be established that we not lie about ourselves. As we stay abundantly full of His Word and remind ourselves of who He says we are, we will not fall prey to lies about ourselves. I encourage you today to guard your heart with ALL diligence for from it truly flows the issues of this life. Deposit His Word in great abundance as you meditate upon it, and your words will carry life changing power in Jesus Name!
Friday, May 3, 2019
Devotional for Friday, May 3, 2019
“The Loving Work of the Lord’s Hand”
by Dona Hake
Psalm 63:8 (VOICE)
” My soul clings to You;
Your right hand reaches down and holds me up.”
Today I want to encourage your heart to look to the Lord, and the work of His mighty hand in your life. Think over the years in your life, and the wondrous things He has done for you. Remember the times how things may have looked hopeless, and He turned your situation into a wonderful testimony! May we look up expectantly and believe that He is going to reach down and hold us up, and do a great work in us! How wonderful is His hand that leads us and guides us throughout our day.
There are days that I feel His loving hand give me the push I need and it’s called courage. Sometimes I feel Him tugging at my heart because I am about to miss something that is important mainly because I am preoccupied with something else. I believe this is His wise discernment and wisdom upon my life. Sometimes I feel His loving hand holding me back and keeping me from taking a step forward in the wrong direction. This is the loving hand of the One that desires to lead, guide and protect me in my path. I have learned to appreciate Him as He has prompted me to be silent when I was about to speak words that could have caused me trouble or hurt someone. His loving and caring hand in our life is so sweet. It is the work of the Holy Spirit and we need to desire it. As our soul clings to Him, He will work within us in beautiful ways that are beyond our understanding.
I hope you too are looking for His loving hand at work in your life! Live in the expectancy of it and He will always meet you where you are and uphold you as you cling to Him.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Devotional for Tuesday, April 30, 2019
“Always Find Your Strength In Him”
by Dona Hake
Philippians 4:13 (CEB)
” I can endure all these things through
the power of the one who gives me strength.”
What a blessing it is to know that we have all that we need for anything that we face. Let us look at this verse, and as you read it emphasize the first two words, “I can.” Many times when we are faced with adversity or we are feeling weak, the first words that we may be tempted to entertain in our minds are “I can’t do this.” Today I want to encourage you to seek daily to find your strength in God. As you seek and find your strength in Him, you will be able to proclaim, “I can do all things through His power who gives me great strength!” In preparing for this particular devotional my original focus on scripture was John 10:10:
John 10:10 (AMP)
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill
life, and have it in abundance
(to the full, till it overflows).”
In this life we all face the thief, and he is the devil himself, He diligently seeks to steal and rob from us. He will try to kill our dreams, weaken our faith, and more than anything try to convince us that we cannot reach the goal of being overcomers in this life. He wants our strength to turn to weakness. He seems to sometimes have the mysterious ability to make the smallest of things look gigantic, yet we serve the One that can bring all problems down to size if only we keep our eyes on Him. Let us proclaim that any mountain can be moved by the hand of the Almighty God!
Paul spoke of when he was his weakest was when he truly experienced God’s strength. As we look to live in His strength we can know that no matter how things are going in the natural, He is with us, and He will make Himself strong on our behalf! Today let us proclaim that His life flows in us in great abundance. Let us draw upon His strength and grace that we can boldly say… “I can do all things!”
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Devotional for Sunday, April 28, 2019
“My Lord! The Health of My Countenance”
by Dona Hake
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26
We have all experienced walking through tough times, and we see how it affects our soul and emotions.One’s countenance is his or her appearance that is reflecting what is going on inside of them. I love this scripture because is shows us that we are able to shine the light and love of the Lord from our countenance as we permit Him to do so.
Many times our countenance is a give away of what is going on inside of us even when we think we are hiding it so well. When one loses hope or they experience disappointment, they can feel sadness and gloom flood their soul, and this will always affect the soul. In the Psalms David understood that no matter what happened that his hope had to be in God, and that He alone would bring health back to his countenance.
Psalm 42:11 Jubilee Bible 2000
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why
art thou disquieted within me? Wait thou for God, for I shall yet praise him,
who is the saving health of my
countenance and my God.”
Lord, I thank you this day for being able to live this life immersed in your joy, peace, and strength. You are the One that is the saving health of my countenance! As I look up to You this day I rejoice that Your countenance is shining down upon me. Help me to walk in the joy and peace and all the good things that You are. I thank You that there are lives that can be touched this day as I permit Your love to shine through me. In Jesus Name! Amen!
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Devotional for Wednesday, April 24, 2019
“Looking At God’s Wisdom”
by Dona Hake
God’s wisdom is pure and untainted. God wants to bestow upon us His pure wisdom as we humbly desire and ask for it. My friends, we need it for every area of our life.
James 3:17 (The Voice)
“Heavenly wisdom centers on purity,
peace, gentleness, deference, mercy,
and other good fruits untainted by hypocrisy.”
The dictionary defines wisdom as knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight. We all know that there is worldly wisdom, and James speaks of worldly wisdom as being evil and devilish at times. As believers God desires that we look to walk in His wisdom, but we must understand what it is. When we ask God for His wisdom He desires to bless us with pure thoughts and good judgement. His wisdom is full of mercy, peace, and gentleness. His ways and answers are not harsh or hypocritical.
There will be times in this life that we may be encountered with questions that are too difficult to give answers to. As believers we can feel that we always have to have answers for people’s questions and problems, and there will be those times in which we could find ourselves at loss for words. In those times that we lack knowing the answers to questions we need to humbly admit that we do not know. In saying that we do not know the answer, we can proclaim that we KNOW the One who does have every answer we need, and He is faithful to answer the prayer of a righteous man or woman.
As you ask God for His precious wisdom for any situation, believe by faith that it is going to flow toward you, and flow forth from you as pure fresh living water. This is what we need and this is what people around us need…not our opinions, not our experiences, but rather the pure, life giving wisdom that comes only from above. Today we thank You Lord for giving us Your sweet wisdom that flows from Your heart to us that we may live and walk closer to You!
Thursday,April 18, 2019
Devotional for Thursday, April 18, 2019
“The Heart Full of Joy”
\by Dona Hake
Psalm 16:11
Thou wilt shew me the path of life:
in thy presence is fulness of joy;
at thy right hand there are
at thy right hand there are
pleasures for evermore.
The scriptures teach us in Psalm 16:11 that as we abide in the Lord’s presence there will be fullness of joy, and we know that the joy of the Lord is our strength. We must continue to renew our minds to this, and not permit anything to pull us out of His presence or pull us away from what the Word of God says about the situations that we are dealing with.
Have you ever had a day in which you wished you had the power to do it all over again? You know those days that seem to be one circumstance after another that tests us continually. May we learn from our days. God’s way is to abide in Him no matter how wicked those storms of life are. He promises strength and joy in the midst of it all.
Today, I encourage you to stay mindful to do that which you know in your heart, and that which is right in His sight. They say “Hind sight is always 20/20 vision.” This is so true especially in those times in which I look back on my yesterdays that seemed to rob my joy and peace. While we cannot do our day over we can certainly learn and partake of His provision for us to move on. We must continue to renew our minds, and not permit anything to pull us out of His presence or pull us away from what the Word of God says about the situations that we are dealing with. Thank God that He speaks to us even when we miss the mark. God is so good, and His mercies are abundant!
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Devotional for April 17, 2019
“His Inseparable Love”
by Dona Hake
Romans 8:39 ERV
“….nothing in the whole created world—
will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown
us in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Such powerful words written by the Apostle Paul. Think about it. There is not one thing in all of this earth that can separate us from His perfect love. There is nothing that can keep us apart or divide us from His love, There is no force, no nothing!!!!
No matter what we face or how hard the devil tries to discourage us we can not be kept apart from the presence of our Lord, and His life giving love. As we remain under His Almighty shadow abiding in His love and walking in humility there are no barriers strong enough to keep us from Him, and His hand working on our behalf.
May our hearts be dedicated to His love as He is dedicated to us. You know we purpose to set time aside to eat, sleep, work and play. Let us be ever so diligent to carve out moments during the day and dedicate those moments to sit in His presence and acknowledge Him. Talk with Him about how you feel and what you fear. Ask Him about everything that concerns you. He is bound to you by His love! Do not go by feelings and do not go by what you see. Praise Him because of His inseparable love for you!!
Monday, April 15, 2019
Devotional for Monday, April 15, 2019
“How Is Your Hearing?
by Dona Hake
Today let us look at our spiritual hearing…so do you have good ears, and if so….are you listening? The Lord desires that we are keen and discerning to all that is going on around us.Have you ever heard when someone jokingly or not so jokingly says that an individual has selective hearing? Selective hearing is the capability to block out sounds and noise. It is the notion of ignoring certain things in one’s surrounding environment. Many times you can see this in small children. They may tend to hear only the fun and exciting things, but things such as “It’s time to clean up your toys, and get ready for your nap.” may not be one of those things that is eagerly heard. The question is are there times that we have selective hearing with the Lord, and we are unaware of it?
There are times we can all identify where we are reading the Word or hearing the Word of God, and our spirit has been pricked by the power of the spoken Word. We just know it was God specifically dealing with our heart yet we walk away, and do not take heed. We heard it in all of it’s power yet we decided not to listen and take heed with our hearts. We can go home from church and proclaim what a good Word our Pastor shared yet not apply it to our life. This too is selective hearing, and we need to be very careful and cautious over our hearts that we are not guilty of this. I found several translations of John 10:27 enlightening so I will share them with you for your meditation.
“The sheep that are My own hear and are listening
to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.” (AMP)
My sheep respond to my voice, and I know who
they are. They follow me…” (GW)
” My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me.” (TLB)
“My sheep respond as they hear My voice; I know
them intimately, and they follow Me.” (The Voice)
The word *know* means to be able to distinguish, as one from another. The Lord wants that we KNOW Him and we KNOW His voice! He desires to we be discerning for there are many voices in this world. Today I encourage your heart to be listening closely for His voice. Many times His voice is loud and clear and many times it is a mere whisper. Be quick to recognize it and respond. God truly desires this intimacy with us as we heed to His Word, and walk willingly along side of Him as He gently leads us. May our hearts and spiritual ears be open to Him, and willing to do all He asks.
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!