The Daily Devotional Blog

“In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait expectantly” ( Psalm 5 :3).  Yes, God hears our prayers .  Not only in the morning, but anytime. Remember that. We need to   know that God is there for us always. The time of day really doesn’t matter, because He's there in the midnight hour, in the noon day,  and  in the morning. That's right, His spirit still hovers over the earth, so keep that in mind whenever you want to "supper" with Him. Let’s focus on the morning though, because that’s a time when many of us are starting our day and it’s an opportune time to spend with the Lord. It doesn’t have to be for hours. Whatever your personality and relationship is with the Lord will determine how long and what that looks like. Just know you don’t have to do what another person is doing. Whatever works for you and God, go with it, because He hears your voice anytime you call on Him. 

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Psalm 27 :  "Light, space, zest—that’s God! So, with him on my side I’m fearless, afraid of no one and nothing.  When vandal hordes ride down ready to eat me alive. Those bullies and toughs fall flat on their faces.  When besieged, I’m calm as a baby. When all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool. I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet. That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world. The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic. God holds me head and shoulders above all who try to pull me down. I’m headed for his place to offer anthems that will raise the roof! Already I’m singing God-songs; I’m making music to God.  Listen, God, I’m calling at the top of my lungs: “Be good to me! Answer me!” When my heart whispered, “Seek God,” my whole being replied, “I’m seeking him!” Don’t hide from me

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know your testimony, your walk, your journey, and what you've gone through in your life, is important to people? Do you know you are special just because you weathered storms and you're still standing? It's true, because God wants to turn your tests into your testimony. There was a woman in John 4:39-42 . She was the Samaritan Woman who spoke to Jesus at the well. She had been through so many things in her life and was rejected by many in society for her mistakes and bad choices, but after her encounter with Jesus, oh my gosh, her life changed for the better. Yes, she wasn't the same person. And when all those who ostracized her and cast her aside, heard her testimony, they said, “we no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” They thought, 'wow if she can change so can I.' Many people beli

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with transcript below. Isaiah 43 :19 says,  "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 the desert." God is working. Do you feel it? Do you sense it? Because, He's doing what only He can do -- something abundantly amazing. Something fresh. Something that needs to change for the better. Isn't that great news? I hope you're ready, because great things are coming, so continue to believe it and say it. If you believe it, listen, you can achieve it. So, don't limit yourself by what is seen with your natural eyes. Put your unlimited faith on and trust in what God's Word says, which is so much. Remember  Philippians 4 :13 says  'you can do all things through Him who strengthens you .'  So believe that new things are coming and better things are coming. Be strong in the Lord. Just to believe that sometimes we have to be s

Do you know God will part the sea for you? He will open doors that no man can shut and He will make the crooked places straight. That's right, God will do it. If He did it before He can do it again. In  Exodus 14   He did it for the Israelites when they were fleeing the evil Egyptian Pharaoh and He will do it for you too. The circumstances may be different, but just as the Lord opened the opportunity for His people way back then, He still does that today. Don't think He won't do it. He's proven Himself time and time in my life. So I know what I'm talking about here. He will make a way out of no way.  Believe that. In  Exodus 14: 14 "Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.   The Lord  will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  Keep serving God. Keep praying. Keep seeking. And no matter what our days look like, G

Do you know one of the many great things about God is that He loves you, for you. Yes, He loves all of us no matter the state we're in. We can't do anything that will change that. Isn't that great? It's just awesome to be loved unconditionally like that. Yet, it's much different with man. With man, it's hot one minute and cold the next. Don't let that get you down though. It's part of life. The best thing to do is focus on the love God shows us and when we do that, we can love others as He does. We won't live in hate, because hate won't exist in us. Isn't that great? It really is.  So I've come to encourage you to remember what the Lord God says about you. In  Jeremiah 1 :5  He says,  “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  God gets you -- God understands you -- God made you -- God loves you. Isn't that great?

In Psalm 28 :6-9 , David said: "Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever." I don't know about you, but I can identify with David. I have seen some pits, valleys, and low places. I have been talked about and counted out during certain points in my life that I once lost hope in the people I thought were close to me. But God -- oh God, brought me from a mighty long way. And now, little things like that don't bother me at all. You see, I have my hope back, because God helped me. And He will help you too, so don't worry one single bit. God's got you. And Like David, when you know to whom your help comes -- real deep holy spirit help -- then

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. You're not growing weary are you? You're hanging in there, aren't you? And you're most definitely not giving up, right? I certainly hope not, because you're going to get there. You have to believe that. We're going to get there. Yes, we're going to get to where it is God is taking us. So we can't get so tired and weary that we're not staying battle-ready and we're not staying strong in the Lord. We have to see great things for ourselves like Ruth did. Yes. In the book of Ruth , she loved Naomi, her mother-in-law, and stayed loyal to Naomi when tragedy struck them. That love and loyalty eventually paid off for Ruth and Naomi through a wealthy man named Boaz, who Ruth later married. One of the takeaways about the story of Ruth is that she didn't get so weary that she gave up, she hung in there, and she stayed strong in the Lord by well-doing.  Galatians 6 :9  says,  "And let

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know God loves us in spite of our mistakes? Do you know God loves us in spite of ourselves ? And do you know that when we make a mistake and ask God for forgiveness, He will forgive us, because His love runs that deep? This is it: Even though we fall short. Even though we made bad and downright stupid mistakes and choices, God still loves us. And God still wants to give us His best. He still has many blessings stored up for us, that our head would explode if we truly knew how extensive those blessings were. Honestly, we will never really know, because God's blessings are just too abundant and infinite for our minds to wrap around such a concept. We simply do not have the capacity to comprehend it. Nobody does. God is just too massive and beyond us to be able to know just how deep it goes. So if it’s any consolation to you, just be ok with knowing that there’s only one God of the universe who loves us and accep

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. "Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him."  That story comes from Esther 4 :13-17 and it was when Esther was the chosen one who married the king. But back then it was against the law to approach the king u

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know God has a will for our lives? Yes, it's really true. He has a will for our lives when we surrender all to Him. So when we make a decision to surrender all we have -- to surrender our will to Him, then God honors that. Only we know what that means though. Only we know what's in our lives that God has been dealing with us on. Only we know that person, place, or thing we need to lose in order to find ourselves. That something stays with us until we surrender -- until we really give it to God -- until we can really let Him have our right to "own" it. We give it to Him to own it. When we give that up then God will take it over and He will be the one who will take care of it on our behalf.  There are some things in life that are just too big for us. There are some things that are just too huge for us to take on. So why not just surrender it? Why not just give it to God? Listen, if we're tempte

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Sometimes we need all the strength we can get, don't we? Do you need to get though anything in particular today? If so, remember Jesus is still Lord and when we trust in Him with all our heart, and not rely on our own understanding, He will bring us through yet again. Yes, Proverbs 3 :5 says, to "trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." When we do that, we will be stronger with the things that will come our way. Our strength comes from the Lord and He gives us what we need to be strong enough to conquer the obstacles that will surely come. I know, because there was a time a few years back when a person I really cared about left my life. He was a special person that I thought would be around for the rest of my life, but he wanted out. That rejection was devastating and I felt all alone. It was a mountain that almost swallowed me and although I knew it was temporary

You know, it's a blessing to be in the kingdom of God. It's a blessing, because there is no one greater that the Lord God. He is the most majestic. I hope you know that for yourself. If you do, then keep believing and never doubt. If you do not know it for yourself, then you are not here by accident. You are reading and listening to the words that the Lord wants you to hear, because He loves you and He wants to you basque in His wondrous light. He has much for those who love and worship Him. David also knew the love of God when he wrote  Psalm 8 , which says the following:  "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of ma

Have you given it to God? Have you given it to the Lord? Yes, you know that thing I'm talking about -- that thing I'm referring to. It's that thing that keeps coming back and it's what makes you lose sleep at night. Have you given that thing to God? Have you asked Him to take it in order that you have peace? It's worth asking. It's worth taking it to Him. It's worth it, because nothing else has worked, has it? So, what I know is this: in order to have peace and joy, we have to realize that we cannot possibly do everything in our own strength. And we can't do it without people either. None of those things are enough in every situation. And in this case they aren't, because no matter where you turn, the problem persists and it doesn't go away. But now God is saying give it Him. To come to Him and confess that you -- we -- don't know what else to do. We don't know why certain doors were closed and why certain things failed. All we know is

"Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” ( John 20 :24-29) Thomas doubted and Jesus had to prove His resurrection to him. It's a waste of time to doubt, because Jesus is real ok? So believe, don't doubt that God is real

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. I have some questions for you. How much do you visualize where you want God to take you? How often do you see yourself going to big places? Doing big things? Talking to the people you never imagined you'd talk to? Sitting next to a person you always admired from afar? What do you imagine for yourself? What do you dream about? What has eluded you, because you didn't think you were worthy of it? If any of those answers are the answers that have stopped your flow, I've come to tell you that it's a new day and your vision is coming to fruition. Oh yes and I don't want anyone else telling themselves what I used to, which was, 'God this is just too big and it's going to take much work' and end up doing nothing like I did. I just sat around and laid around. I thought others had more of that  something  special that I didn't have. While in essence they had what they had and I had what I had. Ou

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know you were made in love? You  were created by God and in the image of God. God, the creator of the universe, the creator of mankind, the creator of all things great, which includes love. Yes, God is love and God only operates in love. He is also  all  power, wisdom, and authority. God is the  Great I Am . That's right. In  Exodus 3 :14,  when God was sending His beloved Moses into Pharaoh to save the Iraelites, God told Moses that the  Great I Am  was sending Him. Clearly, God was and is the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). He was and will always be the greatest. Period. Isn't it awesome to be loved by the greatest of all time?  So, regarding love, love yourself, because you were created in love. You are loved by God, you are valuable, you are special, and the Lord is thinking about you. You are not reading these words for nothing right now. They were meant to comfort you and to tell you that you were creat

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know God is present right now and He's moving in the atmosphere? Yes, He's in the midst at this very moment. Do you need Him for anything?  Psalm 46 :1-3 says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling."  That scripture is saying with God we will not be moved, because we have nothing to fear with Him in the midst of our circumstances. He is with us no matter what we are faced with. Do you feel Him? Can you sense Him? If not, continue to call out to Him. He will make Himself known to you. I know He will answer you, because He comforted me when I was going through a really rough time. Some might say I was going through hell, really. Yes, He gave me peace in the midst of a storm. He got me

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Sometimes we simply have to encourage ourselves. Yes, sometimes we have to encourage in the Lord -- in God. And if that requires dancing or whatever it is you want to do in Jesus name, then  do it. 2 Samuel 6 :14  says,  "and David danced before the Lord with all his might."  And guess what? There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. Many of us should take a cue from David by rejoicing and being glad in our circumstances. Listen, if we can dance, clap, shout, or whatever, like David did then we are blessed, because there are some people who can't do any of that. Have you ever stopped and thought about that? Sometimes we get down about what we have and don't have when we don't even realize how blessed we really are. If we can move even a little bit, we are blessed in the city and blessed in the field and we should rejoice and be glad about that. I take a fitness class and one of the participants

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Are we moving with the flow of God? I looked up the word stream, and a stream is a continuous flow of motion. It moves right along with the flow. Are we going in the direction God would have for us to go? Are we moving along in His stream? Did you know God makes the crooked places straight? Yes, it's true. In  Isaiah 45 :2 , God said  " I will go before you   and will level the mountains;   I will break down gates of bronze   and cut through bars of iron."  How amazing is  that ? That God would do that for His people? So there is not need about busting through any doors, God will open those for you ( Isaiah 45:1b ) and you don't have to concern yourself with deviating from the plan He has given you. Why would we do that anyway? There is no need to, because God said He would go before us and level the places out, did He not? That means when we get where we're going, everything will be nicely laid o

I don't know how I could or would make it without God -- without the son He sent to die for me -- for you -- for us. How could I make it without Jesus? How could anyone really make it? Some are thinking they are making it without Him, but the reality is, they're not. John 4 :24 says,  "For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” There is no half-stepping in that. There is no make-believe la la world of play. God is real and His spirit has existed on this earth -- in this universe -- from the very beginning. Yes, He started it and He is going to finish it. There is no black hole that existed from nowhere. God made this world ok? And His spirit still dwells in it ( Genesis 1 :2). Thank God.  So, yes I am serious when I say I don't know what I would do without God in my life -- on my side -- in my corner. Life as I know it would be dark. It would be nothing. It would be empty. It would be void. I would simply exist with no pu

Do you know the Lord God is with you? That’s right, He  will never forsake you. He will never leave you high and dry. And no matter what any of us does, He forgives us, because of His love and faithfulness towards us ( Psalm 136 ). Why would He want anything different than that when He is filled with nothing, but love? So, keep pressing, keep striving towards the prize. Keep moving. Continue to press in, press forward, and strive for the best that He wants for your life. It doesn't matter if things have changed. It doesn't matter if your life is not what it was before. It doesn't matter what others say or don't say. It doesn't matter who is with you and who is against you. Nothing matters when it comes to God wanting the best for His children. He is going to come through for all of us when we live a life of pressing into the great things He has for us. Don't you give up. Don't you stop going forward, because one of the great things about pressing in, is

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know it’s wise to visualize your visions and dreams? Yes it is, because God has them for you, so you have to see what He has for you. I'm talking about operating in what has been in your heart for so long now that you may be wondering if it's ever going to come. But, don't grow weary and don't grow tired that you don't take time to make another move. You have to make the time. Yes, you have to keep those visions and dreams in your sight. Just think about where you want to go,visualize it and keep stepping up, and continue to focus on your visions and dreams. Stay faithful and trust that God's ways are better than our ways and His plans are just that --  His  -- not ours.  Habakkuk 2 :2/3 says, " And then God answered: “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know that when we move, God moves? Yes, sometimes He's simply waiting for us to make a move of faith on that thing we've been wanting to get done. We have to move and operate in faith.  Hebrews 11 :6 says, "and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."  And  James 2:14-16  speaks to faith without works being dead. What do you want God to do in your life? How do you want Him to intervene in the desires of your heart? He will definitely act on your behalf.  Yet  we have to keep in mind that we have to do our part. We have to put some elbow grease behind those words and behind those scriptures we quote, right? Yes, speaking life over our circumstances is awesome, but there must be more that comes with it. In other words if we "see" it and believe it, then the proof will be in th

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post. Do you know you have joy and victory? Yes, it's in you and it doesn't matter what is coming at you either. So, continue to believe you already have the joy and you already have the victory.   Speak it over your life -- often and as much as possible, because it makes a difference. Speak life over your life.  Psalm  3  was one of many, David's prayers to the Lord when it seemed all was lost, when those who were the closest to him were trying to defeat him. But God --  ohhhhh God  -- was there when no one else was. God was there for David and David turned to Him when the chips were truly down and when he was running for his life against his own son and others who hated him. Yes David turned to God when he was low and when he was high. And God helped him, God looked out for him, God kept His promise to him, and God blessed him. That's how it works. God  is  and  will  continue to do the same for you. Yes. J