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Christian Devotional – February 4, 2025
Avoiding the Rollercoaster, Day 4 Be obedient. Read Judges chapter 4. Ultimately, we must remember that God is the one that acts. Israel was in trouble. They had been disobedient and they had been taken over. Deborah was the judge at that time, and she told Barak that God would give them victory through him. He was nervous about leading the people and requested that she come with him. But as soon as he advanced on the enemy, God brought the victory. It does not say in the verse that Barak won the victory. It says that God brought the victory. When we are obedient to God, God moves. God…
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Christian Devotional – February 3, 2025
Avoiding the Rollercoaster, Day 3 Obstacles. Read Judges chapter 3. When we think about the rollercoaster of ups and downs in our Christian life, we often see plenty of obstacles that are littering our path. I often tell God that it would be so much easier if He just removed the obstacles. I wouldn’t be up-and-down nearly as much if I didn’t have these things standing in my way. Here we see something similar with the people of Israel. We learn that God leaves the obstacles intentionally. There was purpose behind God’s decision to do not allow the people to completely wipe out those that were left from other nations.…
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Christian Devotional – February 2, 2025
Avoiding the Rollercoaster, Day 2 Pass it on. Read Judges chapter 2. Interestingly, as we read through Judges chapter 2, we see that one of the biggest misses for the people of Israel is that they did not do a good job teaching the next generation to follow the Lord. They may have passed down the rules and the regulations, but they did not pass down the passion or the heart. People obeyed God only because they thought he would do things for them. They did not obey God because they loved him.That change in focus led multiple generations to rebel and decide not to obey God. When we follow…
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Christian Devotional – February 1, 2025
Avoiding the Rollercoaster, Day 1 Keep doing what your doing. Read Judges chapter 1. Now that we have spent time understanding our purpose, it makes sense to spend some time talking about how to keep that momentum going. You see, the people of Israel knew their purpose and they understood what God had for them to do. They just ended up riding a rollercoaster of obedience and disobedience. How do we keep from following in their footsteps? As we see from the start of this verse, yes, Israel’s leader had died. However, they continued doing what they were doing under Joshua. They sought the Lord first before they acted. They…
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Christian Devotional – January 31, 2025
Understanding Purpose, Day 22 Have life to the full. Read John 10:10. As we look at our last today in this series, we have seen just how tied together our purpose is with God’s purpose. In fact, we cannot understand our purpose without understanding God’s purpose. As we look today, we see that God indicates his goal is for us to have life to the full. His purpose in us begins with Jesus Christ and our relationship with him. As we understand that, we start to realize what it means to have a full life. We have a life that is under the direction of Jesus. We have a life…
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Christian Devotional – January 30, 2025
Understanding Purpose, Day 21 Desire and Purpose. Read 1 Chronicles 22:7. David had a desire. David loved the Lord and he wanted to build a temple for the Lord. However, that was not God’s purpose for David. God told David that his desire did not match God’s purpose. But God told him that his son would build the temple, so David did absolutely everything he could to get ready for fulfilling that purpose. He could have been frustrated and angry that God’s purpose for him did not include what he desired to do. Instead, he accepted God’s purpose and worked to make it possible for God’s purpose to be fulfilled…
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Christian Devotional – January 29, 2025
Understanding Purpose, Day 20 We achieve what we achieve so that we can bring glory to God. Read Exodus 9:16. If you first read this verse by itself, it can be easy to think that it must be talking about Moses. However, God is speaking to Pharaoh in these verses. As we read through the entire chapter, we see that God is delivering the message of the plagues through Moses to Pharaoh. These words are meant for Pharaoh. God raised up Pharaoh for the very purpose of being able to demonstrate God’s power and proclaim his name through the world. God had purpose even for Pharaoh, who did not believe…
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Christian Devotional – January 28, 2025
Understanding Purpose, Day 19 No one compares. Read Isaiah 46:10. In a comparison contest, there is no contest. God is the winner hands down over anything else. The other gods attempts to try to be like a God, but they fall far short. In this chapter in Isaiah, we see the comparison between the idols that so many others were following, and God almighty. We recognize that there truly is no comparison. Nothing can stand next to God. God himself is the one and only. His purposes will come about. There’s nothing any of those other little gods could do to change the purpose of the one true God. When…
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Christian Devotional – January 27, 2025
Understanding Purpose, Day 18 Still breathing? Still purpose. Read Acts 13:36. As we look today at purpose, our scripture comes from the book of Acts, detailing much of the early church. This chapter tells of the sermons Paul was preaching. As Paul is going through and sharing the history of the people and how that points to Jesus Christ as the Savior, he makes this statement about David in verse 36. David served God’s purpose until he died. And when he had completed his purpose, that is when God brought him home. There are lots of additional context items in this chapter to be aware of, including realizing how David…
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Christian Devotional – January 26, 2025
Understanding Purpose, Day 17 Different tasks, one purpose. Read 1 Corinthians 3:8. As we look at purpose, Paul has a lot to say to the churches about purpose. Today, we read in first Corinthians, that Paul was helping the people understand individual purpose. You see, we are each created uniquely with different gifts and abilities. God has created us that way so that we can do different things than those people around us. We’re not meant to do the same exact tasks as everyone else. Yes, God has purpose for us and desires that each one of us commit to his purpose in our lives. But the tasks that we…