-
Christian Devotional – July 28, 2023
The Coming Savior, Day 5 Challenges and difficulties. Read Exodus chapter 5. It never fails that when someone starts following God and obeying him, they experience some of the hardest challenges of their entire life. So often, I’ve said that if you are not going through challenges and difficulties in the Christian life, then you’re not doing something right. Moses and the Israelite people were no different. God gave Moses a command and Moses was obedient to that command. He went and asked pharaoh to release the people. However, nothing happened, at least not the way Moses was expecting it to. Pharaoh made things more difficult and harder for the…
-
Christian Devotional – July 27, 2023
The Coming Savior, Day 4 Care and concern. Read Exodus chapter 4. There is an old saying that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. We see that lived out in this chapter. God himself is working to bring about the salvation of the Israelite people. God is demonstrating his might and his power to Moses and then later to the Israelite people. But why do the people bow down and worship to God? They worship God because they see that he cares about them. God has tremendous care and concern for every aspect of our life. God sees everything we are…
-
Christian Devotional – July 26, 2023
The Coming Savior, Day 3 The sign. Read Exodus chapter 3. God promised Moses a sign. I don’t know how many times I have read this chapter, but I’ve never noticed this before. God does indeed promise Moses a sign, but it is going to come after the obedience. When you read through this and when you think about other instances in the Bible when God gives a sign, we always think of the sign happening before the person follows through on their obedience to God. The sign is to be a motivator or a demonstration of God’s power and ability. Here, this is entirely different. The sign that God…
-
Christian Devotional – July 25, 2023
The Coming Savior, Day 2 God hears. Read Exodus chapter 2. Today we see the story of the birth of Moses. This is a remarkable story of God intervening in a situation in such a way that his chosen one is saved. As we come to the end of the chapter, we see that the situation for the Israelites has continued to deteriorate. They continue to go through difficult times and hardships. Still, God hears them. Even when we are in the midst of challenges, difficulties and struggles, God hears us. We are never alone. We may feel alone and while it may be difficult, God is with us and…
-
Christian Devotional – July 24, 2023
The Coming Savior, Day 1 We have spent the last several weeks and months looking at difficulties and challenges and in suffering in the Christian life. Now we are going to move to the idea of salvation. Read Exodus chapter 1. While it wasn’t originally intended to be so, the Israelites moving to Egypt resulted in profound suffering for them. There came a point where all the good and amazing deeds that the Israelites had done for the Egyptians were forgotten. Scripture never says that the Israelites started being a problem for the Egyptians, the Egyptian’s just perceived the potential of an issue. The Israelites never did anything wrong. However,…
-
Christian Devotional – July 23, 2023
Through Suffering, Day 35 Grow through suffering. Read 2 Peter 3:17-18. As Peter is closing this letter, he’s remembering all of the suffering that these people have gone through for their faith in Jesus Christ. He encourages them to continue to grow. Sometimes, when we go through difficult times, we aren’t focused on continuing to move forward. However, growth always happens. Often, growth happens more during challenging times than at any other time. We need to continue to grow. Will we rise to the challenge and see every opportunity that God allows us to go through as a chance to grow in our relationship with him? Growth must continue to…
-
Christian Devotional – July 22, 2023
Through Suffering, Day 34 God’s patience means more salvations. Rrad 2 Peter 3:15-16. While it may be very difficult to be patient and wait on God, we need to remember that God’s patience actually is so that other people may have the opportunity to come to know the saving grace found in Christ. God’s patience means more salvations. Sometimes, it’s easy to get caught up in our own desires and our own wishes to alter God’s timing, but what we need to understand is that God’s timing is perfect. He delays and is more patient so that others have an opportunity to hear the message of the good news of…
-
Christian Devotional – July 21, 2023
Through Suffering, Day 33 Forward thinking. Read 2 Peter 3;11-14. Thinking back to yesterday’s devotional, we know that all is going to be destroyed. God is going to come and judge the entire Earth and his holiness will prevail. So, knowing that is the case, how are we to respond? The answer is that we are to be constantly looking forward. Our focus must be on what God is going to do and the victory that he will have over everything, not the circumstances we find ourselves in day by day. God is so much more than all of those things. As a result, we can be confident, hopeful, excited…
-
Christian Devotional – July 20, 2023
Through Suffering, Day 32 It will all be laid bare and destroyed. Read 2 Peter 3:10. Just the one verse to focus on today, but what we see here is the culmination of everything that we’ve read up to this point. All the things that people have been so focused on will ultimately be completely and utterly destroyed. God is going to destroy this world. This world is sinful and has been corrupted by all that is not holy, and as a result, God will ultimately destroy everything. While that may sound terrifying, we have hope in Jesus Christ and because of God and through Jesus, all will be made…
-
Christian Devotional – July 19, 2023
Through Suffering, Day 31 What is patience? Read 2 Peter 3:7-8. Most people cringe when you think of patience. Patience is something that you do while you’re waiting for what you want to have happen to happen. However, these verses give a different view of patience. Here we see patience from the perspective of God himself. For the Lord, patience is simply waiting for the right timing of something that you know is going to happen anyway. It is a confident waiting. The Lord knows what is going to happen, and the Lord knows when it’s going to happen. However, he still waits for the appropriate time. That’s patience. When…