Category: Daily Inspirational Devotional

Anything we will ever do for God is only a small meager imitation of His generosity to us in the inexpressible gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” as John 3:16 tells us. For just as death came through Adam… life was made possible for us through Jesus Christ. Or as Romans 5:15-16 says, ” But the gift isn’t like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many.” Today, let’s all take a moment to thank God for His indescribable gift of His Son, Jesus.

When was the last time you expressed gratitude to the Lord for the gift of your Salvation? It tells us here that death will be swallowed up in victory, once and for all sin will be destroyed, and along with it the Law which is the instrument of sin. “For if those who live by the Law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless.” (Romans 4:14) Think back to Abraham in the Old Testament…he received God’s promise by faith not the Law. And likewise we have received the same victorious promise through our faith in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:14-15 talks about this victory…”Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Today, take a moment to thank God for your freedom and victory !

Most times our personal affirmation of God is tied to what’s happening in our own life. When life is moving along great and everything is wonderful we tend to not thank Him for the peaceful sameness and security we are enjoying. And when sickness, loss, or chaos takes over our world we’re even less likely to thank Him. But God is the God of the good times and the bad…of sickness and of health…and He deserves our thankfulness regardless. In Exodus 15:2 we hear a song of thanksgiving, deliverance and hope from Moses, “The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.” Today, let us express our thanks and praise to God for what He has done, is doing, and is about to do in our lives.

As the Body of Believers, the Church, we are to showcase our practice of love, forgiveness, and graciousness to the world. But too many times we forget that, “We who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5) Instead, we all have our own agendas, motives, and pet projects…and soon harmony, unity, and gratefulness is missing from within the Church walls…and surprise, we’ve become just like the world. So during this Thanksgiving week let’s remember what Paul said to the Church in Rome, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14:19)

We all have one…a friend from our past that we know we shouldn’t hang around with. Someone whose attitudes, morals, and character is far from ours, but we keep telling ourselves maybe we can change them. The short answer is probably not, and instead of changing them, we’re in danger of picking up bad habits and being influenced by their sinful lifestyle. I Corinthians 15:33 puts it very well, “Don’t be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.” The path is clear – either righteousness or wickedness, life or death, and bad company can change us faster than we can ever think we’re going to change them.

This Parable that Jesus taught is a hyperbole to illustrate God’s long-suffering mercy, compassion, and forgiveness to us. The master had every reason to punish his servant…but he didn’t…instead he released him from the obligation of his huge debt…a debt so large there was no way the servant was ever going to pay it back. In the same way, God cancelled our debt and set us free by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ…our huge debt of sin voided and nailed to the Cross. But if you read the entire Parable you’ll see that forgiveness of others isn’t an option for us to choose to do or not. We are to forgive just like the Lord has forgiven us. Yes, it may be hard to forgive others who have hurt you. Our old self doesn’t want to forgive – we’d rather use it as ammunition in a future argument, gossip about it with others, or just dwell on it. But the Lord is quite plain, we must forgive our brother from our heart…all the while remembering what God has done for us.

Both Micah and Isaiah were ministering about the same time. When Isaiah answered the call and was commissioned by God he was instructed to go to a rebellious people who would not listen until, “the city lies in ruin, the houses deserted, the fields ravaged, and the land is utterly forsaken.” (Isaiah 6:11) This horrific event then took place during Jeremiah’s time, for he quoted Micah as he was observing the destruction of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 26:18) Later in Lamentations, Jeremiah bemoaned the fact that it was because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests that Jerusalem fell. (Lamentations 4:13) Rather than shepherding the people and caring for them rightly, they were taking advantage and seeking after their own gain. And as a result the judgment of God was poured out. “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations.” (Ezekiel 5:14)

If you’ve been a Believer for any length of time you’ll know that God takes us all through Seasons in our Christian walk. Seasons of life and growth in the Lord, as the Bible says, in due time…just like the Spring rains, and Fall harvest. They are particular periods of time when we are used of God in certain activities and events that we weren’t used before. It doesn’t mean though we are less needed in our service to the Lord…quite the contrary! Many times He will move us into a new Season simply because we now have the time to devote ourselves more fully to Him. Never be afraid of a new Season, nor look back longingly at what once was…for each new Season God places you in is exactly where He wants you to be today. Or as Oswald Chambers once said, “Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been.”

Fast forward from here to Chapter 11 in Genesis and we find just the opposite of what God had instructed Noah and his family to do. It tells us in the beginning of Chapter 11 that the entire world had one language and essentially lived in one area…Babylon. Instead of spreading out and obeying God, the people were deliberately rejecting God’s direction to “fill the earth”. Their flagrant pride is heard in verse 4 when they conferred together, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Their corrupt nature wanted to glorify themselves not God, by following their own schemes not His. But God always fulfills His own plans and purposes in order to glorify Himself…and intentionally thwarts any plans that don’t.

If you ask most people what a “good ” person looks like, they’ll probably say things like, “They help the less-fortunate and volunteer a lot…they’ve never killed anyone or stole from others, and they’re good parents to their children.” But this verse tells us that all these wonderful acts of righteousness are nothing more than foul garbage in the sight of the Lord. We may think we are doing a wonderful job, but to God we are stubborn-hearted and far from righteousness and truth. An example of this were the women of Zion in Chapter 3 of Isaiah where God called them haughty as they pranced around with outstretched necks and flirting eyes. He warned them of His judgment upon them, for only God can declare the conditions by which we may be called righteous. And no amount of effort on our part can in any way obligate God to repay our so called righteousness with His gift of Salvation…in fact, we are totally powerless to force Him to grant righteousness to us. But there is a way to be cleansed of this foulness and God promised it to the women of Zion in Isaiah 4:4, “The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion.” And today we have that same promise…we can be washed in the blood of the Lamb and cleansed from all our unrighteousness.