Category: Daily Inspirational Devotional

A quote I just saw from Charles Spurgeon really had me thinking…especially the Nurse in me. He said, “What is more important: praying or reading the Bible? I asked, What is more important: breathing in or breathing out?” Respirations are an involuntary function of our body that spontaneously starts the moment we’re born. Inhaling and exhaling follow one another seamlessly even when we’re sleeping. You can’t have one without the other… as the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide happens in our lungs. Together, they make up life…without one or the other, the body can’t exist. In this Scripture, Paul is encouraging the young Pastor Timothy to continue the widespread custom of Scripture reading and prayer before meals for inspiration and truth. For just as breathing is necessary for life, Bible reading and prayer are equally as necessary.

We may think that evil is winning, that the world’s moral compass has swung so far off center that there’s no going back. Or that arrogance, conceit, and any disgraceful thing found on the big screen, TV, and Social Media is now considered accepted behaviors and there’s nothing we can do about it. So what can we do as one person? This verse tells us what our role in all this chaos is…it’s to love the Lord! Or as Deuteronomy 6:5 elaborates, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” To the best of our ability we are to remain blameless, righteous, and with clean hands before Him. So if that’s our role, what’s God’s? It tells us that it’s Him that will repay and fulfill His justice, not us… or as Psalm 94:2 says, “Rise up, O Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve.”

The account of the great flood tells us that every living thing that moved on the earth perished. Every being that had the breath of life in its nostrils died…all wiped away from the face of the earth. But one thing still remained…and that was sin. Everything might of been washed away by the flood waters, but not man’s sin nature and his inclination to transgress…that still resided in the ark and walked out onto dry ground.

Many, many places in the Old Testament God tells His people to remember. For back then, oral history was the major way that events were recorded…handed down from generation to generation as not to forget God’s goodness, mercy, and deliverance of His people. It was a custom for the elderly to recount, reflect upon, and commemorate God’s great deeds, wonders, and marvelous works to the youngsters in order that the history would not be lost. And even today, with all the technology we have available to us, it would still be good to pass on to our kids and grandkids a oral history of just what God has done in our own lives…a chance to remember and recollect…declare and celebrate God’s love and grace for us.

I hope this could be our prayer today. For in this uncertain and broken world it is good to trust in One greater than ourselves. When our dependence is in the true and living God, we can rest confidently in His hands, knowing that no event that will ever take place in our life hasn’t already been ordained by Him. And as we humbly stand before our Heavenly Father…His radiance spreading across our face…we can rest assured that He will rescue and deliver us as we trust in Him.

In Matthew 15:7 Jesus quoted this Scripture and very bluntly called those guilty of it hypocrites. Those having the “appearance” of wisdom, worship, and humility…but instead possessing calloused, stubborn, and unfeeling hearts. Out of their mouths coming only empty words…their lips spewing mere talk…or as Jeremiah 12:2 sadly observed, “God, You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.”

During His ministry, we see Jesus rebuking people and things. Many times He rebuked His disciples for their lack of faith, He also rebuked evil, foul, and unclean spirits, demanding they come out of people. And in the case of this woman, who it says was greatly affected and held fast as a prisoner with a fever…Jesus rebuked the spirit of infirmity. But to show His all encompassing authority over things, Jesus also rebuked the storm, the wind and the waves.

God’s command for all of us is simple, “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it.” In Genesis 17:1 we hear the same thing, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be blameless.” It’s called fearing God, which is the true motivation towards a life of honesty and integrity. For when we heed the rod, we’re not only acknowledging God’s authority, His right to discipline His children, but also that He judges all fairly. Lastly, when we fear God it says we will gain wisdom which is sound judgment and insight… or as Proverbs calls wisdom… supreme and more precious then rubies.

Noah’s life can be summed up as one of obedience, faith, and waiting on the Lord. God told Noah to, “Make yourself an ark”, and Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Then God told him to “Go into the ark”, and “Noah did all that the Lord commanded him”. Finally, God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark.” and “Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.” With each command from God, Noah had the opportunity to trust God more and more…even when he couldn’t even begin to fully understand the magnitude of what was happening. Faith building in our life is kind of like Noah building that ark…one board at a time, one chance to trust God at a time…until it and our life is complete.

Both John and Peter had come from humble beginnings as fishermen. They were uneducated, unskilled, and plain in speech. But yet when the rulers, elders, and teachers of the Law saw their boldness and confidence as they spoke…they recognized immediately these weren’t simple minded men, but men who possessed a firm grasp of the Scriptures. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 11:25, talking about hiding divine revelations from the wise and learned and revealing them instead to little children. It says that the Church officials took note that John and Peter had been with Jesus, and they were right in their conclusion…for anytime we walk beside our Savior, things rub off on us.