YOU ARE MY SAFE PLACE

Greetings,

The number eight is front and center today because it's 11/8/2018. So I went looking for a Psalm with number eight in it and came across Psalm 118.  Today's DEVO is a prayer based on this powerful and uplifting Psalm.  Given the news this morning out of California, it's perfect for our troubled souls.

Dear Lord,

I give thanks to You today because You are good and Your love endures forever. I cry out to You because sometimes things are happening that cause me worry.  Thank You that You answer me and set me free from anguish. You are on my side, and I will not fear.  You are my Helper, and You are for me.  Mortal man has no power over me.  I trust in You and take refuge in You.  YOU ARE MY SAFE PLACE.

Sometimes there is trouble all around, and so many things are going wrong.  But in Your mighty name, that trouble is cut off of my life.  That trouble is extinguished by Your mighty living waters!  You are my Strength and my Song. You are my Salvation.

There is rejoicing and joyful shouting in my house.  I  shout for joy and I praise Your name.  BECAUSE I ABIDE WITH YOU AND SEEK SHELTER WITH YOU, NONE IN MY FAMILY SHALL DIE, BUT WE WILL ALL LIVE AND DECLARE YOUR GOODNESS!

I give thanks to You because You have answered me. This is the day You have made.  I rejoice in it and am glad.

Send showers and showers of blessings. Thank You for Your guiding light that illuminates my life with grace, freedom, and joy.

YOU ARE MY GOD, and I PRAISE YOU! You are good,  and Your mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.  In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Command!

Greetings,

Today’s DEVO is based on Psalm 44:4, “You are my King, O God, Command victories and deliverance for Israel” (Amplified Bible).

As I read this verse last night, I thought, “God is my King, and He is my God too!  He is the One Who has the power to command, decree, declare, and give me victory.”

If the psalmist can be so bold as to ask God to issue the order for a divine favorable intervention, then so will I.

Prayer: Dear Lord, You are our awesome and powerful Lord.  We ask You in Jesus’ name to command a victory for us today.  We need a win for our souls. Send peace, wisdom, and hope. We need triumph in our health. Send wholeness and healing. We need success in our relationships. Send mutual love and understanding. For some of us, we need You to cause a divine encounter between us and a godly person so we are no longer lonely. Make it happen! We also need our finances to thrive. Send prosperity, bless our jobs, and open doors of opportunity for us.  Lord, wherever we have a need, we are trusting You to command a victory for us! Thank You! We love the Bible. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

Prosperity, Success, and Accomplishments~

Greetings,

“The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with My Word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it" (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Wherever God sends His Word, prosperity, success, and accomplishments follow. 

I'm on board for receiving all three.  If only I could somehow send out His Word and initiate the healing, help, love, comfort, joy, peace, faith, hope, provision, and protection that is the prosperous result of coming into contact with God's word.

WOW! Wait a second! When I pray,  that's exactly what I'm doing. When I get a hold of a scripture and apply it directly over my situation, I am promised that something good will come from it.

Recently I had a conversation with a buddy who is worried about the choices her young teen is making.  We looked up a couple of verses to pray:

"Don’t excite love, don’t stir it up, until the time is ripe and you’re ready" (Song of Solomon 8:4).

So we prayed: "Lord, we pray for ______ and ask that love is not stirred up until the right time. Keep ______from doing anything that brings the wrong kind of excitement."

It felt so good to pray a verse that was specific to that worry.

Whatever's on your mind today, I promise you there's a verse for that! In fact, check out this website. 

https://www.openbible.info/topics/ 

Type in your concern and Bible verses specific to your situation will pop up. 

PRAYER: Dear Lord, thank You for Your Word. We know the things You want to accomplish are only and always what's best for us. We need and desire the production of good fruit.  Guide us to the right verses to pray.  We look forward to prosperity, success, and accomplishments in our lives and the lives of those we love. In Jesus' name, AMEN~

Raise the Roof!

Greetings,

Today's DEVO is a prayer of worship with verses taken from Psalms 16, 147 and 150 (The Message Version). May the Lord bless our souls!

"We shout praises to You, our God, and we raise the roof for the Rock Who saved us.  We invite You to take our hand so that our feet and the feet of those we love will always be on the right path.

"We enter Your presence singing praises because You are the best. Your hands sculpted the earth, and with those same powerful hands, You take care of us.  You are our God! Hallelujah!

"Praising You is the right thing to do.  You rebuild our lives when we need it.  You put us on our feet again. You heal our broken hearts and bandage our wounds.  You are great, with limitless strength, and we depend on Your strength.

"Thank You that when we praise You, we get Your attention. You make our city secure, and You bless our children. You put the best bread on our tables. You launch Your promises earthward - how swift and sure they come!"

Amen! Amen! Amen!

What Can Jesus do For You Today?

Greetings,

Bartimaeus was a blind and lowly beggar sitting by the roadside when his ears perked up and he heard Jesus walking by.  Seizing the moment, fully aware of Christ's reputation as a Miracle worker,  having heard that our Lord had fed the thousands and healed the sick, he shouted, “Jesus, have mercy on me!”

Well, having mercy is one of our Lord's specialties; hearing a cry for help moves His heart.  So Jesus stopped and paid attention. “What do you want Me to do for you” (Mark 10:51)?

Bartimaeus didn’t hesitate. “Lord, I want to see.”

The answer came quickly. “Immediately Bartimaeus received his sight and followed Jesus along the road” (Mark 10:52).

This short passage teaches us that it's okay to shout out for mercy.  Jesus always hears and will stop and pay attention to us just like He did for Bartimaeus.  It's also okay to tell Jesus what we want Him to do.  He literally invites us to share our deepest longings with Him.  Bartimaeus certainly didn't hold back, and he received exactly what he wanted.  Jesus will always answer with what is best for us! 

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I take You at Your Word; this is what I want You to do for me today: ___________________.  By faith, I receive the answer You have for me because You know best. In Your name I pray, Amen!

Write Your Own Passage!

Greetings,

The Bible is filled with fascinating passages like this one:

“Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite, most blessed of women is she, favored above all women who dwell in tents! Sisera asked for water, and she gave him milk in a dish fit for lords. And then she took a tent peg in her left hand and a worker’s hammer in her right, and she struck Sisera.  She broke and battered his head; she pierced his temple, and he dropped dead” (Judges 5:24-27). 

Sisera was the captain of a mighty enemy army, and he was greatly feared in Israel.  But in the verses above we learn that he was overthrown by a gal. That’s right.  After a brutal battle where Sisera saw his defeat coming, he abandoned his troops and landed in Jael’s tent. She recognized the enemy, and she was willing to fight.  Jael was a mighty woman who brought victory! 

If I could write my own passage it would say this:

“Yenise, wife of Jorge, the New Jerseyan, most blessed of women is she, favored above all women who live in Westchester.  The enemy came close to her dwelling, and she met him head-on.  He tempted her and her family, and she prayed for them not to fall for it.  Then she chose prayer as a way of life for every single obstacle and trouble that headed their way, and she struck that enemy down.  She broke every single plan he had for destruction in the mighty name of Jesus, and victory was hers and her family’s!”

Now go write your own passage!

Last-minute Shingles

Greetings, 

On the last DEVO I shared, we gained a new perspective about fleas, that the infestation God allowed among women in a concentration camp kept them safe from cruel guards who would have otherwise taken horrific advantage of them.  The fleas were a gift from God.  Can we say the same about other things that happen to us that we may not fully understand?  

Today I want to share something about my sister, Aldys, who has graciously given me permission to do so. 

For the past several weeks she has been dealing with some severe pain in her side and after visiting several different specialists, her OB/GYN finally narrowed it down to a cyst that is growing on her ovary.  The pain has been unbearable at times, and she was scheduled for surgery last Friday, October 12, 2018.  She was actually looking forward to it because even though it meant hormone replacement therapy (she had her other ovary removed a few years ago) and a few weeks recovering, she was eager to be pain-free.

But two days before the operation she noticed a little rash on her backside.  She immediately went to the emergency room, and that’s where they diagnosed shingles.  They started her on anti-viral medication right then and there, and then she called me, struggling to hold onto hope.  Having shingles meant no surgery.  All those pre-op tests useless.  All the preparation a waste.  Worst of all, she would have to endure the pain until surgery could be rescheduled.

When she called me with the news, she was on the verge of tears, and I struggled to stay positive.  I did not understand the timing or the purpose.  But hey, I am a child of the living God and I got my act together and did what God has called each of us to do: pray, be an encouragement, put trust in the One Who is trustworthy.

I reminded her that we have been praying about this for a while already.  Every word, concern, and fear has been heard by Jesus.  That He is in control and has good reasons for allowing this.  When I first started my upbeat chat, I kind of believed everything I said, but by the time I was finished, I fully embraced everything we spoke about as TRUTH and that NOTHING would take our eyes and faith and hope off Christ.

Well, dear brothers and sisters, the shingles is what was causing the pain in the first place!  The cyst is now a non-issue.  Had that rash not appeared, she would have been operated in vain!  She would have started hormone therapy for no good reason!  She would have missed work for nothing!

Those last-minute shingles kept her from unnecessary surgery. Amen, amen amen!

“You parents - if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!  So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good and advantageous gifts to those who ask Him" (Matthew 7:9-11)!

Those last-minute shingles were an “advantageous gift” indeed.

The key in the verse above is to ask. When we ask, He gives. When we pray, He responds.  If you are experiencing some “shingles” of your own, even if you have been praying for a long time, trust the Lord that something good is in the works.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, we ask for Your forgiveness for all the times we have complained about receiving “shingles” when all along it was exactly what we needed to be blessed and bless others. Help us to trust Your goodness over what our eyes see and what our puny little human minds think. Change our perspective today.  When we ask You, You give only the best gifts. We are grateful. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.