Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Psalm 23:6

Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever. – Psalm 23:6 (NIV)

I remember when I was in kindergarten, there was a boy who followed me around the playground. Everywhere I went, there he was. It was like he was my own little shadow. Sometimes, I’d try to run around to lose him, but no matter where I went, he was there too, right behind me.

That’s the picture I get when I read today’s verse. I see God’s goodness and love following you where ever you go. You can try to out run it, but it’s right there. Every time you turn around, there is God’s love ready to help you and give you what you need for each day.

What an awesome picture. There’s no where you can go to get rid of God’s goodness and love. It’s always following you, ready to bless you everywhere you go.

That should make you love God even more. He loves you so much that He wants nothing but the best for you. So determine to thank Him today for his love that follow you all the days of your life. There’s nothing better than being followed with the good things of God!

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Ephesians 4:11

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. – Ephesians 4:11 (NLT)

Leadership can be hard sometimes. You might be in a place of leadership in your school, church or home group and you might feel overwhelmed. There can be times in leadership where you simply aren’t sure what to say or what to do.

In the body of Christ, God has put many different spiritual gifts. And each place of leadership in the church is important. Regardless of where you’ve been place to lead, here are a few things to remember.

  1. Keep Learning.
    Keep reading your Bible. Listen to good Bible and leadership teaching. Grow each day. If you approach your leadership always learning and growing, you’ll go far as a leader. Regardless of how far you’ve come, there are always ways to learn and improve.
  2. Rely on the Holy Spirit
    You have the Holy Spirit to help lead and guide you. So when you don’t know what to say or what to do in a difficult situation, rely on the Holy Spirit. He will give you ideas and help that will be vital to your success as a leader.
  3. Give yourself Grace.
    As a leader, you’re not always going to be perfect, and that’s ok. Give yourself room to learn, make mistakes, and grow. Don’t expect perfection from yourself or others.

Being a leader in your school or church can be fun, but also challenging. Know that if God has called you to a place of leadership, you’re equipped to do it. Don’t be afraid to walk in the things He’s showing you to do.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – John 17:3

And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent. – John 17:3 (Message)

This Bible verse shows us something really amazing: God wants a relationship with you. You have the opportunity to know the one true God and Jesus Christ. That is great news!

Jesus wants to walk with you, to do life with you, and He’s made it possible for us to know Him. Not just to know about Him, but to really know Him. He’s ready to walk with you through the trials and troubles that you face and help you find a way out.

Today’s Truth: God Wants A Relationship With You

So instead of trying to do life in your own strength and ability, decide to get to know God. Spend some time today getting to know Him by reading your Bible and praying. Deciding to walk with God in life is one of the best decisions you can make.

Today’s Truth: God isn’t far away. He wants a relationship with you!

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Philemon 1:6

that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. – Philemon 1:6 (NKJV)

Sharing your faith can really seem overwhelming. You might question whether you really know enough to tell someone else about Jesus. And that question sometimes causes you to be quiet rather than share your faith with others.

Today’s verse helps make sharing your faith a bit easier. The end of the verse talks about the acknowledgment of every good thing that is in you. So rather than being concerned about whether you know enough to answer all of people’s questions, realize that simply sharing the good things God has done in your life is an effective way to share the gospel with others.

So what has God done for you? Has He healed you? Have you been freed from fear? What has God done in your life? Think about that and then ask God how you can let others know. God will give you creative ideas on how you can share what God is doing in your life.

Maybe He’ll lead you to post something on social media. Or perhaps He’ll show you someone you can write a card or letter to. However He leads you, don’t be afraid to step out and do it. Sharing your faith doesn’t have to be scary or hard, sometimes it’s just telling others the good things God has done for you, and then inviting them to get to know the Jesus that has set you free for themselves.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotional – John 10:27

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. – John 10:27 (NIV)

Have you ever needed some direction in your life? Maybe you were faced with some choices and didn’t know which one to pick. Or maybe you just want to know God’s will and plan for your life. Today’s Bible verse gives us encouragement when making choices and decisions in life.

Today’s verse shows you that God loves you and He is speaking to you in your heart. In this verse, we clearly see that Jesus loves you and is ready to speak to you. Jesus is ready to guide you if you’ll follow His leading.

If you find yourself wondering what you should do in a situation, first acknowledge this truth that you hear God’s voice. Then EXPECT to hear Him and you will. He might not speak immediately after you acknowledge this but ask God to speak and to give you His wisdom in your situation and He will.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Proverbs 25:28

A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. – Proverbs 25:28 (NLT)

When emotions are unchecked in our lives, we’re like a city with broken-down walls. If a city didn’t have strong walls, they were able to be attacked by their enemies. The city couldn’t experience good things because it was vulnerable to attack.

In the same way, if we don’t determine to develop emotionally healthy habits, like self-control in our lives, we are not going to be as successful in life.

If we want to walk in the freedom and the good things God has prepared for us, we’ve got to choose to walk in self-control when it comes to our emotions. It’s easy to let our emotions run wild and react rather than sit back and think. However, if we just react emotionally, we might react too much or we might react too little. When we take some time to think about our response and learn more of the facts, is when we’re able to give the right response.

So today, take some time to think about how you’re responding to situations around you. Are you overreacting? Under reacting? Spend some time getting all the facts before you respond. When you do, you’ll make better decisions and be walking in more self-control.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – James 4:8

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. – James 4:8 (NIV)

In yesterday’s devotion, we looked at Zechariah 1:3. It says, “Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty”

I like it when I come across verses that are very similar in the Bible. Today’s verse is very similar, and it’s nice to see that the heart of God is really to have us return to Him.

God is a loving father. He wants us to have a thriving relationship with Him. That’s His best for our lives. But sometimes, we get busy. The things going on in our lives often can fill up so much of our time that we don’t make time for God.

Like a loving father, God calls us to Him. He wants us to be with Him, even if it is just for a few minutes at the beginning and end of the day. Whatever time you can carve out in your day, God wants to meet you there. He loves you so much and His heart cry is that you return to Him. That you don’t get too busy or too distracted to make intentional time for Him.

Today, challenge yourself to make room for God. Find some time that you can spend talking to Him, worshipping, and reading your Bible. You’ll be so excited to see how much you can get out of taking time with God.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Zechariah 1:3

Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. – Zechariah 1:3 (NIV)

I like the game of tennis. One of my favorite things is just to play for fun, not keeping score, and just hitting the ball back and forth over the net. To me, it’s really fun to see how long I can hit the ball back and forth. When I was playing tennis on my school’s tennis team, one of the coaches gave me a simple strategy to help me win more matches. He said to just hit it over the net one more time than the person I was playing against. My coach said if I’d do that, I’d win the majority of my matches.

And my coach was right. I wasn’t the best player. I didn’t have a really fast serve, I wasn’t athletically a lot better than the players I played against. However, I just focused on hitting the ball over the net one more time than my opponent, and I did surprisingly well in my tennis matches.

I feel we can learn a little about the character of God from this idea. Of course, God isn’t out there hitting tennis balls to us, but His strategy is a little like the one my tennis coach gave me. No matter what we do, whether we sin, whether we don’t, whether we do good, whether we don’t, God is always returning His love to us. God is always ready for us to come near to Him. He’s always ready for us to return to Him. All we have to do is choose to respond to His love.

Today’s Truth: God is always near us and willing to love us and have fellowship with us. He’s always ready to extend love to us if we’ll just ask Him to.

So today, take a look at your heart. Have you moved away from God? Have you gotten busy and forgot that God is always waiting for us to respond to Him. He is willing and ready to fellowship with us, all we have to do is to respond to His love.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Psalm 1:3-4

Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
– Psalms 1:3-4 (Holman)

Do you play an instrument? If you want to be successful at playing, you’ve got to put in some time to practice it and to improve your skills in it. That takes discipline.

In today’s Bible verse we see that to be successful in life and to truly prosper, you need to meditate on the Lord’s instructions day and night. What does that mean? Meditate really means to ponder and to think about. The Lord’s instructions are in His word (the Bible). One way to do this is to first read the Bible, and then think about it until it forms a picture in your mind.

Then the verse says to do this day and night. This is very simple, but it does take discipline. It’s like learning an instrument, you have to practice it daily. By getting the Bible daily into our thoughts, we will begin to prosper in every area of our lives.

Today, find a way to think about God’s instructions in the Bible and see how your life will begin to prosper.

Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Zephaniah 3:2

She obeys no one,
    she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord,
    she does not draw near to her God. – Zephaniah 3:2 (NIV)

This verse is really interesting. God longed to be close to the people, and yet they didn’t draw near.

Do we ever do that? God loves us and wants to be close to us, and yet how often do we get so busy and caught up in our day to day affairs that we don’t even stop to acknowledge Him or to be close to Him.

When we don’t draw near to God, in a way, we’re saying that we don’t trust Him. Maybe we don’t trust that He cares enough to help us when we struggle. Perhaps we doubt that spending time with Him helps us in the things of life.

But God really does care. He wants to be a part of our life. He wants to help us when we struggle. All we have to do is draw near to Him. He’s always there, always willing to hear us, speak to us from His word, and help us with what we need.

So today, challenge yourself to draw close to God. Spend time in your Bible and in prayer and see how great a relationship with God can truly be.