may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, – Ephesians 3:18 (NIV)
Do you ever wonder if God really cares about you? Is God too busy to really take time to listen to the little things that bug you each day? Does God care that you struggle in math or wish you made friends easier?
Today’s Truth: Your Small Things Are Big Things to God
So if you’ve begun to question whether God really cares about you, decide to get into God’s word. Find verses to help you realize His deep love for you. Choose to believe that love, regardless of how you feel. The truth is God does really love you, deeper than you can even comprehend.
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27 (NLT)
It’s really easy to doubt your worth. If you spend 20 minutes on Tik Tok you realize that you’re not as funny as those people, not as good at something as they are, or not as good-looking.
It’s so easy to see all the ways you don’t measure up and begin to believe the lie that you don’t matter.
Today’s Truth: You Matter.
Sometimes, one of the hardest things to do is to believe that you matter. To realize that your life is important. Why does your life matter?
It’s because of who says you matter. If you had something you thought was really valuable, you’d take it to an expert and have them tell you it’s worth. And when you found out the item’s worth you wouldn’t question it, because you had taken it to someone who was an expert and knew it’s value. In the same way, we have an expert (God) who tells us in the Bible our worth (Psalm 139:14).
But we often question what God says. We doubt that we are really worth what He says we are worth. The truth is, we matter because we are made in the image of God. God loves us and created us with and for a purpose.
This year, decide to believe what God says about you. Then make changes in your life to walk in that truth. Speak good things in God’s word over you. Remind yourself daily of your worth. You’ll be amazed at what will happen if you simply trust God and begin to believe what He says you’re worth.
Life inevitably brings challenges. Circumstances may overwhelm us, and the enemy may try to discourage us or cause doubt about God’s goodness. Nobody perhaps knew this better than David, who lived as a fugitive on the brink of death. And yet, David found a strength that carried him through to his promised kingship. 1 Samuel 30:6 says that even though “David was greatly distressed….David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” But what does this mean?
We find the answer throughout Psalms, where we see David cry out tearfully to God but consistently return to reminders of His faithfulness. In the midst of his greatest trial, David consistently wrote verses such as these: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Psalm 63:3) and “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).
God’s Word is true, all the way through. When the enemy comes against us, it is important to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness in our own lives and in His Word. Here are a few reminders I go to consistently:
· God will finish the good work He began in me – He won’t leave me where I am. (Philippians 1:6.)
· I am going from glory to glory and strength to strength; God will never move me backward, only forward. (2 Corinthians 3:18; Psalm 84:7.)
· When I delight myself in Him, He satisfies my deepest desires. (Psalm 37:4.)
· He is a good Father who loves to give good gifts to me when I ask. (Matthew 7:11.)
Seek His Word for His promises for you and, when the enemy comes against you, stand on these reminders of His faithfulness. He will always come through!
Today’s devotion was written by Erin Grant. Erin says, “I am who I am because of who He is. God changed my life, and my heart is to be used of Him to bring others into the healing, wholeness, and freedom He intended for each one of us. Ultimately, I long to bring others into an encounter with His heart and manifest presence, and to see revival and salvations ignited across the United States.”
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36.)
Without a doubt, 2020 has been a year of trial. The isolation and unprecedented downtime we have faced have given opportunities for discouragement, depression, anxiety, and a host of other challenges to come into our minds and hearts. However, I want to encourage you; you are not alone and this is not the end, because when Jesus died for you, He died for your complete freedom – not just your salvation, but freedom in every area of your life.
1 Peter 2:24 shares that, when Jesus died, “by His stripes we were healed.” The word “healed” here means salvation, physical healing, and deliverance from all oppression of the enemy; He paid for it all, and this is past tense! It’s already done. Though we must learn to walk out our freedom, this walking-out starts with knowing the high price of what He purchased for us. Because of His blood, sin (and all its curses that came when man fell in the Garden of Eden) has no hold on us anymore. (Romans 6:14.) He has also given us the authority to tread over ALL the power of the enemy. (Luke 10:19.)
Today’s Truth: God has complete freedom for you!
Though so much more could be said here, I simply want to encourage you in this: If you are walking through mental health challenges right now, God has complete freedom for you. It is His promised portion for your life. Stand on these promises; don’t give up. Press into Him, and refuse to settle for anything less than what He paid for. This is another promise: seek, and you will find Him – along with the freedom He has for you.
Today’s devotion was written by Erin Grant. Erin says, “I am who I am because of who He is. God changed my life, and my heart is to be used of Him to bring others into the healing, wholeness, and freedom He intended for each one of us. Ultimately, I long to bring others into an encounter with His heart and manifest presence, and to see revival and salvations ignited across the United States.”
Do you ever wonder if your deepest desires and dreams matter to God? This is something I was challenged with for the longest time. Why would the God of the universe care about my longings—my desire to be relevant, to go to college, or to find marriage?
The truth is, God put those desires in you and they are a good thing. Even better, God promises in His Word that He will fulfill every one of these desires as we grow closer to Him. He says that when we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts. (Psalm 37:4.) He also says He will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. (Psalm 84:11.)
Today’s Truth: God Wants to Fulfill Your Hearts’ Desires
God is a good father and gives good gifts to His children. He also gives us the key to seeing these desires fulfilled: a relationship with Him. When we love Him with all our hearts, seeking to follow Him, His desires become our desires, and He wants to see them fulfilled just as much as we do.
This can sound a little unfair at first; I used to think, “Well, that’s not right – He’s basically wanting me to give up everything I am so I can want what He wants.” Well, yes and no. In this process, I learned that God cared for these desires and never asked me to give them up; in fact, He put them there!
However, He did often ask me to change my expectations of what their fulfillment would look like. And I found that, when I allowed God to satisfy them in His way, He brought a deeper, more powerful, and awe-inspiring satisfaction to these desires that was so much bigger than I had originally planned. So, yes, we do have to surrender, but God doesn’t call us to surrender something for which He doesn’t have a much better exchange.
Are you willing to trust Him with the deepest desires of your heart? It will turn out so much better than you could ever ask or think!
Today’s devotion was written by Erin Grant. Erin says, “I am who I am because of who He is. God changed my life, and my heart is to be used of Him to bring others into the healing, wholeness, and freedom He intended for each one of us. Ultimately, I long to bring others into an encounter with His heart and manifest presence, and to see revival and salvations ignited across the United States.”
“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” 2 Cor. 1:20.
God has made so many promises to us in His Word, and all of them are “yes!” He is a good Father who loves to give good gifts to His children, and He does not exclude any of us from His goodness. You are not excluded from His love. However, there is a catch. If someone stops by and puts a gift on my doorstep, I cannot possess the gift if I never discover it is there by opening the door. Similarly, there are many promises we may be missing out on in His Word simply because we don’t know they are available to us to receive. For example:
We never have to make decisions alone, because He will instruct us and teach us in the way we should go (Psalm 32:8);
He will keep us in perfect peace – we do not have to be anxious, ever again (Isaiah 26:3);
To those who delight in Him, He will give them the desires of their heart (Psalm 37:4); and
For those who abide in Him and His will, we can request anything, and He will do it (John 15:7).
These are big promises! We serve a crazy good God who gives “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,” but we cannot ask for what we do not know is available to us.
Today, choose to discover these promises He has for you, and lay hold of the abundant goodness He longs to pour into your life—you may just be surprised by all that is available to you!
Today’s devotion was written by Erin Grant. Erin says, “I am who I am because of who He is. God changed my life, and my heart is to be used of Him to bring others into the healing, wholeness, and freedom He intended for each one of us. Ultimately, I long to bring others into an encounter with His heart and manifest presence, and to see revival and salvations ignited across the United States.”
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he not said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” Numbers 23:19 (ESV).
God is a good God, and we can stand on His Word – all the way through. It often strikes me as funny how easy it is to have faith for the most profound, and most miraculous, promise in history – the promise of salvation – and yet we struggle to trust Him with our more basic needs.
Did you know that God promises us that He will take care of all of our needs and that He will do so abundantly and according to His riches? (Ephesians 3:20; Philippians 4:19.) Or that He will take care of all our enemies for us? (Deuteronomy 28:7.) Or that He will make us the head and not the tail, and the lender who never has to borrow? (Deuteronomy 28:12-13.) Or that He will never leave us or forsake us? (Hebrews 13:5.)
Today’s Truth: Take Him At His Word
All of these are promises (and so many more) God has made to us, and they are available to us in the same way salvation is available – by faith! (Romans 4:13.) God cannot go back on His promises, and so we only need to do our part – to follow Him and simply take Him at His Word. If we can trust God with something so fundamental and big as the salvation of our souls, how much more can we trust Him in these other areas of promise? They’re almost incomprehensibly good; what a loving Father we serve!
Today’s devotion was written by Erin Grant. Erin says, “I am who I am because of who He is. God changed my life, and my heart is to be used of Him to bring others into the healing, wholeness, and freedom He intended for each one of us. Ultimately, I long to bring others into an encounter with His heart and manifest presence, and to see revival and salvations ignited across the United States.”
He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the LORD his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. – Deuteronomy 17:19 (NLT)
The Bible is big. It’s thick and overwhelming. Not the mention that it’s hard to know where to start reading it.
We get it. But here’s the thing. The Bible is also powerful. It has the ability to change your life. The Bible will take the fearful person and make them free. It can take the ashamed and give them worth.
Reading the Bible is really important as a Christian. And it’s something we should be reading on a regular basis.
So, as you’re looking to 2021, choose to make reading the Bible an important part of your routine each day. Find scriptures that speak to you and put them in your room, or on your mirror. Get into God’s word and let it become alive and real to you.
God’s word is powerful and it can change your life, if you’ll learn it and let it!
Here are a couple of devotions we’ve written to help you get started.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. – James 5:16 (NIV)
When we talk about prayer, it can be easy to want to ignore the fact that we should be praying as Christians. We’d rather do the fun stuff. Prayer takes work and it’s a lot easier to watch Netflix.
However, praying is an important part of our spiritual life as Christians. Kind of like brushing our teeth in the natural. It would be easier and probably more fun to skip brushing your teeth, but personal hygiene like this is important to staying healthy.
Prayer is the same for us. It’s an important part of our spiritual lives.
The great thing about prayer is that according to the Bible it’s powerful and effective. So while you think you might not be making a huge impact, your prayers do work and they are effective.
So challenge yourself as we go into 2021 to begin praying if you haven’t already. Prayer is powerful and it’s effective. It’s a great thing to develop and grow in too.
Here are a couple of devos if you need some encouragment or help getting started.
Let those who want my vindication shout for joy and be glad; let them continually say,” The LORD be exalted. He takes pleasure in His servant’s well-being.” – Psalm 35:27 (HSCB)
This year hasn’t been exactly what any of us would have expected. That might mean that Christmas doesn’t feel exactly like a normal Christmas to you.
Perhaps your family has decided to not meet together for Christmas and it makes Christmas seem pretty lame.
In the middle of all of that, it’s easy to become sad and lose your joy.
Today’s Challenge: Practice Joy
That’s where today’s challenge comes in. Christmas might not feel or look normal to you, but it’s a good opportunity to practice joy.
You can’t control your circumstances or your family. However, you can control your response to those things. You get to choose whether you’re happy or sad. And your response can make Christmas fun or can make it really bad for everyone around you.
So challenge yourself this year to practice joy. Even in the middle of 2020. Even if you’re not excited about going to your aunt’s house. You can still choose joy and turn a bad situation into a better one, simply by changing your attitude.
