Devotions

[Colleen Davis]

Happy New Year!! Just wondering if anyone missed the devotions I used to post. If so I'll continue for my 9th year.

Since October it's been my busiest time at work and many of my evenings and most weekends were spent working. Now that all those insurance policies are renewed, comes the checking of them, but I feel like I can resume posting devotions again if you want me too. May God richly bless you and your families in 2008.

[Marsha Gupton]

I have greatly missed them and wondered what had happened. Please continue.:)

[Colleen Davis]

OK, since you said please.

Between the Years

Our Lord and our God. We joy in Thee. Without Thy Help we could not face unafraid the year before us.

I stand between the years. The Light of my Presence is flung across the year to come...the radiance of the Sun of Righteousness Backward, over the past year, is My Shadow, thrown, hiding trouble and sorrow and disappointment.

Dwell not on the past...only on the present. Only use the past as the trees use My Sunlight to absorb it, to make from it in after days the warming fire-rays. So store only the blessings from Me, the Light of the World. Encourage yourselves by the thought of these.

Bury every fear of the future, of poverty for those dear to you, of suffering, of loss. Bury all thought of unkindness and bitterness; all your dislikes, your resentments, your sense of failure, your disappointment in others and in yourselves, your gloom, your despondency, and let us leave them all, buried, and go forward to a new and risen life.

Remember that you must not see as the world sees. I hold the year in My hands...in trust for you. But I shall guide you one day at a time.

Leave the rest with Me. You must not anticipate the gift by fears or thoughts of the days ahead.

And for each day I shall supply the wisdom and the strength.

from “God Calling” edited by A. J. Russell

[Colleen Davis]

1/2/2008 God's Palms

“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Isaiah 49:16

What matters supremely is not the fact that I know God but the larger fact that underlies it—the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me and continues to know me.

He knows me as a friend, one who loves me. There is no moment when His eye is off me or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort—the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates—in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good.

From “Knowing God Through the Year” by J. I Packer

[Colleen Davis]

1/3/2008 Comfort

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:10

The effect of Christian meditation is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us. Furthermore, it serves to “comfort” us—in the old, strong Bible sense of the word—as we contemplate the unsearchable riche of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is as we enter more and more deeply into this experience of being humbled and exalted that our knowledge of God increases, and with it our peace, our strength and our joy. God helps us, then, to put our knowledge about God to this use, that we all may in truth know the Lord.
From “Knowing God Through the Year” by J. I Packer

[Colleen Davis]

1/4/2008 God Thought

“I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.” Psalm 119:15

How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.

What is meditation? Christian meditation is the activity of calling to mind, thinking over and applying to oneself the various things that one knows about the work and ways ad purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of Holy Spirit thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself. It is indeed often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.

From “Knowing God Through the Year” by J. I Packer

[Anne and Dwayne Hood]

The scripture about being engraved in the palm of His hand, is a favorite with me. Just think about it. Our minds cannot even comprehend a God that big and almighty, that He could have each one of us engraved in the palm of His hand. One of our sister in laws wrote a chorus about that a long time ago. It ends with, "And, we are graven in the palm of His hand."

[Colleen Davis]

1/5/2008 Motive Check

“Knowledge puffs up…The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.” 1 Corinthians 8:1-2

Before we start to ascent our mountain of knowing the things of God, we need to ask ourselves, what is my ultimate aim in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God once I have it? For the fact that we have to face is this: if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we will come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it. We will look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate.

To approach Bible study with no higher motive than a desire to know all the answers is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude and pray to keep it away.

From “Knowing God Through the Year” by J. I Packer

[Colleen Davis]

1/6/2008 Hope for Hurts

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29

C. H. Spurgeon wrote: There is in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound, in musing on the Father there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balm, for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trail, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.

We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing the God whose world it is and who runs it. Knowing God is crucially important for the living of our lives.

From “Knowing God Through the Year” by J. I Packer

[Colleen Davis]

1/7/2008 Reconstruction

“I will rebuild and not demolish you, and I will plant and not uproot you.” Jeremiah 42:10

The only reason the sun rises every day is because God gives it His permission. He’s never had a wink of sleep, and nothing is hidden from His sight. God has been God through every single day of your heritage.

If you are dealing with some ancient ruins, He was there when they crumbled. He knows every detail. He knows exactly how you’ve been affected, and His expertise is reconstruction. After all, Christ was a carpenter by trade. Nothing has ever been allowed to crumble in a Christian’s life or heritage that God cannot reconstruct and use.
From “Breaking Free” By Beth Moore

[Colleen Davis]

1/8/2008 Binding Up the Brokenhearted

“The Lord is near the brokenhearted: He saves those crushed in Spirit.” Psalm 34:18

Can you remember when you lost your first tooth? Rode your first two-wheeler? Lived through your first day of junior high? These were monumental experiences, yet you may or may not even recall them. But if I asked about the first experience that shattered your heart, you’d likely remember everything—down to the last detail. Somehow having your heart broken is in a class all by itself.

But one of the primary reasons God sent His Son to earth was to bring tender salve and relief to those whose hearts have been broken. Binding up the brokenhearted is one of His greatest priorities.

From “Breaking Free” By Beth Moore

[Anne and Dwayne Hood]

How precious it is when God binds up our broken hearts.
In March of 2000, I was grieving over something. My heart was very broken. One day, I was sitting in the lifing room reading--not something spiritual, but something OK. All of a sudden, God began to bless, me, until I just had to start praising Him. It was what you could call, "Out of the clear blue sky" and totally unexpected. With that, he took away, my borken heart, bound it up, and brought comfort to my heart. I still cared about the situation, but I no longer grieved about it. Thirteen days later, I had a breast biopsy, and was in rd stage cancer, and had my entire
left breast removed, and a good number of my lymph nodes, under my left arm. It was extremely grievious what I went through. But, God just came, without me asking, and took the grief I had away. He knew that I could not have handled both things-the terrible grief, and the cancer, and all it entailed.

Isn't He wonderful"

[Colleen Davis]

1/9/2008 Choose to Take God at His Word

“Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children.” 1 John 3:1

Why do we have such trouble believing and accepting the love of God, even though unbelief regarding His love is the ultimate slap in His face? The world came into being from the foundation of God’s love. He nailed it down for us on the cross. Can you imagine the grief of our unbelief after all He’s done?

You may say, “But I just can’t make myself feel like God loves me.” Belief is not a feeling, dear one. It’s a choice. We may live many days when we don’t feel loved or lovely, but we can choose to take God at His Word in spite of our feelings and emotions.

From “Breaking Free” By Beth Moore

[Colleen Davis]

1/10/2008 Step Out in Faith

“We would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.” 2 Corinthians 1:9

The level of trust we have for God is a monumental issue in the life of every believer. Many variables in our lives affect our willingness to trust God a loss or betrayal can deeply mark our level of trust. A broken heart never mended can handicap us terribly when challenged to trust. Trusting an invisible God doesn’t come naturally to any of us.

Our trust relationship with Him grows only when we step out in faith and make the choice to trust. The ability to believe God develops most often through pure experience. “I found Him faithful yesterday. He will not be unfaithful today.”

From “Breaking Free” By Beth Moore

[Colleen Davis]

1/11/008 Prescription for Peace or Anxiety

“The peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

I decided to bring home the impact of this passage by paraphrasing it from a negative standpoint, turning this prescription for peace into a no-fail prescription for anxiety. My result looked like this:

“Do not be calm about anything, but in everything, by dwelling on it constantly and feeling picked on by God, with thoughts like, ‘And this is the thanks I get,’ present your aggravations to everyone you know but Him. And the acid in your stomach, which transcends all milk products, will cause you an ulcer, and the doctor bills will cause you a heart attach, and you will lose your mind.”

From “Breaking Free” By Beth Moore

[Colleen Davis]

1/12/2008 Unfailing Love

“Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you.” Isaiah 43:10

The Word of God uses the phrase “unfailing love” thirty-two times, and not once it is attributed to humans. Every single use of the phrase refers to God and God alone. Although the love of others can be rich and meaningful, only God’s love is unfailing love.

He is not only the answer to a thousand needs but a thousand wants. He is our chief desire in all of life. Oh, God, awaken our souls to see—You are what we want, not just what we need. Yes, our life’s protection, but also our heart’s affection. Yes, our soul’s salvation, but also our heart’s exhilaration. Unfailing love—a love that will not let us go!

From “Breaking Free” By Beth Moore

[Colleen Davis]

1/13/2008 Worship

”And he pitched his tent having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east: and there he builded an altar.” Genesis 12:8

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for your self, it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others.

Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two. The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him. Rush is wrong every time, there is always
plenty of time to worship God. Quiet days with God may be a snare. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three stages in spiritual life - worship, waiting and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs, we jump from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of Our Lord. He was unhasting and unresting. It is a discipline, we cannot get into it all at once.

From “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers

[Colleen Davis]

1/14/2008 Blessings

“My cup overflows with blessings” Psalm 23:5 (NLT)

Is an overflowing cup full? Absolutely.

The wine reaches the rim and then tumbles over the edge. The goblet is not large enough to contain the quantity. According to David, our hearts are not large enough to contain the blessings that God want to give. He pours and pours until they literally flow over the edge and down on the table…

The last thing we need to worry about is not having enough. Our cup overflows with blessings.

From “Everyday Blessings” by Max Lucado

[Colleen Davis]

1/15/2008 Middle C

“From everlasting to everlasting, You are God” Psalm 90:2 (NIV)

You and I need a middle C. Haven’t you had enough change in your life? Relationships change. Health changes. The weather changes.

But the Yahweh who ruled the earth last night is the same Yahweh who rules it today. Same convictions. Same plan. Same mood. Same love. He never changes. You can no more alter God than a pebble can alter the rhythm of the Pacific.

Yahweh is our Middle C. A still point in a turning world.

From “Everyday Blessings” by Max Lucado

[Colleen Davis]

1/16/2008 God Is For You

“God is the strength of my heart.” Psalm 73:26 (NKJV)

God is for you. Turn to the sidelines; that’s God cheering for your run.

Look past the finish line: that’s God applauding your steps.

Listen for Him in the bleachers, shouting your name.

Too tired to continue? He’ll carry you.

Too discouraged to fight? He’s picking you up.

God is for you.

From “Everyday Blessings” by Max Lucado

[Colleen Davis]

1/17/2008 Adopted

“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us.” Ephesians 1:3 (TLB)

And you thought God adopted you because you were good-looking. You thought he needed your money or your wisdom.

Sorry. God adopted you simply because he wanted to. You were in his good will and pleasure. Knowing full well the trouble you would be and the price he would pay, he signed his name next to your and changed your name to his and took you home.

Your Abba adopted you and became your Father.

From “Everyday Blessings” by Max Lucado

[Colleen Davis]

1/18/2008 In His Hands

“The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” Proverbs 21:1 NASB

When the Israelites went into captivity, God promised that it would not last forever. He assured them that they would someday return to their homeland.

God eventually moved King Cyrus’s heart to send them back to Jerusalem and give them the resources needed to rebuild the city.

God’s ability to help you is absolutely limitless. All things concerning your situation—including the hearts of people in authority over you—are in his hand. You may not be able to influence the people who could change your circumstances, but God certainly can and will.

Take peace this morning knowing that he is directing your situation like a watercourse and is helping you mightily.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/19/2008 Receiving the Message

“The Lord God gives me the right words to encourage the weary. Each morning he awakens me eager to learn his teaching.” Isaiah 50:4 CEV

This morning God is calling you to learn from him. He whispers that he loves you and that you can trust him. He tells you that when you think there is no help for you, he will rescue you.

He encourages you to be strong because he vindicates you and never lets you be dishonored. He says that his wisdom power, and love have worked together to provide good plans for your life.

He also wants you to know that he has comforted you in order to prepare you to encourage others. His words can give life and hope to the weary, if only you will receive and share them.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/20/2008 Say Yes to Worship

“Man…heaps up wealth, not know who will get it.” Psalm 39:6 (NIV)

We need one day in which work comes to a screeching halt. We need one twenty-four period in which the wheels stop grinding and the motor stops turning. We need to stop…..

Slow down. If God commanded it, you need it.

If Jesus modeled it, you need it….

Take a day to say no to work and yes to worship.

From “Everyday Blessings” by Max Lucado

[Colleen Davis]

1/21/2008 A Servant First

“He came to serve, not to be served.” Mark 10:45 MSG

Some people decline to follow God because they are afraid that he will be an insatiable taskmaster. That is far different from how God has revealed himself in the Bible and throughout history. In fact, the greatest example of a humble servant is Jesus.

True, God asks for obedience. Yet he does so in order to free you to enjoy his blessings. He serves you by providing the peaceful, joyful, and fulfilling life you desire.

He will not answer the cries of your heart with fleeting remedies. He grows you in holiness and love so that you can experience the abundant life to the deepest degree.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/22/2008 The Fabric of Everlasting

“From everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him.” Psalm 103:17

Wrap yourself in this beautiful promise today—God’s love is always, constantly, and ceaselessly with you. His love adorns you with salvation, protection, guidance, and provision. It shrouds you from your cold, piercing fears. Nothing can reach you, except that which is allowed by his covering grace.

Though you may lay his love aside and get far away from him in your own heart, he remains close by.

He weaves himself intimately into your life so that nothing can separate his eternal cords from your earthly cloth. Joyfully wear the love of God forever.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/23/2008 It Was Very Good

“God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!” Genesis 1:31 MSG

God is at work in you. The fact that you awoke this morning with a desire for a word from him demonstrates his activity. In opening his word and praying, you welcomes him into your life to continue forming you into a good, useful instrument.

He is constantly drawing and teaching you—making you ready for good works that are uniquely suited to you. Though you may feel useless or unworthy, he sees what pleases him—what he deems as very, very good.

He is readying you for great endeavors. Rejoice that God is proud of you and has deeming you worthy of being his choice instrument for important assignments to come.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/24/2008 Practice and Perfection

“If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us.” 1 John 4:12 NLT

Love is a gift from God that must be used in order to be useful. The more you love others, the more your capacity to love will grow. The more you sacrifice for others, the more deeply you will care for all people.

You also have the wonderful promise that if you love others, God—the source of love—lives in you. The more you practice his unfailing love, the more his presence is perfected in you.

The blessing of love is twofold. Love other, and not only will your love grow, but God—the spring from which all love flows will show himself more powerfully within you.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/25/2008 A Better Perspective

”Love each other as brothers and sister and honor others more than you do yourself.” Romans 12:10 CEV

Are there people in your life with whom you have a conflict? Do you have expectations of how they will react to you when you see them?

Whether those expectations are positive or negative, your responsibility is to love those people and honor them above yourself.

The apostle Paul did so by trying to understand other people’s points of view. He knew if he could see from their perspective, he could better represent Christ to them.

Expect the best of those people when you see them today and give them the benefit of the doubt. Not only will you have a better perspective about the, you will better represent Christ.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/26/2008 By His Spirit

“’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Zechariah 4:6 NIV

As you awoke this morning, what was on your mind? Was it the challenges you will face today? Are there problems you need to confront—issues that are too massive for you to handle?

God knows everything that concerns you today. And though you may not be able to conquer the difficulties on your own, God strengthens and enables you to face them by his Spirit.

You don’t have to rely on your own strength and wisdom; God provides his boundless resources to you. No matter what is ahead today, take heart. You will be amazed by what you can accomplish when your work is empowered by God’s Spirit.

From “Moments of Peace for the Morning” by Jennifer Rosania

[Colleen Davis]

1/27/2008 God’s Will

“Blessed be God, my mountain…he’s the bedrock on which I stand.” Psalm 144:1 (The Message)

I don’t know one thing about the future. I don’t know the next hour will hold. There may be sickness, accident, personal or world catastrophe. Before this day is over I may have to deal with death, pain, loss, rejection.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, for those I love, for my nation, for this world. Still, despite my ignorance and surrounded by tinny optimists and cowardly pessimists, I say that God will accomplish his will, and I cheerfully persist in living in the hope that nothing will separate me from Christ’s love.

From “God’s Message For Each Day” by Eugene H. Peterson

[Colleen Davis]

1/28/2008 Live Freely

“Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.” 1 Peter 5:7

The personal dimension of the gospel is good news about ourselves…No matter how well we manage to provide an appearance of competence and happiness, if we are filled with anxieties and guilt and hopelessness, we cannot make it…

God’s love and our salvation are completely expressed and fully accomplished in Jesus Christ. That is good news. As we receive him. We live freely and not apprehensively. We live in open praise and not in piggish greed. Our lives are changed from being obsessed with guilt and ridden with fear to being spontaneous and filled with hope. That’s good news!

From “God’s Message For Each Day” by Eugene H. Peterson

[Colleen Davis]

1/29/2008 My Place in Life

“Blessed God.! His love is the wonder of the world.” Psalm 31:22

With God I am not a zero. Not a minus. I have a set-apart place that only I can fill. No one can substitute for me. No one can replace me. Before I was good for anything, God decided that I was good for what he was doing.

My place in life doesn’t depend on how well I do in the entrance examination. My place in life is not determined by what market there is for my type of personality.

God is out to win the world in love and each person has been selected to…do it with him.

From “God’s Message For Each Day” by Eugene H. Peterson

[Colleen Davis]

1/30/2008 The Drama of Redemption

“God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us that we do ourselves.” 1 John 3:21

In Jesus the word of God became a matter of personal response between sinful people and a loving Savior. What mattered was that people respond: the inner life of faith, hope, confession, and repentance was called into being. The heart—that great biblical metaphor for all that makes us function in relation to God—is the site for the action.

Religion is not a ritual in which some act out the truths for others, but a faith in which each person experiences what God has for her or him. All the great dramas of redemption are acted out, not on a Greek stage, but in a human heart.

From “God’s Message For Each Day” by Eugene H. Peterson

[Colleen Davis]

1/31/2008 Faith is not Formal

“Praise from all who love God! Israel’s children, intimate friends of God.” Psalm 148:14

We can address God as freely as we address our parents. It is the kind of freedom that combined intimacy with reverence. We are still aware of the majesty and awesome glory of God. We do not try to reduce God to a level of coziness where we can manipulate him. The intimacy is a freedom to share ourselves, to express ourselves fearlessly in God’s presence. We are free to be spontaneous, personal, and uninhibited. Faith is nor a formal relationship hedged in with elaborate courtesies; it is a family relationship, intimate and free.

From “God’s Message For Each Day” by Eugene H. Peterson