Daily Devotional – 11/5/18 “Fear God and lack for nothing!”

Psalm 34:1-10 says this, “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”

This Psalm was sung by David while he hid in a cave running from Saul. He says, “for those who fear him have no lack!” What is fear? We take fear to mean scared of but fear here means reverence; as in respect. What David is saying, when we respect God we want for nothing. See, when you have respect for a person, you will not intentionally do anything to hurt them. When you respect someone, you will not purposely set out to cause them pain. When you respect someone, they are often who you think about before you do something out of character. And respect doesn’t stop. For me, I still respect my grandfather and although he is no longer living on earth, I will not do anything to taint his name. I’m grown but I still respect my mother by not disrespecting her. It is the same for God because I chose to follow Him. Beloved, God doesn’t want us to be afraid of Him because then we serve out of bondage and control and this isn’t the God we serve. And, why would God need to control us by fear when serving Him is a choice we make? To fear God is to respect Him because if we respect Him, we will not do anything deliberately to hurt Him. When we fear God, we serve willingly and not unwillingly because when we do, we lack for nothing. When we fear God, we shall not want. “Fear the LORD, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need.”

Shall we pray?

God,

I come before you for somebody who needs to be prayed for right now. Someone is about to give up, give in and let go but God, I know all our days were not meant to struggle because you’ve encamped about us legions of angels who are at our command. So, I ask you to cover me while I call down every demonic thing that is trying to rise up against your people. Protect me while I decree deliverance for your people from the hand of witchcraft that seeks to destroy the mantle you’ve given. God, you didn’t create us to struggle every day! You didn’t make us, by your hands, for us to die in debt and sin. You made us! You made us to recover, receive, be fruitful and multiply. You made us to overcome. You made us to be well and wealthy. You made us to be healed and whole. You made us to speak life. You made us! You made us victorious and I refuse to stay in the sunken place when you’ve made us survivors. Today God, we shall come out. And by your release of the Holy Spirit, I command you ma’am, sir to come out. Come out of the struggle gospels, today we survive. Come out of the misery, you must survive. Come out of bondage when God has adjudicated your case and cleared your name. Come out, it’s time to be free. And I declare that although we have to struggle, sometimes, we’ll survive every time. By God’s power.

Amen.

Daily Devotional – 10/31/18 “Life!”

Today, someone is celebrating a birth and someone is grieving a death. Someone is celebrating the remission of cancer and someone is just being diagnosed. Someone is dying while someone will live from the donation of their organs. Someone is contemplating suicide while someone else is celebrating this being the best time of their life. Someone is closing the doors of their worship center and a new one is opening. Someone is being fired while someone else is being hired. Someone is looking at the darkness of despair while someone is enjoying the light of happiness. Life and man, life is hard. And while you want to figure it out, truth is, you cannot. While you try to research it for understanding, truth is, it’ll only leave you with more questions. Questions like, why do children die, why does God allow the innocent to perish, why does bad things happen, why can’t cancer be cured and etc.. I wish I had the answer or even the direction to point you in but … life! Beloved, this didn’t just start happening. Sickness, violence, death, hardships and disappointments have been since the beginning of time and you cannot lose hope, now. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it leaves us confused. Yes, it leaves us angry. But life!

We may never understand what makes a husband/boyfriend murder his wife/girlfriend. We may never understand why cancer keeps causing death. We may never understand why our organs stop working. We may never understand why some wombs are shut. We may never quite understand life but life is life and sometimes it can get hard. Sometimes, life can be hard. Sometimes, life is hard. Yet we have to hope that one day it will not be. We have to hold out hope that one day life will not be this hard. We have to hold out hope that one day we won’t have to shed tears, visit doctors, get stuck with needs, go through chemo, dialysis or radiation. We have to hold out hope that one day we will never have to say goodnight to loved ones. We have to hold out hope that one day our battle will be over. Until then we have to scuffle with this thing called life but “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13”

Dear God, give us strength to hope. Give us strength to hope in expectancy of the day when all of our troubles will be over. Give us strength to hope even when it doesn’t seem like it’ll work out. Give us strength to hope even when it doesn’t work out the way we thought. For we know if we place our hope in you, there has to be joy that overflows. Hold and comfort us, letting us know we are not alone. We can stand, sit, sleep and wait in hope. Amen.