Give thanks

1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Yesterday was a bad day for me.  I had been wronged by someone and I was very upset.  This left me with an attitude that was not so present.  I’ll be honest, I was a little rude to a few people because of this this.  Once I finally realized that I was paying back wrong for wrong, I had to go and apologize to the people that I was rude with.  I had realized that I had an attitude and it was not right.  I had to really work to improve that attitude. 

It was during some down time that I started praying and trying to focus on the blessings I have that I finally realized that in all things, I need to give thanks.  Yes, someone may be attacking you and making you feel horrible, however it’s important to remember not to allow the domino effect to take place. 

Today I just want to encourage you to rejoice always and pray continually.  Even when being wronged, there is something you can be thankful for.

Thursday Devotional - Glorifying God

Romans 1:21-23            “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”            Romans 1:21-23

So often I read through passages like this thinking it doesn’t apply to me because I know who the true God is and I don’t worship idols. There is a difference between knowing and glorifying God, though, as verse 21 indicates. I know who the true God is, but I don’t always glorify Him.

We glorify God by growing in a personal relationship with Him.

We glorify God by adoring Him.

We glorify God by worshiping and praising Him for who He is.

We glorify God by giving Him the credit for all of our accomplishments.

We glorify God by thanking Him for all of our blessings and sufferings. 

We glorify God by exalting Him above anyone and anything else.

This week, what mortal thing have you and I placed above our relationship with God? (possession, person, project, plan, player, etc.) Our relationship with God is eternal and the most important.

One of the hymns I sang with the kids last night was “To God Be the Glory.” Let’s give glory to God rather than exchanging it for glorifying something mortal!

Alice 

Love Never Fails

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8a 

There is so much going on in the world today.  The world has always been a place with uncertainty that surrounds us, and we at times feel that we are destined to succumb to it at some point.  However, I’m reminded at church that through it all, we must be shining examples as Christ.  Many do not understand it.  At times, I do not know if I understand others.  However, I lean on the power of Jesus to inspire inside of me that which is good and to keep me on the righteous path.  How?  The answer is simple. Love.  It is the one thing that I can always draw on that keeps me strong.  It is the endless reservoir of hope that always seems to keep those around me feeling it will be alright.  It’s kept my wife and me together through thick and thin.  It never fails. 

We must continue to fall back on the love Christ has for us and share it with others.  There have been many things that love has been characterized as.  Often, it is referred to by others as soft, a sign of weakness, and unnecessary in times of uncertainty.  However, I would argue that it is quite the opposite.  It is strong when others are feeling weak.  It is difficult to display when you must love one undeserving of it.  And yes, it is entirely necessary in times of uncertainty because when everything else is uncertain, God’s love for us is certain.  As the first part of verse 8 says, “Love never fails.”  Never. 

There is nothing that is more powerful than God’s love.  Lynne Hybels was troubled by some of the things happening with a group of women that were rescued from the terrorist group ISIS.  In hearing their story, she wrote: 

As a Christian, I feel compelled to combat the distortions of twisted religion, misused power and entrenched and evil patriarchal systems with the loving and liberating way of Jesus. 

The loving and liberating way of Jesus is the answer against all the hurt and evil that at times seems to attack our sense of morality nonstop.  We must fight with both the courage and love of God.  That is how we overcome a world determined to destroy others.  Let us not be faint of heart.  Let us push forward with ‘the loving and liberating way of Jesus.’  What is suppressing your ability to love more today?  How can you let God’s love fill your heart to share with others?  My prayer is that we are willing to have the strength to love for God’s love never fails.  Amen. 

Tues Devo: Talker

Proverbs 13:3 “The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; the one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” (NASB)

Hello,

There are a bunch of verses that I could have referenced for this today, as this is a common topic in the Bible. In our culture we certainly don’t lack the opportunity to be heard. We have ways to have our voice heard, opinions recorded and messages delivered. But we need to slow down and ask one important question – why? OK, perhaps we need to ask more than one….

Why 1) – Why is it that constant running of our mouths leads to ruin?

Why 2) – Why do we feel compelled to keep talking?

I do not intend to directly answer those here, I think they are great questions for us to meditate on in our hearts and through reading Scripture.

But I will say this – do we trust God in the heat of the moment? That is where I know I tend to get into trouble – the quick moment of emotion or pressure. We look to vent/strike/defend – but when we do it so quickly we are not doing so in the strength and guidance of God, we are driven by self.  We need to pause before we start talking. During that pause, I encourage all of us to take a moment and ask God if we doing this through ourselves only, or allowing God to truly drive our decision to speak.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Thursday Devotional - Rainbow Revelation

We live in an area where many people deny even the existence of God.  They suppress the truth.  However, God has revealed Himself to all people through creation.  Without having or knowing God’s Word, we can still see His existence, creativity, intelligence, and power.

Romans 1:18-20            “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” 

Romans 1:18-20 

A few weeks ago, after one of our rain storms, the kids and I went outside to play frisbee. As we were playing, I looked up and saw a full rainbow! It was beautiful! We all stopped and looked at it for a while. James, the most active one, stopped and looked at the rainbow the longest. While Sarah and I resumed playing frisbee, I overheard James spontaneously say “Thank you, Jesus, for making the rainbow!”

Later that night, Sarah thanked God for the rainbow during her prayer before bed. It’s such a blessing to watch James and Sarah recognize God through His creation and then thank Him for it! 

How has the truth of God been revealed to you this week? Are you looking for it?

How did you respond?

Did you keep the truth to yourself, or have you shared it with those around you?

Let’s look for God’s power around us, praise Him for it and share it with others!

Alice

Detour

“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!  And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)

We try our best to make good decisions.  Some of them are very simple like getting up from bed and taking a shower before work.  Others might be a bit more challenging like wearing the right clothes for an interview or deciding on which washer and dryer set to get from the appliance store (Yes, my wife and I did that once).  However there are some decisions where we tend to overcomplicate things.  Some of these can lead to dangerous results.  For example, a gambler will risk his mortgage payment trying to make up for losses earlier in the day.  Their thought?  I need to make up for the money I lost.  But why would one risk their home just because they lost earlier?  I never have gambled, but I’ve heard the ugly stories when someone did.  It’s always the impulse of ‘I can win this time!’  When conflicted with what God expects and my own wants, I have to avoid focusing on temporary and impulsive happiness in exchange for long term spiritual growth and abundance of joy God offers.  Of course the latter is better, but I must discipline myself not to fall for an immediately gratifying but unfulfilling detour.

We should always maintain our focus on God’s long term plan toward joy rather than our own temporary pathway to short-term fulfillment.  I saw today’s verse pop up on my Bible app today.  Normally, I write something God inspires me to throughout the week.  However, I realized I had never written on these verses albeit one of my favorites.  A Christian song that I love to hear speaks of it saying, “As for me and my house, we will serve you Lord.”  In reading the verses, it feels like one of those arguments where you are willing to listen to discussion, but you already know what your answer is.  For example when Jesus is being tempted in the wilderness after 40 days and nights of fasting, the devil tries to tempt Jesus, but we already know how Jesus was going to respond, right?  “People do not live by bread alone,” and “You must not test the Lord your God.” (Matthew 4:6b, 7b)  Like God said to the people in Joshua, we can all grow comfortable in our surroundings, but we must always remember the God we serve; the one who carries us when we are weak and was always there for the Israelites from Abraham through Moses and Joshua.

God is always on our side.  We not only have plenty of stories throughout the Bible but also our own experiences when God displayed His faithfulness pulling us through crisis after crisis.  We will always have to deal with temptation to take what may seemingly appear to be an easy way out, but we know the right choice as God laid out to Israel in today’s verses.  Don’t take the easy route!  Trust in God’s long term plan for your life.  What is tempting you to divert from God’s long term plans for you?  How can you stay on course when temptation hits at your time of stress?  My prayer is that we are able to seek the long term joy God has in store for our lives and not fall prey to the short term detour.  Amen.

Tues Devo: To risk or give

 Hello,

This past Sunday in church the Pastor during communion made the comment that Jesus didn’t risk His life – He gave it. That really stuck with me. What is our mindset when we think about doing things for God in our lives? Do we think about what the risk is, or just do what we should out of love back to Him? You see thinking about risk has a natural selfish component to it – we balance the possible good outcome against what could happen to us. If Jesus would have come to risk His life, He would have played it safer and tried to mitigate the pain to Himself to try and achieve the same outcome. But His focus was not on Him – it was on us. We know from His prayer in the garden that He wasn’t looking forward to it – He asked the Father one more time if there was another way – but He put all of that aside and out of love gave Himself fully for us and our redemption.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (NASB)

What in our lives do we need to stop risking for the God, and start giving?

Will Hill

Be alert

I James 5:8-9

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

With trick or treating this past week, these verses came to mind for me with how today’s world is a scary place.  We are constantly surrounded by a roaring lion that is looking for someone to devour.  The worst part, that roaring lion can often be disguised as something not at all scary.  Halloween we saw lots of kids dressed all sweet and innocent and yet that was a real cover up for them and then there were other kids that are very sweet and shy that may have dressed up as something super scary. 

We are warned to be alert and of sober mind.  It seems this is something that many find harder to do these days as well as they are trying to cover up something in their lives that they simply don’t want to face. 

Today I just want to give a gentle reminder that we all need to be aware of what is going on around us, be alert and be of sober mind so that we do not fall prey to the roaring lion that may be dressed as a cute kitty cat. 

Thursday Devotional - Empowering Power

Romans 1:11-17  ¹¹ I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹² that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

¹⁴ I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵ That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:11-17

Paul is an amazing example of one who truly loved God, loved other people, understood God’s power, and humbly relied on God’s power to do what God had called him to do – preach the gospel! By faith, God’s gospel empowered Paul to serve! By faith, God’s gospel can empower you and me to serve where called.

This past week I got to prepare and give a 30 minute talk on Romans 3 to a group of over 200 women in our Bible study. Being one of the leaders is a job God’s specifically called me to do for over a decade, but it still doesn’t come easy! God has always provided what was needed, though.

I like to be ready by the night before, but last week I wasn’t. Some of my illustrations didn’t fit well, but God gave me a couple different illustrations the day of that helped me (and hopefully others) better understand what Paul was teaching. Yet again, God empowered me to do what He called me to do (in His time)!

      

Where do you get the strength to serve? Do you and I rely on our own self-discipline and self-righteousness? Or, like Paul, do you and I rely on God’s power through His righteousness, giving Him the glory? His power is far greater than my abilities!

Alice

Tues Devo: Know what?

Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” (NASB)

Hello,

Do you ever get caught up in your drive to know something that it hits you later – is this what I am even supposed to be driving to know? I know for myself that this happens to me sometimes with what God wants me to do. It is easy (I doubt I am the only one) to put my focus and energy on my actions I am looking to take – instead of just continuing to dig into His character and person.

It starts with knowing Him and being obedient – and it never moves from there.

We this with King Asa in the Old Testament as well “Asa did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God, for he removed the foreign altars and high places, tore down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment.” (2 Chronicles 14:2-4 NASB)

If we think about comparing the difference between focusing on knowing God vs knowing His will, a careful look needs to be had at our planned outcome. When we seek to know God, our outcome is (should be) obedience out of love along with a greater amount of wisdom and discernment. When we seek just His will, there is a trap that our outcome is rationale for taking our desired actions and being in control. I am not saying that is always the case, but it is a danger point we should be wary of.

I challenge all of us (starting with myself) to focus our seeking on God – and letting the rest fall in place from there.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill