1 Corinthians 7:8

I say to the unmarried and to widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am.

I was single for a long time before I ever married. In fact, I was 34 when I married, and we made it seven years, ten months, and one day before my husband died. I honestly believe we would still be married if he had lived, but that was just not God’s plan. Although I read this verse many times as a single person, I gained a brand new perspective as a widow. I believe God has something here for all of us.

Paul was speaking to the Corinthians about their dedication to God here. He explained that a single person can dedicate themselves fully to the work of God without the hindrance of the responsibility of caring for a mate. In the previous verses, he gave instructions on marital conduct and how spouses are to treat each other. Basically, if you can maintain self-control, you are better off being single.

A single person or a widow lives in a world that is made for couples. When most of your friends are married, you are the odd-man out or the third or fifth wheel in a gathering. Couples will gravitate toward couples because it is awkward to try to fellowship with a single person. Although it doesn’t seem fair, that is just how it is. God even called the animals into the ark two by two, male and female, with the intention of procreation after the flood. A single person or widow is without a partner in a world that seems to require another person to properly fit into society. In that event, the single woman or widow feels as if she is abnormal, deficient, or lacking in some area because she doesn’t have a husband. If this is or has ever been you, take note of Paul’s words here: it is good for you to be unmarried! There is nothing wrong with you, and you are not being punished. You are not lacking, and your situation is good.

What is wrong with you that you are not married? Absolutely nothing! This is good for you at this particular time in life. Your focus should be upon serving God and developing your relationship with Him unhindered. For some reason, God wants you all to Himself, and He is focusing upon you. Enjoy this time with Him. Should He decide to bring someone into your life to serve as a partner, you can trust that would be good, too. But, if He doesn’t, life is still good. You need not look at your marital status as a bad situation just because you are not married. It is good, so start living life as if it were good. Being single is no reason to put happiness on hold or not to enjoy this life God has given us. Life is good, including yours!

Have a blessed day!

Psalm 68:9

You, God, showered abundant rain; You revived Your inheritance when it languished.

We have all gone through difficult times that seemed to have no end or have drained us of all energy. God has an answer for us when we face such times. He showers us with abundant rain – times of refreshing – in order to revive us. If He didn’t, we would have no desire to continue to serve Him.

Burn-out is common among pastors, teachers, and faithful lay people within a church and is often a sign we are working to accomplish things from our own strength.  Anyone with a servant’s heart can suffer burn-out after a season of heavy labor or turbulent times. Those who suffer burn-out lose their effectiveness after a while and can even lose their desire to serve altogether. Burn-out can also be a sign God is redirecting us to a new assignment. Thankfully, God is faithful to bring times of refreshing, revival, and renewal. All we need to do is ask for it and submit to it.

Take time daily for a refreshing from God’s word. Let Him renew your spirit and revive your strength. If you have been working hard and are experiencing burn-out, take a rest. Allow God to speak to you again and encourage you with new promise. Change scenery if you need, but make sure you get away from the demands of life at least for a little while to just commune with God and let Him love on you. He does not want to see you languishing; He desires to send abundant rain to revive you, refresh you, and renew you. Let it pour!

Have a blessed day!

John 8:48

The Jews responded to Him (Jesus), “Aren’t we right in saying that You’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”

The Jewish leaders questioned Jesus’s identity. If they could disqualify Him as Jewish, His teaching would not be valid. If they could pin Him with a demon, He would most certainly be outcast, and His followers would turn away. When the Devil is truly threatened by us, He will question our identity. He will try to convince us we could never be Christians and have such a terrible background. He will tell us we can’t be hearing from God and have failure in our lives. He will twist the truth to appear as a lie and try to convince others to believe him. We must remember always that the Devil is a liar!

Jesus was most certainly Jewish on both His mother’s side and his earthly father’s side. We find His paternal heritage recorded in Matthew and His maternal heritage recorded in Luke. A Jew must be able to prove his lineage as a Jew in order to have Jewish rights, and this is exactly why Jesus’s lineage is recorded in the New Testament. There is absolutely no doubting His Jewish birth.

A Samaritan was a Jew who had intermarried with other races, as was prohibited by the law. The true Jews looked down upon them and saw them all as sinners. Samaritans still claimed their Jewish heritage and felt the racial tension and attitudes of inferiority from the Jewish religious leaders. They knew they were not accepted and rebelled against Jewish religious teachers and tradition. The Jewish leaders had absolutely no basis for calling Jesus a Samaritan other than their own evil motives of trying to disqualify Him. The accusation was strictly slanderous.

The fact that these leaders accused Jesus of having a demon proves they knew He had power. They could not deny His power of healing and the transformation He brought to people’s lives through His teaching. They had no such power and sought to discredit Him. If His power was from the Devil, true Jews would not follow Him. How ironic that the Devil accused Jesus of having a demon! He had to hide His true identity within religious circles in order to gain followers. When Jesus came on the scene and started revealing the Father, the Devil had to try to project his own identity on Christ in order to disqualify Him. The only way the Devil can gain true power among believers is to steal it through deception.

John 8:32 teaches us that we shall know the truth (Jesus), and the truth shall set us free. Jesus sets us free from the lies of the Devil and the bondage that accompanies him. In Christ, we have a new identity with a purpose for increasing God’s kingdom on earth. When we know who we are in Christ, we will truly live free from Satan’s grip with the ability to set others free, as well.

To know who we are in Christ, we must first know Him. The closer we get to Him, the more He reveals Himself to us. He has a gift for each of us to use to build His kingdom, and He has called us to use that gift.  Determine to know Christ and to use the gifts He has given you to further His kingdom on earth. To sit back and think you just can’t do something or to fear failure is to give the Devil a part of the destiny God has planned for you. You are not a Samaritan, and you do not have a demon! You belong to Jesus Christ, and His power works in you. Start using it and being who God has called you to be.

Have a blessed day!

Nehemiah 8:10b

Do not grieve, because your strength comes from rejoicing in the LORD.

When the exiles returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, they finished the job in only 52 days under Nehemiah’s leadership. Afterward, they gathered together as Ezra read from the law. Upon hearing God’s word, the Holy Spirit began to convict them as the priests and Levites explained the word to them, and they wept and mourned as they realized their sinful condition. God’s word to them upon turning to Him was not to grieve but to rejoice in Him because their strength came in rejoicing, rather than grieving.

Many turn from God upon the recognition of their sin because they feel disapproval. They are afraid to turn to God because they think they will be punished, or they are ashamed. Just as the Prodigal son received grace and a huge celebration when he returned, so God celebrates when we realize our sin and turn to Him. We need never fear when we are convicted of sin but to turn to God with a thankful and rejoicing heart. By doing so, we gain strength to overcome that sin and to move forward in God’s plan for us.

If you have failed in some way, the Devil would like nothing more than to keep you isolated in shame. Turn to God and rejoice! Your strength is found in the joy of the Lord. He still loves you, and He still favors you. Nothing can separate you from His love. Rejoice in His great love for you today, and find strength to overcome whatever has detained or derailed you.

Have a blessed day!

2 Chronicles 7:1

When Solomon finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

Solomon had just prayed a very sincere and beautiful prayer to dedicate the luxurious temple he had built for God. Solomon gave the best he had in building the temple. His prayer acknowledged God for who He was and pleaded with God to hear and forgive the people who would come to the temple to seek Him. Solomon gave his best in search of God’s grace and mercy, and God accepted his offerings and sacrifices and filled the temple with His glory.

When we bring God our very best and dedicate it to Him out of a loving and grateful heart, He accepts our offering and displays His glory. If we serve Him in any way, it should be with our very best effort. If we give anything to Him, we should give Him our maximum and not the minimum. Those of us who are bargain shoppers are wired to try to get the very best value at the lowest price possible, but that is not how our service in God’s kingdom should work. God builds excellence in all that He does, and He desires to build an excellence in us that will properly display His glory. If we show the world a half-hearted response, a half-hearted view is what they receive of our God. He will shine His glory through us when we give Him our all.

The widow who gave all she had in the offering gave her very best. Although it was not as much as the Scribes and Pharisees could give, she gave with excellence. Our offering to Him exhibits our love, our respect, and our faith. Do we give our all, or do we give only what we think we need to give to get by? God is not looking for our minimal effort; He is looking for a heart that will give its best out of love, regardless of the amount. When we give our maximum effort, God blesses with a maximum return. He displays His glory through us.

My late husband was a perfectionist. He would spend hours on a project just to get one little thing right. If he ever did anything, you could expect him to do it well because he put his whole heart into it. This attitude and work ethic made him a great engineer. While he never met a deadline, he gave his very best to his work, and people took notice. He was never short of opportunities because his work was excellent. He had to learn to say, “No,” and I’m not sure he ever fully grasped that concept.

Think about the things God has called you to do. Are you serving Him with excellence? To do so might mean you have to give up something else. Do you have a goal or a dream you want to accomplish? What is standing in your way, and have you given your best effort to reaching that goal? Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and God will bless your very best effort when you give it to Him. We all need to see His glory fill our lives and bring new meaning to life again. If we give anything our best, shouldn’t it be to Him?

Have a blessed day!

Luke 11:9-10

“So I say to you, keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

As I read this passage, I see continual movement. When we don’t have an answer right away, we maintain the process of asking, seeking, and knocking. Nowhere in these verses do I see an instruction, command, or an implication that we are to give up.

I fear that too many of us never receive the answers we need simply because we don’t persist in God’s process long enough to see our dreams fulfilled. If God does not give you an outright, “No,” you have every reason to believe He will grant your request as you continue to pursue the process.

We give up because of doubt. James 1:6 tells us that the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. He doesn’t continue to pursue because he doesn’t think God would actually grant him anything. By failing to pursue the process of asking, seeking, and knocking, he never receives his answer. He doesn’t receive anything from God.

Your answer is there somewhere. Be diligent enough to find it. Keep asking. Keep searching. Keep knocking. God is in the process, and He is worth finding.

Have a blessed day!

Psalm 68:5

A father of the fatherless and a champion (defender) of widows is God in His holy dwelling.

There are just certain battles we cannot wage alone. If you are raising children as a widow, you can be an exemplary mother to your child, but you cannot be a father. In reality, you will fail somewhere as a mother and have to rely upon the Father that you cannot see or hear physically but trust is present in the midst of your situation because His word says so.

As a widow, you will be attacked by an enemy you cannot see, and you will need a mighty defender who can see to slay your giant. Your enemy will operate through flesh and blood, but be assured that he is not flesh and blood himself. Your war is spiritual, and you need a champion to fight your cause.

Out of God’s holiness, He is the Father we need for our children. He is also Father to us! We are part of His household – His holy dwelling. He will stand guard over us as His own. He is our Champion – our Defender! When the enemy attacks, He is there to conquer and overcome. Our counter measure should be to call upon His name and submit the matter to Him. He has promised us that we are more than conquerors in Christ, and we can stand upon that promise. By faith we can claim the victory and operate from it, trusting that God is in control and intervening on our behalf.

Satan wages war against us through identity. As Christians, we sometimes forget who we are. Simply stated, we are His. We belong to God and are heirs with Christ Jesus. He is our Father and our Defender. He will not allow hell to take us or destroy us. Knowing this, we should be able to live our lives in the comfort of knowing we are loved, blessed, and highly favored. We don’t have to earn any of those things because we are His. We have a Father who is watching over us and a Defender – a Champion – that fights for us. We can rest securely and walk in peace because of it.

Have a blessed day!

Hebrews 12:11

No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Discipline is a word we all hate. We hate the thought of being disciplined and of having to discipline. The very mention of the word reminds us that we have to say, “No,” to things we like at times. Within the root word – disciple – we find the whole purpose for discipline. A disciple is a student or a follower. Therefore, discipline is designed to teach us to say, “No,” to the things that would harm us or take us down a wrong path.

In my own life, I’ve found that the places where I lack discipline are the places where I experience the most problems. While we may try to hide it for a season, our undisciplined areas eventually show. If you have a hard time saying, “No,” to food, your body will eventually show your lack of discipline! One way to stay on track is to have a goal. If you keep a goal in mind, you are more likely to work toward reaching it. Your discipline has a purpose because there is something greater you want to achieve.

What areas of your life create problems for you or are making you unhappy right now? Set a goal – even a small one – and take steps to reach that goal. Is your weight a problem? Set a goal to lose a few pounds, and stick to a good diet and exercise regimen. Do your finances need help? Set a goal to save, and do whatever is necessary to increase that savings account. If you don’t have a goal, you will never reach it because you will never take an appropriate step to make anything happen.

Philippians 3:14

…I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

God has called you to something. Pursue it. Take the necessary steps to claim the prize. He has gifted us all with abilities to draw others to Him and to strengthen His church. Make 2024 the year you shut out the distractions and see progress by setting goals in line with your calling and disciplining yourself to reach them. Your prize is worth it!

Have a blessed day!

Psalm 91:14

Because he is lovingly devoted to Me, I will deliver him; I will exalt him because he knows My name.

What a blessing it is to know that God protects me simply because I am devoted to Him. His love and protection are not based upon my own righteousness but my willingness to look to Him. I don’t have to be perfect; I must be devoted.

When bad things happen, we may feel disappointed or even angry at God. Are we willing to worship Him anyway? When we don’t have an answer and we need one, will we continue in the faith? When we can’t see His hand, are we willing to trust His heart toward us?

God promises to deliver those who are committed to Him. He will exalt those who know His name and call upon Him in times of trouble. Stand firm in your faith, regardless of what happens around you. He is your protector, your shield, and your defender. He is God Almighty, and there is no one like Him!

Commit yourself in worship this morning, and know He is your protection. Faith is the ability to worship Him with questions still left unanswered. One day, you will know, and you will be glad you trusted the One who was with you all along. Trials come to test our faith, but they have an end. God will exalt you in due season, and you will find your faith even stronger than it was before. God cherishes the heart devoted to Him. You don’t have to be perfect, only committed to worship Him.

Have a blessed day!

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think – according to the power that works in you – to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

God works in our lives according to the power that is within us. In the preceding verses, Paul explained how we become filled with God’s power. We must have Jesus dwelling in our hearts and come to know the fullness of the love of God. The more of Jesus we have, the more power we have for God to work in us. For this very reason, we need to empty ourselves of anything that is not from God daily so more of Christ may live in us. If we are full of selfish ambition, fear, doubt, envy, bitterness, depression, anxiety, or any other fruit of the flesh, we will have only the power of our own strength with which to work. Whatever we create, we must sustain. Anything produced from the fruit of the flesh will stand in the way of God’s power and cause us to live in the empty results of mediocrity.  If we are filled with the love of Christ, however, we have God’s power working in us. Anything He creates, He will sustain. He can always do so much more than we can! Neither His love nor His power is limited by our imagination.

I love the very last line of this passage. God’s promise is for all generations, which includes us, our children, and our grandchildren! God’s power worked through Jesus while He was on earth. His power worked in the early church through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and He still works today in us through the Christ who dwells within us. God does mighty and wondrous things through His people by the power of Christ Jesus on the inside of us. Paul ended that chapter with an “Amen,” meaning “so be it.”

You have the “Amen” to the fullness of God working in you and to the immeasurable power of Christ, who dwells within you. Empty yourself today so you may be filled with Him. Fully receive the love He has for you, and see how it reaches beyond your imagination in every direction. When your heart is full of the love of Christ, God will work wonders in you and through you. He has the last word in your life, and it is “Amen.”

Have a blessed day!