- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2918
Psalm 106:19 They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped the moulded image.
Getting carried away with what you are doing seems normal for us; I often get too engrossed in the computer work I’m doing to watch time.
Before long I find myself doing work I never had imagined doing in the first place. Don’t worry, you are not alone.
Mankind has struggled with keeping focused on God; we all have gone astray; but we all should not be giving up so easily.
God wants us to keep focused on His Work and Word because He knows how He can reward us.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 3064
Psalm 106:15 And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.
When the Israelites were wandering through the desert they longed for meat because they were living on mana and missed the luxuries from their lives in Egypt.
But it is not always the luxuries and trimming as should be looking for in our lives; God gives us what we need and for that we should be grateful.
Always wanting more can be good if we are focused on giving God the glory, but when you focus back on your own wants and desires you are blocking God’s will out of your life.
It seems so easy to say words like these, but difficult to carry them out…
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 3053
Psalm 78:29 So they ate and were well filled, For He gave them their own desire.
I love verses like this which tell of how God will supply our desires; but they always get talked about out of context!
Yes God can do anything and He is willing to do so much for us despite us being self-centred. But what we end up getting may not actually be to our benefit!
Our wants and desires can take us away from the will of God before we realise it because our self-will blinds us from God’s will.
Be concerned about what you want and what you ask for. Be concerned about what God wills in your life.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 3067
2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
When you are in the middle of a drought one of the most frustrating things is to see clouds appear which end up without rain. Another frustrating thing is to dig boreholes or wells and not find water.
Have you tried cloud-watching before? Most pictures you see only last for a few minutes or even seconds before they are taken away.
Don’t be fooled into following people who are like those clouds which never bring rain or those which last a few seconds.
God will give them what they deserve when the time comes; stay firm in your relationship with Christ.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2803
Matthew 15:14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.
I’m sure we have all seen films, clips or even live action of people walking into walls, glass, doors or lampposts. Each one because they did not see where they were going.
If we have our eyes open and are attentive to our surroundings, most of the time we will not fall into ditches and such.
We have to keep our eyes open to the spiritual ditches and pitfalls in our lives and not just the physical ones.
God wants to keep us safe and if we cannot keep our eyes on the pitfalls, then we need Him to guide us continually so we can be safe.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2857
Isaiah 9:16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed.
How often do you totally rely on a Sat-Nav system to guide you to a destination you have never been to before? I know I tend to rely on them a great deal!
But what would happen if it carried on telling you the wrong directions each time you asked which way to go?
If our leaders do not have a firm grip on the direction God has set before us then we are following people who do not know where they are going either!
Put your faith and trust in God instead of in men who make all the right noises but don’t tell the truth!
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2993
Matthew 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Always read verses in context. If we think we can achieve some sort of perfection in our lives we are only fooling ourselves.
Yes we can hope to become better at things and hope to better influence people, but if we want to achieve some sort of perfection we have to have a whole lot of outside help!
Christ is willing to make us perfect; but we should be willing to love the people around us just as He has asked us to.
Start with that love and invite Christ in to help you become a better person with His help!
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2979
Deuteronomy 18:13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.
When God was giving the people of Israel the rules and regulations about how to live He was not trying to create an impossible maze for the people to live in but pointing them toward how they should live.
Yes it may well seem impossible for us to live up to the rules and regulations in the bible, but they define a new way of living.
Man has always sought boundaries in which to live and God was defining them as clearly as possible.
One of two phrases sum up the purpose of the Commandments well; this being one of them.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2967
Psalm 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
We always have hope. That hope may seem very slim or even non-existent at times, but it is always there.
God made this hope real when He allowed Jesus, His Son, to die for our sins and make that hope very real.
We live in that hope; the goodness of God came through the promise Christ gave to us.
We do indeed live amongst the living.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 3079
Psalm 116:9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
When you invite God to be a part of your life you are making a very big change to your life; not just lifestyle but many things in your life change.
The psalmist expands this thought by saying their life is an open book to God; nothing can be or will be hidden from God.
They then give us all further hope by reminding us we are amongst Christians; we live amongst a living people, people who have life because we have a Saviour who gave it all for us!
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 3106
Psalm 52:5 God shall likewise destroy you forever; He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, And uproot you from the land of the living.
When I read verses like this I am both encouraged and discouraged!
I am encouraged to know God thinks of little old me in such a big way that He is willing to change so much just to make sure I know Him and His ways.
I am discouraged to know there are people who are willing to throw it all away just to get their own way instead of aligning themselves with God.
God’s ways are good whereas our own desires and ways are inherently corrupt. Trust God.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2960
Psalm 37:34 Wait on the Lord, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.
Waiting for someone who is late is hard work. Do you wait a little bit longer in the hope they will turn up or do you give in and make your own plans?
We may well feel like this in our lives and walks with God when we do not see things happening as quickly as we want them to happen; but being patient with God will build character.
God knows how much we will take, knows what will make us stronger and knows what will break us. Do not give up on God because He is constantly working for you in the background when you least expect it!
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 3092
Zephaniah 3:8 “Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord, “Until the day I rise up for plunder; My determination is to gather the nations To My assembly of kingdoms, To pour on them My indignation, All My fierce anger; All the earth shall be devoured With the fire of My jealousy.
God has a plan for each one of us in our lives and His plan has been in place from the beginning. We need to stop and listen for Him to find out when and where He is calling us.
God has already planned how to defeat our enemies and how to get us into the best position to prosper; we just have to trust Him!
Trusting in God can be difficult when we cannot see how He is going to win the fight with us. Trusting Him can be very difficult when all we have seen is destruction and failure. Trusting in Him can be difficult when we have lost too much.
Setting aside our pride and accepting His will in our lives allows us to move forward with Him.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2925
Isaiah 33:10 “Now I will rise,” says the Lord; “Now I will be exalted, Now I will lift Myself up.
It is not up to us to decide when it is the best time for God to help us out; that is His decision.
We may think we know what is best for ourselves and when we would like the help He has promised but He knows infinitely more than us!
If we have still got to wait on Him before we get an answer then we had better listen to Him and wait in earnest.
Do not be discouraged that He is asking you to wait a little bit longer or to put up with a little bit more; draw strength from Him to keep you going step by step forward.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2757
Psalm 12:5 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”
When we call out to The Lord with open hearts He is able and willing to help us. His protection toward us stretches out when we call in help.
We seek a safe place to be and God offers us the ultimate safety system where He will save us from our enemies.
It is not the loudest shouter nor the richest shouter that will get God’s attention but each and every one of us. When we are oppressed He will stretch out His hand and protect us from our oppressors.
When we are weak and under stress He will give us the comfort and help we need. But we do need to call out to Him first of all.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2869
Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them.
It took me a while to think about this verse today, not because it is so early in the morning but because I do tend to care a lot for others in need.
We live in a world where corruption is everywhere and where there are going to be poor and needy people who are treated badly.
This does not say we should just ignore things. This says that God is watching over everyone and sees everything.
That means be the Good Samaritan and help people instead of walking the other side. God wants us to join in and help.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2828
Psalm 46:4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
Where does this river start? It starts at the heart of God and flows without limit, but what does it look like?
Well it does not really look like a river! Imagine a river having loads of streams all joining up to form bigger river. Getting closer.
Imagine a river panning out to cover a flood plain. Imagine an unstoppable flood. Getting closer.
God’s love encompasses everything but does not destroy it like a flood will…
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 3053
Revelation 22:1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb
What is this river? Is it baptism, the Holy Ghost, the joys of Heaven? I rather think this is the outpouring of God’s love to us all.
When we think of a river we think of something without end; the water just keeps coming and is not stopped by anything. If we try dam it up it will overflow.
God’s love is pure, much purer than any river we can see, and yet it has no end and keeps on coming.
And where does it look like it comes from; via Jesus Christ.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2928
John 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.
Jesus did not force Himself upon the world. He did not make up a time and go do it. There was a time where God knew was best for all mankind and that time was when Christ came to us.
When we begin to see that we also begin to understand how much God loves us because He sent Jesus at the best time for us.
This was not the best time for Him, nor the best time for Jesus the man; this was the best time for us to receive all we can from God.
Explaining this to people can be hard; so use Christ’s words instead of trying to make our own up to please ourselves.
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Category: Devotionals
- Hits: 2917
John 6:33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Christ is here described as the bread of God because He did all things possible to ensure we were given God’s Word for our survival.
Our spiritual lives depend on the word of God, upon our understanding of it, upon the guidance given to us by the Holy Spirit and on our choices we make.
Christ made this all possible for us by giving His life so our choice can be effective and eternal. If He had not paid the price for our sins we would still have to atone for those sins time and time again.