Who I Am In Christ Devotionals

  Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge. Selah - Psalm 62:5‭-‬8 CSB Recently, my hope, my faith was shaken. I felt like a kitten caught up in the jaws of a German Shepherd. I know to look to Jesus. I know. Knowing and doing are not the same. I can be real good with knowing, and weak on the doing. Today, I am in the middle of it all. And it comes and goes. I feel so far away. My feelings don’t know. My bible tells me the truth. The Psalm says to rest in God alone. Rest. What a beautiful short little stubby word. Rest. There’s only one place. Jesus. He is right here. He's not far.  Jesus gives me hope. I cannot generate it from within my belly. My hope does not come from me. Is that not an overlooked truth even for th

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord, their refuge in a time of distress. The Lord helps and delivers them; he will deliver them from the wicked and will save them because they take refuge in him. Psalm 37:39-40 What God Wants Being a believer in Jesus is simple. I’m not saying that being a Christian is easy. But it is simple.  Also, I’m not saying that there aren’t deep theologies hidden in the pages of holy writ; there most certainly are. And they are glorious. Gifted men often spend their whole lives searching out these truths and explaining them to His people.  What I’m saying is that the basics are simple. They aren’t hard to grasp.  This verse gets at a good bit of it.  The Lord is a refuge for the righteous. How can I be righteous? I can’t. He does it.  It’s simple.  The Lord delivers; I don’t deliver myself. He does it. Simple. Why does He deliver them (in this passage)?  Here’s why: they take refuge in Him.  I’ve never tried to count it up, but there are probably hu

  Commit your way to the Lord ; trust in him, and he will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday. Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him; do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way, by the person who carries out evil plans. Psalm 37:5-7 Believers walk with the Lord and they pray. This is the second in a series of devotionals in which I pray through a scripture. I encourage you to find scripture to pray through on your own. You may find that it helps break through the doldrums of tedious prayer. What a tragedy to be bored when I pray! “Commit your way to the Lord” Lord, I commit my way to you. I know that you go before me. It is a temptation for me to not fully commit, to hold something back that you have asked. You have asked for all and I want to only give part. I have wanted to keep something back for myself. Jesus, help me to give you all that you ask. “Trust in Him.” I can commit my way to you when I trust you. And I

And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them, for they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him. I Chronicles 5:20 Trust and Prayer Believers fight a battle. I am a warrior. I forget this, but it is true. I battle my own inner lying thoughts that tell me that I really don’t belong to Jesus. I battle temptations, the snares that Satan’s dark world has designed to trap me. I battle a culture that tells me to go along to get along. And more. So far, I haven’t been in a real physical battle for my life (thank You Lord). May it stay that way! All the battles, the ones in my head and the ones against outside forces need the same defense. Trust in the Lord and prayer. And guess what? Trust and prayer require patience. What is patience? The Dictionary.com definition goes like this: an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with d

To You, O Lord , do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You; may I not be ashamed; may my enemies not triumph over me. Psalm 25:1-2 Trust Believers in Jesus turn to Him. They share their lives with Him. When I'm feeling down, it is easy to do the opposite. I typically want to zombie-out. Pretend that everything is okay. Hey, I don't want people to ask questions, right? The Psalmist says he lifts his soul to God. That is saying, "Here I am Lord. I am yours. I surrender." "And I trust in You." Why does that bible repeat this over and over again? Trust in Jesus. Trust the Lord. Trust God. I bet it says it 150 times (I'm guessing). Why the repetition? Maybe his people need to keep hearing it. Maybe it's very easy to quit trusting Him. I need to hear it over and over for sure. I easily run right back to that horrible place where I wall myself off, but pretend like I have it all handled. Not depending on Him. Not Ashamed I must trust. When I'm trus

  It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8 Is He With Me? When I take a minute to look at what blessings I have as a believer, I am in awe! Look at how this verse opens: the Lord goes before His people. He checks things out before I get there and this, for my good. How many times I've really thought or acted like the the Lord must not be paying attention! I've felt like He didn't care about what was going on in my little life. That's my ignorance for sure. He goes before me. Why? Because I am His child and He cares like that. And He sets things up as he sees fit, for His purposes. There is no such thing as deism, the idea that God made it all but isn't really present. All of scripture speaks of His presence, His interaction with His people, the covenant, His care for His children. He is with me. Now. God Matters I can think He is troubled with something more important,

Prepare for Action (audio) Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16 Be Real The Lord tells me to prepare my mind. For action.  What action? Resisting temptation? A need to contend for the faith? Share the gospel? Be kind? These and more for sure! Be sober-minded: I take that to mean - be real. Don't escape. Stay in the here and now.  Then the apostle Peter says something fascinating. He says, "Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Setting My Hope That's a mouthful. Life is painful now, but part of being a believer is setting my hope on what will come later, heaven. There are three phases here: what Jesus did f

  Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13 I'm learning to trust that He is at work in me. God works in believers. I just want to mull over that. GOD WORKS IN BELIEVERS! He works in me, yet I barely notice sometimes. I'm all caught up in the first part of the verse that says, "...work out your salvation." I get worn out with the working out and the fear and trembling. Only because I forget about the second part that says God works in me for His good purpose. And I can be like a sailor who tries to huff and puff his own wind into the sails. And here's the dumb part, I've been known do huff and puff when God is already providing the wind! I'm learning to open my eyes to the fact that He is doing. Be still and know... Then, the working out my salvation with fear and trembling sounds more like this: take your salvation SERIOUSLY! God is w

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea... Psalm 46:1-2  He is clearly saying that I don't have to be afraid. He is present in trouble. Not so busy that He doesn't know my trouble. He KNOWS. Since He is present, I can take a deep breath. And know He is God. But what if this..? And what about that..? Though the earth be removed. And the mountains thrown into the sea. The earth removed? What? The earth being removed: that's as bad as it gets. He is present. And I am His. Now, how do I get to the part where I am not afraid when the mountains get shoved into the ocean? I don't know. But He is clearly saying that I don't have to be afraid. For I'm a child of the true God, the deliverer who brought a nation out of Egypt. I matter to one who is, who is present. He died for my sin and rose again in glory and power. (3 nails,

  Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:4 Seems Like a Rotten Thing to Say to an Anxious Person I find it fascinating and annoying that the scripture often says, "Fear not." At first, it seems like such a rotten thing to say to someone who is anxious! Just stop that freight train of anxiety. Stop it. But it's a FREIGHT TRAIN. I can't stop it. Still, I believe the Word with all my heart. When I read seemingly impossible commands in scripture, I must be missing something. I'll confess this today: I have consistently downplayed the potential of the power of God in my life. Yet His power abides. He might tell me that I'm not realizing blessings because I'm not forgiving, staying angry, or even holding on to shame when He died for my sin. Even then He works. Here's the thing I've noticed. He's usually simply asking me

 

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Psalm 34:8-10