I had a dream last night that I was on the run for my life, being chased in hot pursuit by a group of adversaries. Have you ever had one of those types of dreams that brings about a somewhat restless night that bordered on tossing and turning? My dream involved running through
unfamiliar buildings and at times jumping between high roof tops, at times scaling tall trees and jumping from branch to branch and tree to tree. All the while my adversaries could see me, were in constant pursuit and strategizing how they might trap me. But they never could.
I was on the run for my life and every time I came to a place where I though I had no escape, there was another hallway, another roof top or another tall tree or pole to jump toward. Have you ever had one of those types of dreams?
When I woke up afterwards and noticed the time,
I thought “Lord, what does that have to do with a devotional?” He gently whispered to me that my dream was about the life of His children in this world. At times we will feel like we are on the run, all alone and desperate for escape… being pursued by our enemies. But He said
that along that journey we were in fact never alone and never trapped. He is always with us, leading and guiding us. Along the way He sends people to encourage and refresh us (Matthew 10:42). He guides our path opening and closing doors along the way (Isaiah 22:22). When we need
it, He gives us incredible (superhuman) abilities to jump great distances to avoid capture.
But in the end, the greatest blessing of all is that He shows us that He has been right here with us all along, experiencing it all with us personally, noticing every drop of sweat and
every tear that fell. Through it all, He is with us and He is leading us to a place. There has been a purpose in all of this for God’s children. For we run for Him with a divine purpose.
2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
3 He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. Interlude
My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. - Psalms 57:2-3
6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 But the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. - Luke 12:6-7
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“Faith, Hope and Love… the greatest of these is love…” When we have given our lives completely to God, His perfect love overshadows us and begins to develop a love like His in us. That type of love (based on faith in Him) can not co-exist with fear. What do we tend to fear
these days? The list goes on and on. One of the long-established fears is that of death.
The good news is that when it comes to death, we go back to the title of this devotional. Death was never part of God’s design in creation (what He described as “very good” in Genesis 2).
Six years ago today as I awoke, the Lord showed me the famous word He gave to Jeremiah in chapter 18 about the Potter and the clay. He showed me some basic things about this famous metaphor to give insight and comfort. First, just as He did in the beginning when the LORD created
man, here again He gets very personal with the clay, getting His hands involved in the shaping and molding (getting them dirty). There are two very opposing laws at work during this process. 1) The law of sin and death which is always trying to remind the clay that it is simple
This is the theme that the LORD placed on my heart this morning. He sends us into the world to be His light in darkness. He calls us to be steadfast and unmovable in His truth just as He is… in Him there is no variableness or shadow of turning (James 1:17).
Satan wants us to
compromise on what God says, beginning even with very small things. He wants us to barely crack open the door often offering little subtle justifications to depart from what God’s word says… compromises that seem good on the surface. In the end, their purpose is to control us.
#GeraldsDevotional
When There’s Nothing Left to Say – Where Do You Look?
In these days when we can often feel betrayed, defeated, taken captive by hostile forces (basic freedoms ripped away) and as days of futile efforts, this is how the LORD woke me up this morning. He reminded me that our feelings can be misleading and what we see is not always as
it seems. When He guided me to this chapter and I read it (not knowing what I would even be able to write this morning), verse 11 really spoke to me along with, of course verse 15.
3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all
This is the burden that the LORD placed on my heart as He woke me up this morning. The most common command that He gives in the bible is for us NOT to be afraid. He says please note that this is a command, not a guideline or a suggestion.
Then He pointed me back to the 3
epistles of John near the end of the bible. We looked at them last month where John was giving words of encouragement and reminders to a church of believers that was struggling to endure. There were efforts from a small group within them to bring division and fear and John told
The well-known story of Jonah (and the whale) illustrates to us the important lesson that God’s plan is perfect and His will indeed shall be accomplished. We often have our own ideas, opinions and desires, but His word (which is His truth) does not change.
In this book about the
life of this minor prophet, God clearly calls him at the beginning of the book to go and warn Nineveh about their evil because judgment was coming. That made Jonah uncomfortable so he went in another direction and followed his own plan (one that was more comfortable to him).