Friday, March 14 – “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1) Have you ever been in a situation, maybe a prolonged health battle, where you’re living in a different reality than the rest of the world? A time when your world has seemed to stop, but everyone else’s world keeps moving on? This is an example of the wilderness being so much more than simply a desolate geographical location. It’s in these wilderness experiences that God can and will speak to you. If you seek God.
Saturday, March 15 – “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19) Maria paraphrased this verse in The Sound of Music when she said, “When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window”. Basically, many times what you define as the wilderness, a dry and parched land, is the very place where you’ll realize the bigger and better life that God has in store for you. What you might be defining right now as “bad”, will usher in the “great” that God has waiting for you. God is always doing a new thing. The question for you is this: Are you perceiving it?
Monday, March 17 – “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.” (Matthew 22:2) The closest we can get is “The kingdom of heaven is like…” For we will never fully grasp the kingdom of heaven, on this side of eternity. Yes, we can use our finite imaginations to try to piece things together. But, in the end, all we will ever have is: “The kingdom of God is like…” We were created in the image of God. But we’ll never fully understand what God has done from the beginning to the end. That is, until we do.
Tuesday, March 18 – “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:13) When will you look for something? When you want it. Your wanting of something is very important for that something to be real and eventually realized. For without want, you won’t look for that which you don’t have. Because you won’t know you don’t have it. Knowing this about you, God wants to transform your want to. For God wants you to keep watch. To be looking for God’s kingdom to come, here on earth, as it is in heaven.
Wednesday, March 19 – “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) You let your light shine by being the best you, you can be, right here, right now. Don’t be the best you, you can be, right here, right now, so that you can get fame and fortune. Be the best you, you can be, right here, right now, so that God will be glorified. So that through experiencing who you are, others will want to deepen their relationship with God.
Thursday, March 20 – “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10) Here’s the deal: God’s got a plan. The question for you is if you’re going to participate in that plan? Would God have cancelled the flood, if Noah had said no? Would God have given up on creating the nation of Israel, if Abraham had said no? Would God have allowed the Israelites to stay in slavery, if Moses had said no? Of course not. We would simply be learning about different people, whom God would have used to carry out the plan.
Friday, March 21 – “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2) Faith is belief in things not seen. Not seen, but anticipated. So, faith is actually living in such a way as to experience that which is anticipated. Yes, nobody knows when the end is coming. Every single person who has ever made an end times prediction has been wrong. Yet, faith isn’t about knowing the exact time. Faith is about living as if you anticipate the exact time being today. If you knew the end was today, what would you do differently?
Saturday, March 22 - “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44) The kingdom of heaven is a treasure, hidden in a field. Once you find it, sell everything, in order to buy that field. In other words, no amount of money, no amount of fame and no amount of power is worth missing out on possessing the kingdom of heaven. This is what it means to be “sold out”.
You try to eat right. You drink plenty of water. you exercise. don't forget your spirit - feed it!
daily devotions
