Hebrews | Kristi's Morning Devotional

August 25, 2017

In Your Presence

I don’t often go places by myself but yesterday I had a hair appointment so I drove down to the salon. Before I pulled out of the drive I found an old CD that I had purchased years ago on one of our trips to Phoenix.

The artist was a worship leader at a church in Mesa. The songs were fresh and powerful. Her voice is strong and inviting and I had forgotten what an impact they made in my heart.

One song in particular reminded me of the devotional a few days ago of building our relationship with the Lord. It’s called In Your Presence.

How comforting it is to know that we are invited into the presence of our heavenly Father. He desires to spend time with us, He’s waiting for us to come to His throne. He wants us to know Him.

“I am the Lord, the only God.
There is no other God except me.
I put your clothes on you,
but still you don’t know me.

6 I am doing this so that everyone will know
that I am the only God.
From the east to the west, people will know that I am the Lord
and that there is no other God.

7 I made the light and the darkness.
I bring peace, and I cause trouble.
I, the Lord, do all these things.” Isaiah 45:5-7 ERV

Our relationship with the Heavenly Father is a loving, kind and miraculous one. His purpose from the beginning, from the garden, was to have this kind of relationship. One where we could walk and talk to each other, one where we are in His presence and not afraid.

“So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.”
Hebrews 4:16 ERV

Things bothering you today – life presenting you challenges – joys you want to share? Come boldly to His presence!

August 13, 2017August 16, 2017

HELP!! HELP!! August 13, 2017

HELP!! HELP!!
Do you ever feel like screaming at the top of your lungs, “I need help”? In our self-sufficient, self-reliant world it’s considered a sign of weakness and even failure to cry out for help. We can’t admit that we aren’t able to “handle it”, whatever it is but in our spiritual walk, its completely the opposite.

“I look to the hills! Where will I find help? 2 It will come from the LORD, who created the heavens and the earth. 3 The LORD is your protector, and he won’t go to sleep or let you stumble.” Psalm 121 CEV

“Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” Psalm 124:8 KJV

While doing a search on the word help, I found that it is listed 166 times in the King James version of the Bible and most of those times it is used in context of the Lord being there to help; the others generally refer to us helping others.

It’s easy to get caught up in relying on our intellect, money, position, our government and even our family to be our basis for support and help. However, it’s important that we realize where our help truly comes from.

“ Keep your lives free from the love of money. And be satisfied with what you have. God has said,
“I will never leave you; I will never run away from you.”
6 So we can feel sure and say,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. People can do nothing to me.” Hebrews 13:5-6 CEV

Look up! You’ll find the help you need!

August 2, 2017August 16, 2017

Impatience

Impatience is a destroyer of faith. When we become impatient we begin to try to work things out on our own – we wonder if God is ever going to come through – what’s taking sooooooooooo long? Those kind of thoughts come from doubt and bring fear – fear that it is never going to work out right. Doubt and fear will choke out the promises of God’s word – they can out weigh faith, if we let them. We must stand with confidence in God’s word if we expect to see God’s promised fulfilled.

” But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6-8

Abram followed God from his home out into the middle of nowhere because God made him a promise. A promise that he would possess great land and be the father of many nations. But Abraham never really took possession of the land he had been promised – he lived the life of a nomad – moving from place to place but all the time he held fast to God’s promise.

What is it that God has promised you? What have you left to follow God? No looking back – keep your eyes on the prize of the high calling of God. Don’t give up – don’t fall back. Move forward – continue to follow in obedience to what God has put in your heart.

“Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him…By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11 By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she[f] considered that the One who had promised was faithful. 12 Therefore from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as innumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore.” Hebrews 11:6, 8-12

Keep going – A friend of ours told us once “If God says go north He will provide, if you go south you’ll think you died”. Follow God and He’ll lead you to your promised land.