June is the marrying month. At least it was for me. June 30th 1991 was the day that God merged two lives into one, forever changing my world for the best, and causing Becky to begin wondering what horrible thing she did in a former life to deserve this… and she doesn’t even believe in reincarnation. The whole internet cannot contain all of the joy that I have experienced in the last 24 years. If marriage is like a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, mine has been like opening that box to find the entire machine that applies the glaze to those hot blessings of circular goodness.

My dad introduced me to Krispy Kreme as a young child. This was how I found what to look for in a doughnut. It set the standard. Sure, there are other doughnut places. And I appreciate them for what they are. No offense to Dunkin’ Donuts, but they are no Krispy Kreme. It was also my dad who taught me what to look for in a Godly wife. My dad is a smart guy. He knows about doughnuts and women.

The book of Proverbs in the Bible has a great saying,

“A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” (Proverbs 18:22)

Think about that… Most men know how good it is to find a good woman. After all, there are just so few good women out there. But most men probably don’t realize that in finding one, they obtain favor with God. We think of favor as something that is given to everyone. But apparently making good choices will bring you favor from God.

I wish all of my decisions and words after “I do” were as great as they were on that day. I have been given great favor by God for finding and securing Becky. But I haven’t always been as loving as I should have been. I could have been more sensitive to her needs, kind in her struggles, supportive in her dreams, helpful in her work, and loving in her living. In doing so, it would have had a positive impact on my spiritual walk. The way a husband treats his wife will affect the way God treats Him. The apostle Peter, writing to the early Christian husbands said, “Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with an understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” (1 Peter 3:7)  And even the verse in Proverbs right before the one posted above says, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21)

So let me recap from the Old Testament and the New Testament… If you find a wife, you find a good thing, and you obtain favor from the Lord. But if you don’t treat her properly, God will not hear your prayers. Favor with God is obtained by finding a good wife. But favor with God is lost by not appreciating what you have found. No pressure there.

Today, if you are looking for a wife, I encourage you to find one… not just any one… but a good one. God has her for you. And if you have a wife, love her and honor her… whether she is a good one or not.

Happy anniversary to my wife. I thank you for bringing the favor of God on my life. I re-commit that I will love and honor you so that my relationship with God will not be hindered, and our life will continue to blossom in His Kingdom. I am a bigger man because of Becky... and Krispy Kremes.

[Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.]

Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry.

You will make several decisions today. Most of those decisions are probably inconsequential. But some are fairly important, and a few of them will have long term consequences. When we were kids, most of our decisions were made for us, and we didn’t like it. Now that our decisions carry serious weight for ourselves and those around us, we probably feel like we wish we could go back to other people making those decisions.

Regardless, it is where you are, so you need to make the best of it. Many decisions can be made on the fly. But there are some into which you have to put a lot of thought. But I hope you aren’t making the most important decisions solely based on a great amount of thought. Hopefully you are seeking input from wise people. I think it would be foolish to make the biggest decisions in my life based only on my own thoughts. I have several people in my life who I know I can call on off of whom I can bounce ideas or scenarios and get their thoughts. While I may or may not go with their counsel, I know I can get it, and I know I need it. I hope you have and use the same avenue.

But beyond the wisdom of trusted friends, there is the wisdom of God. If we do not seek His guidance, we are extremely foolish. And I don’t mean asking God to help you in a passing wish of a prayer. The book of Proverbs is full of wise sayings, and reading them is a great way to start each day. One section of the book of wise sayings tells us,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;
think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.
Don’t consider yourself to be wise; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.” (Proverbs 3:5-7)

God designed us to think and have understanding. This passage is not an encouragement to abandon deep thought or bypass the decision making mechanism within us. But we should always realize that we are finite in regard to wisdom, as we are in other areas. While God designed us with a great capacity for understanding, He didn’t create us to think independent of Him. We should understand our limitations and seek Him when it comes time to make life decisions.

As the passage says, there should not be any area of our life that does not trust God. The story goes that a tight-rope walker was giving an exhibition and people cheered on both sides of the water fall as he mystified them with his ability. At one point he asked the crowd if they believed he could walk across the rope while pushing a wheelbarrow. They went crazy with applause. So he did… even performing a little dance at the halfway point. Upon arriving safely on the other side, the spectators roared with excitement. He then hushed the mass of people and asked them if they thought He could push the wheelbarrow across with a person in it. This received the loudest cheers of the day. As they finally quieted down he asked, “Who wants to get in the wheelbarrow?” The silence was deafening. People believed in the abilities of the daredevil until it came to their own life. Their trust had limits.

Are you that way with God? Do you trust God... but only to a point? It is really foolish to not trust God with every part of our life. He has entrusted us, who regularly prove less than trustworthy, with so much. We really have no reason to think so highly of ourselves and so lowly of Him. We shouldn’t lean or rely on our own understanding, as it is partial understanding. God’s wisdom takes literally everything into account.

Every part of our life into which we invite the wisdom of God, will experience the guidance of God. If you ask God for help in your finances, God will give you financial guidance. If you ask Him to give you wisdom in relationships, He will guide you there. That’s how easy it is… seriously. God is not only bigger than your problems. He is smarter than you are about your problems. Respect His perspective over your life. He wants you to succeed more than you do.

Trusting God and seeking His guidance will have a great effect in your life… including your physical well being. You know how uptight you get when you try to figure it all out and then worry about how it is going to work out? That anxiety does not exist when we truly trust God’s direction and work in our decisions. Instead of the physical problems that come with worry and trying to figure things out (headaches, ulcers, high blood pressure, anger, etc.), you will be refreshed and more ready to take on the next problem.

Today, seek God. Ask God for help. Trust God before you see the results, and watch Him work in you. Get in the wheelbarrow and have the ride of your life.

[Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.]

Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry.

It is difficult to worship freely when darkness is thick in your life. It may be a personal tragedy or a cultural train wreck that has you groping for stability and a clear line of communication and worship with God. The heart hesitates to sing when evil is so thick you could cut it with a knife. When defeat hangs in the air, it can easily draw our attention from the victory that awaits, and is even already present.

We cannot wish the dark away. We can’t pray it away. We can’t outrun it. But the good thing is, we don’t have to. The dark is subservient to the light. So when God is in us, darkness is overpowered… even when it is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

In the beginning was God. He created the heavens and the earth. Then, because of rebellion, darkness flooded the space. With one word, God created light. Darkness did not cease to exist. It just had to obey the light. God divided the darkness and light. He determined that it would have its boundaries.

Today darkness still has boundaries. It still exists, but it has boundaries. King David put it this way, “Even the darkness is not dark to You (God). The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You.” (Psalm 139:12) If God dwells in us, His light gives us the same experience. 

So as you worship today, I would not diminish the fact that there is darkness in your life and in our world. These are truly dark days in the world. But the darkness is not dark to God. It shines like the day. Open your eyes, lift your hands, worship with all your heart the One who is the origin of all light, and watch the darkness become invisible.

The apostle James wrote to the early church, “Don’t be deceived, my dearly loved brothers. Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights; with Him there is no variation or shadow cast by turning. By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth so that we would be the first fruits of His creatures.” (James 1:16-18)

[Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.]

Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry.

Sometimes we don’t pray, and God still works in our lives. That is not how God wants it to be, but He is just that good to us. Sometimes we pray and God doesn’t seem to hear, or if He hears, He doesn’t seem to answer, or if He hears and answers, He seems to have not understood us because He doesn’t do what we asked. That is usually a good thing. It means God has done something for us better than we were asking. And other times we pray and God acts exactly according to our prayer. This is when the world seems right and our faith grows exponentially.

Jesus knew prayer is difficult, so He actually took time to teach His followers how to pray. He gave them a template to guide their prayer life. Christ said, “You should pray like this:

‘Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” (Matthew 6:9-13)

We broke that prayer down in our devotionals this week.

Today I want to look at a phrase that is included in some, but not all manuscripts. Most of the time when this prayer is recited (which was not likely Christ’s intent) this phrase is added on at the end. It goes like this… “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

This closing to the prayer acknowledges God’s ability to do whatever He wants on our behalf and for His honor. I think it is good to begin our prayers recognizing God’s position and end them acknowledging His power since the things we seek in the middle are dependent on who He is.

This ending recognizes God’s authority, power, and glory. He owns these things. They are His to command.

Kingdom is God’s. All of its resources are available to Him for you… always. You can trust Him for your daily bread because He created and owns all of the wheat on the planet. “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord.” (Psalm 24:1)

Power is God’s. There is nothing in your life, or outside of your life that God cannot overcome. Every trial and temptation you face is smaller than God, even if it is bigger than you. God has the power to forgive you of sin, and help you forgive others. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Glory is God’s. He is holy and magnificent all by Himself. He doesn’t share that glory with anyone… except His own children. His glory can only be found with His holiness. When He adopts us into His family we become co-heirs with Christ in glory. We gain the ability to love as He loves, bring peace as He brings peace, offer reconciliation as He offers reconciliation. Paul put it this way, “Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness. We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not stare at the the end of what was fading away, but their minds were closed. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. Even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:12-18) We get to carry the glory wherever we go, and in that sense, God’s kingdom comes to earth and His will is done. Because God’s holiness and His glory are inseparable, His Kingdom is always victorious in His people.

Today, pray to a God who is authoritative, powerful, and glorious. Ask Him for anything that lines up with His will. And watch Him work in your life, as well as in the lives of those around you.

[Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.]

Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry.

A good amount of time is spent in prayer asking God to forgive sin. And that is a good prayer. If there is sin, it should be forgiven and we should be cleansed. That is what God does best. He is our Savior. He saves. But the great thing is, He doesn’t just save from past error, He saves from future error.

In Scripture we find people asking God to direct their steps, to lead them in the right way, to protect them from the attacks of the enemy. These are good prayers. Perhaps if we prayed more prayers of guidance and protection from Satan, we’d have to pray less prayers of repentance. Jesus even guided us in this direction with our prayers. When training His disciples on how to pray, Christ said, “You should pray like this:

‘Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” (Matthew 6:9-13)

We are breaking that prayer down in our devotionals this week.

Today we look at the fifth part of the prayer. “And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Some paths are better than others. We read this as temptation to sin, but it basically refers to the idea of not leading us into times of great proof and struggle. God does not tempt us with sin. But He does test us. And in that testing there is ample opportunity for success and failure. The success is wonderful, but the failure that can come through testing is brutal. It is alright to ask God to be gentle with us and lead us through a path that has less opportunity for failure. Often time a new Christian will have a feeling of invincibility. They will feel ready to take on the whole army of Hell, even before they begin a spiritual walk with Bible-reading, prayer, mentoring, fellowship, and service. If we ask God to take us right into the middle of the enemy camp, He likely will. Then we find out why God calls us sheep and not wolves.

God already knows where He wants to take us in life. There are multiple paths to get us there. Sometimes we make missteps and He has to take us the hard way to get back where we should be. The Christian life was never meant to be a cake walk. This is a difficult journey. But God is our Father, not just our King. He is willing to do whatever it takes to purge the impurities out of our life. But He is also willing to hear us in our humanity. Not too many people are called to take their only son up a mountain and sacrifice him. That makes for a great story, but a hard morning. Everyone wants the faithfulness of Job, but who wants to be turned over to the hands of Satan to prove that faithfulness? In our prayers, we have the opportunity to ask God to lead us along a more peaceful path. King David, a man after God’s own heart himself wrote, “Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing or perform wicked acts with men who commit sin. Do not let me feast on their delicacies.” (Psalm 141:4) God will respond to our prayers for guidance. He won’t take you to Heaven through Candyland, but He may honor your request to miss certain parts of Hell on your journey.

There is future deliverance. We have an enemy. This journey is not just a stroll, but the advancement of a battle. We aren’t picking daisies on our way to paradise. We are engaged in constant fighting over the souls of men and women who are about to face eternity. And there is a spiritual toll that goes along with the walking war. What if there were a way to avoid falling, and what if there were a way we could be swept up if we did fall? Well, we can, and there is. We can seek God for future deliverance. We don’t see all of the places the Devil is waiting to ambush us, but God does. We don’t always know how to get out of a snare into which we have stepped, but God can bring us out. This deliverance is both preemptive and powerful.

I wonder how many times we get into an unnecessary jam with Satan simply because we didn’t ask for God’s guidance around the land mines, or because we didn’t ask in advance for God to quickly step into future trouble. Perhaps we just assume that God will be there to deliver without our request. Perhaps He will. But if I make the request for guidance and deliverance part of my prayer life, I learn to count on God and not just take Him for granted. It is one thing to expect the fire department to put out a fire in your house. It is another thing to ask them to inspect your building and advise you on ways to avoid the fire in the first place.

God is leading your life. He has a plan and a path. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking God for a better, safer, clearer path. Sometimes we take the hard way of God because we are enamored with the hard way. There is something god that happens in the hard journey. But we don’t get any bonus points for walking the long way when God would have been just as happy to take us the more direct route.

Today, pray that God brings you to the place you want to be. And feel free to ask Him to do that with as little trouble as possible. I’m not telling you to do that… Jesus did.

[Bible quotes are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, unless otherwise noted.]

Find more of David’s work at Heart Of Ministry.