Devotion.al

Feed Your Soul

  • Trusting Joy

    Psalm 37:3-6, Joel 2:12-13, Isaiah 12:2-6, James 1:2-4

    Integrity, so it is said, is doing the right thing when nobody is watching. It can be tempting to do the wrong thing when no one is watching. It is often easy to do the right thing when everyone is cheering.

    It’s when no one is cheering, or people are even grumbling or threatening those who do right, that we come to the hard part of out our faith.

    “Trust in the LORD, and do what is good…”
    Psalm 37:3

    “…I will trust [the LORD] and not be afraid…”
    Isaiah 12:2

    When it gets tough to do right, all we can do is trust God. Sounds easy, but how often do we fail to trust God, and instead trust ourselves, , or things?

    James calls on us to be filled with joy in these situations. Joy? Yes, even in these situations. Perhaps, joy is most critical in these situations. The freedom to feel joy is fully reliant on trusting God.

    Let us pray:

    Dear Heavenly Father, we know with our heads that we need to trust you. As we are frail beings, help our hearts to trust you further than yesterday, and even more so tomorrow. Grant us the peaceful assurance of your , , patience and . Help us to continue to seek the coming Messiah, and to be filled with joy of knowing you.

    Holy Spirit, be with us through the remainder of the Advent season, stirring our hearts to not take Christmas for granted, but to be stirred into action of joy-filled praise of the Father, Son, and You. Continue to quicken our hearts and aid us in our journey of faith.

    , Son of God, thank you for becoming like us. Thank you for experiencing a like ours. We are thankful that you know temptation, yet did not , giving us strength to choose the God-lit path of faith that goes through the darkness.

    Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we lift you up on our praise. Help us to joyfully sing your praise, for your .

    Amen.

  • Open Invite

    Open Invite

    Acts 8:26–40; Psalm 22:25–31; 1 John 4:7–21; John 15:1–8 In many respects, the story of the Ethiopian is one of my favorites. It, along with the Samaritan woman, reflects the love and grace of God. Yesterday, in Amos 9:7, Cushite was used as a disparaging term toward the Israelites infidelity to God. A Cushite is…

  • Even Smaller Than That

    Even Smaller Than That

    Psalm 22:25–31; Amos 9:7–15; Mark 4:30–32 The Lord’s condemnation of Israel puts Israel in the same category as the people that were pushed out of the Promised Land in the beginning. In many respects, the church in the West probably is similarly categorized. You may have had your instantaneous response of, “Yes, THAT part of…

  • A Different Movement

    A Different Movement

    Psalm 22:25–31; Amos 8:11–13; Acts 8:9–25 The diminished place in American society that the American church is finally beginning to truly wrestle with is where the church was in many other Western countries many decades ago. As it processes what this means, the American church what it means when “its place” is not the one…

  • Joy to Tears

    Joy to Tears

    Psalm 22:25–31; Amos 8:1–7; Acts 8:1b–8 For many people, singing in worship of God is a significant part of their life of faith. They love the joy-filled worship of God. The image provided in Amos takes those joy-filled songs and turns them into songs of pain, sorrow, and lament. The misery of the people of…