June 30, 2022“Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” – James 4:8 As a believer, God wants you to grow. His goal is to mold you into the image of Jesus Christ. To do this, He will often push you outside of your comfort zone. This is what He did to Jonah in the famous story in which Jonah ends up in the mouth of the wh...  Read More

June 29, 2022“Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.” – Jonah 1:3 Over the last couple of days, we have talked about comfort zones. A comfort zone can be described as the bubble we are comfortable living inside. We might go to the edg...  Read More

June 28, 2022“The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for the port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.” – Jonah 1:1-3 As we cont...  Read More

June 27, 2022“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” – Revelation 3:15-16 If you are a believer, you likely can recall a season in your life where you were ALL-IN. We know what it is like to be on fire for God. You are living for God, sharing Him with o...  Read More

June 26, 2022“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9 Every person who reads this has a “comfort zone.” The phrase, “comfort zone” has become well-known in our culture in recent days. If you’ve never heard that expression, the dictionary defines our comfort zone as, “the tempe...  Read More

June 25, 2022“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:18  If you want to live a courageous life, you must ask yourself a very important question. Do I want the eternal or the temporal? When you phrase it that way, it sounds like a very easy question to answer. But if you wait until you are in ...  Read More

June 24, 2022“So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’” – Hebrews 13:6 Do you fear people? That may sound like a silly question. So let me rephrase it: do you fear the judgment of people? So many people live their lives held hostage because of the judgment of others.  We will do things we don’t even want to do to impress people we do...  Read More

June 23, 2022“Then they said to the king, ‘Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.’” – Daniel 6:13 As we continue to look at the courageous life Daniel lived, we come to the final story of Daniel serving in the king’s court. This time, the king was Darius. Usually, when a new king wo...  Read More

June 22, 2022“Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” – Proverbs 29:25 As we continue to look at the courageous life of Daniel, we see that Daniel was able to remain courageous because God always kept him safe. Chapters 2 and 5 describe two different situations where Daniel was called upon to interpret the dream of a king. In chapter 2, none of the king’...  Read More

June 21, 2022“To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.” – Daniel 1:17  As we learned yesterday, Daniel was not afraid to reject the king’s food. If you missed yesterday’s devotional, we saw where Daniel’s loyalties lied. Though he was given the opportunity to turn to the king’...  Read More

June 20, 2022“The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar…” – Daniel 1:7Do you know who you are in Christ? Despite the enemy’s attempt to rewrite his story, Daniel was able to reject the temptations placed in front of him, all because he knew where his loyalties lay.Daniel 1:7 says that the chief changed Daniel’s name to Belteshazzar. This is a pretty common tactic the...  Read More

June 19, 2022“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” – Psalm 56:3-4As we continue to look at the story of Daniel, let’s set the scene. Where the book of Daniel starts is probably the worst time to be alive in the history of Israel. This was the day Israelites had dreaded for a long time. It was a day t...  Read More