I will be your safe place in difficult times.

Nahum 1:7 New International Version (NIV)

7 The Lord is good,
    a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,

The NIV Bible says Nahum 1:7 this way... The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. In Ecclesiastes it says that there is a season for all things, so there is no escaping the fact that we will all have difficult times in our life. Jesus reminded us in John 16:33 that though we will have trouble in this world, we can take heart, because He has overcome the world.

In today's promise, we are reminded that because the Lord is good, and because He cares for those who trust in Him, He will be our refuge in times of trouble. He will be our stronghold, our safe place, our haven of rest in the midst of the storm.

My prayer today is that we would be comforted by this promise and take up residence in the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91) so that He might be our refuge in times of trouble.

I look throughout the earth to strengthen those who belong to Me.

2 Chronicles 16:9 New International Version (NIV)

9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

God is always watching us. His eyes are running to and fro throughout the entire world looking to strengthen those who belong to Him. He never abandons us or leaves us to our own devices. He is always there and an ever present help in our times of trouble. Even in the darkest times when you feel completely alone, you aren't. God is with you and His heart is to strengthen those who belong to Him.

In Hebrews 12:1-2, it says that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus and run the race marked out for us. Think about this for a moment... When we are fixing our eyes on Jesus, He is fixing His eyes on us! Amazing huh? May the tangible reality of feeling God's gaze become more and more real so that we might find the strength we need to live today.

Just ask and you will receive.

Matthew 7:7 New International Version (NIV)

Ask, Seek, Knock

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Our God and Father has a way of making the very complex very simple. In today's promise, Jesus points us to His Father and simply says... Just ask and you will receive. Just seek and you will find. Just knock and the door will be opened. The next few verses Jesus goes on to tell us that God has a father's heart for us and He promises to give good gifts to those who will simply ask.

So what do you need today? Just ask! Jesus also told us that the Father knows what you need before you even ask for it. (Matthew 6:8) So ask Him! He is the Father of Lights and every good and perfect gift comes directly from His hand (James 1:17). 

Delight in Me and I will give you the longings of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 New International Version (NIV)

4 Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

In today's promise, King David is making the declaration that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our hearts. I have always been intrigued by this Bible verse because to me, it is saying that if I focus on and enjoy my relationship with God, that He will give me the deep longings of my heart.

I think many people struggle to even know what the deep desires of their hearts truly are. I am not talking about temporal spur-of-the-moment desires, but the deep longings that we have in the core of our being. What good works were we created to do? What gives life to the depths of our soul? If we believe that God loves us the way He made us, we will be convinced that He has placed within us desires that He wants to fulfill.

In Philippians 2:13, it says... for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (NIV) I believe this verse tells us that God actually uses the desires of our heart to fulfill His good purpose for us. St. Augustine, one of the early church fathers said it this way... “Love God and do what you will.”

I truly believe that the more we love God and enjoy His fellowship, the more we will get in touch with our heart's desires. And the more we get in touch with our heart's desires, the easier it will be to live a life flowing from our heart instead of our head.

May today be another day where we go deeper into the simple delights of being in relationship with the One who is absolute and complete love. And may today be a day where He brings into fulfillment the secret longings that He has placed in each one of our hearts.

Delight in Me and I will give you the longings of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 New International Version (NIV)

4 Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your hear

In today's promise, King David is making the declaration that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our hearts. I have always been intrigued by this Bible verse because to me, it is saying that if I focus on and enjoy my relationship with God, that He will give me the deep longings of my heart.

I think many people struggle to even know what the deep desires of their hearts truly are. I am not talking about temporal spur-of-the-moment desires, but the deep longings that we have in the core of our being. What good works were we created to do? What gives life to the depths of our soul? If we believe that God loves us the way He made us, we will be convinced that He has placed within us desires that He wants to fulfill.

In Philippians 2:13, it says... for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (NIV) I believe this verse tells us that God actually uses the desires of our heart to fulfill His good purpose for us. St. Augustine, one of the early church fathers said it this way... “Love God and do what you will.”

I truly believe that the more we love God and enjoy His fellowship, the more we will get in touch with our heart's desires. And the more we get in touch with our heart's desires, the easier it will be to live a life flowing from our heart instead of our head.

May today be another day where we go deeper into the simple delights of being in relationship with the One who is absolute and complete love. And may today be a day where He brings into fulfillment the secret longings that He has placed in each one of our hearts.

I will comfort you with My everlasting encouragement.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 New International Version (NIV)

16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

The NIV Bible says 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 this way... 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

God is our eternal encourager. He never stops pouring out His love on us and He never stops encouraging us. I love the dictionary.com definition for the word 'encouragement'. ...to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence: His coach encouraged him throughout the marathon race to keep on running.

God is our friend, our Brother, our Father, and the lover of our soul. He has no self-interest but is wholeheartedly for us in every way. In Hebrews 12:1-2, the writer says that we should keep on running the unique race that the Father has set out for us, all the while fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. The race that is referred to in this passage of Scripture is the kind of race that was run within the walls of ancient stadiums with stands packed full of people!

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all cheering you on as you run your unique race today. You are being encouraged every day by all the resources of heaven to not give up, but to keep on going! The Triune God never tires giving us the encouragement that we need so that we might find the strength to do every good deed that is in line with our destiny. 

I will shower My Spirit and My blessings on your offspring.

Isaiah 44:3 New International Version (NIV)

3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
    and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants.

In today's promise, God says that He will water the thirsty and the dry ground and pour out His Spirit and His blessing upon our offspring. As a father of three adult children, I say yes and amen to this promise and pray that His Spirit and His blessings will be poured out on more generations to come!

God loves to bless His kids. When He created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He blessed them to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion throughout the earth. His heart hasn't changed today. His desire is that our entire family would live under the fullness of all His blessings!

I wait for opportunities to show you My compassion.

Isaiah 30:18 New International Version (NIV)

18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!

The Amplified version of the first part of Isaiah 30:18 this way... And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. (AMP)

What a beautiful picture of the longing that God has for us. He is always in a posture of waiting for every opportunity to show us His compassion. I love the Amplified translation that says that He is expecting, looking and longing to be gracious to us.

This Bible verse reminds me of the father in the Prodigal Son story in Luke 15 who was waiting for his rebellious son to find his way home. In this story, Jesus tells us that the father saw the son when he was still a long way off and started running toward his boy.

I think in the same way, our God and Father is waiting and watching for every opportunity to run out so that He might pour out His love and mercy all over us. May we be mindful of this amazing truth and always posture our hearts to receive the outpouring of His love!

Taste and you will see that I am a good God.

Psalm 34:8 New International Version (NIV)

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

When I think of today's promise, I think of the difference between looking at a shiny red apple and tasting it. No matter how tasty the apple looks on the outside, the only way that I will truly experience its goodness is to take a big bite out of it!

It is when I sink my teeth into it, that I will be able to taste and see that it is really delicious. Looking at an apple will never sustain us. We could be surrounded by an entire orchard of apples and yet die of starvation if we don't eat the apples.

I believe that God is extending an invitation for us to not only behold His goodness from afar, but to come close and taste and see that He really is good. In some Christian circles, looking for an experience with God might be seen as undermining the importance of believing without seeing. I am not suggesting that we base our entire Christian walk on experience, but I would suggest that experience is part of any relationship that we have.

While faith (Hebrews 11:6) is still the foundation on which we relate to God, I believe that He wants us to experience Him in every facet of our being. I pray that today, each and every one of us will taste of God's goodness in a very tangible way that will give us a greater insight into our Papa's heart.

Come boldly to My throne when you need to find mercy and grace.

Hebrews 4:16 New International Version (NIV)

16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

We have an invitation from our God and Father to come boldly before His throne of grace today. In the book of Revelation, we read a little bit about what God's throne room is like in chapter 4... Angels crying holy, holy holy, flashes of lightning, 24 elders bowing down, a sea of glass, and so much more! It is a holy place where angels fear to tread, but a place in our Father's heart where we have free access to enter as His beloved little ones.

You can come into His presence right now if you like. His royal doors are always open to you, anytime, day or night. God wants each one of us to come to Him boldly, not timidly. He loves it when we climb up on His lap just as a little child would jump into his dad's arms. He is always there for us ready to provide the mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.

There is no way that we can fathom the privilege that God has extended to us by inviting us to His throne of grace. It is an honor that could have only been purchased by the highest price possible...the shed blood of the Lamb of God. Thank you Jesus for making the way for us to become part of your family so that we could come boldly before our Father's throne of grace 24/7!

I have given you the Spirit of adoption so you can call Me Father.

Romans 8:15 New International Version (NIV)

15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[a] And by him we cry, “Abba,[b] Father.”

The most precious gift that God could give us is Himself. The Holy Spirit, which is called the Spirit of adoption or the Spirit of sonship, is the very Spirit of God Himself. The third person in the Trinity is also referred to as the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son. The Bible says that we have received the Holy Spirit as a deposit to guarantee our inheritance. (2 Corinthians 1:22)

His very presence in our lives is the sign that we belong to God. We have now been born again and are God's children and part of His amazing family. The very Spirit of the living God resides in us and bears witness with our own spirit that we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. The only appropriate response that we could possibly have is to cry out from the core of our being the words 'Abba, Father!' (Romans 8:15-17).

'Abba' is an Aramaic word which was the common language that Jesus spoke to the people with. It is the most simple way that a child can call out to their father. In English terms, it would be like us calling out to our papa or daddy.

Romans 8:15 tells us that because we have the spirit of Sonship living in our hearts, we can call Almighty God our Papa! There is no greater gift that He could have given to us, than the gift of His own life that now lives right in the center of our being.

I am your light and your salvation, the strength of your life.

Psalm 27:1 New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 27

Of David.

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

There is a confidence that the Lord wants us to walk in that will cause fear to flee from our lives. It is the confidence that the shepherd boy David walked in when he defeated the lion and the bear while tending the sheep. It is that same confidence that David had when he ran towards a huge giant named Goliath armed with just a sling shot and a few stones.

David knew that the Lord was his light and his salvation and the strength of his life. As a result of this revelation, David could walk in a holy boldness without being afraid. God wants us to have this same revelation too! Jesus Christ is our light and our salvation and the very strength of our lives! We have nothing to fear because if God is for us, who can possibly stand against us?

May the boldness of a lion (Proverbs 28:1) rise up within you today as you are reminded of who you are in Christ!

My love is patient and kind, and does not keep track of wrongs.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 New International Version (NIV)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Since the Bible says in 1 John 4:16 that 'God is love', I think it is safe to say that we could exchange the word 'love' in 1 Corinthians for the word 'God' if we wanted to. Think about reading this passage of Scripture as a description of the character and nature of God Himself.

God is patient. God is kind. God doesn't envy. He isn't boastful. God is not proud. God isn't rude nor is He selfish. God isn't angered easily and God does not keep track of when He has been wronged.

The love that God has for us will completely overwhelm us if we let it. Not one of us has experienced this kind of unconditional love in human relationships. The best horizontal love is but a shadow of the ocean of love that God has for each one of us. May the Holy Spirit help us to continue to explore His amazing love, setting sail on the vast ocean of His kindness where He keeps no records of the times that we hurt Him.

Father, take us deeper in the depths of your love today! We open our hearts up to your unconditional, eternal love and we ask that we would know the vastness of your immeasurable love for us more today than ever before!

Draw near to Me and I will cleanse you from an evil conscience.

Hebrews 10:22 New International Version (NIV)

22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

An evil conscience is a guilty conscience. When we feel guilty, we feel shame. When we feel shame, we want to run and hide from God just like Adam and Eve did. Today's promise is an invitation from our Heavenly Father to come close to Him and He will cleanse us from the guilt that we struggle with and wash our bodies with pure water.

It takes real faith to believe that we are forgiven for all our sins. In the Christian life we sometimes act as if Jesus forgave our sin when we first became Christians but then it was our responsibility to keep from sinning from that point on. When we fall, we feel guilty and ashamed, and that sense of guilt keeps us from coming into the presence of God.

The truth is that it is God's heart to cleanse us from a guilty conscience so that we could truly draw near to Him without shame or condemnation. The shed blood of Jesus is the once and for all sacrifice for our past, present and future sins. There is nothing that we can do to add to what Jesus has already done. When He cried "It is finished!" on the cross, He meant it. 

I pray that each one of us would receive the sprinkling of hearts from a guilty conscience today so that we can draw near to God so that He can draw near to us.

Jesus bore your sins on the cross so you would be healed.

1 Peter 2:24 New International Version (NIV)

24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Thank God for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who took upon Himself all of our sin so that we could receive all the tangible benefits of the New Covenant. Jesus paid the price so we wouldn't have to. Our healing was secured with each stripe of flesh that was torn from His back by the Roman guard.

While we know that our healing will be complete when we see Him face to face, may each one of us appropriate His sacrifice this side of heaven for whatever we need to be healed from today... body, soul and spirit.

Thank you Jesus for taking upon yourself the punishment of my sin and for making the way through your bruised body for me to experience complete wholeness in my life. I pray that I will have faith today to believe that by your stripes, I am healed!

The Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from sin and death.

Romans 8:2 New International Version (NIV)

2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death.

In life as we know it, there are two laws at work. The law of the Spirit of life in Jesus and the law of sin and death. There are many other analogies in the Bible that illustrate this same point... two kingdoms (kingdom of light versus darkness), two trees in the garden, two cities (New Jerusalem and fallen Babylon), etc.

The point of today's promise is that we no longer have to live by the law of sin and death because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We have been translated from the kingdom of darkness and now live in the Kingdom of the Son. While this is a spiritual reality, many dear people still live by the law of sin and death in their minds because they have not yet been able to believe that they are truly free.

The law of sin and death to a Christian is like a prisoner who finds some form of comfort in the prison cell because of its familiarity, though he is free to leave the prison at any time. We are free from its power because of what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago. We are no longer obliged to live by the power of sin and death! God wants us to experience the new freedom that we have in Christ because it is for freedom's sake that He set us free.

May the mind altering, earth shaking revelation of our freedom roar into our hearts today! The Spirit of life that is in Jesus Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death! Hallelujah!

I know everything about you and am mindful of all your ways.

Psalm 139:1-3 New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.

Have you ever walked into a room full of people yet felt completely alone? I believe that we can be surrounded by many people in our day to day lives yet still carry a sense of loneliness in the depths of our soul. The reason we feel this way is because we are all looking for a deeper, more profound interaction with people than just surface conversation. We want to truly know people and have them know us.

A professional counselor can get to 'know' a lot of people in their practice, yet still not be known by anyone themselves. I believe the cry of the human heart is that someone would know us through and through yet still accept us the way we are. In today's promise from Psalm 139:1-3, King David makes the declaration that God knows everything about him and is familiar with all his ways.

The same holds true for you. God knows everything about you. He has even numbered each hair on your head. He understands what makes you tick and as a loving father is filled with compassion towards his children... so His heart is moved with compassion toward you! (Psalm 103:13-14) You are never alone because God is with you. He is close to you and understands you more than you understand yourself.

May this revelation go deep into our hearts today so that we will never, ever feel alone again. He knows everything about us and yet He still loves us with all His heart!

I have chosen you to be My own treasured possession.

Deuteronomy 7:6 New International Version (NIV)

6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

This declaration of love was spoken over the nation of Israel. God had set them apart for Himself and chosen them to be His own treasured possession.  We know that as Christians, we have been grafted into the vine (Romans 11:16-18) and now share in the spiritual blessings from Abraham that God had originally declared over the nation of Israel.

We too are a special people that God has chosen for Himself, His treasured possession. Ephesians 1:3-6 tells us how God lovingly chose us before the creation of the world to be adopted as His beloved children in Christ. My question today is this... Do you feel the astronomical value that God has placed on your life?

If not, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how much you are treasured by your heavenly Father! I believe that if you ask Him today, He will be faithful to show you just how much you are loved and valued by God. In Romans 5:5 the Apostle Paul writes... and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (WEB)