Category: Devotions

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Daily Devotion

Looking Through Dirty Lenses

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” Luke 11:34

I just spent that last few minutes looking at some pictures from the last few years…actually almost 4 years ago. My first instinct was to cry (which I did) and ask God why did He allow me to experience the pains associated with the face that stared back at me from the picture. Why did He allow the prednisone and other medicines to ravage my body and pull out the inner ugliness caused by the deterioration of my kidney function; I still barely understand why I had to experience that. Then it dawned on me that instead of focusing on the pain, hurt, frustration and anger that I remembered from that point in my life, I should instead thank God for deliverance from that place. At first I only saw the pain–the hatred I felt towards myself and how I looked, the pain I felt walking back and forth to class, the inability to truly look at myself in a mirror. Then I realized that God used it to make me stronger, the very same situation that the enemy intended for my defeat.

The scripture above tells us what its like to have bad eyes. Its the same when you look through dirty glasses or sunglasses. Everything you see will be distorted, cloudy, or warped. Like eyes inclined to darkness, dirty lenses warp our view of reality with whatever imperfections within the lens. My eyes during that time in my life were warped by the reality of my declining health, being in school, and the one thing I felt I had control of–myself–being turned against me. Rather than looking at the fact that I was alive in spite of the hurt and pain, the fact that God kept me alive for some reason beyond my own understanding, I cried daily at my own hatred of my outer appearance, the confused stares and questions, and the uncertainty things would ever be the same. My situation is much like those of us whose eyes have been conditioned to see the way of the world as correct and that it is impossible to live life in obedience to the Lord or in the way of the Word. Their eyes have been darkened and until they turn back to the Lord, they cannot see properly. Until God reminded me of my deliverance (because I don’t even look anything like those pictures of me), I looked through dirty lenses or bad eyes. God had to take me from my physical self into the supernatural to see the blessings He has given me.

Are you looking through dirty lenses, lenses warped by pain, sin, and lies? Until you ask God to clean them and reveal the truth to you, you will always find fault with whatever you are looking at.

“Therefore, be careful that the light in you isn’t darkness.” Luke 11:35

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“No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of God and their righteousness is of me,” says the Lord. Isaiah 54:17

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Daily Devotion

Exceedingly and Abundantly
 
"Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" Ephesians 3;20
 
Sometimes we get in the midst of a situation and do not realize who our Creator is.  We doubt, fear, get anxious, and assume a defeated stance.  But that is not who God created us to be!  That is not who God sacrificed His Son to save!  He wants us to believe in Him and on Him in every situation or circumstance.  I took some scriptures where the word exceedingly is used to share tonight. 
 
1 Chronicles 29:25–"And the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel."  In the case of Solomon, he humbled himself before God and asked only for the wisdom to righteously lead the children of Israel as their king.  God, in return, gave Solomon the wisdom and the riches because..why wouldn't He! Why would God not bless someone that sought wisdom–not worldly wisdom or traditional wisdom, but divine, God-ordained wisdom to make the right decisions.
 
Genesis 17:2, 6–  2: "I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly." 6:"I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you."  To Abraham, a childless but obedient man, God promised to make him the father of all nations.  Abraham listened and obeyed God when He told Abraham to leave his native country and go to the land of Canaan.  Of course God kept His word!
 
1 Timothy 1:14–"And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."  The apostle Paul received grace–he himself was one of early Christianity's most prominent persecutors.  People all across the middle east had heard of some of his acts of cruelty against Christians.  But God saw fit to use him right?  God extends that same grace to us in the same abundance.
 
God is always in the business of exceeding our expectations with abundance.  He is waiting on us to call on Him and remind Him of His word.  You see, God wants us to trust Him, depend on Him, wait on Him, and love Him because He loves us.  He loved us so much that Christ died and is risen for us!  We do not have to fight the battle alone–better yet at all because as the word says the battle is the Lord's! Expect that He will win it for you, that He will slay the dragons and beasts you face.  Trust Him and His word!!  They are not like man's words, empty promises–but no, they are proven fact.  Have exceedingly abundant expectations of what God can do in your life.
 
"Besides, God is able to make every blessing of yours overflow for you, so that in every situation you will always have all you need for any good work."  2 Corinthians 9:8

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"No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of God and their righteousness is of me," says the Lord.  Isaiah 54:17