"But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me."Psalm 13:5-6 ESV

The past is a reminder of God’s truth realized in our lives.

We have lacked in the past, God has provided.
We have ailed in the past, God has healed.
We have mourned in the past; God has brought joy.
We have failed in the past; God has redeemed us.
We have sinned in the past; God has forgiven us.

So, why the switch? Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past brought hope for David’s future.

One of my favorite stories involving God’s people preparing to remember how God provided for them, involves Joshua entering the promise land.
Practically, as part of our journey with the Lord, we can practice the art of remembering.

Joshua placed stones in the river Jordan and the Israelites carried stones with them to commemorate crossing the river into the promised land. Sometimes, there is a tangible relic that we can keep with us to remember a defining moment with the Lord. (Joshua 4)

A prayer journal serves as a great reminder of our spiritual journey with the Lord. Looking back, we can see how God answered our prayers.

A well placed jar in the home can be a place to write down things we are thankful for, even kids can participate. Visiting the jar throughout the year serves as a reminder of God’s goodness.

Maybe you scrapbook, or post pictures of your journey with the Lord on some type of social media that will allow you to revisit those memories.

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-psalm-13-hope-in-the-past/

"After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying, 'Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God." Revelation 19:1 CSB

God's Glory

My family and I have been on vacation for almost two weeks now, traveling from our home in southern California through Arizona and into Colorado. Along the way we've stopped at a whole host of beautiful locations, places I'm thankful to have visited because they remind me of God's amazing creation and glory.

We watched the sunset over the Grand Canyon, where the layers of ancient rock create a kaleidoscope of color so beautiful that no painter could ever improve upon it.

We climbed ladders built into the sides of cliffs to walk through small cities carved from rock by Pueblo peoples long before European conquerors set foot in North America.

We swam in pools of hot spring waters that can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

I marveled at every one of these remarkable sights, and at each one I recognized the strength, power, glory, and love of God, who created these natural wonders for His people. But the place I saw today quite literally took my breath away.

I met God there today, and as I sat on that rock He seemed much closer than at any other place on our trip. The Grand Canyon in Arizona and the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park reveal God's glory to my eyes, but the waterfall and the climb up to it gave me a full-sensory way to experience Him.

Knowing that I will someday know God face-to-face and will be able to experience His presence in a way much deeper than my earthly senses can allow, I can't help but sing His praise.

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-gods-glory/

Grief can often feel like a bully. It’s not uncommon for those who have suffered the loss of a loved one to be overtaken by waves of sorrow when they least expect it. Sometimes it’s a simple sight or smell that brings us to our knees; we’ll find ourselves head-in-hand, weeping as if the loss happened afresh. These moments are a stark reminder of the brokenness and pain that ravishes this world, and they expose the tender scars which emboss our bereaved, broken hearts.

When grief invades our day, it’s disorienting. For a moment, we’re thrown off balance by it: tears blur our vision, our posture crumples, and all other thoughts are doused by a jet-stream of pain. Grief floods our memories as blood to a wound—we loved, we lost, and we’re made to feel the reality of it once again.

Even though grief can be aggressive, pushing it back is not helpful. Grief doesn’t demand to be overcome—it brashly appeals to our hearts, crying, "Hear me! This hurts!" In short, grief requests our engagement. While some may choose to silence their sorrows through self-medication, followers of Christ are called to engage their grief with hope. Christian hope is not meant to cancel out our griefs and sorrows, but is meant to sustain and comfort us in them and ultimately redeem us from them.

Do you know what it's like to have intense feelings of grief take you by surprise? Have you wondered if you should be "over it" by now, or if it's even possible to grieve and hope at the very same time? Find biblical hope and help in today's article at devotableapp.com.

Read the fill devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-engaging-grief-with-hope/

In the third chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul reveals to them (and to us) God’s plan for us. Our Creator designed this plan and it will not change no matter how we feel about it. Going against it only hurts us. God’s will is that “you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.” It is only then that “you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

How powerful is that!? Nothing in this world can satisfy us and make us feel complete like the love of God, and abiding in the depths of it. We were created for a deep and intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.

It all begins with Jesus. Whether you have been a follower of Christ for decades, or are simply curious about the Christian faith, it is a truth that sets all the rest in motion for you and me. Can you imagine for a minute what hanging on the cross must have been like? Picture the torture, the nails, the humiliation, the crown of thorns, the rejection, the deep pain inside and out…

THAT is love.

Why? Because Jesus chose to give His life in the most excruciating way to pay for the price of our wrong doing and be a bridge between God and us through faith in Him. He did not have to. God could have wiped humanity off the surface of the earth and be done with us. Rather, He did what we could not do for ourselves so that we may have access to God and eternal forgiveness.

This love is alive and overwhelming; and it alone can make us feel complete.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:19 NLT

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-how-to-feel-complete/

Father, I know I’m not the best one who can fulfill that purpose, but You have chosen me. Enable me to draw closer to your presence each day and inspire me to do Your will. Show me Your power, so that Your name will be proclaimed in all the earth through me. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-living-for-a-higher-purpose/

We’ve all been there. We’ve all been lost in situations where we were totally helpless, completely hopeless and utterly terrified. It might have been in the midst of loved one’s untreatable illness. Or we may have been navigating a devastating financial loss. Perhaps it was in the midst of a heart-wrenching relationship struggle. No matter the circumstances, we have found ourselves desperate and desolate and thinking, “I guess all we can do is pray.”

We pray, it seems, as our last resort. We turn to it because everything else has failed and there are no more rabbits in the hat. We get to a point when we reluctantly admit human effort and wisdom is not enough. And so we pray with a vague hope that a benevolent super-powered being will do what we can not.

But what if…

We prayed first, not last? What if we approached prayer as if it were the key ingredient to the solution, not just the after-thought? What if we were to pray as though we were seeking the help of a God who loves us and who has both the compassion and the power to intervene?

In the Gospels we read over and over how individuals brought their needs to Jesus: the Centurion whose servant was sick, the disciples and their questions, the families with their children. They came to him, not with wobbly wishes but with confident expectations. And Jesus responded with kindness and help.

Jesus knew our tendency to try everything else first before we pray. He encouraged his followers to break out of that pattern and to go to God first, not last. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness...” Matthew 6:33 ESV

Today, ask God to help you to pray first and then watch how his love unfolds.

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-pray-first/

Have you ever tried to measure God’s grace? Probably not with a ruler, but maybe you’ve felt that God’s grace couldn’t possibly be extended to you because of a sin you’ve committed over and over again. Or perhaps you think that your sin is too grievous to be forgiven by God. If you’re like me, my sin feels bigger than God’s grace.

My children, like all kids, didn’t obey all the time.

On one particular day when I was angry, my oldest son said, “Mom, it feels like it’s the end of the world when we do something wrong!” This was a sad, but accurate picture of my overreaction to their sin. I was not treating them the way that God treats me, with grace.

I heard a cute story about two little girl playing at the playground. One of the girl’s mom kept asking her if she needed to go to the bathroom, but she refused. After a few minutes, the little girl realized she needed to go, but was too late. As a puddle formed at her feet, her little friend shook her head and said, “ It happens to the best of us.”

Even though we’re Christians, we still sin. It happens to the best of us. Sometimes we yell at our kids, speak unkindly to our spouse or gossip at work. Jesus doesn’t want us to fight sin alone. He walked this earth experiencing every temptation we do, but without sin. When we call out to him, he’ll answer us and help us fight the temptations to sin.

God isn’t surprised by our sin and he won’t eternally punish or condemn us - Jesus was already punished for our sins - past, present and future. God’s grace expressed through the reading of scripture and help of Christian friends gives us the strength to do what is right, to resist temptation and fight our battle with sin.

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-measuring-gods-grace/

Following Christ isn't always as easy as people make it out to be. Have you counted the cost of being a believer?

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Luke 14:28 ESV

This story in the Bible is one of my favorites. This verse is written so simply, yet the picture that it paints, truly is worth a thousand words.

I realize I've been a part of making Jesus someone who He is not. I've mis-represented His worth by begging people to "ask Jesus into your heart."

We make it sound so beautiful don't we? We manipulate others into repeating a prayer by begging them to come to Jesus and telling them how great life will be if they do and how it won't cost them anything.

A half truth is how the serpent tempted man to sin against God in the beginning. That half truth was a lie and so is the one we present in most altar calls at the end of many church services.

This scripture is clear, Jesus is worth everything, but it is also clear that we must believe He is worth everything. We must count the cost to follow this Jesus.

We must ask ourselves before coming to Him, am I willing to give everything I have, if necessary, to follow Him? Am I willing to make Him Lord and give up my desires for His? Am I willing to let go of family and friends that might dislike me because of this man? Am I willing to take a punch without returning one? Am I willing to lay down my life, even to death?

As for me and my house, we have counted the cost and found, Jesus is worth it all.

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-count-the-cost/

The other day I reminisced about a song from my childhood called "What the World Needs Now." Those of you who remember this song will surely remember its signature refrain.

As I reminisced over these words, the thought struck me: "What exactly was that song (and that entire generation) crying out for?”

“God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

Love is cheap. Or is it?

The cross epitomizes the very love we need—but reject. On that cross we see the ultimate expression of Love Himself—the perfect Son of God taking the punishment He didn’t deserve so that we could receive the forgiveness we don’t deserve. But also on the cross we come face to face who we really are—and the truth of our rebellion.

This kind of love is supernatural. It isn't the "touchy-feely" kind of stuff that makes me feel good and/or look good in front of everyone else. It is torturous to our natural inclination, while at the same time being indispensable to our well-being.

This, and nothing less, is “what the world needs now.”

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-what-the-world-needs-now/

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

Abba Father

This month my church is reading through the gospel of John, which has been referred to as the greatest statement of trinitarian theology ever written. What pressed into my heart the deepest during this reading of John, though, was Jesus’ passionate pointing to his heavenly Father.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus reveals a Father who is loving, tender, compassionate, forgiving, and righteous. Jesus’ description points us back to a God who is a “father of the fatherless / and a champion of widows” (Psalm 68:5); furthermore, Galatians 4:4-5 reads, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Best of all, He’s a personal God--one who knows each hair on my head (Luke 12:7).

Because of the work Christ did on the cross, I should be rushing to my heavenly father with all of my requests--with a thankfulness for the grace he offers me. As the rest of the Galatians passage reads, “And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’” (4:6). “Abba,” as you likely know, is typically translated to “Daddy” or “Dear Father.” Be encouraged, brother or sister: The veil is torn, and we have access to our heavenly father!

How lucky are we to have a father like this, one who loved us before the world’s foundation was set.

My encouragement for you today and every day is to run into your Father’s arms. Through the mundane, through the victories, through loss. No matter what you are facing, cry out:

“Dad!”

Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-galatians-4-6-abba-father/