The One Minute Devotion

Some of you may feel it is too late to make something of your life, that you’ve been robbed of your destiny. Don’t give up! God has a plan for you even if you can’t see it. As a person created in His image, you are a child of destiny. Whether you realize it or not you were created to be an overcomer! No matter how foreign that may seem to you, it’s true. You were created to conquer! That’s what the Bible says,

“…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

— Romans 8:37 (NIV)

Lord Jesus when I survey my life I am often tempted to feel that my mistakes have canceled out Your plans for me. Restore my faith in Your unchanging purpose for my life. In Your holy name I pray. Amen.

God seldom intervenes on our behalf until we step out in obedient faith. The servants at the wedding in Cana of Galilee had to put plain water into empty barrels before Jesus turned it into wine. The boy had to give Jesus his lunch before the Lord blessed it and multiplied it to feed five thousand people. The disciples had to cast the net on the other side of the boat before they caught a boatload of fish. The man born blind had to wash before he received his sight. We have to be willing to risk failure by stepping out in faith before we will receive our miracle.

Are you willing to do whatever Jesus is requiring of you?

“When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’
‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ ”

— John 2:3–5 (NIV)

Lord Jesus, I think I would be willing to take a step of faith if I could be sure the voice I was hearing was truly Your voice. But that’s not the way it works, is it? Teach me to trust and obey even when I am not sure. In Your holy name I pray, Amen.

As I think about the dream in which one of the elders was showing me through the church facilities, two things come to mind. First, the footprint of the unfinished basement was larger than the footprint of the sanctuary above indicating that in the spiritual realm those things that are unseen are much larger than the things that are seen. Secondly, we seldom have the resources to fulfill our dreams, but we can’t let that stop us. Pursue your God-given dreams and the resources will follow. That’s how God works. Resources always follow vision!

“…my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 4:19 (NIV)

This is Richard Exley with your one-minute devotion.

I would like to share a dream the Lord gave me some years ago. In my dream, one of the elders was showing me the church facilities. The last area he took me through was a huge unfinished basement. It was clean and well-lighted but totally unfinished and much larger than the footprint of the sanctuary above it. I was impressed and heard myself saying, “This is awesome. The potential is unlimited! There’s so much we can do with this.”

Shaking his head sadly, the elder replied, “We don’t have the resources to develop it.”

In my dream I heard God speak in an audible voice: “Don’t let your resources determine your destiny!”

Heavenly Father, You know the dreams You have placed in our hearts, dreams that are beyond our reach. Give us the courage to pursue them. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

Shelby is an overcomer. She writes, “Don’t waste time and energy in being bitter over the bad deal you got in life. I have lived through sexual abuse as a child, desertion and divorce as an adult. I have experienced the death of my younger sister through cancer and my own serious hospitalization with typhoid fever. Yet I believe God wants me to use all of this to help others. He can’t do this if I’m sitting in self-pity or anger.”

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

— Genesis 50:20

Lord Jesus, help us to trust You with our tragedies believing that You can turn them into material for ministry. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.

Sexual temptation is so powerful that unless a stake is driven into its heart immediately, it may well overwhelm us. Kings have renounced their thrones, saints their God, and spouses their lifetime partners. People have been known to sell their souls, jobs, reputations, children, and marriage – they have literally chucked everything for a brief moment of sexual pleasure. Guard your heart. Don’t let it happen to you!

“Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes,
For the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread
And the adulteress preys upon your very life.”

— Proverbs 6:25-26

Lord Jesus, teach us to recognize and heed the Holy Spirit’s earliest warnings lest we fall prey to sexual sin. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.

Life is fleeting and I look back on our daughter’s childhood with nostalgia, hardly able to believe how quickly it came and went. At least I have the memories. In the winter we went snowmobiling high in the Colorado Rockies or ice-skating in the park. In the summer we hiked and picnicked in the mountains. In the fall we cut firewood, buoyed by the prospect of long winter evenings in front of a roaring fire. Those special times didn’t just happened though. We planned them and made family time a priority.

“Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.”

— Psalms 127:3-4

Lord Jesus, thank You for the gift of children and the joy they bring. May we always realize what a treasure they are. In Your holy name I pray. Amen.

I love the story of Jacob wrestling with God in the dark, on the muddy bank of the Jabbok. Finally he submits to the LORD and he is changed. God declares that Jacob has become Israel. The deceitful con man has become a prince. He’s still not perfect (no one is in this life), but he is changed! And, as unbelievable as it may seem, limping Israel has a power with God and man that the self-reliant Jacob never had.

“So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’”

— Genesis 32:30

Lord Jesus, wrestle with us in the dark night of our sinfulness until finally we submit to You. Change us as You changed Jacob. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.

Contented people have at least five characteristics in common. 1) They are committed to a cause greater than themselves. 2) They have a servant’s heart. 3) They value relationships. They love people rather than things. 4) They give thanks for what they have rather than complaining about what they don’t have. 5) They celebrate the ordinary, finding joy in life’s little pleasures.

“Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’”

— Nehemiah 8:10

Lord Jesus, teach us to love people not things and to live our lives in loving service. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.

With an effort, she began to reminisce, to recall the love and the laughter they had shared. As she did, the awful pain of her grief gave way, just a little, to the joy of their shared past. She was still undone by the magnitude of her loss, but her grief was now tempered with memories of the good times they had shared. I’m not talking about denial, but perspective. Her loss is real, as is her grief, but so are the memories, and the sunshine, and God!

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 4:7

Lord Jesus, help us to remember the joy of life no matter how deep our grief. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.