6/16/2023 0 Comments The Most Important ChoiceThe most important choice you will ever make in your life is to choose God. To choose to connect with the God who made you and me and everything in this twisted universe. Not that He made it twisted—He did not. He made it perfect, and we snarled it up with bad choices. But we can still have most of what we have lost just by choosing God again, on His terms. Yes, you can choose God. We’ve all heard the well-worn argument that we don’t choose God but that He chooses us. So which is true—do we choose God, or does He choose us? Both! There’s little point in arguing over who chooses first. Let’s go at this from the only angle we actually experience: our own. We choose God. That’s the way it feels, and that’s the way it functions, and until you climb out of your armchair or descend from your ivory tower and choose God for your own life, you will always be missing the main ingredient for human happiness. So what will you choose? Will you choose to believe with your whole heart that there is a God who knows you perfectly yet loves you unconditionally? You can put your whole weight down on God’s love as your identity.
Questions for further thought: 1. Where do you find yourself at this moment—clueless about God, wondering, interested, hesitant, or ready to choose His love (for the first time or yet again)? 2. Why is choosing the God who loves you the foundation of your identity? Challenge: Pray this prayer…. Father, thank You for Your love. Thank You that You love me with an everlasting love. Thank You that the God of the universe—who doesn’t need me, who is not diminished by my absence or increased by my presence, who is complete in Himself—has chosen to set His love upon me. I respond to Your choice with a choice of my own. I choose to believe there’s a God who loves me, and that settles my eternity and my identity. I pray in the name of Jesus, who loved me and gave Himself for me, Amen.
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6/15/2023 0 Comments The Place for Pursuing WisdomGod speaks to us through all He has created and all He has written. Psalm 19:7 is a prompt to consider the faithfulness of Scripture in moving us from ignorance to wisdom. God speaks to us through all He has created and all He has written. Psalm 19:7 is a prompt to consider the faithfulness of Scripture in moving us from ignorance to wisdom. But we all share a common setback. We aren’t just stubborn and hardhearted, we’re naïve and foolish. We’re simple. And the testimony of the Lord is so sure, it makes “wise the simple.” The word simple alludes to an open or unguarded mind—a hallmark of someone easily led astray. Wisdom isn’t related to intelligence, academic training, or even life experience. It comes from God, and He gives it generously to all who seek and ask (Proverbs 8:17; James 1:5–8).
Questions for further thought: 1. What parts of God’s Word have become more familiar to you in the past year? 2. How have you grown into a wiser person as a result of the truth of Scripture implanted in you? Challenge:Pursue wisdom in the “testimony of the LORD” and leave “simple” in the rearview mirror. You won’t be disappointed. 6/14/2023 0 Comments Convictions Are PowerfulThe pagan food and drink was devoted to idols, to indulge was to be understood as honoring these deities. Daniel “made up his mind” not to engage in compromise by being untrue to God’s call of commitment. God honored Daniel’s trust and allegiance by sovereignly working favorably for him among the heathen leaders. In this instance, it prevented persecution and led to respect. One way or another, God honors those who honor Him.
Questions for further thought: 1. What are some of the values that God has placed on your heart? 2. Are your decisions and actions reflecting those values? Why or why not? Challenge: Ponder the values of God and how He might be inviting you to delight in His ways. 6/13/2023 0 Comments Let the Lord LeadDavid calls us to take delight in the Lord and to commit everything we have and do to Him. To delight in someone means to experience great pleasure and joy in his or her presence. To delight in the Lord, we must know Him better through the disciplines of reading His Word and regular prayer. To commit ourselves to the Lord means entrusting everything to His control and guidance, believing that He can care for us better than we can ourselves. Even though it is hard, we have to wait patiently for Him to work out what is best for us.
Questions for further thought: 1. What could I pre-decide now to help me make good decisions in the future? 2. How might God be intervening in my life right now to drive me to make God honoring decisions? Challenge: Complete these statements:
6/12/2023 0 Comments Looking ForwardThis section pictures a new exodus for a people once again oppressed as the Israelites had been as slaves in Egypt before God’s deliverance. They would cry to God and again He would hear and deliver them. A new exodus would take place through a new desert. The past miracles were nothing compared to what God would do for His own in the future through faith in Jesus Christ.
Questions for further thought: 1. How often am I guilty of looking back and not looking forward to the good things God will do? 2. How can I change those tendencies going forward? Challenge: Commit to remembering God is always good and to looking forward to the good things He is willing to supply. He is rich in mercy and desires to give us the desires of His heart. Don’t make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions or feelings. 6/9/2023 0 Comments Always Pray (Praise)We live in a world today where anxiety and worry are common feelings that all of us experience at one point or another. The answer for anxiety and worry is to pray without ceasing and to take everything to God. There is nothing God cannot handle so give Him all the worry, anger, and anxiety that you are facing. Then, provided you truly turn it over to Him, He will give you a peace that is beyond understanding, which is something else you will want to give Him praise for.
Questions for further thought: 1. What anxiety, anger, or worry do you face? 2. How are you handling this anxiety, anger, or worry in your life? Challenge: If you have not already done so, take the emotion(s) to God and give it all to Him so He might grant you peace. 6/8/2023 0 Comments The Lord's PrayerAt some point, we have all read or heard these verses. In these five short verses, Jesus illustrates prayer including praise to God, a surrender to God’s will for our life, a request for daily substance, forgiveness, and deliverance from temptation. Jesus intended the Lord’s Prayer as an outline for all of us to use.
Questions for further thought: 1. What part of the Lord’s prayer do you do well today? 2. What part of the Lord’s prayer is harder for you? Challenge: Pray the Lord’s Prayer inserting your own words at the end of each verse to specifically praise God for something or to request assistance with something. 6/7/2023 0 Comments Praise During SufferingThis Psalm is believed to be written by David in his old age. In the Psalm he prays for rescue during his time of trouble and even though he was in trouble, he still praises God in verse 8. Like David, we need to praise God even when life is not going the way we like. Regardless of what happens, praising God reminds us of what He has done in the past and what He will do in the future.
Questions for further thought: 1. What suffering or trouble might you be going through at this time? 2. What has God done for you that could remind you of His faithfulness? Challenge: Pray to God to thank Him for all that He has done and ask for His assistance in your current trouble. 6/6/2023 0 Comments A Prayer Around CreationIn this passage, David praises God for creation by reminding of all that He created. It is easy to forget or just move through our day without praising our God for the planet He created for us.
Questions for further thought: 1. When was the last time you praised God for all that he created? 2. What praise could you give God today for something He created? Challenge: Take time to enjoy God’s creation through a walk or just taking time to smell the roses. Then, praise God for who He is and what He has created. 6/5/2023 0 Comments A Psalm of PraiseDavid was a man after God’s own heart, and he gave praise to God. We should also praise God like David—morning, noon, and night. He created everything and everyone knowing that He would also have to create a means to save His creation. He also created each of us with a specific plan and purpose. For all these reasons, He must be praised.
Questions for further thought: 1. Think about the last week; make a list of what God has done for you. 2. Now, in this past week, have you given praise to God for what He has done? Challenge: Take time to give praise to God through prayer or song just like David. |
AuthorThis devotional is written every week by Hillcrest members. Archives
May 2024
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