Dean Allen's Daily Devotional

-August 15, 2022-

Good morning, happy Monday,

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

(Matthew 6:34).

Jesus addressed the subject of worry In Matthew 5:25-34. We worry about so many things, most of which out our control, and which never come to fruition. Our Savior tells us in Matthew 5:25, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body; what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”

There are enough troubles that come upon us daily than to worry about anything that may lie ahead of us. Tomorrow is in the hands of God. He doesn’t give tomorrow’s grace until tomorrow comes. He always takes care of us. All we need to do is trust our heavenly Father and put Him first in our lives. The Lord Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Did you ever notice that troubles seem to come in bunches like bananas? It says in Job 5:6-7, “For affliction does not come from the ground; Yet man was born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” The Lord said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15). This is God’s promise. It may not always be in our timing or in the way we ask Him to, but He always comes through for us.

Troubles come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Some are small, some medium, and some large. God uses troubles to test our faith, help us to grow, and to enable us to depend on Him not on ourselves. Anything we have in this world we can lose. Sometimes God takes something away either for a short time or permanently. He always has a reason and a purpose. If He does take something away, He gives us something better.

Troubles are often like clouds that block the sun. The sun is always shining whether it is a sunny day or a cloudy one. So too, God’s goodness shines on us at all times, even in times of trouble. We want our troubles and trials to end, but only God can time our trials. God takes them away when they have accomplished His will in our lives. Paul prayed three times for God to take his thorn in the flesh away. God’s answer was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul found that when we are weak we are strong.

When troubles come, we pray more. We seek the Lord’s help and guidance. So often though we try to fix things ourselves first by our own means and resources, before yielding to the Lord and praying. It is bound in our human nature. Let us then not worry but trust the Lord through our troubles. He always knows best. There is no need to worry.

Have a blessed day no matter what troubles come your way today, His grace is sufficient for us. Stay safe and healthy.

Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith,

Dean

-August 14, 2022-

Good morning, happy Lord’s Day,

“When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

(Colossians 3:4).

So many people live for so many different things, searching in vain for what is missing in their lives. They are looking for meaning, fulfillment, and peace, which only come through Jesus. The problem is that do not have Christ nor do they seek Him. If Christ is not your life and in your life, you will never be truly happy in life.

Paul said in our verse, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” He had such faith in confidence in His Lord and Savior. When He appears at His coming or we die in Christ, we will see Him and be with Him in glory. John wrote in 1 John 2:28, “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”

Some people say, “I live for my family, or “I live for my career,” or “I live for the weekends.” Sadly, none of these or anything else in this world can even come close to Christ. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:5). We who know Jesus, have life eternal and abundant. Every believer should say, “I live for Christ, who is my life.” When He is worth living for, He worth dying for. Paul wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

The hymn writer Charles H. Gabriel wrote, “When all my labors and trials are o’er, and I am safe on that beautiful shore, just to be near the dear Lord I adore will through the ages be glory for me. O that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me; when by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory, be glory for me.”

May the Lord help us to abide in Him, live completely for Him, and serve Him until we see Him face to face. He is our life.

Have a blessed day thanking, praising, and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ. Stay safe and healthy.

Looking for His coming,

Dean

-August 13, 2022-

Good morning, happy Saturday,

“And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So they said, ‘Let us rise up and build.’ Then they set their hands to this good work.”

(Nehemiah 2:18).

Today is a milestone of sorts: our 800th straight daily verse of the day devotionals. All the glory goes to the Lord! What started as a daily email to a few members of our church and co-workers at the time I was working, has grown to a website with over 400 people viewing it regularly. I am very humbled and thankful for this ministry. I really appreciate your prayers and support over this time, and look forward to many more in the future.

In today’s text, Nehemiah shares his burden to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He, like all his fellow Jews were taken into captivity in Babylon. The seventy years was over and a remnant of the people returned back to Judah and Jerusalem to their homeland. King Cyrus of Persia had issued a proclamation that they were to return and rebuild the temple. This was in keeping with the prophecy of Jeremiah. God always fulfills His word.

When some of the Jews who had gone back to Jerusalem returned to Shushan the capital, they shared the news and condition of the people and their situation. They informed Nehemiah that the people were in great distress and reproach. They let him know how the wall of Jerusalem was broken down, and its gates were burned with fire. When Nehemiah heard these words, he sat down and wept, mourning for many days, fasting, and praying.

Nehemiah was the cupbearer to king Artaxeres. One day the king noticed how sad his face was, and wondered what was wrong. That is never good for a cupbearer who served wine to the king, especially one who was always happy before. He had such a good testimony before the king. Nehemiah shares the plight of his people and requests a leave of absence to go to Jerusalem and help the people and then return to his position with the king. The king graciously committed money and supplies to help him in this cause. He traveled many miles and arrived in Jerusalem. He surveyed the situation and the made known his burden to the people his plan to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Once the people of Judah heard all his words, they knew this was of the Lord and committed themselves to the task, saying, “Let us rise up and build.” It would be a team effort, a joint collaboration. Then they set their hands to this good work. They faced much opposition, but under Nehemiah’s leadership and all their hard work, they completed the task in a remarkable 52 days! It gives the reason in Nehemiah 4:6, “the people had a mind to work.”

Nehemiah 6:15 says, “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.” Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China once said, “God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supplies.” The work of God is bigger than one man or one church, it is all of God’s people joining together as one to rise up and build.

Let us then, “rise up and build.” God uses many people, with many hands, to do His work on earth. He gives the grace and wisdom and empowers us to do it. We are doing His work for His glory. There are souls to be saved, believers to be taught, and churches and leaders to be raised up.

Have a blessed day building in God’s kingdom for His glory. Stay safe and healthy.

In His eternal service,

Dean

-August 12, 2022-

Good morning, happy Friday,

“Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God watched over me.”

Job had gotten very discouraged over the severity of his trials and longed for days gone by when he had no pain, suffering, and tribulation. Perhaps we have felt as Job did, especially when our trials linger and are multiplied, we just don’t seem to get better. Days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and even months to years. We wish we could turn back the hands of time to brighter and better times.

In Job’s defense of his character to his three friends he expressed it as, “When His lamp shone upon my head, and when by His light I walked through darkness; just as I was in the days of my prime, when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent; when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were around me; when my steps were bathed with cream, and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me” (Job 29:3-6).

We can all look back to the “good ole days.” As we grow older we have more aches and pains. We can’t do what we used to do physically and must rely more on others for their help. Even so, we can thank God for our many blessings, especially as we learn to depend on Him completely and not on ourselves. There are so many things we can’t control. It is at these times we know more fully that He is in control. The spiritual is more important that the physical, the heavenly than the earthly, and the eternal than the temporal.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being reviewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and external weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are unseen are eternal.”

The past may have seemed better but was it really? Our lives in Christ now can be even better with the Lord. It is not good to look back or long to go back to the past. We must go forward, trusting in the Lord one day at a time. The Israelites in the wilderness wanted to go back to Egypt. They actually thought they had it better as slaves in bondage than to be free on their way to the Promised Land. They spoke of the bread they had to eat to the full, the onions, the leeks, the melons, and the garlic they enjoyed. They had forgotten their oppression and sorrow in Egypt. This can happen to us as believers also. It is called selective memory.

Let us then look up to the Lord not down to our circumstances; let us move forward and not look backwards on the past. Great days are upon us in Jesus. God has done great things for us, we are glad. We need to achieve new milestones, make new memories, and experience new makeovers. God has plans for us to give us a future and a hope. For the child of God, young or old, the best is yet to come. Our best days are ahead as long as we walk close with Jesus.

The unknown hymn writer said it well, “I am weak but Thou are strong, Jesus keep me from all wrong; I’ll be satisfied as long as I walk, let me walk close to Thee. Through this world of toils and snares, if I falter, Lord who cares? Who with me my burden shares? None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee. When my feeble life is o’er, time for me will be no more; guide me gently, safely o’er to Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore. The refrain says, “Just a closer walk with Thee, grant it Jesus is my plea, daily walking close to Thee, let it be, dear Lord, let it be.”

Have a blessed day thanking and trusting God in the midst of our burdens and troubles, knowing everything is from Him and is for our good. Stay safe and healthy .

In His presence and joy,

Dean

-August 11, 2022-

Good morning, happy Thursday,

“Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn a way.”

(Matthew 5:42).

Jesus told a parable of the rich fool who lived for money and material goods as the expense of losing his soul. He made no provision for eternity. Jesus warned a man who came to him asking that He tell his brother share the family inheritance with him. Jesus responded, “Take heed and beware of covetousness (or greed) for one’s life does not consist of the things he possesses.” Money and material things should never define us. If God has blessed us, we should give and lend to others in need. Money is not the root of all evil, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. It is wrong in putting anything ahead of the Lord.

These statements made by the Lord Jesus come under the section of going the second mile. They certainly challenge us in our society today where everyone seems to desire for money and material possessions. People always want more and have a hard time parting with what they do have. The Rich Young Ruler who came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life was such a person. Jesus put his finger right on the pulse of his problem: he was trusting in his riches and was unable give them up to follow Jesus.

Before we can give and lend to others, we must put the Lord first, be content with what we have, and love our neighbor as ourselves. When these things are true, we have a less tenuous grip on on the things and toys of these world. We see everything in the light of eternity, and think more of others than ourselves.

• Give to him who asks you – While we must be wise in our giving and be aware of possible scams, we can’t see into people’s hearts or determine their true motives or level of sincerity. We must give according to need and leave it in the hands of the Lord. It is better to give to a fraudulent person than to miss giving to a sincerely genuine one. Jesus said in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it it will be measured back to you.”

Paul quoted the words attributed to the Lord Jesus in Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” In life there are times when we give to help others, and there are times when we are in need and must receive the help from others. Asking for and receiving help is not easy and is even harder than giving. We must humble ourselves. There is so much joy in giving. When we have the means, we should give freely, willingly, and generously.

• And from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away – In the OT, the Jews were to lend their money, but they were not to charge interest to their fellow Israelites. They could however lend to non-Jews. If someone asks to borrow from us, we trust the Lord that they will pay us back. We must be careful not to pressure those we lend to, to pay us back. The creditor must be patient and the debtor must be conscientious in repayment. Love must always rule the day.

Psalm 112:5 says, “A good man deals graciously and lends; He will guide his affairs with discretion.” It also tells us in Psalm 37:26, “He is ever merciful, and lends; his descendants are blessed.” This giving and lending should be come with love and generosity. We can never out give the Lord. He will always provide for us and care for us. He just wants us to be cheerful givers. If someone comes to us and we have the means we should give, and if they ask to borrow from us, we should lend.

Have a blessed day of putting the love of Christ into action. Stay safe and healthy.

Doing all in the name of Jesus,

Dean