Dean Allen's Daily Devotional

-April 22, 2021-

Good morning, happy Thursday,

-Be Insistent, Consistent, And Persistent In Prayer-

“Then He spoke a parable to them, than men always ought to pray and not lose heart…”

(Luke 18:1).

Jesus taught His disciples to pray and to be insistent, consistent, and persistent in prayer, and not to lose heart. We are assured that God hears and answers our prayers according to His will and in His timing. The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 4:2, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” We should pray and keep on praying. It is important to pray for others and for ourselves as well.

Jesus tells this wonderful parable of of a needy widow and an unjust judge. This judge did not regard God nor man. The widow made her request known to him, saying, “Get justice for me from my adversary” (Luke 18:3). At first the judge was unwilling to get involved in her case, but changed his mind after seeing her insistence, consistency and persistence. It seemed she kept knocking at his door until he finally helped her. She was like a leaking roof that kept dripping!

Jesus showed how much God cares for His elect who cry to Him day and night. He desires that we bring our requests to Him and not give up praying. God is so different from the unjust judge, and wants us to keep praying. Oh that we would be insistent, consistent, and persistent in prayer.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We pray to the Father, in Jesus’ name, and according to His will. We have so many needs. Are you a prayer warrior? Do you pray daily? Can the Lord count on you to pray and keep on praying?

There is no greater joy than to see God answering our prayers. It encourages to pray more. We should always thank Him for His answers, not only after He answers but also in advance for His answers. God is glorified in both. May the Lord help us to pray and not to lose heart. The hymn writer Joseph M. Scriven wrote, “What a friend in Jesus, all our sins to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

Have a blessed day praying in faith and not giving up. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-April 21, 2021-

Good morning, happy Wednesday,

-Eternally Secure In Christ-

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”

(John 10-27-30).

It is such a blessing to be saved and have the assurance of eternal security in Christ. Once one is genuinely saved by grace through faith in Christ, nothing and no one can take that away: not the devil, the world, or even ourselves. The Bible is very clear on this. Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. We have heard His voice and we follow Him. We are safely in His fold.

When God makes a promise, He keeps it, and once He has given it, He never takes it away. The promise is: “they shall never perish.” To perish is to be eternally lost, separated from God in hell for all eternity. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Our salvation is not based on what we have done, but what Christ has done for us on the cross. He died in our place as our Substitute, bearing our sins, and paying our sin debt in full by His precious blood. Through faith in His finished work on the cross, we are forgiven of every sin, past, present, and future. We will be with Him in heaven forever.

Our eternal security is forever secure in a three-fold way: we are in the hands of Jesus, we are in the hands of the Father, and we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

There is very little secure in this world, not our homes, our marriages, our families, our jobs, our incomes, our bank accounts, our stock portfolios, or even life on earth. But what is fully secure is our salvation. We may have insurance to cover losses on earth, but we have assurance in heaven to prevent any losses from happening.

The Apostle John wrote clearly and definitively in 1 John 5:11-13, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

Let me be clear: salvation is secure for all who believe. However, there is no security whatsoever for those who do not believe. There are only two choices with two outcomes: believe and be totally secure in Christ or reject, not believe, and be lost forever. This is no in between, no gray area.

Let us rejoice today in our eternal salvation and complete security in Christ. We have peace, assurance, and comfort. There is nothing better! We may lose everything on earth as many do in natural disasters, but we can never lose our salvation. Hallelujah what a Savior!

Have a blessed day in His blessed assurance. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-April 20, 2021-

Good morning, happy Tuesday,

-When Everything Goes Wrong, Trust The Lord-

“Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”

(1 Samuel 30:6).

What happens when everything goes wrong and everyone is against us? What do we do? Whom do we turn to? David faced this situation in 1 Samuel chapter 30. David and his mighty men returned to Ziklag, the city they were living in, to find it burned to the ground. Their wives and children were gone. 1 Samuel 30:4 records the reaction of David and his men, “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had had no more power to weep.” Have you ever wept until there were no more tears to shed? I have.

The enemy Amalekites were the perpetrators. Amalek is a type of our sinful flesh that attacks us at the most inopportune times. The saving grace in this story is they did not kill any of the women and children. This did not stop David’s men turning against him, blaming him for what happened. Their grief soon turned to anger and the people spoke of stoning him. Keep in mind that these mighty men were so loyal to David, yet even they under great sorrow and stress, turned against him. They let their circumstances dictate their decisions.

David did not panic, disband his fighters, or flee, instead he sought the Lord and prayed. Our text says, “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” David loved the Lord and knew that comfort, encouragement, strength, and help comes from the Lord and from him alone. Psalm 50:15 says, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” This is exactly what happened. It is a wonderful verse to memorize.

When David prayed for the Lord’s guidance, the Lord directed him to pursue the Amalekites and assured him of victory. 1 Samuel 30:8 says, “So David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?’ And He answered him, ‘Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.’”

Off David and four hundred of his men went and God have them a complete victory. 1 Samuel 30:18 records, “So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.” What an answer to prayer! What a complete victory! Not only did they recover every wife and child, they also gained so much spoils that David sent much to his friends in the land of Judah who supported him. God turned their sorrow into joy, defeat into victory, and loss into gain!

David had one more issue to deal with. Some of the four hundred men did not want to share the spoils they gained with the two hundred men who were two exhausted to pursue the Amaelikites. David in his wisdom and tact handled this situation by giving those men the same as the ones that fought. He established it this as a perpetual principle in Israel from this point onward.

This story would make a great movie. It has drama, tragedy, fighting, and victory. God specializes in happy endings too! Now about us? When God turns around our circumstances and gives us the victory, we should thank Him and glorify His name. No one is immune from troubles, trials, and testings. The key is how we handle them: do we fall on our knees and seek the Lord or do we fall apart and try to solve things on our own which never works? Faith is the victory that overcomes the world!

Have a blessed day and when everything and everyone seems against us, let us remember God is for us. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-April 19, 2021-

Good morning happy Monday,

-What Is Highly Esteemed Among Men Is An Abomination In The Sight Of God-

“And He said to them, ‘You are those justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.’”

(Luke 16:15).

When Jesus was on earth, the people who hated and rejected Him most were the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the scribes. They had created their own system of man’s traditions and outward religiosity that was so disturbing. Their religion was based on the outward appearance not inward reality. They fought our Savior every step of the way, all the way to the cross.

Jesus’ scorn and wrath fell down hard on them. They loved money, to be called Rabbi, to have the best seats at every event, to make long prayers that impressed people, and to tell others what to do without lifting a finger themselves. Jesus rightly called them self righteous hypocrites, and so they were. In so many cases their traditions contradicted the Scriptures. They judged others but refused to judge themselves.

Everything the Pharisees and their religious cronies said or did was to justify themselves before men and to impress men. Jesus as God come in the flesh, knew the thoughts and the intentions of their hearts. They often tried to catch Him in His words and actions in order to accuse Him before the Romans, but they failed miserably. They envied Jesus and viewed Him as a clear threat to their religious system.

Jesus said, “…For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” The lifestyle of the Pharisees ran counter to the ways of God. Not only were their ways evil in the sight of the Lord, but they also rejected God’s ways for their own. They believed their ways were actually better than God’s. They added so many things to the teachings of the law and the prophets.

Jesus rebuked them in Matthew 15:7, saying, “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

For us as believers today, we must guard against man’s thinking and ways which are abominable before God. God loves people and cares for them, wants them to be saved, and to walk in His ways, pleasing and honoring Him. He looks beyond the outward appearance and sees our hearts. There is no room for hypocrisy, pride, or self righteousness. God has given us His Word to live by and He desires for us to love people, pray for them, and win them to Christ.

We cannot please man and God at the same time; we cannot serve two masters. May the Lord help us to live genuine and sincere lives before both God and men. Luke 2:52 said of Jesus, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

Have a blessed day seeking to please God and serve Him. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-April 18, 2021-

Good morning, happy Lord’s Day,

-Faithful In Little, Faithful in Much-

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.”

(Luke 16:10).

Today’s verse shows the spiritual principle that in the service of the Lord, God evaluates His servants on the basis of faithfulness. That is not to say that results are unimportant, but that is His department, His responsibility. The Holy Spirit works in us and through us and brings forth the fruit, as long as we are clean vessels.

Bill Parcells, former great NFL head coach once said, “The best ability is availability.” He believed that the talent doesn’t matter if the player is not on the field playing the game. You can’t help your team win on the sideline, you must be playing. This is so true in Christian service. The devil wants to take us down and out of the Lord’s service. With so many scandals over the years from prominent Christian leaders and preachers, it is vital that we are faithful to the Lord in the little things and in the bigger things. When a man or woman is faithful to God in the little things, God will entrust them with bigger things.

Solomon wrote in Proverbs 20:6, “Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man.” God is looking for faithful men and women, not just in the church but in the home, in business, in school, in the community, and in whatever we are involved in. If one cannot be faithful in small things, he cannot be trusted with the larger, more important things.

Consistency and faithfulness go hand in hand. Showing up, being on time, working hard, and being honest are the hallmarks of Christian servants. We do our part and God does his part. Day in and day out, this is what faithfulness is all about. Setting a good example for our kids and others is of vital importance. Proverbs 20:7 says, “The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.” When people think of passing on a good inheritance they think mostly of money and material things, but a godly example of faithfulness is way more important.

May the Lord help us to be faithful in the little things and in the bigger things. Whether anyone is watching us or not, God sees and hears everything. Our desire should be to please Him, honor Him, and serve Him faithfully every day, in season and out of season.

Have a blessed day being faithful to our Lord for His glory. May we be available for Him to use us. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean