Dean Allen's Daily Devotional

-August 25, 2020-

-Great Peace Through The Word Of God And The God Of The Word-

“Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.”

(Psalm 119:165).

Psalm 119 is a beloved psalm for all believers. It speaks of the Word of God and all the blessings we receive from the Word in our lives. Our text today speaks of peace, which is so needed and encouraging. The message of the Bible is such good news which is in contrast to all the bad news in this world.

The psalmist says, “Great peace have those who love Your law…” Not only is there peace through the love of God’s Word, there is great peace. Jesus spoke of peace in the upper room. John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Peace is not the absence of trouble, but rather rest, tranquility, and assurance in the midst of trouble. That is where the Scriptures minister to our hearts exactly what we need to hear, exactly when we need to hear it. The Holy Spirit gives us the peace of God. Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” ( Philippians 4:6-7).

Oh, how we need God’s peace today with the Corona virus, and its affect on us mentally, emotionally, and financially. Then add in all wildfires, hurricanes, all at the same time. Only the great peace of God can keep us from stumbling. The Scriptures tells us how to live and give us strength, encouragement, and wisdom. As the psalmist tells us, “nothing causes us to stumble.”

When we love the Word, we search its sacred pages and find so many wonderful promises to claim, principles to live by, and commands to obey. If we try to live without the Word daily we will only get weaker and more vulnerable to the devil’s attacks. Temptations come in many forms and we need to resist them, flee them, and be victorious over them.

Are you facing some perplexing situation that is troubling you today? Give it all to Jesus. Be in the Word and ask the Lord to speak to your heart through His Word and He will. He will give great peace that surpasses all understanding.

Have a blessed day in God’s Word with God’s peace fortifying your heart. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-August 24, 2020-

Good morning, happy Monday,

-God Hears And Answers Prayer, Let Us Call Upon Him-

“I love the Lord, because He Has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.”

(Psalm 116:1-2).

Does God really hear and answer our prayers? Oh, yes He does! Our prayers reach the throne room of the universe, to the throne of grace, to the Father in Jesus’ name. God has both the power and the desire to answer our prayers. This is why the Psalmist says, “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications.”

Can one person’s prayer really make a difference? It can and it does. In less than three months each of us will cast a vote for president. One reason many do not vote is they do not feel their one vote will make a difference, but if you do not vote it guarantees it will not make a difference. Prayer is much the same. One person’s prayer is effective and when we all pray, it is very effective.

James 5:16-18 says, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” Elijah was an ordinary man who prayed to an extraordinary God.

The Psalmist continued, “Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.” Prayer is needed on earth as long as we are alive to pray. There won’t be any need to pray in heaven. Everything will be perfect, then we will praise Him forever. Now is the time to pray. Now is when we face problems, troubles, trials, difficulties, pains, and sorrows.

Calling on the Lord in prayer should always be accompanied by praise and thanksgiving. We should pray according to God’s will and thank Him in advance for hearing and answering our prayers. I sense the excitement, energy, and expectation of the psalmist. Do these three components characterize our prayers? Or do we pray because we think it is the right thing to do? Or do we pray out of habit? Challenging isn’t it? Does our prayer life need a fresh sense of joy and purpose?

For new believers, prayer is new and exciting to speak to the Lord and bring needs, great and small to Him. As we mature and grow older we can lose some of the thrill of prayer. Prayer is such a blessing and it is hard work too. The devil will do everything in his power to keep us from praying. Let’s not let him win!

May the Lord help us to review our prayer life and then renew it. The one common regret every believer will have is that we didn’t pray enough. The second will be we didn’t pray effectively enough. We need to form good habits in prayer and stick to them. The Lord wants to hear from us every day and all through the day.

Have a blessed day praying with new excitement, energy, and expectation. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-August 23, 2020-

Good morning happy Lord’s Day,

-The Lord Holds Us Up And Comforts Us-

“If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.”

(Psalm 94:18-19).

Psalm 94 is one of the psalms with unknown authorship. It is a beautiful and encouraging psalm. The title of the psalm is: “God the Refuge of the Righteous.” Today’s verse is such a blessing to our hearts. We have a times when we feel as if we are slipping and may fall. Some particular circumstance comes into our lives that is both unexpected and we are unprepared for.

It is at these times that the Lord holds us up and keeps us from falling. Here in California we are not only experiencing the Coronavirus and the physical, mental, and emotional fallout of that and also the problems with loss of jobs and the economy; but now we have experienced so many wildfires caused by lightning strikes. Many have lost their homes and all their possessions. Some have died. Smoke fills the air all through our region and state. Our air is now the dirtiest in the world and is very unhealthy to breathe, especially for those with breathing problems.

Besides all this, we experience personal trials that are very difficult and challenging. Who do we turn to? What do we do? In times like these we need the Lord and must turn to Him for His help and comfort. Many of us can say with the psalmist, “If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up.” We do not face the troubles of life alone, we have the Lord with us. Only the Lord can hold us up and keep us going.

David wrote in Psalm 38:15-16, “For in You, O Lord, I hope; You will hear, O Lord my God. For I said, ‘Hear me, lest they rejoice over me, lest, when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me.” David experienced many trials but the Lord always helped him and supported him.

It is indeed wonderful that the writer said, “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” Priests in the Catholic Church have books that have standard prayers for various occasions. God is not like this. He is so very personal with us and He has compassion for us and comforts us. He alone can delight our souls in the midst of the hardest times.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Only God can comfort us. He feels our pain, our sorrow, and our loss. What afflicts is afflicts Him.

May the Lord hold us up in and carry through what we are dealing with today. We may slip but He holds us up; we may fall but He lifts us up. Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity.”

Have a blessed day in the comfort and consolation of the Lord. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-August 22, 2020-

Good morning, happy Saturday,

-God Through Christ Freely Gives Us All Things-

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered us Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

(Romans 8:32).

God did something He did not have to do to save those who did not deserve it, by the sacrifice of His well beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He did not spare His own Son but gave Him to die for us on the cross in order to make salvation available to everyone who believes.

The story is so amazing and wonderful that we can hardly believe a holy God would lay our sins on His sinless Son who paid our sin debt in full. When God told Abraham to offer his only son Isaac on Mount Moriah, He tested His faith and his faith stood steadfast right to the moment he was about to plunge the knife into his son’s chest. God stopped him and provided a ram caught in a thicket to sacrifice in the place of Isaac. God spared Abraham the pain and sorrow, that He did not spare Himself when He gave His own Son for us.

There is no greater demonstration of God’s love than at the cross. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” If God went to such extreme lengths to save us, how shall He not freely give us all things? We are now His beloved children through the adoption into His family. When God sees us, He sees us through Christ and in Christ.

When God gives us His gifts and blessings, He gives us freely, fully, and forever. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, “Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come – all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s”

Dear brothers and sisters, let us try to wrap our minds around that! God has freely given us all things through His Son Jesus. Do we not feel like Mephibosheth of old who said to King David, after David told him that he would eat bread at his table continually, “…Who is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I” (2 Samuel 9:8)? He sensed his utter unworthiness. We too are so unworthy but God considered us worthy of saving and blessing so abundantly.

This should not make us proud and boastful, but humble and thankful. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” How wonderful! It all belongs to us both now and for all eternity.

If we ever feel down or discouraged, let us remember we are children of the King, servants of the Most High God, His special treasure, the apple of His eye. We are so rich in Christ! He has freely given us all things! The hymn writer said, “Count your blessings, name them one by one; count your many blessings, see what God has done.”

Have a blessed day counting our blessings not our burdens. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-August 21, 2020-

Good morning, happy Friday,

-God’s Blessings By Day And By Night-

“The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me – a prayer to the God of my life.”

(Psalm 42:8).

Our God loves us so much and He takes care of us and blesses us day and night. While we are are awake, He guides us, cares for us, and blesses us; while we are asleep, He provides for us and watches over us. His lovingkindness, faithfulness, and care is like a triple layer canopy over us.

We notice that the Lord commands His lovingkindness in the daytime. When we arise in the morning, we should thank Him for another day. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Just to awaken to a new day is the first blessing of the day. When everything functions spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally, it is good. This is true for the young and the old.

What the day may bring forth we do not know, but we know who does: our great God. He sends His sufficient grace to us at just the right time. David wrote in Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” David was thankful for each day in the land of the living but even more he looked forward for heaven to be with the Lord forever.

When God commands His lovingkindness, we are blessed, when we are blessed, we are thankful, and when we are thankful, we are content with what He has given us. The sun shines and the Son-shines in our lives.

Not only does the Lord bless us by day, but He also blesses us by night. Whether we sleep or have trouble sleeping, the Lord is with us. There is quiet in the night seasons and the Lord can speak to us. Psalm 16:7 tells us, “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart instructs me in the night seasons.” There are blessings in the night seasons that do not come at any other time. There are songs in the night and special prayers.

May we thank the Lord for His blessings He gives in the day and in the night, for they are special and always just right. The Lord has a unique plan for each one of us. The Christian life is not a one size fits all, but is tailor made for each of us.

Have a blessed day and night with the Lord. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean