Dean Allen's Daily Devotional

-March 27, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Thursday,

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.”

Nahum is a book that shows God’s pronouncement of judgment on the city of Nineveh. God sent the prophet Jonah to Nineveh to proclaim God’s truth to all wicked, sinful people there. The king and all 120,000 inhabitants repented and God heard them, accepted them, and relented of His judgment on them.

(Nahum 1:7).

In the midst of judgment, today’s verse is found. The Ninevites received God’s mercy and grace. Fast forward about a hundred years and we find that they had forgotten their revival and turned back to their sinful and idolatrous ways.

The Lord is good to all of us and He is always merciful and gracious. As I have quoted before, “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

Whether we go thru good times or bad times, He is good. He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. God is able and more than able to come to our rescue. The word stronghold is defined as, “a place that has been fortified so as to protect it against attack.” God is our refuge, our fortress, our deliverer.

The devil does his utmost to temp us, attack us, discourage us each and every day. He never quits or takes time off. God invites us to draw near and rely fully on Him.

Let us savor His goodness and rely on His power. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and healthy.

Tomorrow: God Knows Those Who Trust In Him.

-March 26, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Wednesday,

“And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’”

(Mark 7:37).

Jesus came into the world to save sinners and change people’s lives forever. The common people loved Him and listened to Him and witnessed His miracles. They reacted as you would expect: “they were astonished beyond measure.”

The people testified of Jesus, “He has done all things well.” Of course, He was rejected by the scribes and Pharisees, whom Jesus rebuked as “blind leaders of the blind, and hypocrites.” But even so, they could find nothing valid against Him.

Can we not also say, “He has done all things well in our lives?” I know I can! He healed the sick, gave the blind their sight, and caused the mute to speak; He cleansed the lepers and raised the dead; He made the lame to walk. He truly did all things well.

Gregory of Nazianzus said of Jesus in A.D. 381, “He began His ministry by being hungry, yet He is the Bread of Life. He ended His earthly ministry by being thirsty, yet He is the Living Water. He was weary, yet He is our rest. He paid tribute, yet He is the King. He was accused of having a demon, yet He cast out demons. He wept, yet He wipes away our tears. He was sold for thirty pieces of silver, yet He redeemed the world. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is the Good Shepherd. He died, yet by His death He destroyed the power of death.”

Let us fall down before Him and worship our wonderful Savior. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and healthy.

Jesus continues to do all things well.

Dean

-March 25, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Tuesday,

“Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore.”

(Psalm 105:4).

Seeking the Lord is the best thing we can do today. God is so pleased when we desire to spend time with Him in worship, praise, and thanksgiving. This is why the anonymous psalmist says, “Seek His face evermore.”

It is so easy to seek His hand more than His face. Too often we spend most of our prayer times making requests. Sometimes in life people only come to you when they need something. How do feel? Wouldn’t it be great if they came around just to say hi and see how I am doing? How must the Lord feel when all we do is ask, ask, ask.

Nothing is wrong with supplication for our needs, we should ask, but our most first thoughts and priorities should be to praise Him for who He is. This question we should ask ourselves, “Do I seek the Lord’s face or His hand?” Psalm 27:8 says, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I will seek.’”

The first words of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-10 are, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When we come into His presence and seek His face, our focus becomes the Lord not ourselves.

Let us always remember who the Lord is and what He has done for us. The Lord knows what we need even before we ask. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and healthy.

Of the ten lepers cleansed by Jesus, only one returned to give thanks and fall at His feet.

Dean

-March 24, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Monday,

“And not only that, but we also glory in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

(Romans 5:3-4).

Not many of us are happy when God sends trials in our lives. Pain, is painful; trouble is troublesome, sorrow is sorrowful. Left to ourselves, we wouldn’t choose trials. Aren’t we glad God knows what we need to grow and please Him?

God loves us so much and trials are a sign of His love and how He produces spiritual results as we go through them. A particular trial has a beginning and an end; but trials never end in our lives until we get to heaven. Therefore we can glory in our tribulations and count them all joy.

James wrote, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-3).

God sees the big picture, taking into account of what He wants us to be. He is isn’t finished with us yet. His goal for us is that we be conformed to the image of His Son. Paul details three things that result from of our trials: perseverance, character, and hope.

Perseverance means to keep going when we feel like giving up. James 5:11 says, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” As my dear brother in Christ, Walt Huckabee used to always say years ago, “Keep on keeping on.”

Character is who we are at the very core of our being. This why character is the hardest thing to change. There is a big difference between character and characteristics. God wants to change who we are, not just what we do, though what we do is because of who we are. Change me, O Lord!

Hope is looking forward to what is coming with joy and anticipation. Romans 15:13 tells us, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the Holy Spirit.” Hope looks beyond the present difficulties to our future glory in heaven. Hope also looks to God’s answers to our prayers in this life.

God’s trials produce good results. If we could see what what God sees and knows what He knows, we would acknowledge that these trials are needed to make us what He wants us to be in perseverance, character, and hope.

Have a blessed day in God’s crucible. He has a plan for each of us today. Stay safe and healthy.

Fiery trials just burn away the dross and leave the gold refined.

Dean

-March 23, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Lord’s Day,

“The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”

(Psalm 34:18).

The quality that God most desires in His servants is a broken and contrite heart. He wants us to live holy and humble lives with hearts that are soft and sensitive toward Him.

David experienced this after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah. The Lord brought him under great spiritual, physical, and emotion suffering as a result of his sins. He confessed his sins and God forgave him, showing him great mercy.

David wrote in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.”

The word contrite is defined as, “feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt over improper or objectionable behavior, actions, etc.” To us as believers, we don’t want to sin or displease the Lord in any way. when we do sin, we feel it very deeply in our hearts.

We should hate sin, especially the sin in our own lives. We should never take it lightly. God is always near to those with a broken and contrite heart. God is near to and pleased with when we confess and forsake sin.

Isaiah 66:2 says, “‘For all those things My hand has made. And all those things exist,” says the Lord. But on this one I will look: on Him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My Word.’” God sees into our hearts and looks for genuine repentance and godly sorrow.

To be contrite is to be humble before Lord, seek Him with our whole heart, and keep short accounts with Him by immediately confessing our sins, repenting of the sin, and forsaking it. Revival breaks out when believers give themselves fully to Christ in full surrender to His will.

Let us be those who have a broken and contrite heart that is sensitive to sin and turns from it. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and healthy.

God cannot resist a contrite heart,

Dean