daily devotional

*** This is a safe place. You will never hear a political message here. We protect this space to keep it positive and allow one thing to permeate our hearts, GOD’S WORD. When things get real, as they sure have over the past few days, more than ever we need a safe place to find our peace and guidance. I pray that is what you find here. It is my heart’s deepest desire today to bring you a powerful and personal message fulfilling 2 Corinthians 13:11 which says “Rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace be with you.” ***

God’s Plan Back

Before there was a problem, God had the solution. Before you even prayed, God had an answer. Before it ever went wrong, God had a plan to make it right. There is a way back. Isn’t that what we need to hear right now? THERE IS A WAY BACK. Not back to the way things used to be, because honey they were broken before this. But back to God’s original plan of goodness, unity, and peace.

The Lord’s Prayer is the example Jesus used in teaching us to pray. It says “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Praying, “Thy Kingdom come,” means asking the heavenly Father to help us in our own lives to be faithful, obedient, authentic, and effective. We spread God’s kingdom not only with words but also through our actions.

This is earth, it will never be Heaven, but we can be part of bringing his kingdom here. We can be part of doing his will here. We can be part of the solution instead of the problem.

Today would be a really good day to seek God in being part of the solution. Ask God to examine your heart, your words and your actions and reveal where you may need to personally make a shift to be in alignment with his will. God has made a way back, now let’s seek the way.

Remember Adam and Eve lost their way. They did the one thing God told them not to do. They ate from the tree of life, and that act of disobedience changed everything. Life as they knew it changed and at the center of that was the evil one trying to thwart the good plans of God. They lived in a paradise of perfection until his nasty self slithered his way in with deception.

The evil one still works in this way. He twists the words of God, makes us feel justified and righteous. He tempts us with a little hidden wrong that puts us on a path of complete destruction.

If the enemy offered you a match and said, “here, set your whole house on fire and destroy everything you’ve worked for”, you would never do that. So instead he offers one little wrong attitude, one skewed perspective, one bad habit, one unhealed hurt, and it starts an infestation from within. When left unchecked, untreated and unhealed, that infestation tears the whole house down. Ruined from the inside out.

This is how the enemy works. Within communities, within our homes, within our hearts. He starts with an attitude. He starts with a perspective. He starts with a bad habit. He starts with a hurt. And his goal is to tear it all down. Destroy the good and stop the kingdom.

Will you let him win in your life? Will you let him deceive you with an unchecked heart?

CHECK YO’SELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YO’SELF.

Are you part of the solution or are you part of the problem? And before you say what you always say, ask God to examine your heart and reveal any twists the enemy has put on the truth.

When Adam and Eve messed up and ate the fruit from the one tree God told them not to eat, God revealed his plan back to restoration. Did it change everything, yes. But God was merciful in his plan for them to return. In Genesis 3 we read the whole story, and we see that God made clothes for them out of animal skin to cover their shame and guilt.

God will cover us now too. God, we haven’t always been right. Maybe we too have been part of the problem sometimes. Will you cover our shame and guilt as we seek you? Will you make a way back for us? Back to your good plan. Back to your will here on Earth and our part of that will.

God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden where they had done wrong and he posted angels at its entrance to keep them from returning. God was protecting them more than he was punishing them. Protecting them from the plan the enemy had. Protecting them from living in bondage to the sin that infected them. God was merciful.

God, be merciful to us now. Don’t let us go back to what has infected us. Don’t let us fall victim to the evil plans of the enemy.

God was not oblivious to the work of Satan. He was not shocked by his deceit. In fact, he had already created a solution. He said to the serpent; who remember was the devil in his lowliest, slimiest, sneakiest form, “because you have done this, you will be cursed. Offspring of the woman will crush your head.”

Oh, there’s the plan. There’s the solution. God was now going to make it right.

The offspring of this woman would be Jesus. Jesus crushed the head of the devil with his victory on the cross and took back the keys of hell to set the captives free.

Jesus is the answer. The answer for every injustice. The answer for every pain. The answer for every problem.

Jesus is God’s answer for exactly THIS, before we ever knew this was a problem. Before this problem came knocking on your door, the solution was already provided. JESUS.

Jesus is the everlasting gift given to us as the result of God’s love. “For God so LOVED the WORLD, that he gave his only begotten son.”

He loved every single one of us, and he still does. His love changed everything, now he expects us to use our love to change things too.

The enemy has been defeated here. His head has been crushed. Don’t let him slither his way back into your life. Don’t let his hate infest your home. HE HAS NO PLACE HERE.

His plans are for destruction. His plans are for division. His plans are for devastation and despair.

But God is greater. God is bigger. God sits on the throne. His solution is LOVE. And his love is more powerful than anything the enemy could ever concoct in his nasty pit of hell.

Lord, show us how to love like you love. Show us how to overcome. Show us how to be part of the solution, your solution. We know it begins and ends with love.