Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Philippians 2:13 (NKJV) For it is God who works in you both to will and to   do for His good pleasure. God is always at work in us.  He never stops, even when we think that nothing is happening.  His love is so overwhelming that in spite of us, He is there doing what needs to be done. When we realize the amazing love that our Heavenly Father has for us, and His intense patience, we can sit back and let Him do what needs to be done, because He will only do things that are for our good.  You know the old saying,  “When life throws you a lemon, make lemonade!”  Well, life will throw things at us, but as we put our trust in the Great I Am, believing that He is at work within us, He will work things out for our good.  As it says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” Now, I am not talking about when sickness or something bad comes.  We who are growing in the Lord know th...

John 14:21 (NKJV) “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is   he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I   will love him and manifest Myself to him.” In this scripture, Jesus is showing us how to get into intimacy with the Father.  It is by obeying His commandments.  Many people, when they hear this, say, “Oh yeah, that is right.  I have to do the law.  I have to live under all of those rules and regulations.”  But that is the farthest thing from the truth.  The commandments that Jesus gave us are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength, and to love one another.  So, we see that the commandments are love commandments.   Anyone who truly loves God has no problem with the first part.  We love Him and want to be a blessing to Him.  It is the second part that gives us some problems. Yet, as we make decisions each day ...

Romans 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be   transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that   good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I love the way the New Living Translation brings out this verse, “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” The way that we receive the power to overcome the things that come against our mind and body is to renew our minds.  You might say, “What does it mean to renew our minds?”  It means to take time to listen to the Word, and think the way that God thinks. If you have not noticed, this world thinks a little differently than a child of God should.  This world is so negative, and it constantly speaks words of death.  Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and if we ...

Romans 12:1 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of   God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to   God, which is your reasonable service. God has redeemed us, and in His sight, we are new creations!  We are the very righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus.  Because of the death of Jesus on the cross and His shed blood, our spirit man, the real us, is alive and one with Him. Our bodies, though, have not been fully redeemed yet.  They will be at the return of Jesus Christ, but what this verse is saying is that we have some work to do, by the strength of the Holy Spirit living within our spirit.  You see, God has placed Himself within us to help us overcome the struggles of our flesh. If left to itself, the flesh would do all kinds of crazy things.  It would want to destroy itself with over-eating, over-indulging in fleshly things, and just doing things that would harm it.  But...

Romans 6:14 (NKJV) For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are   not under law but under grace. I love this verse!  It is so positive and right to the point.  Sin shall not have dominion over me.  Not maybe.  Not we will see.  Sin shall not have dominion over me!  On the cross, our Jesus defeated the devil and has given us the victory.  On the cross, my sins were laid on Him and now I am free of sin. Many believe when you say that, it gives people a freedom to sin, but that is so far from the truth.  You see, when we understand that we are saved by grace and there was nothing we could do, and that it was all the work of Jesus and our heavenly Father, it gives us the empowerment to overcome sin. I have found that as I confess what Jesus has already done for me, it breaks the enemy’s stronghold over me.  (I can find these truths in the letters written to the church). There is nothing greater than to k...

Psalm 75:9-10 (NKJV) But as for me, I will declare it forever; I will sing praises to   the God of Jacob. 10 And all the horns of the wicked He will cut off, but the   horns of the righteous will be lifted up. Ever wonder why we sing praises to God?  I know there are many: He is worthy, all creation worships Him, He deserves our praise, and many more.  These are all true and good but today, I want to look at a different reason we sing praise to Him. When I praise Him, it causes me to stop thinking about me and all of my problems.  It gets me thinking about Him: the Great Problem-Solver.  When I take time to focus my attention and mind on the Glorious One, the King of kings and Lord of lords, all of my problems become so small. When I am not praising Him, I have a tendency to think of all the issues that I am going through.  But when my mind is set on Him, there is no problem, no situation that I see, that cannot be fixed. ...