Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Proverbs 10:22 (NKJV) The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. This is such a rich verse, right?  When God blesses, it makes us rich.  So what is rich?  Well, to the world, rich is having lots of money and lots of things.  We know from the scripture that money and things in themselves are not bad, but what they do to us can make them bad. So when we say, “God’s blessings make us rich,” I think we need to look beyond just earthly wealth and see the spiritual wealth that God, our Father, has for us while we live on this earth, and for all eternity.  To be blessed by God, to me, means having a close and intimate fellowship with Him.  It means to be blessed spiritually, mentally, and physically. For us to be well in heart, soul, and body is beyond the few things that this world can offer.  When I look at some very rich people, I would not want the life that they have.  Yet I look at others that have earthl...

Psalms 30:11 (NKJV) You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness... When we are going through those times that feel like we are in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, God has not left us!  His Word declares that He will never leave us or forsake us.  This verse brings out that God, our Heavenly Father, will turn our mourning into dancing.  Wow!  What a contrast: mourning to dancing. These two are on separate plains, yet this is what our Father says He will do.  He will take those times in our lives when we hurt and mourn within and give us such joy that we want to dance in His presence, and to enjoy Him and all that He is.  God is so full!  He is so great!  He is the One who will take our sackcloth away, and clothe us with His gladness. So today, if you are struggling with something and it seems like you cannot get the victory, hold on!  There is a dance coming your ...

Psalms 30:5 (NKJV) For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Have you ever had a time where there was such weeping in your heart?  Not necessarily physical pain, but pain of the heart?  Maybe somebody did you wrong, or something happened that hurt so badly you just about put yourself to bed with tears.  Or maybe it was a pain that you did not understand; something within you made you weep the night away.  It could have been tears in a prayer as you interceded, not knowing who or what you were praying for, but you knew that you could not, or you should not, let go. This verse is for you then, because there are times that we are in anguish of heart.  Words cannot describe what it is, but we need to weep, we need to pray, and we need to hold on.  Even if it is because someone did us wrong, and we struggle in those times.  We hurt within, yet God says when we...

Mark 16:17-18 (NKJV) And these signs will follow those who believe... 18....they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. God, our Father, has made provision for us in all areas.  God cares about our eternal well-being, and He cares about our life here on the earth.  Jesus came that we might have life, and that more abundantly. Healing is the children's bread, and it belongs to those who are in Christ Jesus. When we look at this verse, it says that the believing ones would lay hands on the sick and they will recover.  Many times, we miss it when we have hands laid on us and we do not see any change. But this verse says that they shall recover.  It might happen instantly, or it might happen in a while.  What we need to do is to hold on to the promise that we will recover. We are not to be moved by sight, but by faith in His Word, and as we hold on to his precious promises, they will come to pass.  There are times when holding on seem...

Luke 13:16 (NKJV) So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath? As we look into the works of Jesus, we see here how the religious community did not care that this woman was bound.  They only cared about their religious order.  Well, Jesus shook up their order and showed where this sickness came from. Jesus puts it out pretty clearly who bound this woman.  Many would say "Well, God must be trying to teach her something through this sickness," but here Jesus says that it was satan that had bound up this woman, and that it was God’s will that she be free.  When things come against us (and things will come against us as long as we are in this fallen world), the first step to victory is to know where it is coming from. Jesus put the blame where the blame was due.  Satan had bound this woman, not God, our loving Heavenly Father.  There is no s...

Acts 10:38 (NKJV) …how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. As we continue to look at the heart of God, we see in this verse that God was working, through Jesus, to bring healing and good to humanity.  Jesus was anointed by God, with the powerful Holy Spirit, to go and heal.  He also showed us that healing is good.  I do not know about you, but when sickness comes against me or someone I love, I never see it as a good thing.  I never say, “God must be trying to teach me something through this.” No!  We have an enemy of God who is coming against us, and God has given us His Word and the blood of Jesus to fight him and defeat him. In Revelation 12:11 it says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”   We overcome the ...

James 1:17 (NKJV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Yesterday, we looked at the verse in John where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”  We brought out that God, our Heavenly Father, is accused of doing many things that, according to what we see in the New Testament, do not line up to His way of acting. In this verse in James, it says that every good and perfect gift comes from God.  Well even I, with my little brain, can figure out that sickness and calamity is not good.  It is like when people lose their home through a tornado, or a flood, or whatever natural disaster, people try to tell us that this was God’s will.  Not according to what we read in the New Testament! When sickness invades us, we need to remember that Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”  I can never find Jesus putting sickness on...

John 14:7-9 (NKJV) “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” When we read the New Testament, it shows us a different picture than what the world, or religion, tells us.  In these verses, Philip asked Jesus a simple question, yet the answer should change the way we see God, and help us to better understand where bad things come from. Philip asked to see the Father that Jesus was always talking about, and then Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”  Well, by reading this, we can say that what Jesus did while He walked the earth, is the same thing that the Father does. I never saw Jesus put sickness on a person, so I ...

2 Samuel 22:29-30 (NKJV) For You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD shall enlighten my darkness. 30 For by You I can run against a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall. Many times, we try to do things that are not possible to do in our own strength.  But when we put our trust in God, our Father, He gives us the power to run against the enemy, and to leap walls that are too high for us to leap over. When young David came against Goliath, he did not let Goliath run at him.  Instead, he ran against him.  Why was that?  Because he knew Who his God was, and what his God could do. He knew the covenant of his God, so he came with boldness against the enemy. We have a covenant with our God through Jesus Christ, and if He wants you to run at the enemy, you can!  If he wants you to leap over a high wall, you can! The Bible says in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Jesus is our strength, and He is our abi...