Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. They are health to all our flesh.  I will take that, how about you?  As we put into practice all the parts that we have been talking about these last few days, God’s Word becomes, as one person said, “Medicine to all our flesh.” I do not know about you, but when I am hurting, I want some good medicine so that the pain will go away.   Here, it says that God’s Word is our medicine.  As I read it, and attend to it, and incline my ear to it, and keep it before my eyes, and let it have first place in my heart, it produces medicine to me and my flesh.  It brings heath to my body! So many people spend so much time trying to ...

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Life is what we want!  Jesus said in the second part of John 10:10 ”…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  God wants us to have a good, full life; a life filled with Himself; a life of victory and success. So how do we have this?  This verse says that we get life when we find the Word.  His Word is like a treasure.  You can get good things from it by reading it, but the true wealth of His Word comes as we dig into it. Look at Psalm 19:10: “More to be desired are they then gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”  His Word must become more v...

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. What is in your heart today?  You will know right away by what you are thinking about all day long.  Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, ”…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  So, is your mind filled with worry, and bitterness, or is it filled with the peace of God and His joy?  What comes out of your mouth?  This shows us what we have put in our heart.  This is not to put us down, but for us to make a decision of change; a decision for growth. Here it says to put God’s Word in the midst of our heart.  Get God’s Word in you.  You might ask, “How?”  Well, here is how I do it.  Instead of l...

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. So, we have seen that we need to give the word of God our attention, and we are to tilt our ear towards it.  Now it says that we are not to let it depart from our eyes.  Well, how can we do something like this?  Can we just walk around with a Bible attached to our head so we are looking at it all day long?  No, I do not think our bosses, or others, would like that. I believe He is saying to get the Word in our hearts so we can see it all day long.  We can write verses out and put them in our pocket, or different places, so that we will see it, and we can put it on our screen saver on our computer so it jumps out at us, but the...

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Ok, let us move on to the next part of verse 20: “Incline your ear to my sayings.”  Think about this: we listen to so many people during the course of our lives, yet the Words of Almighty God are the greatest words that we can listen to.  Jesus said in John 6:63 that the words that He speaks to us are spirit, and they are life. The word incline means to tilt, to tip, or slant.  I love that!  We are to tilt our ear to the Word of God.  Have you ever been with someone, and you could not hear them really well?  What did you do?  Most likely, you tilted your ear towards them so you could hear them better.  This is w...

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. For the next few days, we are going to look into these great verses.  There is so much here, so let us get started. Verse 20: “My son, give attention to my words.”  God is telling us to give His Word first place in our heart.  In the military, when an officer says “Attention!” the soldiers snap to it.  That is how God want us to be with His Word. The word attention means concentration, dedication, attentiveness, diligence, mindfulness, affection, and studiousness.  It is a verb meaning to listen carefully, to pay attention, to give heed, and to obey.  That is pretty good stuff! Our Father is telling us to giv...

Pastor Diane  Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The world we live in is full of anxiety, stress, and pressure.  God has the answer for us.  He tells us what we can do to have peace in the midst of the storm, to rest while others are anxious, and to be calm while others are stressed.  This is something we are going to have to make a decision to do.  We need to make a decision not to be anxious. Another translation puts it like this: “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything...” How can we do that?  The rest of the verse tells us how: “…but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” I am so glad we have a God that not only hears our prayers, but is also faith...

Romans 2:4 (NKJV) Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? This verse is so powerful!  It says that God’s goodness is what leads us to repentance.  It is not banging people over the head, or telling them what a terrible sinner they are, that leads them to God.  It is sharing God’s goodness with them, and letting them know that God loves them and is out for their good. I know in my life I have seen God’s goodness again and again, and it has brought me to the place of opening my heart and getting rid of junk.  I have not seen God whacking me and telling me that I am a no-good sinner and that I am a waste in the Kingdom of God.  No!  He is always there to love me and help me get back on track. I remember as a child I had a figure-eight racetrack, and to keep a car on track there was a little pin on the bottom of the car that fit into a groove on th...

1 John 3:13 (NKJV) Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. Here we have a short verse, yet it says so much.  We are living in a time when this world is not going for godliness and righteousness, but for darkness and sin.  But the Scripture says that we are the light of the world, and to let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. Remember that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more!  If we are to be light and salt, then we need to be the brightest light we can be, and the saltiest salt that we can be.  I heard one person say it like this: “Be so salty for Jesus that people will thirst for Him.”  That is what we need to do with light also.  As people see the Lord shining brightly, they will come to Him. The wise men saw a light in the night.  It was a star shining brighter than any other light, and they followed that star.  So it is with us.  If we love God an...