Daily Devotional

Scripture 2 Chron 34:31 Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

Observation: To make a covenant with God because it seems to be the right thing to do is worth nothing if you don’t do it with all your heart mind and soul. You make a covenant with God because you love, fear Him and desire to please Him and fulfill the purpose He has created you for. We must follow God’s law. Not just some of it, but all of it. This is God’s direction for our life, the path that will keep us safe and if we decide to stray from it we can’t expect God to protect us any longer.

Application: I need to make a covenant with my Lord that I will keep all of His word, because I love Him and want to please Him. I can’t pick and choose what commands I want to keep and which ones I don’t. I need to stand on His promises and trust Him with all of my heart, mind and soul that His will would be done in my life from now on.

Prayer: My Lord I freely give you this life as a living sacrifice may it be Holy and pleasing to you. I love you Lord and I want to please you and I make a covenant with you today that I will keep your laws and draw closer to you.

Scripture 2 Chron 33:13 and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

Observation: Manasseh did nothing but evil against God. He built and worshiped idols, went against all that God had set up until God didn’t want to take anymore and brought up an enemy to destroy him. If that was me I would have washed my hands of him, but God with His endless mercy saw him repent and beg for forgiveness. So God forgave and brought him back and blessed him and it wasn’t until then that Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. So what will it take for us to know that our Lord is God?

Application: Not only to know that my Lord is good, but to show my Lord how much I appreciate Him. To serve my Lord in any way He desires and to tell others about His unbelievable mercy and grace. To live a life pointing others to God and to use all that God has given me for His glory.

Prayer: My Lord and my God. Speak to your servant so that I may know your desires. Help me live a life that leads to you. Show me how to serve others in your name and not to waste this precious time you have blessed me with. I’m yours and I love you with all of my heart.

Scripture 2 Chron 32:8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Observation: We get so overwhelmed with our daily battles that we forget we don’t have to fight them alone. God will help us fight but we need to call on Him to help us. When we see our battles knowing that the Lord is on our side they seem small compared to what God has in store for us. God is always there and desires to be part of our lives and wants to guide us through this life even the battles we seem to loose from time to time has a meaning and if we search with our hearts knowing God cares and loves us there is always a valuable lesson to learn.

Application: I need to stop trying to fight the battles on my own strength, because I don’t have any. My focus is on me and not my Lord and I need to be focused on Him to make it through this life victoriously. I need to humble myself like the kings and prophets of old and give it to God bowing to His authority and allow Him to guide and fight for me.

Prayer: My Lord I am conquered without you. I’m weak in mind and spirit and need your strength and guidance to get through each day. Even now I’m hurting physically and I’m mentally defeated. Strengthen me and get me through that my eyes would be open to your will and give me victory this day.

Scripture 2 Chron 31:6 And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the LORD their God they laid in heaps.

Observation: One of the first things I did when I was saved was to tithe. Not sure why that was important to me then, because I was a very selfish person and what was mine was mine. It was one of the most dramatic changes in my life at that time and now over 16 years later there has not been anything that I have received that I haven’t tithed on. I’ve told others we should tithe on our first fruits as it tells us in the Bible and I tell others the most precious thing God has given us is time. To give a tithe of our time is 2.4 hours a day or 17 hours a week in studying, praying and serving others in our Lord’s name. I don’t come close even though those times that I dedicate to God are the times that are most full of joy and peace. Our Lord deserves so much more than a tithe and most of us haven’t been able to even mustard up that for the One who has given us everything.

Application: I need to work on my selfishness, which is what keeps me from giving to God what he deserves. If I wasn’t so concern about my time to rest or do what I want to do for my own pleasure I would be more free to give to my Lord who deserves all of my love praise, obedience and time. God needs to be my priority in this life and the life to come and if there is anything left I should be giving to others with me receiving what is left. I know if I live like that God would bless me even though I don’t deserve anything, because that’s the God we serve.

Prayer: My Lord you deserve so much better than I give you. Help me please set me free of the bondage of my selfish desires that I will give you freely all you deserve from this life you have blessed me with. I want to be a joyful servant in your presence and serve you will all of my heart mind and soul.

Scripture 2 Chron 30:9 For if you return to the LORD, your brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them captive, so that they may come back to this land; for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you return to Him.”

Observation: God doesn’t keep a grudge. If we return to Him and ask for forgiveness and mercy, He will give it. Not because we deserve it, because He wants to. He loves us and He will rejoice when we come running back to Him like the prodigal son. God wants us to come to Him, He waits until we come to our senses at times and is ready to protect and bless us for our obedience to seek Him.

Application: I need to stop trying to do things on my own, but do them with my Lord. My life should be a living sacrifice which means it is no longer my life but it’s God’s. I need not just to return to Him, but to stay with Him always each day. Living in a way that others can see Him too.

Prayer: My Lord keep me near and convict my spirit if I stray. I know I might not have too much longer to go on this earth, so please Lord guide me the rest of the way that I may honor you with the life that is left. I love you Lord.

Scripture 2 Chron 29:10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us.

Observation: Before you do something for the Lord make sure it’s from your heart and not your head. Our Lord wants and deserves our love and obedience which comes from wanting to give those things and not from feeling we have to. God loves us freely, He doesn’t have to but he loves us from His heart and desires that we love Him back. So when we make a promise to God it needs to be from the heart, that we want to do it in glory and honor to Him and not because we might think we’ll get something out of it. God knows our motives and our heart and cannot be deceived.

Application: I need to grow close to God and to try to understand His love for me and to love my God with all of my heart, mind and soul. He deserves the very best I can give and I need to dedicate myself to giving it to Him. Whatever I commit to do for my Lord it has to come from a desire to please Him and not out of obligation.

Prayer: My Lord you are worthy of all of my love, praise, obedience and time. Help me give you these things in a way that will honor and please you. I love you with all of my heart and I want to get this right before I come home. Help this sinner please.

Scripture 2 Chron 28:13 and said to them, “You shall not bring the captives here, for we already have offended the LORD. You intend to add to our sins and to our guilt; for our guilt is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.”

Observation: Sometimes we sin and instead of stopping we might think will I already sinned might as well just go on and finish. When we sin and realize it and don’t stop we had onto our sin and show God we don’t need to obey you. When you realize you’ve sinned that is the Holy Spirit convicting you of your actions and if you continue you are only feeding your sin and disobeying God. Unless you stop the sin you are committing and ask God for forgiveness your sin just multiplies and there will be a consequence to your actions.

Application: I do this exact thing. I justify my actions and when I realize that I’m sinning I try to downplay the sin, but I continue, making it worse. Sin doesn’t stay the same you either ask for forgiveness or you let it grow, I need to stop and ask God for forgiveness and repent, turn away from sinning. I need to get rid of these lustful thoughts and this laziness that prevents me from doing what I know is right to do, which is also sinning. This life needs to be dedicated to God at all times.

Prayer: My Lord I need your help to be better. I want to please you and be the man that will honor you, but I’m too busy honoring myself. Rid me of this evil and fill me with the Holy Spirit and give me the strength to do what honors you. I love you and want to please you my Lord.