Rejoice, and Exult in the Lord Thy God Always

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Rejoicing in Refuge

God is our refuge not merely because we trust in Him, but because we rejoice in Him. We aren’t meant to simply be deliberate in our service of the Lord, no, we are meant to be exuberant, joyful, and triumphant towards Him, and in everything He does for us. How can we serve our Heavenly Father, or even our earthly one, out of love if there is no joy or emotion exhibited towards them as we do so? In everything we are to be thankful to God, and in our thanks there should be love, and we should exult in Him. Do we rejoice in our God when He has provided us with refuge, and stood guard over us against all enemies, and every worldly harm?

Our Victory over Death, and the Blessing of Forgetfulness

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Death

We go through hard times in our lives, and then become all too familiar with death, but for Christians there are two things that miraculously occur in death, the first is that we, or our loved ones who have passed away, are assured of rising up again in Christ, and the second is that our memories of life with them, or our friend’s and family’s remembrances of their life with us, become rich and wonderful as most of the hardships we encountered together in life are either cast off as insignificant, or become treasured moments for us. This is unfathomable or misunderstood in the world, but not to the believer. While the unbeliever finds no peace in death, and little comfort in their memories, we are comforted by God, and the moments of triumphant joy in our faith in Christ lifts us up.

Do Not Fret, and the Reading of Psalm 37

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Fretting

Psalm 37 speaks a great deal about fretting, or worrying to the point of becoming anxious, and also about how the wicked will be overcome by the faith of the righteous through the strength of God. It is good to read this Psalm from time to time because it reassures us of God’s greater plan for us, and how He will keep His promises to us. This chapter inoculates us with hope when the evil and wicked in the world troubles us, or seeks to destroy us. We are told in this Psalm of many ways that God is our strength, and our savior, as we stand against the world.

Sharing from our Hearts

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional ,

As Christians we believe in God, and have faith in Jesus Christ His Son. We also work at behaving as Jesus did in our own lives, we love our neighbors, feed the hungry, visit the sick, and many other things that we have learned through the study of the gospels, but there might be one lesson that is particularly hard for us… sharing what we have. As hard as this might be for some of us to do it is something that is pleasing to God. When the occasion presents itself to do good, do we also share what we have been given.

Heartbreak, God’s Will, and Prayer

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Heartbreak and Prayer

Once we pray about something in our lives are we at peace with it, or do we continue to fret and feel anxious regarding it? Do we offload our burden in prayer, or continue to carry it? Once prayed for, do we trust that God will work this thing for our good, or do we remain anxious and pursuing our own will in whatever we have asked of Him? Are we able to pray as Jesus did then release our desire into God’s hands, and say “not my will but yours be done.”

Must we Shout, or go Toe to Toe over our Faith?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Fighting for Faith

It is hard to stand silent when we are being disparaged by someone. We are tempted to confront those who do this to us, and yet we have two examples of this happening in scripture that we should use as our guides when this occurs to us. The most obvious is Jesus as he stood accused before the chief priests, and again before Pilot. Even unto death He did not quarrel or defend Himself. The second was King David as Shemei, a relative of Saul, cursed him in front of all his men. This man chased after David and derided him, while throwing stones and dust at him, but David did not retaliate. All of us have been in such situations, and I ask that we each reflect on how we behaved.

Are we Focused on Governments, and Churches, or on our own Salvation?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Personal Salvation

There is a saying we use when someone gets so focused on the details of a thing that they can’t see the bigger picture; we say “They can’t see the forest for the trees”. Well, something similar can happen to us as we pursue our faith, but in a very different way. Our faith, unlike things in the world, is all about our individual faiths, all about the details, the trees, and very seldom about the forests. One of Satan’s greatest ploys is to distract us from pursuing our own faith by convincing us that the world’s salvation, predicaments, or pleasures, should be our primary focus. Have we fallen victim to him in this way?

Finding Prosperity and Peace in times of Suffering

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Faith in Suffering

When we, the faithful believers in God, and Jesus Christ, are suffering through some bodily illness, fatigue, failure, or perhaps are being set upon by worldly suffering and calamity, do we hold tight to our faith? Do we continue believing, not as we did previously, but by growing stronger and stronger as we lean more and more on our Lord? Job gives us encouragement that should sustain us in the midst of such tribulation. Are we listening to him, and applying his resolve and faith to our own suffering? Can we prosper in faith, even when we are failing bodily?

Hearing God’s Voice; do we know how?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Hearing God

How is it that we hear God speaking to us, and do we obey him when He does? Sometimes it is in a gentle breeze that guides us when we are still enough to perceive it, and at other times a low whisper that requires us to be silent, but we occasionally hear him in a loud clear voice. However we hear Him, we first, and always, must be listening. Sometimes He might get our attention with a storm, by violently shaking the earth, or with a raging fire but even then His voice will usually be gentle and low. Like Jesus did to Saul we might be knocked down, or blinded, but His voice, even when it comes in a more normal volume, will be clear and calm as He speaks, and as He directs us into a new life, just as Saul was as he became Paul. However, the real question in all of this is this… what do we do with what God tells us? Do we obey, or just wonder if that was really Him?

The Value of Being Alone with God

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Alone with God

As Christians we spend time in church and in faith based activities with other believers. We also find ourselves surrounded by the fallen world, and sometimes it can feel like both of these activities are having the same effect on us. The hectic nature they share, the imperfect humanness that is there; they wear on us, so let’s ask ourselves a couple of questions today… how much time do we spend alone with God, and do we allow this quiet time to restore us?

No lesson is learned without facing the problem

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Lessons of Faith

We face the greatest lessons of Christ, and our Heavenly Father in the hard, and tempting moments of our lives. We learn the commandments and how to obey them when we come face to face with the temptation to disobey them. A man in the desert alone is not tempted to commit adultery, just as a child who is given his fill of candy isn’t prone to steal it. It is only when David stood on his roof and saw Bathsheba that he was made to face his desire to commit adultery, and it is when a child stands penniless before the candy counter that the thought of stealing crosses his mind. What were, or are, the circumstances that have led each one of us to learn such hard lessons regarding one of God’s commandments?

Unseen Spiritual Suffering and Pain

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Spiritual Pain

Quite often we miss seeing the inward pain that people are enduring in their lives. There are those who suffer excruciating physical, mental, emotional, and yes, spiritual pain, from sources that we can’t possibly see by simply looking at them. Haven’t we met an old friend on the street, and in the exuberant joy of seeing them again taken their hand or hugged them, only to have them wince in pain and tell us they hurt somewhere, or perhaps we asked how their family was doing and witnessed tears and sadness in their eyes as they told us of a lost loved one? It is the same with spiritual pain. So how do we recognize it, and how should we react to it? We are directed to those who suffer by the merciful hand of God who sees their hearts.

Do our Prayers Change Us?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Changing Prayer

We say that we pray every day, and that might be true, but is our prayer a momentary request, or is it a fervent plea? Do we step into, and out of, our prayer closets unchanged by the experience of having knelt or laid prostrate before God? Are our prayers from the depths of our hearts and being drawn as if by a pump from the deepest wells of our souls? Once again, do we walk from our place of prayer a changed person, or simply pleased that we can mark this item from our list of tasks?

Using the Gifts We are given

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , God’s Gifts

What gifts do we have that do not come from God? We like to think that our skills, abilities, characters, and even our faiths in Jesus, are from us, but they are not, however, the way in which we use them is of us. We can choose to use them well, or for dark and self-serving purposes. So, how have we each decided to use the gifts that we have been given in our lives? Have we convinced ourselves that our abilities come from our own efforts, and are manifest by in hard work and self-developed talents? Do we believe that our faith comes from within us, or from God whose Spirit abides in us all?

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