Dear Generation Y, specifically those is our twenties. This is for you. This is a daily devotional dedicated to people in their twenties, as we go through life changes and finding our independence. But also finding ourselves in Christ.
1 John 1:5-7
“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
How many times have we devoted our lives to Christ or rededicated our lives to Him and went back into our same old ways? How many times have we decided that we are going to “live right” but couldn’t seem to let go of the very thing keeping us from living right? We all want a shot to get things right and we all know that Jesus is the way but unless we are willing to set our lives down and pick up our crosses and walk with Him how are we going to get that chance to get it right. What I’m saying is that we are often verbally committed to walking in the line while actively committed to the darkness. We have things that we are holding on to that will not allow us to walk completely in the light with Jesus Christ. This is what John means when He says spiritual darkness there is something holding us back from God, something only we can point out. Why is it so hard to give it up? Sometimes we are in the dark so long that it begins to alter our vision. We begin to adjust to living in darkness. If you’re in a dark room, in the beginning everything is pitch black and you can’t see anything, but after a while your eyes will start to adjust to The point where you cannot see clearly but you can see figures, you know if something or someone has moved. We spend our whole lives in darkness and the moment the light hits it will either frighten us or excite us.
Jesus came as a light to a world that was living in darkness He literally came to change the world, to bring people out of darkness and into the light. As we know darkness is the absence of light, meaning that where there is no light, Jesus is not there. To walk with Christ all the days of our lives is to walk in the light or live right.
All this to say, if we are going to walk with Christ we must do it full out and wholeheartedly. It makes no sense for us to claim that we walk in light when we are still living in darkness. We must let go of anything keeping us in the dark and know that God is taking us on a beautiful journey and we cannot get to where we are going in we cannot see, spiritually and physically. Response/ Prayer Time
Today was very short and sweet but take the time to reread the passage and talk to God about what we discussed today. Search your heart, open your heart to God and allow His light to push out any darkness in your life.
I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing Day or Evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 329!
For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them,for the light makes everything visible…
This statement might be familiar to some of us, but I remember when I was younger, a way my mom scared the truth out of us or stopped us from doing things we knew we weren’t supposed to do was by saying, “What’s done in the dark will come to light.” Every time she said this to us I would freak out, like I would have a few mini heart attacks. Thinking about all the things she would find out, I started freaking out about things I hadn’t even done, but I was convinced that I would get in trouble no matter what. This was a life lesson, it kept me an honest person, and someone who was willing to clean my closet before all the skeletons fell out. God knows what we are doing when no one else is looking. He sees the things we do in the dark that we try to hide from everyone else. The difference between God and my mom is that I could hide things from her, there’s nothing i can hide from God because He is all knowing. He. Sees. Everything.
God is calling us to live an honest life before Him. He’s calling us out of darkness and telling us to take no part in it, as a matter of fact shine a light on it and expose it. Here’s the thing about darkness is, it is only the absence of light. That’s literally the definition. So simple yet so profound. Seeing that Jesus is the light, He is telling us to only take part in things that are of Him. Taking part in darkness or living in darkness means we are living outside of the will of God. We are trying to navigate through life without our Savior. When we shine a light on the darkness that was once our lives, we begin to see clearly. Christ can now clean up the mess that was our lives. There’s no use of trying to walk through darkness because we will never get to where we are trying to go. In darkness we have no direction, no vision, nothing. There’s too much in front of us that we cannot see causing us to fall and stumble. Christ wants us to expose that, all of it. Now I know when we think about our sin being exposed our minds go to humiliation, but Christ is not in the business of humiliating us, in fact He would rather be humiliated so we wouldn’t have to. He was humiliated for us. He wants us to bring our sin to Him so He can clean us off.
The scripture says, once we were filled with darkness but now we have light from the Lord. What that means is God gave us direction. He gave us salvation, He sent His son so that we would no longer have to navigate in the dark. When Jesus came He did not come pointing at people and embarrassing them for their sin, but He offered forgiveness, He gave us a way out. He turned us away from a life that was leading to death and gave us an eternity. But here’s the catch, the people had to be willing to accept Him, the had to be willing to accept His forgiveness and walk in this light that He has given us.
Sometimes we are so consumed by our sin that it seems nearly impossible to give up. We tend to hold on to the very things that are killing us as if they could save us. We have been walking in darkness so long that the sight of light doesn’t give us hope, instead it irritates our eyes so we turn away from it. What I’m saying is that sometimes darkness feel too good to us to give up. Everything that feels good isn’t good, I think we can all agree on that. We know this, we know that the things we are doing is not okay because we are trying to hide them from God, so why do we continue to live in darkness as if it can be overlooked? It poses the question, would we rather God expose us for our sin or would we rather come to Him and confess? Lay it down at the cross and accept salvation. I don’t know about you, but the latter seems to be the easier road to take. Jesus doesn’t judge us, He died so that we wouldn’t have to live in darkness. He gave us His life to do away with darkness, why would we go back to it after we’ve been set free?
There are some things in our lives that are so hard to let go of. We all that one thing that stays creeping up on us. As I’ve stated before, that thing for me was pornography, I could go to church, read my bible everyday, pray all day, and still be struggling with pornography. Even when I thought it was gone, it came creeping up again. Sometimes us Christians are walk 95% in the light. What I mean is we sometimes have a closet with a few skeletons lying around, making appearances every now and then. We just tend to overlook them as if they’re not there. What I’m saying is, there’s corners in our lives that could use some light.
All this to say, walk in light and when I say walk in light I mean walk in Christ. Do not be consumed by sin. When we invite Christ into our lives we must allow Him into every part of our lives, so that He can drive out darkness in every corner and crevice of our lives. There is nothing we can hide from Him no matter how hard we try, so there’s no use in trying. There is always room at the cross to lay down our sins and expose the darkness in our lives. Sin was defeated by Christ, darkness was defeated by light. So if we want to defeat the darkness in our lives we must shine a light on it. If we want to get rid of the sin in our lives we must accept Christ into our hearts and give Him every part of us. Letting go of anything and everything that is unlike Him.
Reflection
Are there things in your life you are overlooking because you can’t seem to let them go?
If so, what are they?
Take the time to respond to what we discussed today, in whatever way you feel led.
Prayer Time
Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Talk to God about whatever is on your heart, if you want to confess to Him take the time and do it. This is between you and God, whatever is on your heart release it. If you want a way out, here is it. If you want God to shine a light on you so that you are no longer walking in darkness take the time to tell Him. If you want to make that decision to accept the Lord as your Savior or rededicate your life to Him, now is the time to do it.
If you want to make that decision today, pray this prayer with me.
Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sin and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. I pray that you shine light on me and bring me out of the dark. I love you Lord. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.
If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! If you made a decision to follow Christ, congratulations! Get plugged into a church and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or prayer requests. Im praying for you on your journey. I love you, be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 270!
It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord, you are safe. (GNT)
One of the greatest lessons God has taught me is to be confident in who I am and who He has made me to be. He has allowed me or taught me to see myself the way He sees me. To love myself. He has taught me not to view myself through the filter of my peers. He has made me who I am and I am not subject to succumb to the opinions of others. We are not made to live in the shadow of someone’s opinions. Opinions didn’t make us, so they most definitely do not have the power to break us. I have found freedom in not caring about what others think. That was something that held me back for a very long time in every area of my. The grave fear of, “What will people think?” “What will people say?” The more I thought about that, the more it destroyed me, because one thing my mom always taught us is, no matter what, people will always have an opinion. People will always have something to say. Then she would follow it up by saying something like, “it’s a good thing you aren’t living for their acceptance. Ever since I was a little girl my parents have taught me that the only person I have to please is God, that I am not here to please anyone, not even them. Those statements would not resonate with me until later in my life but I have grasped the concept of it.
I believe that God wants us to be confident people, and He does not want us to be held captive by what people think of us. Honestly speaking, we are often concerned with how people view us, especially as Christians. We act a certain way around certain people so they don’t think we are bad people or bad Christians. However when we are more concerned with how God views us, we are much happier with ourselves and our lives. There’s so much joy in living our lives solely for God. There’s a certain type of joy that cannot be tainted when we truly grasp the meaning of being free in christ. When we just accept ourselves the way God made us and love every part of who we are, we tend to love others more. When we treat ourselves well we tend to treat others well. When we are confident in who we are we want to build up others. It’s like a domino effect. When we all learn to be ourselves, and fully devote ourselves to God, the world will be a much happier place. People will love each other because they love themselves.
I have found, very recently that all the confidence, all the strength and belief in myself I will ever need I can and have found in God. It was only when I drew closer to the Lord that I figured out how to focus on Him and not others. What I mean is that for so long I cared about how people viewed me, and when I fully immersed myself into the word of God, and fully devoted myself and my life to Christ, that is when all of my insecurities and cares for what others thought of me disappeared. Basically what I’m saying is I live a carefree life because I live a Christ-like life. It’s crazy how that works. Living in the world could not give me the type of freedom that I have now. And it feels good, not caring feels so good. I’m just going through life happy and free, it’s great!
All this to say, live the life god has given you and not care about what others think of you. The only person you have to please is God. Don’t allow the opinions of others dictate who you are and how you view yourself. God made you who you are for a reason. People’s opinions either elevate you or tear you down, you have to choose which ones are meant for your life.
Reflection
Are you often caught up in the opinions of others?
Are you viewing yourself through God’s eyes or the eyes of your peers or neighbors?
Do you believe that there is freedom from that in Christ?
Can you agree that all this confidence and freedom is found in the Lord?
Prayer Time
Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about what we discussed today, as Him to help you see you, the way He sees you.
I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 257!
Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.
Proverbs 15:1
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
One thing I’ve grown up being old is, “Kill them with kindness.” Meaning don’t treat people the same way they treat you. Don’t be mean just because they are being mean to you, the best thing you can do is kill them with kindness. Now I’m sure many of us have gotten to a point when we say, there’s only so much kindness to give, and eventually you’ll want to get back at them, whoever “them” is. You get tired of people being rude or disrespectful and want to tell them what’s on your mind. Sometimes it’s hard not to say anything or do anything back to the people who intentionally try to hurt you or stir you up, especially when they know the exact buttons to push. But boy is it so rewarding. It’s so rewarding and a bit funny to see the reaction you will get when you refuse to get angry with someone.
One of the lessons I’ve learned is to just laugh it off. I am very sarcastic and I know it can be annoying to people who try to get to me. But I’ve learned that two angry people can get nowhere. It just turns into a screaming match, of who can scream the loudest and who can get the last word. I can get angry and stirred up, but when alls said and done, what will I have accomplished? Nothing. The best thing to do is diffuse the fire before it gets out of hand. I believe that this is the lesson here. God is telling us to turn the other cheek. He’s telling us not to get riled up and angry, but instead pray that He will bless the people who are out to get you. Pray the best for them. They are God’s children as well, that is very important to remember. We can take an example from Jesus, as with everything in life. Jesus was persecuted in the worst way, He was beat and spit on. He was talked about, but He responded with love. Even as the people were nailing Him to the cross He said “father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He knew that there was a bigger picture. He could have been angry at them, but instead He chose to forgive them, instead He chose to love them. When we think about it, it’s truly a beautiful image. To set yourself aside for the very person that is harming you and bringing you a world of pain.
My mom would always tell us growing up, “hurt people, Hurt people.” Meaning people who are hurt, do not want to hurt alone. You never really know why someone is treating you the way they are. Sometimes people act out because they themselves are hurting and they want someone to either feel the pain they feel or feel something worse. It’s a messed up disposition but it’s real. So many times I think that when we are called to turn the other cheek, or bless those who curse us, it is just as much for them as it is for us. While our faith might be being tested someone is being healed. It’s much deeper than just getting the last laugh or proving that you are mature.
All this to say, love everyone, even the ones that are hard to love. Bless the people that constantly curse you. In the end you will be proud of yourself for not engaging and you give the other person a chance to inspect themselves.
Reflection
Have you ever been in the position where you had to walk away from someone who was angry with you?
How are was it?
Can you see the bigger picture in blessing the people who curse you and giving a soft answer?
What is it?
Prayer Time
Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Ask God to help you learn to pray for those who curse you and help you hold your tongue. Pray for self-control. Whatever is on your heart today, talk to God about it.
I love you, and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 226!
My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.
Today’s devo is inspired by a very honest and beautiful song. The song is called “Maintain” by Jonathan McReynolds and it speaks about needing God and maintaining this life, and wanting to be where He is. My favorite lyric from this song is, “Yeah you gave me all the weapons but it’s still a fight.” What a profound statement, and how honest it is, that God has given us everything we need to fight the battles we face, but none the less there is still a fight. There are things that we face daily there are battles we have to fight, and they are not the easiest things to go through.
There are a few quick points to make today.
1. As Christians other people and even sometimes ourselves, we forget that we are human.
Meaning we forget that sometimes we will be weak sometimes we will not want to fight, sometimes we will doubt and that is okay, we are human. We wouldn’t be human is we didn’t have these doubts. It is in those doubts that God will show us just how faithful he is, my friend annisstar told me that. I think we often afraid to show our real feelings out of fear that we are sinning by having them. The truth is sometimes life is hard and we would rather not deal with it. Sometimes we just want to walk away, sometimes we get tired. We are human, but it is in these moments that we are reminded exactly who it is we serve. We serve a mighty and magnificent God and He won’t leave or forsake us.
2. We have to fight for what we want.
Some of us have to fight with everything we have, we are fighting day by day just to live, or get up in the morning. We know that God has given us everything we need to fight, we put on the full armour of God, we are equipped with His strength, and reminded of His faithfulness. Yet there is still a fight, we still have to go out and fight. We are fighting for our sanity, our salvation, our relationship with God, our faith. We are fighting everyday to keep our faith. I believe that everyone can agree that sometimes we get tired of fighting, there are moments when we just want to stop. And if I’m being completely honest there are moments when we don’t see the use of fighting anymore. We have faith, and we know God is right there in our corner, hydrating us and strengthening us, but we still have to fight. Even when we’re tired of all the blows, even when we get knocked down we have to get up and keep swinging. We have to fight until we can’t fight anymore and even then God gives us enough strength for one last swing.
Imagine God as our boxing coach, He is our corner, He is strengthening us after every round making sure we are okay to keep fighting. He’s giving us water and healing for the bruises and wounds, and he’s constantly pouring into us. Whenever we open our mouths He’s there with water to hydrate us. The only thing He asks is that we keep fighting. Even when we feel we are losing, keep fighting. Don’t give up, keep those hands up, stand up and fight. Because we are fighting for so much more than a win. We’re fighting for our lives.
Now let me get real honest real quick. We talk a lot about the getting up when we fall, continuing to fight when we’re tired, and continuing even when we don’t have the strength to do so. But what about when we’re on the ground and we don’t want to get up? What about while we’re in the fight, what about our thought process when we are getting tired? There are crazy thoughts we face while we’re in that boxing ring trying to get through another round. We Sometimes getting knocked down takes so long to get up because we are battling on the ground too. It’s easy down there, it’s safe down there, we can escape the pain and the blows. Sometimes we don’t know how to get up. Often we feel like we deserve to be sown there. When we’re knocked down and tired, it sometimes feels like that’s where we need to stay. At times getting up is harder than the fighting itself. But God… God gives us strength, at our weakest points God gives us understanding. God gives us peace. Yes we still have to go through the fight, and as hard as it is, we aren’t going through it alone. God is right there, giving us everything we need making sure we come out with a victory. Victory lies in our King and that we can depend on.
3. We just have to keep the faith.
Easier said than done, huh? I know it’s hard. It is especially hard when it seems like God is taking all the time in the world to get to us. One thing is for sure is that He is on the way to you. He always comes right on time. His timing is perfect.
1 John 5:5
Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
We overcome through Christ. At our weakest moments, that is the time to hold on to Christ the most. These are the times to stretch our faith a bit further. To go that extra mile. It’s the moments when we are the weakest that we find God to be the strongest. The moments when we are doubting that we find God to be faithful. God is always there, we just have to have an ounce of faith.
Matthew 17:20
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
All we need is the faith of a mustard seed. Keep the faith, hold on to it, even if you have to fight with everything you have. It’s worth it. God is so faithful.
Reflection/Prayer Time
Today whatever is on your heart pour it out to God. Whatever you need ask God for it. Take the time to pray for yourself, you know what you need. When you are done, take the time to pray for someone else, whoever is on your heart, just lift them up in prayer today.
I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 110!
Day 65: The Character of God We kicked the week off by talking about the character of God. We focused on the scriptures, 1 John 4:8, and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
We often view God as some approachable being, or some mean old guy in the sky. But that is not true, the scriptures tell us that God is love, and shows us what it is to love. Listing the characteristics of love, therefore listing the characteristics of God. God's character is love.
Day 66: The Kindness of God Today we continued by talking about the kindness of God. We focused on quite a few scriptures today: Titus 3:4-6, Galatians 4:6, Matthew 18:13, and Psalms 30:5.
There is a sweetness in our relationship with God. We are His children, It is said that the Hebrew meaning of the word abba is, daddy or papa. Also that it is the sound a child makes when trying to say daddy. There is a sweetness there that breaks the barrier of punisher, servant or slave master, and turns it into daddy daughter, daddy son. These words are more intimate that father child. It establishes a relationship, and we start to see God as a dad. We do not fear Him in a sense that we afraid of what he will do to us, but we are in awe of Him, respecting Him.
Day 67: Pure Joy Today we talked about what it means to really have the joy of the Lord in our hearts, even when life is turning upside down. The scriptures we focused on today were, Psalms 4:7 and Nehemiah 8:10.
God is better than the world's best thing. We can have everything we ever wanted but there is nothing like the joy of God in our hearts. No matter what we have we can only get that pure permanent joy from Christ. They can give me everything, but it will never add up to what I get from God, what I have from serving Him. There is nothing better, it does not get any better than this.
Today we talked about honesty with God and how sometimes we have to get brutally honest with Him. The scriptures we focused on today were: Psalms 62:8, 142:1-2, and Genesis 3:7-10.
We are allowed to pour our hearts out to God even when they don’t “look” like a Christian heart, to us. We are allowed to have feelings, we are allowed to be angry, we are allowed to ask questions, and we are allowed to have sexual feelings, we’re human. Most importantly, we are allowed to talk to God about what is really going on in our hearts and in our minds. That’s what having a relationship with God is, we have to be brutally honest sometimes. God knows our hearts, He knows what they look like, He created them. He knows the struggles we go through, the pain, the temptation, Jesus went through it. God wants all of that.
Today we talked about how God knows better than us, He knows more than we could ever wrap our small brains around. The scriptures we focused on today were: Revelation 22:13, Isaiah 46:9-10, and Isaiah 55:8-9.
God knows what’s going to happen, even when we don’t. He sees the bigger picture because He painted it. We just have to trust in His sight, and His vision so that even when we don’t know what to do even when our plans hit a wall we can know that whatever God has planned is better than anything we could have dreamed up ourselves. We must accept the fact the no matter how smart we are, what we know does not compare to the knowledge of God.
Today we spoke about thriving under pressure, and not giving in to it. We focused on a few scriptures today: James 1:12, Mark 15:15, Luke 23:23-24, and Isaiah 40:31
We go through a lot, with our friends pulling on us, our parents expectations of us, the pressures and temptations of the world. Sometimes the pressure is too great that we just need some release. We can get temporarily relief, or we can thrive. We can stress drink, have sex, get high, give in to what the world is telling us to do. We can get temporary relief we need at the moment, or we can find the strength in Christ to stand on His word and not let our lives be altered by the pressures coming from the outside.
I love you, I hope you have an amazing Day or Evening. Enjoy you Sunday and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 73!
