Day 342: Lessons From Nature

1 Corinthians 2:9

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."

Philippians 1:6

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Joshua 21:45

Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Today’s devo was inspired by the song Seasons by Hillsong worship, as I was listening to the song a couple of things stood out to me, but the biggest thing that stood out to me is how nature acquaints with not only patience but the promises of God. The lyrics are as follows:

“Oh how nature acquaints us

With the nature of patience...For Your promise is loyal From seed to sequoia”

I don’t know how many of you have ever seen a sequoia tree but they are huge. They are the largest, tallest, and longest living trees on the world. Some of the biggest trees you will ever see. The tallest one is 311 feet high, the oldest one has been living for 3500 years. These  trees are iconic and remarkable. But I am sure they did not end up this way overnight. They did not just sprout up to three hundred and eleven feet overnight. It took time, a long time. While they are the fastest growing trees due to how large they can be and how tall they get, it takes years for them to actually grow as high as they can. It can take thousands of years for them to grow as tall as they are. However, once they start growing they do not stop. The trunk gets wider and they tree gets taller. The foundation grows as the tree grows in order to support its growth.

I talk about these trees because in many ways they can represent us and also God’s promises to us. I love that the song says that God’s promise is loyal, “from seed to sequoia” as many times as I’ve listened to this song it took me a while to catch on the message of those lyrics. It’s interesting that they talk about the sequoia tree as it is the largest trees in the world. From a small seed grows this massive and beautiful creation. In the same way God helps us to grow from a small seed into something massive, something grand and beautiful. He makes us into something we never thought we would be. In the time that it takes to happen He remains loyal. His promises never fail. He remains who He is through it all. From the very beginning God has been there and He will be there for us to the very end, and when it’s all over we will be united with Him in heaven. He is there from the moment we are planted in Him, in the moments when the roots are growing, and we don’t see the growth. That first sprout He is there, as we grow taller and taller, He is there. The thing is He never stops being there and His promises for us and words towards us never change. It’s beautiful.

If you’ve ever seen a sequoia you will be taken by it’s beauty. These trees are so beautiful that you can make bridges out of them. You can drive through the arches of it’s trunk. It’s mindblowing how astounding they are. You never thought you would see something like that. This is how God’s promises are, so astounding that it blows us away. No eye has seen, no ear has heard the things that God will do for us. It will blow us away and leave us in awe.

There is a lesson that we can learn from nature. As the song says, “Oh how nature acquaints us, with the nature of patience.” There’s nothing that will teach you patience like watching a tree or a plant grow. There is nothing we can do to speed us the process we just have to trust the process of growth and wait. We can speed things up but the waiting makes everything so worth it. The waiting makes us want it even more, but if we are patient enough the waiting produces passion. Waiting on something makes you want it even more. My prayer is that the longer we wait on God the more passionate we grow for Him, the deeper we get with our relationship with Him. As we begin to see the value of who God is and the value of His promises. Sometimes waiting isn’t always a result of God “punishing” but it is the realization that God is working on something so great that we  have to wait a bit longer to see what it is.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond to what we discussed today. Respond in whatever way you feel led and let that response guide your prayer. Pray in whatever way you feel led, just take the time to talk to God.

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 343!

Day 299: It Takes Faith

One of the most important aspects of being a Christian is faith, if we do not have faith how can we serve God. How can we believe in a God we have never seen without faith. Faith is a key ingredient to having a relationship with God. We must believe in Him.

Romans 10:9-10 says, 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.

When many people refer to Christianity, they refer to it as ‘the Christian faith’ or we even talk about it as our faith. I do not believe that that is without reason. Following God take faith, it takes us believing first in God, and His word, and standing on His promises. Faith is choosing to believe in the things that are not seen. But if we want to get technical let’s get a dictionary definition.

Faith: confidence or trust in a person or thing.

Belief that is not based on proof

The trust in God and His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

As Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. That being said our faith is our proof of the living God, and God’s faithfulness to us is proof that we are not crazy people out here believing in a spirit that we don’t know is real. No we believe in a living God, the same God who created the heavens and the earth, the same God who spoke to Moses on a mountain top, we believe in the God who made it rain manna, the God split the red sea, the God who sent His son to die for our sins so that we can have a relationship with Him. That’s the God that we believe in, because we choose to believe. Out faith is not based on proof it is based on the goodness of God. The proof is all around, one thing that blows my mind is that God created the earth the way it is on purpose. According to science (which God created as well), Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life. If Earth was smaller an atmosphere would be impossible, like Mercury. If earth we larger it’s atmosphere would contain free hydrogen like Jupiter, making it impossible to live on in both cases. Also if earth were further away from the sun we would freeze to death, if it we closer to the sun we would burn up. God placed us exactly where He wanted us to be and made us the right size. Aside from the scientific facts, our most powerful tool in our relationship with God is faith. Faith enables us to pray, it enables us to trust in His word, faith allows us to have that relationship with God.

Our faith is based on the signs and wonders, the miracles that we have seen in our lives. The moments where there was no other answer but, “there is a God”. This is what we know to be true, and if we want to take it further, science proves His existence. What I’m saying is, as Christians we live a life that is based on faith. #FaithBasedLiving We put our trust and confidence in God because time and time again He has shown us His faithfulness. I know we have all had moments in our lives where things didn’t go as planned they actually went better. We’ve all had those jaw-dropping moments that left us speechless, and eluding to the fact that God did it. What I’m saying here is if  we are going to serve God we must have faith. Without faith we can do nothing. If we do not believe in a true and living God how are we going to expect Him to do something in our lives. Better yet how can we expect to have a relationship with God if we do not have faith in Him. We talk about faith a lot, but we’ve never talked about it in this context. The basics of Christianity is faith. We start a relationship with God by declaring that we believe. Faith is what bridges the gap between man and God.

Often times I am asked, “What do I have to do to become a Christian?” The simple answer is have faith. Have faith that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that He was resurrected three days later. Not just saying these things but believing them in our hearts. We must have a heart full of faith in God, it’s what allows us to draw closer to Him, it allows us to have a relationship with Him. Faith allows us to persevere.  It is everything we need in order to serve God.

All this to say, faith is the answer. It is the foundation of our lives as Christians, it all starts because we choose to believe in the living God and we make that decision daily.  

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Have a conversation with God about faith, and thank Him that He is so faithful and wonderful.

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 300!!!

Day 253: The Word Goes Out

Isaiah 55:10-11

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven  and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

This has become one of my favorite scriptures, it’s so profound. God’s like, I’m not sending my word out for nothing, I’m sending it for a purpose. I love biblical analogies, especially this. The word of God going out is compared to when rain or snow falls upon the Earth. When it rains, the Earth is replenished, it gets the water it is needed to live. Meaning the rain provides food for people, it allows plants to sprout, it brings a harvest for the planters. The rain isn’t for nothing. There is a purpose for the rain and the snow and that purpose is always fulfilled.  I’m not sure if you’re a person who likes the rain, but I do. But more than the rain I love the moments after it, the smell in the air, the quality of the air. The rainbows in the sky. It’s all so beautiful and it feels beautiful. There’s nothing quite like it. The aftermath of a rainy week is beyond beautiful, it can be breathtaking. The result of rain is nothing less than beautiful. That is the result of God’s word.

The word of God goes out with a purpose and that purpose is always fulfilled. God sends His word out to feed the nations. He sends it out to replenish the Earth, God’s word does something that nothing else can do, it saves lives. The word of God is like the rain, it gives life to those who have been stripped of their abilities to live a life fully free of condemnation. The aftermath of it is beautiful, let’s take the life of Jesus into consideration. John 1:1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. As Christians we believe that this scripture is speaking of Jesus as the word of God. Saying that the word became flesh and came to earth to save us. Jesus came to save the world He was the rain we needed. We needed Jesus because we were in a spiritual drought and the only chance of living was through Him. Through the life that He would pour out onto us. The only way of growth was through Him, the only way we could get out of the drought we were in was to drink of the living water.

The thing about the rain is that not many of us enjoy it. Sometimes there are floods and in the meantime, it’s pretty bad. Earlier this year, California was struck by floods, so many floods. People had to deal with their towns flooding. People were evacuated, there was millions of dollars in damages. Power outages were happening, people even lost their lives. But in the end it ended being great for California, because it brought us out of a six year drought. Rivers, and dams that were dry for years, or had been drying up over those six years are now filled with water. So while we thought it was bad it all turned out for our good. The aftermath of it all was beautiful. I bring this up because when Jesus was on earth many people rejected Him, they didn’t believe He was who He said He was. In fact this was one of the reasons they planned to kill Him. However it wasn’t until He died that people realized that He was the true Messiah. It wasn’t until He gave up His life that people realized who He was. The aftermath was beautiful as many people came to know Christ and believe in Him. People today are still coming to Christ because we know of His life, death, and resurrection. The result of the life He lived, the word He brought to life, and His actions upon that cross and throughout HIs ministry is still very evident today. We are still reaping from the seed Jesus sowed 2500 years ago. Jesus had to give up His life to save all of us. He wasn’t satisfied with just a few, He had to make sure that salvation would reach everyone. I’m pretty sure if we got to sit down and talk to Jesus about what those moment were like He wouldn’t say that it was fun, or that He enjoyed it. However, I imagine that He would say it was necessary.

All this to say, God’s word goes out and does what it is meant to do. Sometimes it isn’t always easy like when the disciples went to bring the Good News to the people. They were beat, put in jail, forced and thrown (literally) out of cities, and killed. But through all of this, the word of God never stops, it never returns void. Through all of this the message always came through. There is always a purpose for the word of god.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond in whatever way you feel led. Discuss with a friend what we talked about today. Have a conversation with God, Whatever is on your heart today, talk to Him about it. Remember that praying is just having a conversation with God.

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 254! It’ll be a special recap.  

Day 174: One Heart, One Soul, One Love- Day 4

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth

Genesis 2:15

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Today I want to talk about the environment and how we treat it, and how we are supposed to take care of the earth, God created for us. As Christians we should definitely care about the earth and take care of it. I believe from the beginning of time God has given us a responsibility to take care of what He has given us. It is our job to take care of our home and keep it healthy. From recycling, to keeping our streets clean. Using less energy or electricity or using solar power, planting more trees and gardens. Whatever it may be, just making sure we aren’t causing harm to the planet. It’s such a beautiful place, I mean God created it. Nature is so beautiful, let’s not take it for granted.

I talk about this because one of the things plaguing the world right now is climate change. Droughts and storms are happening all over the place. Glaciers are melting, animals are dying and close to extinction. If we want to live healthy lives we must do our part to make sure our planet is healthy. I truly believe that we should treat our home as a gift. God gave us something beautiful and gave us dominion over it. This our home for the time being and it’s the home of our children and their children and so forth. So let’s do what we can to protect the earth. Let’s do all we can to keep it healthy and safe.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Take the time to think about what you can do to be a part of taking care of the planet, and then do it. Nothing is too small. Pray for the environment, pray for the world, pray for climate change, pray for the animals. Take the time to thank God for this beautiful earth. Enjoy this earth, and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Day 118: Walking Through the Desert

Today we are going to continue with yesterday’s theme of, this idea of stepping into the desert out of bondage.

Deuteronomy 8:2, Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

We are all aware that the Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years. A journey that should have taken a few weeks ended up taking forty years because of the Israelites disobedience, complaining, and grumbling. They held themselves up. Today we aren’t going to go into too deep of detail about that (not yet), but we are going to talk about the journey. Yesterday we talked about stepping into the desert, today it’s about walking or journeying through the desert.

The only way to the promised land was through the desert.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my life is that the journey is more important, than the destination. Getting there is what is important, it’s what counts most. We cannot skip over what it takes to get to where we are or where we are going, there’s always going to be a journey and it is in these desert places that we grow the most. Which is why we often hear people talking about the journey more than the destination, there's some hills and valleys to go through first. We have to walk through those hard places, and learn some lessons in the desert. Now, one thing I must say is that our generation is the generation of immediacy. We want everything immediately, and with technology, online shopping, and social media we don’t have to travel far to get it.  We want God to do things for us, but we don’t want to go through the desert with Him. We want Him to take us places but we only want to be there for the final destination, not the journey. Life doesn’t work that way, if we want something we have to walk through the desert to get it, the same way the israelites had to walk through the desert to get to the promised land. The promised land wasn’t coming to them, they had to go to it. God has prepared a promised land for us, but we have to go to it. He opens doors for us, but we have to walk through them. We have to take the journey to get to the places we need and want to go. The journey is so important because there are some things we have to drop along the way. There are some things we have to leave in the desert.

There were some things they brought out of Egypt that couldn’t go into the promised land, they had to drop it in the desert.

A lot of times God takes us through the journey to teach us, and help us grow. In the desert we are completely stripped of all things that will lead us away from God. We cannot take the attitude of bondage into a land of freedom. I believe that, that was one of the reasons it took them forty years to get to the promised land. God had to make sure that they were not entering the promised land with the same things they left Egypt with. There is always a purpose to the journey, there is always a testimony in the desert.

Reflection/ Prayer time

Talk to God about the passages today, allow His love to serenade your heart. Thank Him for the journey you are one, even the valleys and deserts we have to go through.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Thank you for reading, share this with someone and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 119! For those of you entering finals week or the last stressful parts of the school year, or college, you are in my prayers.

Day 115: Bend but Don't Break

I’m from Los Angeles, California and one of my favorite things about being from LA is the Palm Trees. They are beautiful especially in the summer on a quiet street right at about sunset (Pictured to the left). Palm trees line almost all of the streets in LA, and you can find them even on the beaches, they are amazing. I’ve tried to climb them growing up, but we’re going to talk about that today. However, growing up, my mom would always tells us that palm trees bend all the way the ground but they never break.  I used to see palm trees in certain places that looked deformed because they had bent so much. Whenever we would have windy nights I would watch the trees outside my window, and they would be bending with the wind but they never fell. These trees are strong and beautiful.

Isaiah 54:17

No weapon formed against you shall prosper,And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn.This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,And their righteousness is from Me,”Says the Lord.

We are like those palm trees, God gives us strength to stand even when we are being pushed down. Even when the force of the storms or winds in our lives seem stronger than us. We are planted firm that we will not fall, and we have the strength of the Lord, so we will not break. Our spirits may be deformed but they are not broken, We have all been in places in our lives where we thought what we were going through was going to be the end. We thought there would be no coming back from this. It may be different for all of us, but one thing's for sure is that, when it rains it pours and the only way to get out of the storm is to go through it. These trees can stand through the worst of weather. The wind and water, palm trees can survive hurricanes and tsunamis, out of everything destroyed in a storm the one thing still standing is the palm tree. As the body of Christ, as Christ followers that is how we are. Out of everyone, we are the last ones standing. We cannot be moved by even the worst of weather.  

We would never know how strong we are if we never have to use our strength or how much faith we have if it is never tested. Sometimes we need to go through times when we’re bent out of shape, so that we can grow. God allows us to face struggles, He knows how much we can handle, but it is in those moments when we are fighting to stand strong, when we are learning and being pushed on all sides, that we learn to look to Christ. Sometimes we can even feel like we are being stretched past our limits, and we feel like we are going to break. We feel every part of our being ready to give up, or throw in the towel. Things get so hard, that we don’t know how to hold on anymore. But the beauty in all of it is, we do. We don’t break even though it feels like we’re going to, we don’t give up or give, we hold on, even if it takes all the strength we have. Because God made us strong enough to bend not break. Even in that weakness we find strength in Him. Like the palm tree the wind blows us from side to side, and we bend very far, but we never break. We never fall, because God is making sure that we are still standing.

It is said that palm trees fall over when the roots are weakened due to disease or improper planting. When we are not rooted properly the best of us will fall.

Matthew 13:3-6

And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. "Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. "But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

IF we are not deeply rooted in Christ it is easy to fall because there is nothing holding us down. It’s not the strength of the tree itself that keeps it standing, but the roots that hold it up and keeps it from falling. If there are no roots than it might as well be a tumbleweed heading in whatever direction the wind blows.

In 2 Corinthians 4:9, Paul says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

These things come against us but we are not destroyed by it. We will go through some things in our lives, but we will not be destroyed by them. Isaiah 54:17  tells us that no weapon formed against us will prosper. It doesn’t mean that nothing will come against us, we are not invincible or untouchable. But because of who we serve because of our Father in heaven, it will not succeed in doing what it was intended to do. Our God is too great, too mighty, too magnificent.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Talk to God today about whatever is on your heart. Ask Him to make you like the palm tree that bends but doesn’t break. Allow Him to speak to you. Take this time to just talk with God, about whatever it is you need to bring to Him today. Remember that a prayer is just a conversation with God, talk to Him.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 116!