Devotions

Top 10 Devotionals to Bring You Closer to God

Edevotional.com exists to provide you bible-based thoughts that will bring you closer to God. As I look over the posts that I’ve shared with you, it has been humbling and so encouraging to see the journey of God amongst all the words.

Here are some of the best devotions we have shared here for you:

1. And Pray (Ephesians 6)

Completing the armour of God

2. Hated for Jesus (Matthew 10)

Not everyone will be excited that you love Jesus

3. Are we there yet? (Ephesians 4)

We haven’t arrived, but God is at work

4. The Call of Abram Part 1 (Genesis 12)

Three part devotional on this great man of faith

5. God’s Love Covers Us (Genesis 3)

Instead of shame, He covers us with His love

6. The Nature of God’s Power (Ephesians 3)

Five things the power of God does in you and I

7. Is God Personal

Guest post by Tyler Ellis, author of Question Everything

8. The Ripple Effect of Answered Prayer (Acts 12)

When you get your breakthrough, what ripple effect will it have on others

9. The Word of God Performs Its Work (1 Thessalonians 2)

How the Word of God works to align our lives with the Truth

10. Treasure in Heaven – A Different Economy (Matthew 6)

Heaven’s economy never suffers a downturn

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Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom from Pexels

Is God Personal?

By Tyler Ellis

Fast Forward

Some Questions Keep Us Up at Night.

These are the ones we can’t seem to shake because, no matter how those questions are answered, the implications directly impact our lives. So these should really take priority.

Among the handful of questions which people most often lose sleep over is this one, “Is God a personal God?”

Whether or not your lips have ever voiced that question, no doubt your heart has asked it

…deep down

…more than once.

What’s Behind the Question?

There are two major reasons we ask this question: hope and fear.

First, we question what we HOPE for: We hope God is personal.

When we wake up the morning, we look for a Creator who is personally involved in our lives, just like a baby wakes up looking for her parents for the same reason. That baby needs a personal loving connection.

And that’s what we hope to find in God.

Second, we question what we FEAR: We fear that God is not personal.

If we’re honest, we’ll admit that it just doesn’t feel like God is there. After all, we generally associate the word “personal” with a close friend whom we can interact with face to face. We can look into their eyes, cry on their shoulder, and spend the evening sharing stories and dreams.

But with God, it’s different and that can be frustrating. It almost feels like our relationship with God is only as good as our imagination or the answers to our prayers.

God is More Personal Than We Ever Imagined

It is a core belief of the Christian worldview that the Son of God laid aside his equality with God and became a man (Phillippians 2:5-8).

What’s so amazing about the fact that Jesus came is that his mission demonstrated God’s enduring commitment to bring us back to that face to face relationship.

When we were powerless to bridge the distance our sin placed between us and God, Jesus offered his life on our behalf. This was necessary in order to appease the justice of God. On that basis, Jesus provided a way our sins to be forgiven that our broken relationship with God might be restored (Romans 6:17)

But the story plot isn’t over. The book of Revelation informs us that God plans to “make all things new”. Someday, when the time is right, those who have turned from sin to trust in Jesus will live in the, “new heavens and the new earth”.

And God will live among us in the most personal of ways!

In the Meantime…

We can better appreciate the personal nature of God by understanding the events that took place in the past and the events that will take place in the future. This eternal perspective helps.

But what about today? How can we experience our personal God in the middle of the story?

In James 4:8, we find a challenging verse of scripture. It says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

Could it be that as we ask the question, “Is God a personal God?” that God is asking a similar question about us? We want him to “come near” to us, and he wants us to “come near” to him. So how can we “come near to God”?

Here are six suggestions:

Start by making your biggest questions your biggest priority.
Be willing to go wherever truth takes you.
Read everything Jesus ever said and did.
Pray and ask God to “come near to you” in a way that connects with who you are.
Experiment to identify ways you feel close to God and then do those things.
Take some time to add to this list.

Two Types of Sorrow (Matthew 26)

Matthew 26:75 and 27:5 says:

75 And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, “Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly…

5 And he (Judas) threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.

This is the story of two men and their sorrow. The first is Peter. The second is Judas.

Both men betrayed Christ. Both men let themselves down and the one they spent the previous three years of their life with. Both men were incredibly grief stricken and sorrowful for what they had done.

But what we see is a small, but critical difference in the response of each man.

Peter’s sorrow was a godly sorrow. How do we know that? Because it led to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10) He was grief-stricken but his sorrow caused him to move closer to Christ. Because of his willingness to be humbled, it did not destroy him.

Similarly Judas was also grief stricken by his actions in betraying Jesus. But unlike Peter, Judas grief separated him from Jesus, and the love and forgiveness that he needed. Judas sorrow was the “sorrow of the world that leads to death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

When we fail Christ and even betray Him, like Peter or Judas, we have a choice to make in how we will respond. Sorrow is not enough. In our grief we need to humble ourselves and recognise our failing is an opportunity to return to the arms of Jesus.

The alternative is not worth considering.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for forgiving us in our moments of sin when we fail you most. Help me Lord to see such moments as opportunities to embrace the humble, low road and be restored to right relationship with you. Thank you Lord, Amen

New Wine and New Wineskins (Luke 5)

New wine

Luke 5 verse 38 and 39 says:

38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

Wineskins are the animal hide containers used to transport and dispense wine. Wineskins are the structures, the methods and means by which the wine to given to people.

Biblically, the new wine is the new work, the new move, the new thing that the Spirit of God is doing through the new covenant of Jesus Christ. The first issue is you need the new wine! We need what God is doing today instead of living on the memory of encounters and seasons with God long since past.

With the new wine, you also need a new wineskin. The new wine of God requires a new structure and framework to stretch and grow with the new wine. As the new wine settles, so does the new wineskin to accommodate it.

BUT interestingly Jesus also tells us something important here. He says, if you give people the choice they will take the OLD wine over the NEW wine any day. Yes, that’s right the old over the new. Why is that?

In the natural, people have the view that older wine has a more mature, refined taste. It has had time to settle and the flavours become more subtle. In the Spirit, it is the same. People are more acclimatised to the “taste” of the old wine. They believe what God did then was better than what we see and experience now.

This is a mindset we all need to overcome. The shape of the wineskin – new or old – is irrelevant if we are clinging to the old wine. Wine eventually spoils. Wine does have a “good by” date.

What God has done in the past we give Him praise for. But let’s not allow it spoil our taste for what is to come, lest we settle for sipping on spoiled vinegar instead enjoying His finest of fare.

PRAYER: Father, I ask you to help embrace the new wine that you are wanting to pour out in my life. I trust you Lord and know that you are good. Thank you Holy Spirit for your refreshing in me, In Jesus name, Amen.

Dread or Desire (Proverbs 10)

Desire or Dread

Proverbs 10 verse 24 says:

What the wicked dread will overtake them;
what the righteous desire will be granted.

What do you focus on? What you dread or what you desire?

In life some people are motivated by their desires. They have an inward drive to move forward. Their focus is on their desires being attained.

Others are driven by what they dread. They are focused on their fears, on the potential for things to fail, to go wrong and cause problems.

Where is your focus? On your desires? Or on what you dread?

The author of Proverbs points to something interesting in this verse. He says your relationship with Him will ultimately determine which of these – destiny or dread – will become your destiny.

Your future destination depends on where you stand before Him. If you stand with Him your focus is forward, and the desires of God’s future for you are able to fill your heart. But if you stand away from Him, your focus is what’s behind coming for you and dread fills your heart.

It is what the “wicked” dread, that overtakes them. But what the “righteous” desire that will be fulfilled. We can change our outlook or our thinking but ultimately it is our relationship and standing before God that will determine your destiny.

PRAYER: Father, I chose to stand with you and ask to have your perspective in life. I thank you for making me righteous by your son Jesus. I ask you to fill me with sanctified desires, in Jesus name, Amen.

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