Hello friends, welcome to a very special part of my blog website. This page will be dedicated for devotionals that I will upload every Sunday. When camp was coming to an end this past summer, I knew that I wanted to continue serving The Lord and spreading the good news. With that said, God put this strong tug in my heart to write devotionals on my blog. I am by no means an expert at 1-writing, 2-talking about God, 3-leading others to Christ. It is through His grace and HIS perfection that He is allowing me to speak to you guys about Him through this little blog of mine. The “theme” for this semester’s devotionals will be “Having a Perfect God in our Imperfect World.” To me, this means getting to know God on a more profound level and learning more about who He is in so many different levels. If you have any comments, questions, or wanna chat about this, please contact me! Let’s grow deeper together in our relationship with God and fall in love with Jesus.
Having a Perfect God in our Imperfect World
Week 1
- Devotional: Getting to know God and who He is.
God is love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and ever so GOOD! He is the creator of everything and everyone. He created the seas, the beautiful sunsets & sunrises, He hung up the stars and moon, and He also created you! “Then, God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” -Genesis 1:26. God is so big that we can’t even begin to wrap our minds on how He works, however, He never hides Himself from us and WANTS a relationship with us. “For the Lord, your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe” -Deuteronomy 10:17. God is the ONLY thing that is consistent and never changes. His love and mercies will always be the same, and there is nothing we can do to change that. He is so faithful and righteous! “Yesterday He loved you, today He loves you and tomorrow He will love you. Nothing will change.”-Hebrews 13:8. You can be sure that the Lord who created you, is STILL with you and will never let go of your hand, despite how far we tend to wander sometimes. “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, I will take hold of your hand, and I will keep you.” -Isaiah 42:6. We can always turn to God and be sure that He will always be there to listen and to comfort us, no matter how big or small our problems are, He will always be there to be our loving Father. “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust” -Psalm 91:2. God adores you and has such great and perfect plans for you. He will never change and is always constant. You can talk to Him at 2pm or 2am and He WILL be there to listen to every single thing that you have to say. He is a best friend, savior, creator and our awesome loving Father. He meets us where we are and takes us to places way beyond what we could even imagine. He is faithful and just. God has always wanted a relationship with us, but gives us freewill to choose Him. He is so gentle and kind. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is an eternal God, creator of the whole earth. He does not get tired or weary; there is no limit to His wisdom. He gives strength to those who are tired; to the ones who lack power, He gives renewed energy.” -Isaiah 40:28-31.
- Challenge of the day: Write down your favorite creations that God has created and thank Him for those things. Take time to talk to God and let Him know that you are seeking Him (even though He already knows everything about you haha), He will draw even more near to you and will be delighted that you want to take that step in your relationship with Him.
Week 2
- Devotional: Spending Time with God
Like any friend that we have, there must be time & effort in that friendship. It is the same thing with God. He is always there and it is up to us to take that next step to take the time to get to know Him and hangout with Him. For many people, including myself, it can be so easy to push back spending time with Him because we feel like it would be easier to hangout with someone who is physically here with us on earth. However, there are many many many ways in which we can ask God to join us in everything we do. For me, I love to put on worship music in my car & just talk to God as if He were with me in the passenger seat. Over the years, I’ve learned that God already knows everything about us so there is nothing to hide (because He already knows it ALL) so just talk to Him!! We don’t have to use a big vocab & if it is hard for you to come up with words to talk to Him- that is totally okay because He is just very glad to you came to Him in the first place. So yes, praying is a huge way in which we are able to spend time with Him and catch Him up on our lives (even though He is the creator of the universe & He knows everything hahah). We can also do devotionals (hey what you’re doing now) and spend time in His word. So whether that means picking up our bibles and starting in any chapter, or going online to google devotionals that work for you, etc. Just reading about who He is and all that He’s done can definitely lead us closer to Him. Podcasts and sermons are so wonderful & they have changed my life all for the better. As we listen in to what God has to tell us and taking notes of that, we can remember what we have learned about Him and always go back and reflect to His teachings. Going to church and being in community with other believers is what God calls us to do, and getting to praise Him is incredible. We are so lucky to live in a country where we are able to say the name Jesus and to worship out in public. So whether it is in your room, at a coffee shop, your school, car, or church, God is always there and longs to have a relationship with you and for you to take the time out of your day to talk to Him and get to know Him more.
-James 4:8- “Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
-2 Timothy 2:15- “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
-Revelation 3:20- “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
- Challenge of the day: Talk to God and make time in your day to have a quiet time. You can start anywhere & if you need help, here are some of my personal favorite books in the Bible (even though they’re all spectacular), Christian websites, devotionals in Bible Gateway, sermon series and podcasts.
Books in the Bible: Deuteronomy, Job, Psalms, Jeremiah, Romans & Proverbs
Christian Websites: desiringgod.org, proverbs31.org, thelife.com
Devotionals in Bible Gateway: “Wait and See”, “Who God Is?”, “10,000 Reasons”, “Too Blessed to be Stressed”, “Listening to God”
Sermon Series: “Dating Series” by Breakaway Ministries, “A Message to my Fellow College Age Friends” by Sadie Robertson, Community Bible Church online sermons
Podcasts: “Watermark Audio: The Porch Channel”, “Proverbs 31 Ministries”, “Hill City Church Podcast”, “The Village Church Podcasts”
Week 3
- Devotional: God Keeping His Promises & Trusting His Plans
A lot of the time we tend to make plans for our lives and how we imagine our lives to look like in a span of 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, etc. However, those plans fail us and we feel heartbroken. It is totally okay to plan things out, (I do it all the time), but we must remember that we are only earthly creatures, and we have to keep in mind that the Creator of the Universe, God, has every single detail of our lives planned out already. Whether our plans match up with God’s plans or not, we need to surrender our lives to Him because He can do so much more than we could ever try to plan. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares The Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” You could break this verse down and truly realize that God DOES know all of the plans He has for us. He has plans that will prosper (flourish, thrive) and plans that will NOT harm you. He gives us so much hope for our lives and our future. God is so amazing because He hears every time we call on Him, especially when we are confused about our future, “Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath,” Psalms 116:2. God allows us and wants us to make plans for our lives, but we must always keep Him in our focus and go to Him through prayer so that our plans are aligned with His will. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” God is so faithful, loving and will always keep His promises. He is the only thing in this whole universe that is constant and never changes. He has every single day of our lives written in His book. The hands that were nailed on the cross for you are the very same hands that reach out to you and tell you to trust in Him. God has perfect plans, way better than our own, and He only wants the very best for us. Sometimes the plans that we have for ourselves are harmful, and God sees how they will harm us down the line, so He protects us from that and provides something WAAYY better for the future. He wants us to continue growing closer to Him and to let go of the tight grip that we have on our plans. He’s got something better in store!! “The Lord will keep you from all harm, He will watch over your life, now and forevermore,” Psalms 121:7.
- Challenge of the day: Write down all of the plans you have made and are holding so tight on, release them to God and He will accomplish SO much!! In His perfect timing, He will reveal how faithful He was through these plans and better plans that He had all along.
Week 4
- Devotional: Relying Solely on God
As believers, we must put our entire faith on The Lord, and in Him alone, we must believe that He can and will conquer all!! We can depend on God for unconditional love, wisdom, and strength, “Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever,” -Psalm 136:2. We can depend on God to be our rock, fortress and deliverer (Psalm 18:2). It can be so easy to go to earthly things like drinking, partying, even exercising to make us feel “good” or fulfill us when we’re not doing so well. HOWEVER– God is HERE and WILL always be here!! He is here for you and wants you to go to Him for absolutely everything. He already knows it all, so there’s nothing to try to hide. We must rely on God and God alone. Nothing and no one comes close to being as powerful and as omniscient as God is. He is the Lord of Lords and longs for a relationship with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5), and when our faith seems to be on thin ice, He is not going anywhere. We must turn to Him and let Him know how we are feeling, always. He is the only thing in the universe that will be constant and will never change. No matter the lows that life brings, we must have hope and faith that God will restore it all and will be right by our side through those seasons of life. We must also remember that God always has His best interest for us, and He is always working things for our own good, even if it is hard to tell when we are weathering the storm. Faith is trusting, even when you cannot see. Psalm 33:4-5 says, “For the word of The Lord is right and true, He is faithful in all He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the world is full of His unfailing love.” Earthly things will make you feel “better” for only a short amount of time, but God and His eternal love and grace will never fail to suffice. God will pick up all the pieces and restore so much more than we could ever imagine. He’s got you.
- Challenge of the day: Talk to God through prayer, He will listen to all that you have on your mind. Whatever valleys you are currently facing, He already knows the outcome, and I can promise you that He WILL do so much with your situation. He cares and loves you, even through your deepest pain.
Week 5
- Devotional: Loving like God Loves Us
It is so easy to love those who are kind to us and treat us right, but when we come across people who have hurt us or people who are not the nicest, it can be tough to love on them. Jesus calls us to love others the way that He loves US (even though we are so undeserving), John 15:12-13 says, “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay one’s life for one’s friends.” Even though we feel like certain people do not “deserve” our love, The Lord calls us to love and pray for them anyways, especially in Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.” God created everyone in His perfect image, and we need to full heartedly start believing that everyone truly needs to be loved. Psalm 119:18 says, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law,” and wonderful things we will see when we lean on The Lord to help us love others the way that He does. We will share the Gospel and God’s good news through the way we treat others, which is with patience, kindness, endless love and giving. God gives us mercy every single day, despite what we have done, so let’s show mercy to our brothers and sisters in Christ, too.
- Challenge of the day: Be kinder than usual, be encouraging to someone, forgive someone who has hurt you, ask God to fill your heart with love so that you may pour that love to anyone and everyone.
Week 6
- Devotional: God’s Mercy & Grace
“Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God, there we will receive His mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”- Hebrews 4:16. There will never be a time that we can’t go to God, despite how far we pull away from Him. He loves and accepts us as we are, and His arms are always wide open to fully embrace us. No questions asked. He will grant what we ask, so whether that is His mercy and/or grace, He will grant it because He knows our hearts. He is so kind and gentle, and his love will never end. You are worthy of being loved by the creator of the Universe, and there is nothing you could ever do/not do to ever make Him love you any less. When we are in pain, God hurts with us. He feels everything we feel. He cares and He heals.
- Challenge of the Day: Whether you feel like you have a close relationship with God, or do not, but want to, go to Him. Start right now and seek Him. He loves you so much and desires a relationship with you. On a piece of paper, list any physical ailments causing pain to you or those close to you. Ask for God’s healing, knowing that He hurts with you, cares for you, and still heals in miraculous ways today.
Week 7
- Devotional: Surrendering our Hearts to God
“Surrender your heart to God, turn to Him in prayer, and give up your sins- even those you do in secret. Then you won’t be ashamed; you will be confident.” -Job 11:13-20. Surrendering your heart to The Creator of the Universe can be challenging at first, but in the long run it will make your heart soften and give you so much peace than you could ever imagine of having. When we let go of our own attempts and give everything to God, we can step back and allow Him to do much more amazing things than we originally planned for ourselves. When we try to control every little thing in our life, we can end up being disappointed or even hopeless. However, God is not a God of confusion or disappointment, “Know therefore that The Lord your God, is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.” -Deuteronomy 7:9. Knowing that the hands that created the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, the snowy mountains, and beautiful stars are the same hands that have written your story is such a comforting feeling. You can wake up in the morning happily knowing that God has your heart and has perfect plans for you. You can go to sleep at night not having to worry about what the next day will bring because God already has all of your tomorrows taken care of. “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” -Zephaniah 3:17.
- Challenge of the day: Go to God in prayer and lay down everything you want to and need to surrender to Him. Write down all of the things that you have been trying to cling so close to, and allow Him to deliver you with so much more than you could imagine. You can surrender your heart to God whenever, really. He just wants a relationship with you, but He is a God of kindness and gentleness, and whenever you feel your heart tugged to be brought to Him, that will be the perfect timing.
kimpletebliss 