Our Devotionals come from Love Worth Finding, the ministry founded by Adrian Rogers who has since graduated to Glory. These are so relevant even today!

Listen for God’s Direction TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL December 06, 2024 “Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.” ACTS 8:26-28 PONDER THIS God never leaves a fully surrendered, cleansed vessel unused. You want to be used? Would you like to be a witness? Would you like to be an evangelist? Would you like to meet the Lord Jesus Christ bringing your sheaves with you? Would you like to rejoice in this life and in the world to come? I know you would. Say, “Yes, Lord, yes.” You need to be sensitive to the direction of the Spirit. We’ve been talking today about following Christ. If Christ is leading and you’re not listening, then you’re in difficulty. From a human viewpoint, what the Holy Spirit told Philip to do did not really make a lot of sense. He’s in this incredibly wonderful revival in Samaria, and God tells him to leave Samaria and go to Gaza. God’s ways are often unexplained. I mean, God did not say, “Now Philip, I want you to go here. There’s a man of great importance that I want you to meet.” God just said go, and it’s as if Philip went under sealed orders. Now, I don’t mean that you’re to go off willy-nilly, here and there, but are you sensitive enough that if the Holy Spirit of God tells you to go, you’ll go? When you are open and willing, God is faithful. He will show you where to go. Have you ever felt God’s direction of the Holy Spirit? What was that like? Are you open and willing to be used by God? What is holding you back from living fully for Him? PRACTICE THIS Seek God’s direction through prayer and ask Him to show you who to share your faith with today.

Why Obligated Obedience Falls Flat TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL December 05, 2024 “‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.’” DEUTERONOMY 6:4-9 PONDER THIS We are called to live for Christ no matter what it costs. You cannot compromise with obedience. This is inflexible obedience—when we obey God no matter what. These apostles knew that to obey God could mean death. They were preaching with the cloud of a death sentence over their heads. Selective obedience is not obedience at all. A man was bragging about his dog. Someone said, “What kind of a dog is he?” He responded, “Oh, he’s a very smart dog, very well trained.” She said, “Show me what he can do.” He said, “Well, when I go somewhere, all I have to say to the dog is ‘Are you coming with me or not?’ and either he does or he doesn’t.” It is silly but that’s the way some of us are. We decide what we want to do. We make the decisions for ourselves, but at the end of the day, selective obedience is not obedience at all. Our obedience must be impassioned obedience; we must do the will of God from our hearts. Telling these men not to preach and not to share the Lord Jesus Christ was futile, because they were full of burning, blazing, emotional passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have a zeal for God? God forgive our lukewarm, half-hearted, indifferent obedience. If you’re going to serve Him, serve Him with joy. What is the most difficult part of obeying God wholeheartedly? What is the difference between obedience that comes from the heart and obedience that comes from obligation? PRACTICE THIS Talk to someone who has a passion for God. Ask what whole-hearted obedience to God looks like for him or for her.

How to Find Joy in Obedience TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL December 04, 2024 “And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” ACTS 5:40-42 PONDER THIS Don’t get the idea that the will of God is something you have to do; God’s not going to force it on you. The will of God is something you get to do. When you learn to obey, you will learn the joy people talk about in the Christian life. There’s no such thing as a happy, disobedient Christian. That is a contradiction in terms. Verse 41 says, “They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” I am telling you that obedience and rejoicing come together. It is a lie out of Hell that doing the will of God is painful and makes you miserable. The Bible says, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Now the reason some of us don’t obey the Lord or understand there’s joy in obeying the Lord is that we don’t trust the Lord, and we struggle to take commands from a stranger. You get to know the Lord Jesus Christ and you will learn that His commands are not a burden. The Bible says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us” (1 John 4:10). His way is good; His way leads to life. It is a joy to have such clarity, direction, and purpose when we walk in Him! How have you seen God’s way as an obligation instead of as an opportunity? What changes when you see God’s way as a way you get to be with Him joyfully instead of as a difficult obligation? PRACTICE THIS Open yourself up to God in prayer. Be honest with Him about the hard parts of obedience and ask Him to grow your joy in following Him.

A Tiny Boat in a Vast Ocean TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL December 03, 2024 “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” COLOSSIANS 1:9-12 PONDER THIS Are you excited about truth? I had dinner with someone recently, and that person leaned over the table, and he said to me, “Pastor, what new truths are you learning?” That blessed me so much. May I ask you that question: What new truths are you learning? Are you still in bondage to prejudice, lies, pressures, and fears? It is because you’ve not understood the truth. Are you learning humility? A man who is learning truth doesn’t tell you how much he knows; he’s telling you how little he knows and how much he has yet to learn. The truth is, the more you learn, the more you realize that the ocean is vast, and your boat is tiny. Do you read for enablement? I continue to read so I can keep growing. Would you like a pastor who never read; a pastor who was just drawing out of his own well? No! I could not stay and pastor this church for twenty-five years if I remained static and didn’t grow. I want my doctor to continue to read. If a man is going to work on my car, I want him to be up to date. Do you want to do your job better? You need to upgrade your skills. Reading alone will not change you, though. You need to apply what you read. Do you long to keep growing as a person? How does that happen? Who have you known to be a life-long learner? What is that person like? PRACTICE THIS Talk to someone you consider to be a life-long-learner. Ask that person how he or she made it an ambition to always be growing.

Seeking Truth Feeds Your Spirit TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL December 02, 2024 “Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.” PROVERBS 23:23 PONDER THIS Truth is to your spirit what food is to your body. Truth is to your spirit what light is to your eyes. Truth is to your spirit what melody is to your ears. When you read, don’t read merely to get facts; read to get truth. You’ve only got one life. Do you want to live and die without learning the truth? To know truth is to know God. All truth is God’s truth. The devil doesn’t have any truth; he is the source of deception. You say, “Then, Pastor, I’m just going to read the Bible and nothing else.” No, that’d be a mistake. You need to read widely. The Apostle Paul did. He was a literate man. He quoted the Greek poets and philosophers. He was familiar with all that went on because Paul knew that all truth intersects. When you learn, when you read, you don’t read just to be a gatherer of facts. You learn to be a channel of truth. If you read and you grow in knowledge, but you don’t grow in grace, you’re going to make yourself obnoxious. You just become one of those people who parades his or her knowledge. Don’t read so you can split a theological hair into nine different sections but read so that you can be a whole person. Read for enlightenment because to know truth is to know God. How have you been growing and learning in truth? In what areas of your life do you need to grow in truth? PRACTICE THIS Read a book on a different subject than you are used to. As you read, seek, and discern the truth through prayer.

Trusting God’s Higher Ways in Dark Days TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL December 01, 2024 “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” ISAIAH 55:8-9 PONDER THIS How many of you would like the Spirit of glory and God to rest on you? How many of you want a fiery trial? Many of us cringe at the thought of trials. We do not want troubles or hardship, but what if those trials could be the Spirit at work in and through us? Stephen was stoned for the testimony of Jesus Christ, but while he was being stoned, the Bible says that his face shone like the face of an angel. The Spirit of glory and of God was on him. When those three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were in the fiery furnace and the old king looked in there and said, “We only threw three dudes in there. I see four, and ‘the fourth is like the Son of God’” (see Daniel 3:25). The Spirit of glory was there with them. Now, if your trouble, your heartache, your pain, causes you to know this glory, then for God’s glory, can you not thank God for it? When we face hardship, there are some things we’ll never know. There are some things that some preachers may never be able to explain to you. Why? Because God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” He can work in ways that don’t make sense to us. He can use things that we could never imagine or never want to happen to bring us back to relying on Him. What does it look like to trust God in the trials you face? How have you seen God at work in trials you have faced or witnessed PRACTICE THIS Ask a friend to share a testimony about how he or she has seen God at work in a trial.

Dependency on God During Difficulty TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL November 29, 2024 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” EPHESIANS 5:1-2 PONDER THIS We often dislike trouble, but trouble may bring a deepening dependency on God. The Apostle Paul was a highly gifted man. God had poured much grace, much intellect, and much influence on Paul, and Paul had a temptation to get away from God and to depend on himself like all of us. What is your greatest strength? Your intellect, your money, your personality? No, your greatest strength is God. But you see, when we sail through life without any difficulties, we tend not to depend on God. When we begin to depend on ourselves, the difficulty, heartache, and pain cause us to depend on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know one of the things we learn when we’re going through difficulty that moves us toward maturity? We learn patience. James 1:4 says, “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” The word “perfect” does not mean sinless, but mature. The Bible says Jesus, the captain of our salvation and faith, was made perfect through suffering. That doesn’t mean He was made sinless; He never sinned. But through every suffering, He leaned into His Father, not sinning, but showing us the way to endure. Press into Jesus. Thank Him for strengthening you to endure just as He did. When have you had a season that pushed you to recognize you needed to depend on God? What did you learn? How has God grown your patience through a difficult time? PRACTICE THIS Share with a friend who does not know Christ your testimony of dependency on God through a difficult time.

How Can We Seek God? TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL November 28, 2024 “But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O LORD, nor remember iniquity forever; indeed, please look—we all are Your people!” ISAIAH 64:8-9 PONDER THIS How do we seek God’s face? There is the prayer that recognizes God’s sovereignty. We have to believe God is God. Verse 8 means, “Lord, You’re King; You’re sovereign. I’m like clay; You’re like a potter. Mold me and make me after Your will. You are King!” God doesn’t want a place in your life. God doesn’t want prominence in your life. He demands and deserves pre-eminence. Are you willing to say, “God, mold me and make me after Your will”? What if God told you to sell your house and give it to missions? What if God said to you, “I want you to do this thing or that thing?” Are you willing? Have you recognized the sovereignty of God? God wants to extend mercy. God would much rather forgive sin than punish sin. Do you believe that? God doesn’t hold a grudge. God wants to forgive sin. But God cannot put away our sin by forgiving it unless we put it away by forsaking it. The problem with so many of our prayers is we’re not willing to repent. We want God’s mercy, but we seek no repentance. We want the blessings of being with Him while staying far from Him. What are some things you selfishly don’t want God to ask you to do? Have you ever asked God to mold your heart? What was that like? PRACTICE THIS Surrender to God the things you selfishly don’t want to do.

God Wants to Come Down TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL November 27, 2024 Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence—as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence! When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, the mountains shook at Your presence.” ISAIAH 64:1-3 PONDER THIS Revival is when God comes down. Look in verse one, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence.” That’s what revival is; it is a meeting with Almighty God. Most of us are seeking for God to do something. We want it for our church’s sake. We want it for our family’s sake. We want it for the nation’s sake. But we’re seeking God’s hand and not seeking God’s face. Our hearts need to yearn for God. We need to say, “O God, will You come down?” Now I want to tell you God loves to come down. God the Son stepped out of Heaven and came down to this world of woe that He might save us. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down and baptized that infant Church with wonderful power. As we study the Word of God, we find out that Jesus is coming down again one day. I want to tell you that if you study the Bible, you’ll find out that God has come down many times in the Bible, and every time, we find revival. And in modern history, if you’ll study the record of the Church, you will find that from time to time, in place to place, God has come down. There is no question—He is ready to come down and move. Will you desire and pray for it? Do you desire to see revival? Why or why not? What would it look like to be committed to asking God for revival? PRACTICE THIS Pray for revival in your in your heart and in your home.

What We Need Are Encouragers TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL November 25, 2024 “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” GALATIANS 6:1 PONDER THIS One day when I was a kid, I shimmied up a coconut tree to get a coconut. It was a big tree. I had my arm around a palm frond, and suddenly, the palm frond came loose; the coconut came loose; and I came loose. I slipped down the tree and hit the ground. I fell on the grass, but my left arm fell on the sidewalk and splintered my elbow, the bone jutting out of the skin. It was awful. I was lying there on the ground, writhing. My brother was there too. He didn’t run all over town, saying, “Hey, Adrian fell, Adrian fell!” He didn’t stand there and say, “Adrian, you’re the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t you see the palm leaf was yellow?” He didn’t give me a lecture, and He didn’t leave me, thinking I was no good anymore with a broken arm. No, my brother came alongside of me and gave me some tender, loving help. Thank God, I’ve got that arm again to use. Some people fall, but they don’t need us going around gossiping about it. They don’t need lectures. They don’t need people leaving them behind when they are wounded. No, we need some Barnabas types. We need people with tender, loving care. The word “restore” in the Greek is the term for setting a bone. It’s tender, loving care. When has someone encouraged you when you have fallen? How can encouragement make a difference when you have failed? PRACTICE THIS Encourage someone who has struggled in the faith.

Are You Fully Surrendered? TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL November 24, 2024 “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” ACTS 4:31 PONDER THIS Are you a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ? I try to make it a habit every day to lift my hands in surrender to the Lord. To say to the Lord, “I am Your servant.” I am not just a servant, though, I am a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Boldness is not for rebels. You will never have boldness, true boldness, until you can say, “Now, Lord, grant to Your bondservant, to Your slave, boldness.” When you do that, the Holy Spirit of God will give you courage. He will be the One who works in you and gives you courage. It is not something you can do on your own. You have to depend on God to give you courage. If there’s any unconfessed sin in your life, any area you’ve not surrendered to Him, then you’re not going to have boldness. That sin, that area of your life is a barrier. A person who is hiding sin from God is always wondering, “Do they know this? Have they heard that? Will I be discovered here?” That is a life of fear and anxiety. Peace and great adventure are ahead when you can wake up and say, “There’s nothing between my soul and the Savior. Lord, I am Your servant. I am Your slave. Jesus is with me. God the Father is above me. Holy Spirit of God, You’re within me. Grant boldness to declare Your Word.” Is there something in your life you have not surrendered to God? What entices you to hold onto that sin? Have you ever asked God to give you boldness? Why or why not? PRACTICE THIS Surrender to God as His servant and ask Him to equip you with boldness.

Trusting God Through Problems TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL November 23, 2024 “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” ROMANS 8:27-29 PONDER THIS I was raised on the east coast of Florida, and I love to watch the ocean. The waves come and go without any manmade effort; that is all God. He designed the ocean tide and keeps it. That is not the only thing He takes care of, though. God’s tide is moving in the lives of His followers today. God is in control of what is happening in the ocean, and He is sovereign over what is happening in your life. What is the problem you are facing? Now double it. Make it twice as bad. Now double what you’ve doubled. Now, ask yourself: Is that big to God? Of course not. He can handle it all, and He is with you through it all. What is the basis of boldness? You must keep company with God the Son. You must have confidence in God the Father. When Christians are terrified, they must take their eyes off of Man and put their eyes on God. The Bible says, “The fear of man brings a snare” (Proverbs 29:25). Take your eyes off your problems. Focus your eyes on Almighty God, who is the Creator of all things, the Controller of all things, and the Conqueror of all things. He is in control, regardless of the challenges you are facing. What are some problems that you’re tempted to feel are too big for God? Why do we struggle trusting God with the problems we face? PRACTICE THIS Encourage a friend who is struggling with the problems of life and pray for that friend.

God Can Use You! TODAY'S DAILY DEVOTIONAL November 22, 2024 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” 1 PETER 2:1-3 PONDER THIS Paul knew what it was to be received. He knew what it was to be encouraged. He knew how crucial it was to spiritual development. You have more than money to give—you can give relationship. Why don’t you ask God, “God, give me a new believer that I can encourage and disciple.” A new believer is like a newborn in the faith. And newborn babies need love. There was a study that said that it is virtually impossible to spoil a baby the first year of his or her life. You can’t give one too much love. Now you can spoil kids, but it is virtually impossible to spoil a baby the first year of its life. All of the love, all of the attention, all of the hugging, all of the kissing, all of the coddling you want to do, just do it. And I want to say, correspondingly, it is virtually impossible to spoil newborn Christians. Love them, encourage them, build them up in the faith. They need to be loved. They need to be included. Step out of your comfort zone and talk to someone you don’t know; look for the person who is new or sitting on his or her own. God can use you in a mighty way to encourage the new believer and the newcomer. Who is a new Christian you know? What have you done to reach out to that person? Who encouraged you when you were new to the faith? PRACTICE THIS Encourage a new believer or invite a new member of your church to a meal.