Twenty Years Later

 

God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect.  2 Samuel 22:33

It’s been over two decades since I invited Jesus Christ into my life as my personal Lord and Savior.  Through the years, God has given me total assurance that He loves me, first and foremost, and that He is much larger than any problem that I will ever face over the course my lifetime.  Knowing that He loves me and will never leave my side has provided me with a Supernatural strength of sorts that allows me to hold on to hope and retain joy, regardless of my circumstances.  After all these years since my mother passed away, the pain is still raw, but with God by my side I have been able to keep moving forward...  

This same confidence can be yours if you are willing to accept that He has every available resource in the universe to draw upon to help us through any type of crisis, if we will only trust Him.

He delights in showing me daily that He is the ultimate source of my strength, my protection, provision, and success in life.  He is in control of my life and knows everything that is going to happen to me tomorrow, next week, next year, until my time on this earth is up.

Give up the control in your life and turn it over to the One who loves you and is larger than anything you will face in this life!!

Imagine

 

The Lord gives His people strength.  The Lord blesses them with peace. Psalm 29:11

You don’t have to search too hard to determine that we live in a broken world these days.  If you don’t agree, just watch the news or read a newspaper.  I have made a conscious effort to keep the television, especially the news, off over the past year or so and it has helped my mental state.  Sometimes, it is overwhelming and hard to find peace with so much going on in the world around us. 

The above passage from Psalm 29 assures us that true peace can only come from God.  Furthermore, peace with God comes from living the way that God wants his people to live.  Once we are in a relationship with our loving Father, we must choose to live according to the standards he provides us in his Word.

When we follow God’s instructions on how to live, God strengthens us and blesses us with a peace that is only found in Him!

The End Of The Innocence

 

For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).  But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded).  

1 Corinthians 13:9-10

Being 52 years old now and a little wiser (not really), the more I realize that I simply do not have all of the answers to life.  Not even close.  This is a far cry from my attitude of being younger where I was convinced that I knew everything, much to my parents’ amusement.  

I can now see these same tendencies both of our boys, Elliott who is off to college for his freshman year, and Elijah who recently celebrated his 16th birthday earlier this month.  We have multiple disagreements about who is the GOAT; Michael Jordan or LeBron James and heated debates over our favorite comic book characters and neither realize that I just may know a little more than some of the boys in his circle of friends, especially when it comes to the Marvel and DC Universe.  (After all, I am still a comic book nerd and not ashamed to admit it)!

We must change our attitudes and thinking from believing that we know it all, to trusting God  and living with unanswered questions.

No matter where we are in our walk of faith, God will continue to lead us and in doing so, He requires us to fix our eyes on Him, and follow Him one step at a time.

Keeping The Faith

 

He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might.  No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love.  Psalm 147:10-11

With the summer coming to a close and school back in session, the month of August always makes me reminisce about 'two-a-day' football practices in the blistering heat of East Alabama.  Most players start the preseason off competing for a spot as a starter on the team.  During practice, the players give their best effort on the field with hopes that the coaching staff will award them with a coveted position on the team.  As exciting and competitive as this entire process is, I am convinced that God is more impressed with our faith than our actual abilities.

If we want to accomplish great things in this life and delight God in the process, we must be willing to step out in faith and allow God to accomplish great things through us.  Our abilities give us the potential to do good while our faith gives us the power to do good.

Our potential and limited power is not sufficient; we must change our limitations to an unlimited faith in God!!

Hold On To Hope

 

We have thought of Your steadfast love.  O God, in the midst of Your temple.  Psalm 48:9

There are times that I certainly feel overwhelmed with trying to balance my life-responsibilities at home and at work, obligations with family and friends, and as a result it’s easy to feel down.  I question if I am being the husband and father that my family needs me to be.  Am I a good son to my father? What about my sister? Am I the brother she needs me to be? Am I being a good neighbor?  How is my performance at work?  Am I going ‘above and beyond’ to serve as God would have me serve?  Before I get too far down, I have found that it always seems to help to recall all of the good things that God has done, is doing, and is going to do in my life.

When we ponder the doings of God and the works of His hands, it  is hard to stay down for long.  The enemy will always come against us to make us feel depressed or discouraged, but we must choose to remember the times where God has blessed us and delivered us in the past.

When we focus on His good works, hope will rise in our hearts and our troubles won’t seem too big!  Praise His holy name!

Tomorrow's Dust

 

I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and He is the judge.  John 8:50

It was SIXTEEN years ago this very day that I made an attempt to write and posted the first Daily DEVO on this “God’s Will; Fisher of men" Blogger site. It has truly been a joy and labor of love, both personally and spiritually, and I would like to say a very grateful and humbled “THANK YOU” to all of the folks who take time out of their day to read the Daily DEVO.

I hope that along the way, the DEVOtionals have been what you needed to read, at a time that you needed to read them.  After all, I try to write about something that is relevant to people in their walk of faith; things that we struggle with as spouses, as parents, as friends, as siblings, as neighbors, as co-workers, etc.

There are so many blogs out there, each one different in many aspects and many are focused solely on the glorifying the individual author/writer.  I have prayerfully sought God’s will and have attempted to apply His word with my personal life experiences to ultimately glorify Him and not seek glory for myself.

I am convinced that God puts certain people in your life for a reason.  Just like each of His many provisions-He always gives us what we need, just when we need it.  The same holds true for His living and breathing Word; when we seek Him though scripture, He speaks to us and gives us His infinite and Holy wisdom.  When I had my ‘calling’ into the ministry, I would have never imagined in a million years that it would begin in the blogging world, by writing a daily devotional.

It’s inspiring to know that the Daily DEVO has been viewed over 780k times (WOW!!) over the past sixteen years, and I hope that God will continue to use this Blog to reach even more people in the days, weeks, months, and years to follow.

Again, I thank you for reading the Daily DEVO and I hope you have a blessed day!! 

Much Love and Peace,

-Will

Sunrise

 

 

His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning.  Lamentations 3:22-23

I truly enjoy watching the sun rise in the mornings.  The sunrises are exceptionally beautiful here in East Tennessee and this time of the year, I run outside in the mornings, just to enjoy God's beauty before the rigors of life begin...

With every sunrise that I witness, I am reminded that God is the One who meets our needs each and every day.  His supply is never-ending and He always gives us precisely what we need at precisely the time that we need it.  He never gives us stale leftovers; instead we are each given something that’s new and alive.

It’s hard to begin each day without being reminded of His mercy, forgiveness, compassion and love.  On any given morning, the dark night’s sky is pierced by the red and purple rays of the morning sun and the peaceful sounds of living creatures stirring to begin their day.

Regardless of what happened to us the day before, God greets us with open arms so that we can start fresh every morning.