January 1
“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. Come away, my beloved, let us go. You are my beloved” (Song of Sol. 7:10).
“You are my beloved,” He whispers softly in the early morning before the daybreak. “Come away, my Beloved.” He brings you to the dark horizon where there appears just a hint of light. But as you pause and “be still, ” as you Selah in your life, light gives way to color.
You stand in awe of the sunrise as the sky explodes in orange and pink. He has awakened you from your sleep to view His canvas, created just for you. He has painted His sky for your eyes only to behold. As you drink in the sight, it changes faster than you can take it in. Then it is gone.
Beloved, come away with Him when He whispers your name in the dark. Seek Him early while He may be found.
January 2
“But I will sing of Your power; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning: for Thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble” (Ps. 59:16 KJV).
Each morning is a new day. What transpired yesterday is gone. Even the night of tossing, turning, and wakefulness is over—a new day! God has prepared for you new mercies that are as fresh as the new day.
Yet you say that your mind and spirit are struggling with yesterday's painful and unsettling thoughts? Bask in the newness; leave them behind! Embrace Him, embrace His new day, and anticipate a blessing. “I would have fainted had I not believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Wait for the Lord!
January 3
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Is. 60:1).
Get up with great anticipation and expectancy. Shake off the feelings of oppression, of doom, of foreboding. Arise and shine. Your Light will appear as the sunrise cometh over the eastern horizon. Are you there, with eager anticipation, to meet in an undisturbed quiet with Him? Enter into your “place of rest,” leaving all your troubled cares outside the door. He is waiting for you. Arise and shine, Beloved!
January 4
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps. 46:10).
How do you know the mind of Christ? How do you feel the presence of your heavenly Father? Be still. It is not in doing, but in stillness. In waiting in His presence. Waiting for Him to speak to your heart. “Be still and know that I am God.”
You will know Him in the stillness of the morning, in the quiet of the silence. There is a time for pouring out your soul to Him, a time of drinking in His words to you. A time of tearful praise of His goodness.
Then rest.
Be still.
And know . . .
January 5
“For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend. We who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the throng. Is your heart in pain and sorrow? ‘It was you, a man my equal . . . If we could only fly and be at rest’” (Ps. 55:12).
Beloved, He knows your sorrows. He is acquainted with your grief.
Has your Lord felt the pain when it was you and He who had sweet fellowship, but you were gone? Has He so longed for you that now He has removed your lover and friend far from you? Have you left your first love? Leave your pain and run to Him. He is waiting with arms opened wide to welcome you. Enjoy the sweetness of His fellowship.
January 6
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Is. 40:31 KJV).
Beloved, are you waiting, waiting? Waiting for God to move in your situation? Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Beloved, He is merely renewing your strength to take you higher, that you may soar like the eagles. Has He removed you from those who used to fly with you? Do you now find yourself flying alone, no longer in the flock?
Beloved, He has designed your wings to be as the wings of eagles. Eagles fly alone. Therefore wait. Wait for your strength that you may mount up with wings as eagles.
January 7
“It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep” (Ps. 127:2).
There is a common principle, a common thread, an understanding throughout God’s Word: He giveth to His Beloved, even in his sleep.
It is a resting in Him, a ceasing from our striving. We will find that when we abandon worry and reason we can enter into His rest, and, there in the resting, He gives.
Beloved, abandon the thoughts of how He will move or why He hasn’t moved and replace this with trusting, really trusting, relying and leaning on Him today. Beloved lay it all in His arms.
January 8
“Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!” (Dan. 3:25).
Are the flames of your trials causing you to become anxious? Do you pray earnestly for God to deliver you from this?
Yet, as the three Hebrew children were made to stay amid the flames of persecutions, these words give us hope . . .There appeared!
Beloved, as you walk in the midst of your tests, trials, and temptations, there alone will you have the privilege of walking with the Son of Man. He will appear as the furnace of your life is turned up seven times hotter. When it becomes unbearable, look for Him, He is there.
January 9
“This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands . . . that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands” (1 Sam. 17:46–47).
Beloved, are you battle weary? Does your mind reel as you prepare for the enemy’s next attack? Are you looking for an opportunity to make an advancement in the line to gain ground?
We are told “when the battle is the Lord’s, the victory is ours”! Victory is certain with the Commander who has never known defeat. He has never lost a battle against the wicked one and sin. Never.
Yet, when we plan our own strategies, instead of listening and obeying the commands of the Lord, we are continually injured in battle. Stay forever close to His pierced side until you can feel the security of His strength.
January 10
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light” (Matt. 11:29).
We can learn much from our Lord and Savior as He walked calmly on the face of this earth, knowing His destiny, as He carried the weight of the world on His shoulders. Yet with all the weight He stated that His yoke was easy and His burden was light.
Instead of taking His yoke, we choose to worry, fret, and be anxious. The cares of this world eventually choke His Word, and we gasp for life. It is at this place we finally release our burdens as they fall to our sides.
It is here we find rest for our souls. Oh, Beloved, if we could just daily take His yoke upon us. If we would only learn from Him, for He was meekness and lowliness in bodily form . . .
It is there we will find rest.
January 11
“You have removed my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an object of loathing to them; I am shut up and cannot go out. My eye has wasted away because of affliction; I have called upon You every day, O Lord; I have spread out my hands to You” (Ps. 88:8–9).
How often have we felt shut up? Are your trials and your situations or circumstances stifling you? Do you feel caged? Desperately we seek escape. Worry overwhelms us. Anxiousness mounts.
Oh, Beloved, it is here that the Lord has brought you. You are not in prison but in a palace when you notice Who is here with you. It is in this place that you are safe. He has not put you here to punish you but to minister to you, to love you, to remove you from the tumult of the raging war just beyond the protective walls in which He has kept you. Do not try to find escape. Rest here. Rejoice here.
You have been hidden in Him. Be still.
January 12
“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Rom. 7:15 KJV).
Does your heart long to rid your life of sin, to change the habits and occasions to do wrong? Does your soul ache and anguish as you look behind and see the mistakes that haunt your present state?
Beloved, there was only One who walked the face of the earth who was without sin—Jesus alone.
It is only in Him that we can possibly and forever change. It is only sitting in His presence with a longing for Him in our spirit that we can be made new. And once new, we can look back at our failures and rejoice that He has forgiven and now is perfecting us.
January 13
“When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door behind him, and went out . . . And it came about when the man of God saw her at a distance, that he said to Gehazi his servant, ‘Behold, yonder is the Shunammite. Please run now to meet her and say to her, “Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?”’And she answered, ‘It is well’” (2 Kings 4:20–26).
Ponder the words of this mother as she met the prophet’s messenger: “It is well . . .”
Only moments before she had held her only son of her old age in her arms. She had watched him take his last breath. She had walked up the stairs with his lifeless body. She had laid her son, dead, upon the bed.
Yet her words . . .“It is well.”
The song “It Is Well with My Soul” was written and sung, too, in the deepest of tragedy, when a man had lost his entire family.
Beloved, is it well with you? Are you at peace with the One who is still in control, though circumstances show otherwise? Do you love and trust His goodness, power, and sovereignty enough to answer “it is well”?
January 14
“Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8).
Why must suffering be the companion of the believer?
Have we forgotten the sufferings of Christ and the perfecting it brought even in a perfect life? “He learned obedience . . .”
Yes, this is much needed in the life of the believer. Obedience. To walk His perfect will, not swayed by personal impulses that could cause us to stray from the perfect will of God. And as we walk this narrow path, He removes our burdens, which we have too long carried upon our backs, burdens burnt up through the fiery trials brought on by choosing to walk through the sufferings rather than turning our backs on His will for our lives.
Suffering is in order to learn obedience. Let’s obey.
January 15
“Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert” (Is. 35:6 KJV).
God may have sent you out into the desert, not that you should die, but live! For the Israelites to make it to the land promised to them, it required a walk through the desert. Those who murmured and complained, those who didn’t trust God’s goodness, but instead accused Him of “bringing us out to die,” never tasted the good land.
God has not only removed you from Egypt (the world) and bondage (sin), but He is leading you to a land where there will be “no want.” Along this journey, He will show you streams in the desert, blessing in the midst of your parched soul.
January 16
“You provided bread from heaven for them for their hunger, You brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst, and You told them to enter in order to possess the land which You swore to give them” (Neh. 9:15).
Beloved, do you thirst? Is your situation or are your circumstances causing you to dry out? The Lord can bring you water gushing out from a rock.
Trust that He will meet all your needs. Do not be like those who allowed adversity to weaken their faith. Instead, draw closer to the tent of the Almighty as Joshua did and allow your lack and your desert land to strengthen your faith in Him. Know that there will be a Jordan to cross over, a wall of Jericho that must fall, and that will need faith and spiritual boldness to conquer.
When you see an obstacle in your path, a rock or a boulder, remember God is able to bring forth living waters from it.
January 17
“But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity” (Ps. 37:11).
Have you longed, dear saint, for spiritual power, for a testimony that would turn the heads of those who need the Lord? Have you lived in mediocrity for so long and yearned for the abundant life?
What you have longed and searched for, you can now attain. Allow the Lord to drudge up the bottom of the shallow streams you’ve been sailing, in order for you to enter into the deeper and swifter rivers of life. All too soon, as you yield to Him, not shrinking back from the pain or fear, you will find yourself in the great open waters of the seas. It is here where your life will cause others to take notice, like the huge sailing ships of the great seas.
January 18
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name” (Ps. 100:4 KJV).
There is a place you must go, and go to regularly—a place of rest from the storms of life, a place of quiet and solitude. There you must enter in, to sit in His presence and wait on Him. Nothing can strengthen your spirit or soul as solitude and waiting on Him.
Often it is in the evening we seek Him, which too often is in the midst of the same hustle and bustle of the day. Instead, set aside a place early in the day, apart from all interruptions, and enter into His peace, His love and be forever changed.
January 19
“These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival” (Ps. 42:4).
When we are sick in body, we seek a physician. Yet who do we seek for our sick and wounded hearts? The Scriptures ask, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
Beloved, there is a soothing balm for your hurts and your wounded heart. Go to the great and mighty Physician, who knows our sorrows and is well acquainted with grief. Who knows betrayal first hand, but Jesus, who saw the closest to Him turn and walk away from Him during His darkest moments. It is there, with the mighty Physician, that you may pour out your sick soul of pain, disappointments, and betrayals—and be healed. Choose no other.
January 20
“[Cast] all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7).
God knows that we were not created to carry burdens. He compares us to sheep, not to oxen, who are the burden bearers. Sheep are fearful creatures as, too, are we.
Many times it is the fear that burdens our souls, burdens our minds with worry, reasoning, planning.
Beloved, cast all your cares upon the Lord, for He can take your cares, every one. Hold nothing back. Come to the place where you confess that, without His taking these cares from you, you cannot carry on any longer. Then, leave them there—refuse to carry their weight again. You have cast them off and they are now His to do with what seemeth right to Him.
January 21
“And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the Word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matt. 13:22).
The cares and worries of your situation have the ability to choke the Word from your very heart. Beloved, have you found that these days are filled with worry? That worries have become a familiar friend? Refuse them. Resist them. Run to Him for solace. Lay them at the feet of your Lover.
Replace the yoke of worrying with His yoke of peace. Take His yoke. Learn how He, through prayer, yielded His worry and put His trust in the Father and His will. With worry gone, the Word will flow freely, refreshing your soul.
January 22
“O my God, I trust in Thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me” (Ps. 25:2 KVJ).
Beloved, are you holding back rather than yielding totally to your Savior for fear that shame of failures will follow? The Psalmist knew all too well the nature of man, to fear shame. This is why he speaks to God time and again, “Let me not be ashamed,” and gives his concerns to Him.
Do you believe that trusting God totally and completely with the outcome of your situation, along with every detail, will result in your looking foolish? Fear not. Is He who created you, who allowed the situation to occur, and who brought you to this place of total dependence on Him—is He not the very same who created the universe, controls the seasons, and rules the kings of the earth? Trust Him, for He is more than able to protect you.
January 23
“Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly” (2 Chron. 29:36).
Beloved, is your heart in great anticipation for the Lord’s arrival on the scene of your situation? Have you “done all,” and are you now waiting for His coming? Waiting only in Him, in your salvation from the circumstances, that He has kept you? Do you look now for Him alone? Is your heart thrilling over each and every event when the Lord shows that His hand is surely in your life, that He is concerned and is close at hand?
Wait in great anticipation for His coming. And when He shows up on the scene, everything and everyone will change in an instant . . . suddenly!
January 24
“For Thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for Thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me” (Ps. 31:3 KJV).
Beloved, does the way before you seem impossible? Is your future full of the unknown?
You are not alone.
The Lord has not “sent” you but has asked you to walk “with” Him.
Are you anxious about what you must give up, what He is asking you to leave behind? Do you long for the fruits of Egypt, but have forgotten the land that He has promised you, the land flowing with milk and honey? But, oh, the desert land that looms before us, as my Savior and I stand hand in hand!
Beloved, do not let go. Stay close by His side, eyes on Him. Yield to His turnings even when it seems you are headed the wrong way. Whisper to Him, “Lead me, Lord . . .”
January 25
“‘You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you” (2 Chron. 20:17).
Beloved, are you being forced upon? Are you standing with your back to a Red Sea in your life?
Fear not.
But turn.
Stand and see the salvation of the Lord in this particular situation. Your Jericho is up ahead, your final and glorious victory, which will be total restoration. But before that, you will see the parting of the seas in your circumstances; the Lord will feed you with manna, food from His Word that will sustain you daily in your wilderness. He will wash you, cleanse you, and refresh you with fresh waters in your dry places.
All these as you trust Him. As you merely stand and see . . .
January 26
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth” (Ps. 121:1–2 KVJ).
Beloved, where is your strength coming from?
Are you tired, weary, or maybe discouraged?
All the strength we will ever need is from a single, ready source. “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Is your need really too big for God, who made you and all that you see? Is He not more than able?
All He asks from us is our leaning on, relying on, and calling on His name. And then, with faith—for without faith we cannot please Him—with faith we wait, eyes lifted to heaven, “from whence cometh my help.”
January 27
“But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6–8).
Beloved, are you being driven and tossed by the wind? Do you feel unstable in your decisions, in all your ways?
Then, Beloved, you are living with a mind that is doubled. God said that those with a mind that is doubled should expect nothing from God. Double-mindedness is what has you reeling. Settle this thing in your mind.
Do you doubt God’s ability to do this thing for you? Is there anything too difficult for Him? Or is it that you feel you have failed to earn it? Is it not blessings, mercy, and free gifts that He gives to us even as we sleep? Then, Beloved, it must be your lack of obedience that has you doubting. Settle this thing today. Obey and then believe for the goodness of the Lord.
January 28
“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 27:13).
Why do some never see victory? Are we not warned not to weary of doing well? Are we not promised that those who endure to the end will receive a reward?
The answer lies in just two words: “I believe.”
There is no question in those two words. The statement is resolute. No wavering.
Beloved, are you as determined to believe God where you stand? Not knowing how or when, but knowing somehow and at some time?
Yes, as the Psalmist proclaimed, I, too, would have fainted unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Therefore I will wait.
January 29
“Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed . . . He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them” (Ps. 2:1–4).
Do you see that the enemy is doing a vain thing as they plot against the Lord and His anointed? God sits in the heavens and laughs. For He knows that man’s desires and plans are futile against the ways of the Lord and His will.
As we rise above the torments that assail us, as we leave matters of this world and climb to the heights of praise, we have the ability to look down at our circumstances that have altogether plagued us. We can now see clearly, as God sees them from His heavenly throne. They are futile attempts when there is One so great that He is not worried by the attempts and plans of the enemy but instead scoffs at them.
January 30
“Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return” (Luke 6:38).
Beloved, what is needed for God to move on your behalf? Have you waited in vain? Do you need a miracle for your present situation to be made right? Then give.
Give all to Him, holding nothing back. You come to Him in need, but you are not relinquishing everything. What are you holding back?
The widow gave all she had and the Lord singled her out of the crowd for all she had given.
The boy with the fish and loaves gave all he had, which enabled more than 5,000 to eat.
The Lord has given you His life. What will you give to Him?
January 31
“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps. 126:6 KJV).
Beloved, are you sowing even though you sow with tears? Are you forever carrying your seeds with you even though sorrow and heaviness are also your companions? Then doubtless you will soon come again rejoicing!
Beloved, though mourning and tears are your daily friends, this is not the time to neglect the waiting soil where your seeds of faith, your seeds of comforting others, your seeds of love, your seeds of service would yield a bountiful harvest.
Don’t allow your circumstances to so keep your attention that you neglect this opportunity. Harvest time will come, and those who have sown in tears will doubtless come again carrying the fruits of their labor with them.