Daily Hope Devotional

“Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, so that His people would learn to serve and His body would grow strong”  (Ephesians  4:11-12  CEV). How do you know when somebody’s talking if that person has this gift from God to be a teacher? Here’s how you know: Iif, during their teaching, there is a moment you feel like God is speaking directly to you — like you’re the only person in the room and the speaker is focused solely on you. In that moment, God has something to say to you. That’s how you know the gift of teaching is working. We pray for as teachers every week at Saddleback Church. There’s no way in a crowd the size of our congregation we could know the needs of everybody. So we pray, “God, we don’t know who’s going to be here and the things that have happened in their lives this week, but you do. Would you give us the ability to say something to these people tha

“A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed some fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it.”   (Luke 8:5 NLT) If you want to hear God speak, you must first cultivate an open mind. What does that mean? It means you’ve got to be receptive. You’ve got to be willing. You’ve got to be open. You’ve got to be eager. You’ve got to be ready. The number one barrier to hearing God speak is resistance. So many people are closed to the possibility that God might speak to them. If you don’t think God can or will speak to you, guess what? He won’t. Jesus talked about this kind of soil — the footpath soil — in Luke 8:5:  “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed some fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it”   (NLT). As workers walk down the path between each row of a field, it becomes trampled down. The soil becomes compact and gets really h

“The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation.”   (Luke   8:13   NLT) To cultivate an open mind so that you can hear from God, you’ve got to allocate time to listen. That means you’ve got to slow down. You’ve got to be quiet. You’ve got to put it in your schedule so you have time to hear God speak. The first barrier to hearing God speak is resistance. But the second barrier to hearing God is hurry. When we live hurried lives, God gets shuffled to the sidelines. We say, “God, I want to hear from You. But hurry up! I’ve only got five minutes!” God wants more than your leftovers and your spare moments. He wants to be the center of your life. The way that you prove He’s the center of your life is by allocating time to listen. Jesus says in Luke 8:6,  “Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon

God speaks to the person who decides in advance to do whatever God says to do. God doesn’t speak to the person who says, “God, tell me what You want me to say, and I’ll decide if it’s a good idea or not.” God does not speak to the person who says, “God, tell me what You think is the good thing, and I’ll compare it with my other options and choose the one I think is best.” No. God’s not going to waste His time on that. You have to say in advance, “God, I’m willing to cooperate with whatever you want me to do. I’m signing a blank check; you fill it in.” This is what the Bible calls the good soil in Luke  8:15 :  “The seeds that fell in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit”   (GNT). Notice the four traits of good soil or the people who respond in faith to God’s Word: First, they hear it. Then, they retain it or remember it. Next, they obey it. Then, they persis

God wants to speak to you. But first, you must eliminate the distractions so that you can hear from Him. You can’t hear God when your mind is crowded with worries, your plans, and your activities. You can’t hear God when your mind is filled with TV, the Internet, and your cell phone. For many of us, there is too much noise going on for us to hear from God. This is the soil with weeds. In Luke 8:7 Jesus says,  “Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it”   (MSG). Notice that the seed does get to sprout and actually starts growing. But after awhile the weeds choke it, so it never bears fruit. In verse 14 Jesus explains the meaning:  “The seed that fell among the thorny weeds is like those who hear God’s teaching, but they let the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life keep them from growing and producing good fruit”  (NIV). One of the biggest distractions that keeps us from hearing from God is busyness. A lot of people confuse activi

God wants us to use some money to take the Good News around the world. We invest in eternity every time we use money to bring others to Jesus. When you save to go on a mission trip, that’s an investment in God’s Global Fund. When you help others go on a mission trip, that’s an investment in God’s Global Fund. This also includes using your money to encourage your friends to trust in Jesus. Luke 16:9 says,  “Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home”  (NLT, second edition). Imagine when you die and get to Heaven, your friends will welcome you there and say, “Thank you for investing in me. I’m in Heaven because of you! I’m not your friend for life; I’m your friend for eternity. I’m in Heaven because you cared enough. You bought me a Bible. You bought me a ticket for an event. You gave me a Christian book.” Others will say,

God wants you to use some of your money to help people in need. God didn’t put us on this earth to live for ourselves. He blesses us so that we can bless others. This is all part of God making us more like Himself. God is generous. Everything we have in life is because of God’s generosity. We wouldn’t have anything — we wouldn’t even be alive — if it weren’t for God’s generosity. And God wants us to be generous like He is. Imagine if your father was a billionaire, and he wanted to share his fortune with you. But he knew you needed to be tested first to see if you would be able to handle it. So he gives you a set amount of money and says, “I want you to learn to live on less so you can use the rest to help others. I’m going to be watching you to see how you manage and distribute my resources. If you do well, I’m going to will it all to you.” How would you use that money? God particularly wants us to be generous with the poor. Throughout the Bible, God tells us

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”   (Matthew   6:21   NIV) You are going to enjoy forever what you invest in Heaven, and you invest in Heaven every time you use money for good. Yesterday we talked about investing in eternity by using your money to grow your character, encourage fellowship in the Body of Christ, and serve others in need. There are two more funds that you should invest in so that you can yield eternal dividends in Heaven. The fourth of God’s investment funds is the Global Fund.   This is when you use your money to share the Good News and bring people to Jesus. Luke 16:9 says, “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (NIV). A lot of people have no idea what this verse means. Is it saying that you can buy friends? Not at all. It means that God wants you to invest in things that help get people into Heaven so that when you get

“They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.”   (1 Timothy 6:18b-19 NLT) The Bible says in 1 Timothy  6:18-19 ,  “They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life”   (NLT). You are going to enjoy forever what you invest in Heaven, and you invest in Heaven every time you use money for good. So how do you do that? Any financial advisor will tell you not to put all your eggs in one basket. You put your money into different funds for a balanced portfolio. Did you know that God has given different funds that you can invest in for eternity? We’re going to look at

If you want to be financially strong, you need to start writing down what you spend until you know where it’s all going. This is the principle of accounting. You’ve got to keep track of your finances! Proverbs 21:5 says,  “Plan carefully and you will have plenty”  (TEV). If you don’t have plenty, you’re not planning carefully. You don’t have anybody to blame but yourself. You may say, “But I had this emergency!” Everybody has emergencies. Everybody gets laid off or has unexpected expenses. The difference between the people who make it through and those who don’t is how they planned for those emergencies. If you don’t expect them, of course you’re going to be devastated by them. Have you ever made it to the end of the month and wondered, “Where did all my money go?” Ignorance of your financial condition plus easy credit equals disaster. You’ve heard that phrase, “Money talks.” It does not. It just walks away quietly, and it doesn’t tell you where it’s going. So you have

“ The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.”   (Deuteronomy 14:23b TLB) Whatever you want God to bless, you have to put Him first in. So if you want God to bless your finances, you have to put Him first in your money. This is the principle of tithing: You give the first 10 percent of your income back to God. There are four verses that explain the promise, the purpose, the place, and the day for tithing. First, Proverbs 3:9-10 gives the promise about tithing:  “Honor the Lord by giving Him the first part of all your income, and He will fill your barns with wheat and barley and overflow your wine vats with the finest wines”   (TLB). God says that if you honor Him with the first part of your income, He will bless you financially. Kay and I decided 36 years ago that if we’re going to be in debt to anybody, we’re not going to be in debt to God. God gets paid first