Michael Harrison's e-devotion

  There are times you run across something that you just have to share.  This is one of those days.  Powerful truth.  Simple to understand.  Hard to follow through. Just a few verses from my reading stood out yesterday, and I want to share with you.  These really are promises from God.  We need His promises.  Know them.  Claim them.  Repeat them and know they are still promises. Read on and ask God to help you apply them. Isaiah 40:28-31  NLT   Have you never heard? Have you never understood?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth.  He never grows weak or weary.  No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.  They will...

  Claim promises that the Bible gives us about our great and gracious God.  There are so many promises in the Bible, but here are a few that remind me of faith, the strength of our God and how we can stay strong as a follower of Jesus. Read on.  Take note of what is important to you…   Psalm 27:1 NASB The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?   How do you deal with fear? Daniel 10:19 NASB He said, “O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you; take courage and be courageous!” Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, “May my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”   Be strong because of real strength. Acts 3:19 NASB Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of ...

  Dealing with fear and allowing God to increase our faith is not easy, but it is right.  Look to His promises and walk this out.   Galatians 3:29  NASB And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.   Know your place, your calling and the direction God is leading you.  Knowing God’s promises isn’t just for the people in the Bible or religious people.  You and I can know and need to know our promises from God.  This will change us.   Philippians 1:3  NLT Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.   That was written from Paul to some of the people he loved.  Friend, there are people who love you and are thanking God for you.  That makes life easier, better and us stronger.   Isaiah 41:10   NASB ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God...

  I continue to share with you some verses that stick out in my mind as some that God has used to help me stay closer to him as well as to discern His direction for my life, our family and the church that I lead. That is why I share with you again.  So far this week I shared Hebrews 12:1-2, James 1:2-5 and yesterday from Proverbs 3.  Today I am headed in a few different directions.  Check it out with me. Read these and take it all in.  Study and meditate on it.  Ask yourself: what is God is saying to me in these verses?  Psalm 150:6  NLT   Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord! Matthew 5:3  NLT   God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. John 3:30  NLT   He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. Philippians 4:6-7  NLT   Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you...

  Today’s e-devotion is actually from the Navigators Daily devotion by LeRoy Eims from earlier this week.  I know this will encourage you as it did me… 2 Peter 1:4  He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.  Today’s passage contains a promise: “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 40:4-5). For several years I have claimed that promise for Harvard University and Camp Pendleton, the U.S. Marine base on the West Coast. Why those two places? I know men in both places who are sharing the gospel and working to produce disciples of Jesus Christ. A second reason is that these two places are almost exact opposites, but they...

Deuteronomy 28:13 NIV  “The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.” There are some verses that you come across that hit you, won’t leave you and keep you thinking for someone.  That verse is one this happened with yesterday.  It was in my daily reading.  Powerful. It is my understanding that the promises of God are not just for way back when.  They are for today.  Trust Him.  Seek Him.  Watch Him work. But God isn’t a magic something that we go to get what we want.  He has a plan, and what He does is to complete us and to bring His glory as well as to see that His plan to in place.  I have seen this time and time again.  Have you?  Have you watched something come together in your life that you thought was useless or never ending? God is at work.  Trust Him. Go...

God has blessed those who follow Him, and the promises that we can claim are far too numerous to count.  Scripture after Scripture and page after page of the Bible affirms this truth. But there is more.  The promises are laid out before us, but all around there are affirmations.  The biggest of those is that God Himself is with us.   He is with us through the Spirit.  His Holy Spirit that was sent after Jesus died.  He was a promise.  Jesus said we would not be left alone.  In fact a comforter would come and walk beside us. That is what makes Immanuel as reality.  Remember, that is the name of God which means “God with us”.  All the time, we are never alone.   Galatians 3:14  NLT Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. We have the same blessing that other have.  That blessing was give...

I ran across something that stood out to me yesterday when I was looking at Instagram.  It is from Pastor Jentezen Franklin.   This is good stuff.  I encourage you to think through these “Seven Promises of God” that he shared.  For me it is important to hold tight to the things God says about us.   These are huge.  Enjoy.  Think about these.  Apply them, too.. Seven Promises of God 1.  I will be with you. Joshua 1:9  NLT This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 2.  I will protect you. Isaiah 54:17  NLT But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed.  You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me.  I, the Lord, have spoken! 3.  I am your strength. Psalm 28:7  NLT The Lord is my strength and shield.  I ...

  I have been thinking a lot lately about old hymns.  Many of these I learned in my childhood or early in ministry.  They ring true with theology and what it is to follow Christ on a daily basis.  One of those hymns is Standing On the Promises , and that is what I want to share with you today.  Read some of the word of this precious hymn: Standing on the promises of Christ my king, through eternal ages let his praises ring; glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, standing on the promises of God… Standing on the promises that cannot fail, when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living Word of God I shall prevail, standing on the promises of God… Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, bound to him eternally by love’s strong cord, overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword, standing on the promises of God… Standing on the promises I cannot fall, listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, resting in my Savior as my all in all, standing on...

  Psalm 77:11  NLT But then I recall all you have done, O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. It is a great thing to remember.  Tuesday, September 11, 2001 is one of those days that we say we will never forget.  The towers in New York City collapsed after being hit by airplanes killing hundreds of people, and there were the crashes at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania too.  We will remember. There are lots of other days that we will remember.  Depending on our age there are dates that stick out to us.  I hear people speak of the day President Kennedy was shot, the day Pearl Harbour was attacked and others.  I remember the day Elvis Presley died, the shooting of President Reagan, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986 and others. Each of those holds a special place in our hearts.  But there are also the things that God has done that I remember.  It might have been something God did or something that God used in m...

There are so many things rolling through our minds and even through our lives.  Several articles have caught my attention as we deal with the Coronavirus and all that it has been doing around us. Yesterday one particular blog post hit home with me.  It was simply a list of 16 promises that God gives us.  Thanks to author Vernon Williams ( www.vernonlwilliams.com ) for this post.  Take a few minutes to read through what he shared: Focus On These 16 Promises From God When the inevitable problems arise, it is easy to think you are facing them alone. God wants you to know that is not the case - ever. In fact, He unequivocally promises that He will: 1. Fight for you. - Exodus 14:14  2. Give you strength if you are weary. - Isaiah 40:29  3. Increase your power when you are weak. - Isaiah 40:29  4. Be with you. - Isaiah 43:2  5. Remain steadfast in his love for you. - Isaiah 54:10  6. Give ...