Morning Devotions by Sheila Lloyd

Day Eighteen

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,
that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
and that He may send the Christ who has been appointed for you --
even Jesus.
Acts 3:19-20

Repentance. Confession. Admission of guilt. Sin. Too many times we view repentance as a negative thing instead of the act that brings us freedom!

No of us are unfamiliar with feelings of remorse over something that we have done - or failed to do. We feel the prick of guilt, and our conscience is burdened. But where do we go from there?

Scripture makes it plain that at such a moment we need to openly confess to God. Take responsibility for our actions, and come to Him humbly and honestly.

And what happens next? Forgiveness! Pure and immediate. (1 John 1:9 ) We are washed clean, absolved of guilt. Our sins are removed at that very second as far as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12 )

Friends, too often, instead of following these very simple steps, we allow the guilt to eat us alive. We allow the enemy to so infuse us with shame that we no longer believe we can ever have freedom. And we are effectively bound with the very chains that Christ died on the cross to break!

It is normal to sin - we are human! (Romans 7:14-25 ) And until we enter heaven we will succomb to our sinful nature. However, Jesus died in order that we do not have to be slaves to sin any longer! (John 8:34-36 ; Romans 6:5-5 ,16; 8:1-2) It's time to stop allowing Satan to hold us in bondage with shame and guilt. We have been given freedom through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Look at the scripture above from Acts 3:19-20 . We are admonished to repent of our sins so that "times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Wow! I don't know about you, but I certainly welcome times of refreshing from the Lord! So I will choose to take ownership of my sin, to confess it honestly before the Lord, and then to repent of it - which means to turn away from it - so that I can experience forgiveness and freedom.

Our Savior Jesus has already paid the penalty for sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ; 1 John 1:7 ) We do not need to carry chains of guilt and shame. We need only to turn to God and confess...and experience joy and freedom!

Additional Scriptures: Psalm 32:5 (read in context of whole psalm); Psalm 51

Day Seventeen

When you hear two sermons on the same passage of scripture within 24 hours, you realize that God is trying to tell you something! Let me share it with you...

Acts 16:16-24 paints a graphic and exciting scene, full of enough drama to fill the movie screens in Hollywood: After exorcising a fortune-telling demon from a slave girl, rendering her useless to her owners, Paul and Silas are not only confronted but severely beaten and then thrown in prison. Bruised and bloodied, they sit in a maximum security prison for hours. At midnight they are praying and praising God, while the other prisoners are listening. Suddenly God sends an earthquake strong enough that all the chains break loose and all the prison cell doors swing open! Read for yourself the rest of the story in verses 27-34.

At times I am beaten up by the enemy, bloodied from battle -- spiritually and emotionally -- as I strive to walk this path of faith. Circumstances or even my own fear of failure can feel as confining as a maximum security prison cell.

But, praise can change my perspective! We've all heard the statement: "You cannot always control what happens to you in life, but you can choose your response." When we choose praise, we usher in the presence of Almighty God! A pathway is paved for the Holy spirit to enter right into our prison cell and shake the shackles loose!

Praise delivers us...and it can also launch us into our destiny. Having an attitude of praise even in the midst of darkness and despair can allow such power and presence of the Holy Spirit to flow that I am launched to a whole new level of my faith walk. Fulfilling the destiny that God has planned for me is advanced by a choice to praise!

Another point from this passage that overwhelmed me was this: Just being in the atmosphere, the environment of praise brought freedom.

There are times when we are so beaten down, so discouraged, so overwhelmed by life's circumstances that we cannot muster up any energy to praise. We cannot exert the effort. At those times, we need to just get in the environment of praise -- surround ourselves with others who are praising the Lord. Spend time in that atmosphere, that setting, and the freedom will come to us as well! Praise is contagious!

From the indication of the scripture in Acts 16:25 , Paul and Silas were the only ones praying and singing. Perhaps the other prisoners were mocking them -- "You fools! Why are you singing and praising God? You're in prison. He's abandoned you." Or even, "It's late! Be quiet and go to sleep!" Perhaps the other prisoners were just listening and watching, intrigued. Perhaps they were overwhelmed by their own circumstances, and the sound of hope and joy was foreign in their ears. I have found myself in each one of those prison cells. How about you?

Regardless, the truth is that Paul and Silas might have been the only ones praising, but all of the prisoners were set free!

Let us always choose to praise and usher in the presence and power of Jesus Christ.

Day Sixteen

1 Peter 2:4-5

“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

When the Israelites crossed over the Jordan – at flood stage mind you -- God gave them instructions to build an altar to commemorate the miracle. They were told to pick up stones from middle of the river bed, marking the place where God rolled back the waters and brought them safely across. This altar, these stones, were to be a sign for the nation and for their children – a testimony and remembrance of the hand of Almighty God.

I find it fascinating that the stones were picked up in the middle of the river…signifying the deepest part, the greatest challenge, the highest level of difficulty during their passage. God did not tell them to pick up the stones along the bank of the river which would have been easily visible and accessible. No, He instructed them to gather these stones of remembrance from the most potentially dangerous part of their journey.

So it is with our journey of faith.

Oh, there are times when I build an altar of praise from any rocks laying around – quick to set up a sign of what God has done for me. However, the altars of remembrance that are the most significant in my life are built from boulders that were embedded in the mud of the deepest part of a flood-stage river. Mud-caked hands and broken fingernails scraped and clawed and lifted those stones out of position and placed them with tears into a new position of testimony, reflecting the covenant of my God to care and provide for my needs.

And when I see those stones, I am instantly reminded of His deliverance…and I am quick to tell the story to all who will listen!

I shake my head with amazement, then-- reading the passage from 1 Peter above—that we are like living stones being built into a spiritual house. Certainly, He has dug His nail-scarred hands down into the mud and mire of sin and lifted us out of the pit. Perhaps those of us who have been rescued from the deepest point sing the loudest praise.

As we submit our lives to the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ the Rock, we become a living stone on an altar of praise bringing glory to His mighty name!

Other scriptures: Joshua 4:1-7 ; Psalm 40 ; Romans 12:1

Day Fifteen

She gave this name
to the Lord who spoke to her:
"You are the God who sees me."

Genesis 16: 13

Have you ever had something happen that you knew without a doubt was directly from the Lord? I believe we all have - many, many times - the more appropriate question is if we recognized it!

I had such an experience this morning. I do not have caller id on my phone, so I am totally dependent on my recollection of the individual's voice or their stating their name after I say, "Hello." Well, this morning I received a call from a friend that I have not heard from in months. In fact, it took me a few seconds to realize who was speaking. We used to be in a Bible study together, and she and her daughter had taken piano lessons from me a few years ago. She called just to ask how I was doing because the Lord kept bringing my name to her mind. She felt such a strong desire to hold me up in prayer the last several days and had been doing exactly that. So, she just called to see if I was ok.

Well, she had no idea what an encouragement that was to me! It's rare that we call one another just to offer a kind word or to let someone know we're praying for them.

We talked briefly and got caught up on one another's lives. God's faithfulness to both of us had been evident through answered prayer, and so we rejoiced with one another. I told her that I had experienced challenges lately and really appreciated her prayers and encouragement.

When I hung up the phone I shed some tears of gratitude to the Lord. How in the world would she have thought to call me today except by the nudging of the Holy Spirit? She had no idea what was going on in my life, but my heavenly Father knew.

Immediately this verse came to my mind - "You are the God who sees me." Read it in context in Genesis 16 . It tells the story of a seemingly insignificant woman, feeling used, abused, abandoned and forgotten. God meets her in the desert - definitely an emotional desert as well as a literal one - and assures her not only of His presence, but His provision. He even reveals to her the destiny that He has planned for her life.

Friends, our precious Lord does the same with us. Regardless of how we feel, He never abandons or forgets us. He cannot. We are written on the very palm of His hand.

Walk in peace today knowing that your God sees you and loves you.

Additional scriptures: Hebrews 13:5 ; Isaiah 49:15-16

Day Fourteen

See, a king will reign in righteousness
and rulers will rule with justice.

Each man will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

Isaiah 32:1-2

God showed me this scripture to pray for my church, for the leadership, for the Body -- that we would indeed be a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storms of life. Too often we allow the enemy to create storms, turmoil, damaging winds inside the walls of the church. So, what is intended to be a safe place filled with love, mercy, encouragement, exhortation, grace and peace becomes just one more place of tension, conflict and hurt. We must pray against this, fix our eyes on Jesus, and strive for peace -- in the church corporately and in our individual lives.

Do we offer streams of water in the desert lands of people's lives?

Jesus said of himself in John 4:10-14 that He was the source of living water. Are we pointing others to that source?

I love the imagery of this scripture from Isaiah -- "the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land." Can you picture it? Perhaps it looked like the rock at Horeb from which God gave the Israelites fresh water. (Exodus 17:1-7 )

That certainly was a thirsty land! Physically it was a desert, but spiritually the people were thirsty for God's presence, His deliverance. Any spiritual moisture in their souls was being sucked dry by their grumbling and unbelief.

God showed up in a mighty way, gushing fresh water from that huge rock.

So, too, in our lives our Rock offers not only shade in our desert-like lives but a rush of living water which, if we let it, will saturate our very souls.

Other scriptures for study: Psalm 91:1 ; 46:4; Numbers 20:1-13 ; John 4:10-14 ; 7:38

Day Thirteen

please see Day Twelve for part one

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,

streams of living water will flow from within him."

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

John 7:38-39

If we are believers in Jesus Christ we become a conduit for that living water. It flows from deep within us by the Holy Spirit who resides in us. That living water gushes out of us and onto those we come in contact with.

The Message version interprets part of John 7:38 with these words, "Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says."

So, when was the last time your life, my life was a river of living water that was full to the brim with the joy, wonder and amazement of Almighty God, so much so that it gushed out all over those we are in contact with?

We need to open our eyes to the people around us like the Samaritan woman. Oh, they're in different clothing today: business suits rather than plainly draped cloth, painted smiles, spiked hair, perhaps some body piercings and extravagant tatoos. Or maybe they're in very proper "church clothes" sitting right next to you on a Sunday morning, with a heart pierced more severely than any nose ring.

Please Jesus, open our eyes. Let us be the one that says,

"If you knew the generosity of God, you would ask me, and I would take you to the Source of living water. Then you would never thirst again -- by the power of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ."

Additional scriptures for study: Rev. 21:6 ; 22:17; Isaiah 55:1 ; Psalm 36:8-9 ; Proverbs 9:1-6 ,10

Day Twelve

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,

streams of living water will flow from within him."

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

John 7:38-39

Earlier in John's gospel (chapter 4), we read about Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. It is a fascinating story -- an outcast woman with a tainted reputation, who is likely the center of gossip in the community, and Jesus breaking all the laws and social boundaries by speaking to her. Why, he should not have even been crossing through Samaria!

Not only does Jesus not condemn her, but he offers her living water so she would never thirst again.

Jesus looks past the cold, hardened eyes of one who is tired of the judgement of the so-called religious and sees a broken woman, one who has built walls around her heart to protect herself from even more hurt. She has looked for love in all the wrong places, wiping her hands clean of five husbands and currently living with a man she is not married to.

Jesus sees the deep hunger, the pain, the fear, the shame, the guilt and says to her parched soul, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water." (John 4:10 , The Message)

Fresh, living water...Jesus is the Source of life. He is the Bread of life, living water. Jesus IS the nourishment we need! (John 6:35-40 )

Please see Day Thirteen for a continuation of this devotional.