October 1 2Samuel 22:31
“As for God, his way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
I always get into trouble when I begin with “I know.” My learning experiences are forged on the anvil of self-centeredness. My mistakes are underwritten by my lack of knowledge. How much better things go when I begin with Lord help me. He does every time. Father help me to learn to come to you first and last.
October 2 Psalms 2:12
Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of your pursuits – for his anger can flare up in an instant. But what joy for all who find protection in him!
Christ is the rightful king of my heart and life. I am to submit to Him ever day, all day. Christ has chosen to be with me. Submission to Him is my choice.
October 3 Psalms 5:11
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Protect them, so all who love your name may be filled with joy.
I am a child of THE KING. My life is hidden in Christ with God. Death has been conquered. His victory is at my disposal. He will never ignore me. I am His. This means that in all things and anything I can rejoice.
October 4 Psalms 7:1
I come to you for protection, O LORD my God. Save me from my persecutors – rescue me!
My life is a product of good and poor choices. My poor choices create dramatic confrontations with the deceiver. The evil one seeks to devour me. The Lord is my protector and He will intervene. Hurt, pain or stupidity will not destroy me. My God is able to deliver me.
October 5 Psalms 9:9-10
The LORD is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O LORD, have never abandoned anyone who searches for you.
I am God’s child. He will not leave me. When my faith is weak, God is there. When my sins mount up, God is there. I am His child forever. God will not leave me.
October 6 Revelation 22:7
“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the prophecy written in this scroll.”
Jesus may come today. He may come tomorrow. He is coming soon. The question I must answer: am I living with His return in mind? My actions answer that question.
October 7 1 John 3:21
Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence.
Some days I approach God smugly and line out my interests and needs in my quiet time. He gently calls me to account for unconfessed misdeeds. My smug attitude disappears quickly. My heart expresses its sorrow for foolish presumption. The Father has again helped me to grow in my confidence in Him. I am never disappointed when I trust God. I give evidence of that trust each time I approach Him in prayer.
October 8 1 John 5:4
For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory.
I want to earn my way. I want to control my life. Both of these actions before a loving and holy God are worthless. Only in Christ can I claim victory. I cannot stand up to evil. I am not equipped to repudiate the sin that so easily entangles me. But I can do all things through Christ. He withstands evil and repudiates sin. I submit to Him.
October 9 1 Peter 1:5
And God, in his mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you are trusting him. It will be revealed on the last day for all to see.
I am a child of God. I am bought with a price. My value and worth is grounded in the work that Christ did for the world. And God can take care of me. He has. He does. He will. I am His and He is mine. Praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow.
October 10 1 Peter 1:9
Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
Time will be no more. I will never again fail. In that day when I stand before Jesus, He will place that crown of eternity on my head and I will be like Him. Wow! What a Savior.
October 11 1 Peter 1:21
Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.
The lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world was slain for me. But it didn’t end there for the lamb that was raised conquering death and the grave destroyed sin and evil forever. The power that raised the lamb lives in me. He is alive. His victory insures my life forever.
October 12 1 Peter 1:7
These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
Feel the burn. Love the pain. The end result is that I will be more like Jesus. This is easy to say. It is also hard to live out in daily life. My soul screams for ease. Luxury is easily incorporated into my expectations. Lord help me survive the trials in a way that honors and glorifies you.
October 13 Joh 1:17
For the law was given through Moses; God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
I am good at directing other folk’s lives. I can see their faults and correct their deficiencies. However, I am not quite as skilled at fixing my own life. I make excuses and develop reasons why I am as flawed as I am. The Law helps me to recognize my sin. Christ empowers me to accept responsibility for my sin. Christ forgives my sin. Christ gives me the ability to do something about my sin.
October 14 James 1:6
But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
I can trust God. He will align my desires with His purposes. When I go to Him I can approach Him with full confidence that I can ask Him for anything. His way is the best.
October 15 James 2:1
My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim that you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people more than others?
God created each one of us in His image and for His purposes. We are bought with a price and valuable to the Father. The ground at the cross is level. The blood Jesus shed cleanses each one of us. God is love and we are called to love as He loves.
October 16 James 2:5
Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him?
God is concerned for the poor. It isn’t pretty to be poor. It isn’t easy surviving when you are poor. The poor have plenty of problems. Real faith is fashioned by our response to real problems.
October 17 James 2:10
And the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as the person who has broken all of God’s laws.
I struggled about this passage for years. Then I heard an excellent illustration. Take a glass of water and put one large drop of raw sewerage in the glass of water. Do you have partially clean water? No. With one drop of raw sewerage we have contaminated a whole glass of water. So too can one sin contaminate our entire life.
October 18 James 2:14
Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone.
When I am rude to my family, I am hurting God. When I mistreat a nobody, I am mistreating the Lord. God is concerned that I serve Him obediently and care for my neighbor. My faith is expressed by how I live my life.
October 19 James 2:17
So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all – it is dead and useless.
We struggle to make sense out of our lives. People and events often make us feel little and weak. I am only responsible to God for what I can do. I will not be accountable for what I cannot do. The work the Lord assigns me is valuable work in the kingdom. I am required to be about the Lord’s business.
October 20 James 2:23
And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” He was even called “the friend of God.”
Active obedience demonstrates that my faith is real. My works are the results of my faith. My heart is new. My life is refocused. I am a representative of the Lord of the universe. How could I act any other way than the way that He would act?
October 21 James 2:24-25
So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.
Rahab the prostitute is another example of this. She was made right with God by her actions – when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road.
We are defined by the way we see ourselves. If we conclude that we are without hope and helpless we will live self-centered, mean spirited lives. On the other hand if we recognize whom our father is we will change the way that we live. The needs of our neighbor will become important in our daily lives.
October 22 Hebrews 4:11
Let us do our best to enter that place of rest. For anyone who disobeys God, as the people of Israel did, will fall.
God has already made provision to meet all of my needs. It is my responsibility to recognize this. I hurt God heals. I need God gives. God will take care of me.
October 23 Hebrews 4:1
God’s promise of entering his place of rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to get there.
I cannot save myself. I am not able to logic my way into the family of God. Only when I bend the knee to the Father and accept the work that Christ did for me on the cross will I find salvation. By grace we are saved so that none can boast.
October 24 Hebrews 6:1
So let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start all over again with the importance of turning away from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.
God’s call to me is to change. I must stop being irritable, give it to God and He will heal me. I must change my vision from self to others and God will give me what I need to make that change. The Christian life is a journey of change. God is constantly chipping off everything on me that doesn’t look like Jesus. What a Father.
October 25 Hebrews 6:18
So God has given us both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can take new courage, for we can hold on to his promise with confidence.
God has his hand on me. He has given me more than 7,000 promises in His word. I can live my life based on His word and put His promises to work in my life.
October 26 Hebrews 11:1
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.
I keep a miracle log. I speak to God about things and keep a list of His activity in dealing with the things that I talk with Him about. Each time I get an answer I record the date and the answer. When I face a problem or a failure I go to my miracle log. I am confidently assured by my Father’s work in my life that He hasn’t forgotten me. He speaks to me through His actions. My faith is strengthened. Lord I believe help my unbelief.
October 27 Revelation 1:2-3
John faithfully reported the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ-everything he saw. God blesses the one who reads this prophesy to the church and he blesses all who listen to it and obey what it says. For the time is near when these things will happen.
God speaks to me from His heart. I am not alone. The world is not swirling out of control. God is concerned about my electric bill, and my sin. He wants me to live my life with immediacy. I must learn how to respond with good for evil. I must live with a heart for my neighbor and an ear for the shout of His return.
October 28 Eph. 3:14-15
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
I am overwhelmed when I think about what heaven will be like. God wants me to be with Him throughout eternity. Time is banned in heaven. Pain and suffering are not there. Scary thoughts and fear have never entered the gates of heaven. One day I will be there. Will you be there with me? If you love Jesus you will. It’s just that simple. God said it and I believe it.
October 29 Eph 3:17
And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.
God’s love reaches into every corner of my existence. He loves me when I am good and when I am bad. His love reaches deep into my soul and confirms His care for me. I talk with the Father so that I can understand where I am. I don’t have to be concerned about where God is for God is love.
October 30 Isa 8:13
Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else.
God doesn’t change but I do. I choose my relationship with the Lord. If I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior I am a child of God. If I choose myself as Lord of my life I am an enemy of God and will be eternally separated from the Father. God so loved the world that He came. His coming enabled me to have a clear choice, His way or my way.
October 31 Psalm 37:34
Don’t be impatient for the LORD to act! Travel steadily along his path. He will honor you, giving you the land. You will see the wicked destroyed.
Time is such an enemy. It tyrannizes me. It whispers in my ear that God will not act. Time is the author of impatience. Time pleads with me to do it my way. My prayer for you and me is that I will forget the time and wait patiently upon the Lord to act.
