Starting our day with the right mindset and perspective is incredibly important to how the day and thereby the week, month and years go. One of the reasons I started writing these daily devotions and sending them out early each morning is to help myself and others start our days well.

There is no perfect routine for the morning, but we cannot go wrong having some routine to start our day that includes prayer and scripture.

David wrote in Psalms 143:8, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”

Some people think their lives are too busy to block five or ten minutes for a daily startup routine. The question is; If you don’t have ten minutes to start your day right, do you really have a life?

Dear Lord, help us start our days with the “word of your unfailing love,” and entrust our lives to you. When we do we can know the peace that only you can provide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

This is the essence of Faith, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5.

Whether it is our fear of the future, deciding whether to tithe, or facing a crisis, as Christians, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We live by faith, not by sight.”

Dear Lord, It is frightening to let go of those earthly things in which we put our trust, our intelligence, our money, technology. Help us and show us that we can put our trust in you, and find the comfort it brings. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I have teenagers in my house, and people tend to ask us and them, what they want to study in college, or what occupation they have an interest in. However, rather than the traditional questions, one of our children’s teachers asked an interesting question recently. “What problem does he want to solve?” This seemed to be a so much more inspiring way to approach the future.

In Romans 15:20, Paul writes, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.”

It is important to have a clear objective or as Paul calls it an “ambition,” not only for our personal pursuits, but for our Christian lives. What is yours?

Dear Lord, You have given us all many gifts and talents. Help us remember these are not just for our own entertainment, and satisfaction, but to serve you and each other. Help us use these to pursue objectives that grow your Kingdom and bring glory to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Defining love is difficult. It is emotion, action, thought, feeling all rolled together and prioritized above everything. True love like that of a parent for a child will stop at nothing to protect and care for the other.

This is what is so powerful about the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 8:38-39. he says, ” for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So with these words from Paul inspired by God, we can know without doubt that God will stop at nothing to protect and care for us.

Dear Lord, help us truly believe and trust in Your love for us so that we may do your will with faith and not fear. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

If you have traveled internationally, to places where the primary language is not your primary language, you may have experienced the feeling of being a foreigner, in a place that was not your home.

This is how Jesus describes us when he prays in John 17:16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”

The closer we get to Jesus, the more we feel like strangers in our world, but the closer we feel to other believers and to our true homeland with Jesus.

Dear Lord, it is a joy to know we are citizens of your world. In Jesus name. Amen.