jesus calling devotional
When Clutter Is a Gift
“You’ve been clearing out the debris and clutter within me, making room for Your Spirit to take full possession.” – Jesus Listens, January 7 Clutter is a fact of life. Decluttering Decluttering is a fact of life, too. Over the years, I’ve decluttered more than the average person and now, I actually write books about decluttering. When people find out I’m a Christian who writes about decluttering, they want to talk about what the Bible says about clutter. One of the verses they love to quote is Matthew 6:19: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (NIV). Spiritual Treasure Obviously it’s true, since it’s in the Bible. But as a person who’s purged (literal) truckloads of clutter from her home and cried tears of...
6 Truths to Help You Understand Grief
No matter what losses I experience, in my life, I know that nothing can separate me from Your loving Presence! – Jesus Listens, October 21 When you are grieving, it can feel like that single emotion controls every aspect of your life. From your relationships and physical health to your ability to work or do the simplest tasks, grief is ever present. If you don’t have proper care and a plan of action, grief will assume control of your life. But before you can take effective action, it’s essential to understand the strong emotions you’re feeling. Want to understand grief a little more? These are six things you need to remember: 1. Grief Is Universal We feel grief so personally that it’s easy to think we are alone in our suffering. But sooner or later, everyone will feel the sting of grief. R...
Thriving Through the Unexpected
“Help me not to let unexpected events throw me off course. Instead of getting upset or anxious, I want to respond calmly and confidently—remembering that You are with me.” Jesus Listens, November 3 In the years since I found out I had cancer, plenty of people have asked me why I think I got sick in the first place. Why did this happen to me? Why does cancer happen to anyone? I actually love that question, because it gives me a chance to share the story, once again, of my mother’s prophetic words. My simple answer is that this happened to me because I was chosen. A Legacy of Firsts If you know anything about me, it’s probably that I’ve been blessed with many opportunities to serve others by being a “first.” First Black senior class president of Kennedy High School in Richmond, California. O...
Four Spiritual Tools to Build Your Brain Power
You formed me with an amazing brain that can communicate with You, think rationally, create things, make decisions, and much more.” –Jesus Listens, February 12 Your brain is a powerful place. It’s the command center of all that you think, feel, and do. That means all of the functions of your emotions, desires, perceptions, ideas, and memories take place inside your brain, which contains about 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion interconnections. Did you know the way you think constructs neural pathways in your brain? You can compare this pathway creation process to the way a semitruck makes deep tread marks in packed snow. These deeply-embedded thoughts produce your feelings, both good and bad. If you spend a lot of time worrying or feeling angry or fearful, then your brain builds neural ...
Love Works
Learn to relate to others through My Love rather than yours. Your human love is ever so limited, full of flaws and manipulation.My loving Presence, which always enfolds you,is available to bless others as well as you.Jesus Calling, May 12 Let’s face it: 2020 was a difficult year, and we are ready for a better 2021. COVID-19 wreaked havoc on our lives. We went from a booming economy to great uncertainty almost overnight. We have seen illness, death, job loss, social unrest, increased anxiety, a bitter presidential election, and a loss of normalcy in our lives. We are grieving over many things, including the sense of security many thought we possessed. But the truth is, the only things we can control are our own actions and attitudes. As we turn the page on 2020, I think we should seek to li...
Immanuel: God Is with Us
“Long before I was born, I was proclaimed to be the God who is with you. This is rock-solid truth that nobody and no circumstance can take away from you.”Jesus Always, December 20 “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:1One prayer changed my life forever. Since then, more prayers have come, but that prayer was the one that set my life on a completely different trajectory. How did I get here? After spending several years in my teens and twenties running away from God, one day I found myself lying on the floor of my parents’ bathroom. It had been a couple of months since I received the first of what would be five cancer diagnoses. There I was, on the floor, a few hours into a 3-day quarantine for intense radiation treatment. I was 26. The tr...
A Journal of Healing
I am a God who heals. I heal broken bodies, broken minds, broken hearts, broken lives, and broken relationships. My very Presence has immense healing powers. Jesus Calling, August 20 2011 was a rough year. I was serving as a full-time associate pastor on a large church staff where God’s Spirit was leading us into ministries outside our comfort zone and church doors. We were serving others, particularly the poor, in God-sized ways. I was especially enjoying ministry with my friend, our Senior Pastor, Dr. Ken Diehm, One day, he even laughed and said, “We don’t even have to work to lead, do we? We just look where God is at work and run that way!” In February of 2011, we ended a normal work week, said a casual goodbye, knowing we’d see each other for Sunday worship. But overnight, my friend Ke...
Faith Strengthening Our Biggest Spiritual Muscle
On some days, your circumstances and your physical condition feel out of balance: The demands on you seem far greater than your strength. Days like that present a choice between two alternatives—giving up or relying on Me. Jesus Calling, September 8 My young son was in a drugged sleep on a potent drip of antibiotics. He needed two more surgeries in his tender brain, which would bring the total to five since the massive hemorrhage in his brain tumor three months earlier. There had been glimmers of light. He’d laughed, and I’d even heard his voice at the neurological rehab where he was learning how to walk, talk, and eat all over again. He was coming back, then he’d had a setback. More surgeries were scheduled. I called my friend Joan and explained the situation. “You don’t think you can do ...
The Consistent Practice of Prayer
Rest in Me, My child. Give your mind a break from planningand trying to anticipate what will happen. Pray continually, asking My Spirit to take charge of the details of this day.Jesus Calling, June 10 I don’t know about you, but I’m a do-er. I like to make a plan, create action steps, and then create boxes for those action steps that I can check off. Yes, I’m that girl. I want to look and feel productive. If there’s a problem, I want to solve it. I want there to be a tangible way to grasp the solution. And that’s exactly why prayer was so hard for me to prioritize. Prioritizing prayer I was too busy hitting the ground running as soon as I woke up, working and taking care of everyone else throughout my day, and then falling into bed exhausted. After realizing that prayer should be a huge pa...
Becoming Godmothers Who War
I infused meaning into your mind and harmony into your heart. Join Me in singing My song. Together we will draw others out of darkness into My marvelous Light.Jesus Calling, June 14 To be a mother is to be a warrior True mothers fight for their children and want more for them than what they experienced. My prayer as a mother is that where I’ve known oppression, my children will know freedom and that my failures will serve to position them for success. Conversely, our mother’s heart hurts when we see the youth stray. I believe God is inviting us to be godmothers who are mother protectors. When we arise, men, women, and children are protected. One of the many ways to be a good mother is to be a woke one—a mama who is paying attention! She is awake and aware. Deborah first called as judge Deb...
Lean into Your Weakness to Find His Strength
It is good that you recognize your weakness. That keeps you looking to Me, your Strength. Abundant life is not necessarily health and wealth; it is living in continual dependence on Me.Jesus Calling, March 16 The story I’m about to tell you is a personal journey that involves stepping out of my comfort zone, leaning into my weakness, and finding the courage to admit, “I can’t do it.” I’m going to be completely honest: I wouldn’t be where I am today without spending daily devotional time reading God’s Word and hearing His voice, and a group of family and friends who gave me the space to be real. New Beginnings In 2005, my husband and I, along with another friend, started a non-profit. Ten Thousand Homes was established to bring hope and home to orphans and vulnerable children. We moved to S...
The Healing Power of God’s Presence
The best response to the glorious gift of grace is a thankful heart that delights in doing My will. It is vital to proclaim the gospel not only to yourself but to the world. … Seek to share this good news—both near (to family, friends, coworkers) and far (to the nations). All peoples need to know the truth about Me. Jesus Always, July 16 From the beginning, God has always wanted to have a relationship with His children. Even after Adam and Eve sinned against God and hid from Him, He continued to have a relationship with them. And, in fact, one of the ways God strengthens our relationship with Him is when He reveals His presence to us. But in my religious upbringing, I learned to see God the way Adam and Eve did as they hid—I learned to think He would be a vengeful God. So I kept God at a d...
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