He Cares About The Details

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/piTmArzySJQ?si=uPaZwNWRMlWJ35Fv

“He Cares About The Details”

Matthew 1:17 NIV

Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

 

The other day, I was just reading through the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.  To be quite honest, I’m not all that crazy about reading through the genealogies in Scripture.  I have a hard time following any of them and the details don’t get retained in my mind.  They just don’t hit deep spiritually with me and I tend to read through them quickly so that I can get to other important things in the Bible. 

 

Details are important in life.  We need details when we do a project at home, at work, for school or somewhere else.  Details are vital in doing anything.  Even though I’m not crazy about those genealogies, God is and I need to remember that God is all about the details of life. 

 

As I consider all the details of our lives, it reminds me that God always interested and cares very deeply about the details of our lives.  When we go to God in prayer, sometimes we just pray generally.  We may think, “God isn’t all interested in the nitty gritty details of my life.  I don’t want to waste His time going into such deep details.”  If we feel like this at all, we are very wrong.  God deeply cares about every single detail in our lives. 

 

Whether we think details in our lives are important or not or if we pray specifically for little details that concern us, we should know that God is always interested in hearing the details, no matter how much.  He created us and knows the number of hairs on our heads.  Why in the world would we ever think He is not concerned about the smallest details of our lives?  He wants to hear us pray about little things that we might possibly think aren’t important.  He cares about all of it.  If it’s on our mind, He wants to hear from us on it. 

 

Again, after reading the genealogy the other day, I honestly thought, “Oh boy, here we go again with all of these details I will not remember.”  Then God immediately reminded me how important all the details of life are to Him.  I felt guilty about rushing through those details to get to the rest of my reading. 

 

The next time we read through any details that seem to bore us, make us yawn or just seem unimportant at the time, let us never forget that all details in life are important to God.  He cares deeply about EVERYTHING we deal with in life, no matter how insignificant we may think they are.   

Letting Go & Letting God

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/ge0e2jFjQic

“Letting Go & Letting God”

1 Peter 5:7

NIV- Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

NLT- Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

 

No matter how hard I try to submit and surrender myself to God each day, I find myself taking over shortly after and starting to worry about life all day long.  Why do I find it so hard to let go and let God be in total control?  So many days, I find myself worried and having concerns about so many things.  I watch my wife and girls work through various things in their lives and I try to think about how I can be a better husband and father. 

 

Aside from thinking about them, I often think of all the things I need to take care of and accomplish.  While I’m only given one day at a time, I find myself worrying about things days ahead and even weeks or months. 

 

When I get to the point where I can fully focus on God and all His provisions and remember that I need to just let go, I finally feel at peace.  I come to a place where I realize I cannot control things and I cannot figure everything out.  Why am I always trying to be in control of so much and figure things out?

 

Friends, do you find yourselves struggling with these things I struggle with daily?  Are you finding yourselves filled with anxiety and stress and worry almost all day, every day?  So many of us in various ways. 

 

We must make it a point to go to God and submit and surrender to Him and allow Him lead us and take these burdens from us.  It’s hard to let go and let God be in control because so often we feel we need to be in control.  Cast all your anxiety on Him.  Give all your worries to Him.  I like both translations here and they are great at giving a different perspective on this passage. 

 

Letting go and letting God is hard to do!  It is not an easy task because we so often want to take care of things in our own way.  We get overwhelmed and stressed and wonder why things aren’t better.  God wants us to give these worries and concerns to Him as He promises to lead us and give us peace.  He cares for us and wants the best for our lives.

 

We need to practice so much more of letting go and letting God!

More Alert Than Ever

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/GeXTIsgxcG4

“More Alert Than Ever”

1 Peter 5:8 NIV

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

 

I have 1 older daughter who has been driving for over 1 year now.  I have a younger daughter who is taking driver’s education and will start driving the end of September.  As I think about this, I am not only concerned about how they will both do on the roads, I am so much more concerned about how others will be around them while on the road. 

 

We tell our daughters often enough about how alert you must be on the road, especially these days with all the distractions that are happening and how careless so many are while behind the wheel.  None of us are perfect and we’ve all made dumb mistakes while driving.  However, I think about people who are deliberately just not paying attention and with my youngest daughter about to get out on the road, it just scares me.  I want them to be alert more than ever.

 

This is just one example of how we need to be on the alert.  I also think of many other ways we need to be on the alert and very aware of unexpected happenings.  We have people who are doing everything they can to scam others.  You have some sales people who will try whatever they can to get a deal and rip you off.  There are a lot of good sales people out there, but there are some very sly ones as well. 

 

I could go on and on about the different ways we must be alert to protect ourselves from those who try to take advantage of us.  As much as we need to protect ourselves against these people, we also need to realize we have an enemy that prowls around just waiting to distract us and trick us every turn we make. 

 

We absolutely must be on our guard each and every day.  We don’t need to be paranoid and freaking out by any means, but we do need to be on the alert and aware so that we can be ready when these attacks happen.  We need to stay strong in the faith and be ready when the enemy tries to trick us.  He is so very good at it indeed!  However, we have an amazing and powerful God Who cannot be defeated and will help us at every turn. 

 

Let us be on the alert every day, in His Word and ready for whatever may come our way.