Grow Devotes | Grow Churches

I Will Be Thankful

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” Psalm 100:4 Another Hebrew word for “praise” is towdah. It has the same root as yadah for extending the hands, but with a meaning of acceptance and thanksgiving. Towdah is thanking God for things not yet received as well as thanking Him for what is already in our hand. Towdah...

I Will Lift My Hands

“I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands.” Psalm 63:4 NIV There is a Hebrew word used in Psalm 63:4, yadah, and it means, “Extended hand, to throw out the hand, to worship with outstretched hands.” I was raised in a conservative American home in a mainline denominational church. In my early Christian experience, we did not lift our...

My Expression

“… the reverent fear [respect] and worship of the Lord is your treasure and His.” Isaiah 33:6 Amplified Praise is an expression from our hearts to our Father about our love for Him. It is an expression of our choice of surrender to be in relationship with Him. Praise is also a declaration and exaltation of who God is to us. Our praise comes from what God has done in...

Friendship Covenants

“That they all may be one…” John 17:21 Jesus prayed for believers in John 17, asking the Father to make us one with each other, one with Him and one with the Father. Becoming one is covenant talk. A covenant is a union between two or more parties. In regard to a friendship covenant, the relationship is not merely put together for the sake of unity, but because of a...

Shared Convictions

“Do not be misled: bad company corrupts good character.” I Corinthians 15:33 NIV When referring to your close friendships, the Bible makes it very clear that your inner circle, those that you closely fellowship with, should be people who share your convictions for a holy lifestyle. Obviously, they aren’t going to be perfect and neither will you be, but your lives are surrendered to Christ, yielded to what is right...

Humble Associations

“…associate with the humble…” Romans 12:16 The humble are people of valor who posture themselves to harmonize with God and His people. The opposite of a humble person is someone who is unyielding. When someone refuses to yield, submission to church authority could be difficult; criticism and withdraw are common. A person who is unyielding could become controlling, judgmental, divisive and manipulative. Christians that continually criticize God’s leaders are like...

Straight Shooters

“Wounds from a friend can be trusted…” Proverbs 27:6 NIV If your friend was driving on a mountainous road, the bridge was out, and the signs were missing, wouldn’t you do everything that you could to stop your friend from heading in that direction? A real friend is someone who will give you the straight truth because they know that the truth will save you from trouble. I know from...

Shaped by Association

Proverbs 13:20 “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” We have different levels of association. We have friends that we closely associate with, there are others that we are distantly are connected to, and then there are associations that are somewhere in between. When choosing those friends that are closest to us, we need to take into consideration that our...

Your Inner Circle

“And being let go, they went to their own companions…” Acts 4:23 God created us to have a relationship with Him, and He created us to have relationships with one another. Some relationships are closer than others. Some relationships go deeper than others. Our inner circle is the closest and deepest of our relationships. Those relationships are relationships of our choosing, and we must choose carefully. The Inner Circle is...

Whole in Your Doctrine

“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” II Timothy 1:13 One translation of the Greek word for whole is sound. When something is sound it is “stable, sturdy, firm, flawless, thorough, entire.” God wants our understanding of Him to be correct. God wants our understanding of the things of His Holy Spirit to be...

Whole in Your Peace

“You will keep him in perfect (complete) peace…” Isaiah 26:3 The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. Shalom is a word derived from a root word meaning, “to be whole.” The definition of shalom includes peace, but it also means “completeness.” Peace describes our salvation in every area and covers our health, wellbeing, safety, prosperity, tranquility and rest. Shalom means that there is nothing missing and there is nothing...

Whole in Your Health

“…by Him this man stands here before you whole.” Acts 4:10 God’s salvation makes us whole, whole in spirit, whole in soul and whole in body. The Greek word sozo and it is used to describe the saving from sin and the effects of sin, including the salvation from sickness. The word is sometimes rendered, “to make whole.” Our redemption through Jesus’ blood paid for us to be made...

Through and Through

“May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Thessalonians 5:23 NIV In I Thessalonians 5:23 there is a Greek word used, “holoteles,” which means whole or complete. More specifically, it means “through and through.” The expression “through and through” in the English language describes one object...

God Wants Your Mess

“Wilt thou be made whole?” John 5:6 KJV In John 5 Jesus asked a deformed man, “Do you want to be made whole?” Jesus noticed the imperfection in the man, the part that was causing him disability, and asked if the man wanted wholeness for that part that was lacking. The man wanted the ability to walk. He gave Jesus his imperfection, and Jesus transformed that wanting part of...

The Whole Enchilada

“Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:4 What God created not only comes from Him; but it also continues to receive its life from Him. He is the source of all life, including you and me. We are complete when we are in a dependent relationship upon Him. The God that created us is a good God, a loving...