Grow Devotes | Grow Churches

Moved By You

“For the love of Christ compels us…” II Corinthians 5:14 The word mercy used in the Old Testament is a word that is describing a love that is felt deeply. It is used to describe the depth of love that a parent has for their child. The King James Version translated this word, racham, as mercy, but also as “bowels.” In the Jewish culture, the bowels were used to illustrate...

I Never Knew I Could Love Like This

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.” Psalm 103:13 NIV One Hebrew word for mercy or compassion is “racham.” Racham is the origin of the Hebrew word for womb (rechem). Racham describes the parental kind of love that we feel deeply as a mom or dad. Often the reaction to having a child for the first time is, “I...

Love Driven Discernment

“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” John 7:24 God is merciful – oh, so merciful! I think of Christ’s story in Luke 15 about the love of the Father – looking with a yearning for the son to return, running to meet the son with the open arms of acceptance, and then celebrating his coming home with unrestrained joy! This story was an expression of...

Bring a Grace Magnet

“… God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6 God resists the proud – who are the proud? The proud are not just the arrogant ones that think of themselves as superior to others. The proud are not just the ones who brag on what they can do or what they have. The proud are not just the unsaved. The Biblical definition of being proud would...

Grace to Give

“God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” II Corinthians 9:8 Receiving blessings from God can easily become an interest of the Christian. After all, who doesn’t like to receive a blessing? Who doesn’t like to see the Lord working on our behalf? It’s a great feeling to receive a gift....

God is Bigger Than That

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 We all faced circumstances when we woke up this morning. Some circumstances we created, some were created for us and other circumstances happened because of the world we live in. Some of our situations are favorable and smile on us, but some circumstances are...

Grace Supplied When My Tongue is Tied

Romans 8:26 “… the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Prayer changes things. If it didn’t, then Jesus wouldn’t have asked us to pray and to believe for results. However, we don’t always know how we should pray. Romans 8:26 tells us that...

He Makes Beautiful Things

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…” Ephesians 2:10 Ephesians 2:10 says that we are created for good works when God did a work in us. God took what was dead and made us alive. He took what was headed for judgment and liberated us into His freedom. God took us from slavery to sin and placed us in a right standing position with Him....

Not On Our Own

“He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness…’” II Corinthians 12:9 We can’t compare our relationship with God to any human relationship that we’ve experienced. It’s like a marriage, but so much more. It’s like a parent/child relationship, but so much more. When we know God, we find ourselves whole, satisfied, and at rest in the binding, intertwining, and continual...

Grace: It’s Beyond Me

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” Ephesians 3:20 Grace is the God-factor that not only completes who we are, but also takes us above and beyond what we could ever do on our own. In Ephesians 3:20 there are two words that have been translated as exceedingly abundantly in one translation (NKJV). It has also been translated immeasurably more...

King of Our Hearts

“…For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you…” Luke 17:21 One purpose Jesus had in His first coming was to establish a kingdom on earth. The kingdom that He started was not a visible kingdom, but an invisible one. Christ’s kingdom is in our hearts. Jesus Christ is the King, reigning as the Lord of our lives. We know that Jesus is coming again. He will return to defeat...

The King’s Second Coming

“…The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” Revelation 11:15 With His first coming, Jesus started His kingdom; in His second coming, Jesus will come to rule His kingdom. The second coming of Christ is not to be confused with the rapture. The rapture is the event when Jesus gathers believers together with Him in...

The King’s First Coming

“This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24 There are seventy sevens prophesied for the Jews in Daniel 9:24-27. Those sevens have been translated as weeks, but they are actually sets of seven years. The seventieth seven is yet to be fulfilled. The sixty-nine sevens ended at a special event. In verse 25 it tells us that the sixty-nine sevens...

The End is in Sight

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 We are living in a time when the Gospel has gone farther than it has ever gone before. There are thriving and growing churches of thousands in nations around the globe, doing church...

7 Hebrew Words For Praise

Yadah, 3034 Towdah, 8426 Halal, 1984 Shabach, 7623 Tehillah, 8416 Zamar, 2167 Barak, 1288 Hilluwl, 1974 Mahalal, 4110 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...