My husband J.L. and I have a daily devotional guide publishing this month called A JOURNEY OF WORDS. You might ask what exactly is a day-to-day devotional and why does anyone need one?

In general, a daily devotional is a Christian religious publication that provides a specific spiritual reading for each calendar day. Reading a daily devotional, along with time in the Bible and in prayer, is one way to give love and honor to God.  It’s also a way of remembering to give God a priority in your life every day. It is hard for faith to stay strong or grow without spending quality time with God. The Bible teaches: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth…to be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” [II Tmothy 2:15, 21].

We can rarely grow in knowledge in any subject area without study. A strong knowledgeable faith doesn’t simply fall on us or happen without effort. It comes by giving disciplined, committed time and study to increase in wisdom, understanding, and expertise—just like growing in knowledge in any other subject area. When you spend quality time with God you’ll not only gain more spiritual wisdom and understanding, you’ll grow into a closer, deeper place of faith. Studying to grow in God always has big rewards and blessings. Even the best of church services only offers a small window of time once a week for spiritual growth. And just as one meal a week won’t sustain us physically, one spiritual meal a week won’t either. Spending time with God every day is a needed discipline, good to cultivate, that helps you learn to lean to God to direct your life and path versus learning to your own understanding and the world’s voice and persuasion {Prov 3:5-6]. Joyce Meyer wrote: “If you make time with God your first priority, everything else will fall into place.”

In a spiritual sense, the word “devotion” in itself refers to the deep love and commitment we give to God in our lives, in time, study, and prayers.  If you’re devoted to someone you don’t simply care about them in a part-time, lackadaisical way, you care about them in a full-time, loving, committed way. As an extra plus, when you’re fully committed and devoted to God, He in return is totally devoted to you. Charles Stanley wrote: “God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him.” It’s comforting to realize devotion to God is always lovingly returned. That isn’t true of many things and people we give our love and commitment to.

A daily devotional isn’t essential in order to grow in faith, but it can be a help, along with time in church,  prayer, and Bible study.  Spending time with God benefits every aspect of your life, draws you closer to the Lord, refreshes your soul, gives you guidance for your life, and restores your peace, health, clarity and joy—always a win-win situation. A sweet quote by Elizabeth George says: “The more time you spend with God, the more you will resemble Him.” We do become more and more like those we associate with, for the good or for the bad. “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”  [Epictetus] We can be assured that spending quality time with God will always call forth our best.

Our devotional guide, A JOURNEY OF WORDS, is built around the concept that a single word is powerful and when meditated on, can open doors for good and needed change. Many Christians choose a “Word for the Year” to inspire positive growth and thought all year long, but we decided it would be positive—and fun—to have an inspirational word to think about for every day of the year.  Each of our daily devotions starts with a “word for the day” and a quote for the day using the day’s word, followed by a devotional teaching linked to that word, and closing with a short prayer and a scripture containing the word again. J.L. and I alternated writing the devotions throughout the book, one day by J.L., one day by myself … and we hope our daily guidebook will help to enrich your faith and impact you for blessing and good.

To close, here is one of the devotionals I wrote that you will find in the book—for April 1^st, the publication day for this and my other two spring novels. If you would like an autographed copy of this book, go to our website under Contacts at: “Order Autographed Copies” and you will find two ways you can get this new devotional – and any of our other books – shipped directly to your home. The link is: https://linstepp.com/order-autographed-books/

Have a wonderful April … and a blessed Easter season, … Lin

APRIL 1 – The Word for the Day is “Shower” 

Quote for the Day:

“God made us for one reason: so He could have fellowship with us. It wasn’t that He was lonely or needed us but He made us so He could shower His love upon us.” -Billy Graham

All of us, at one time or another in our lives, have been caught out in a shower. Generally, when this happens we hustle to get in out of the rain. Yet it is often joyous to watch a shower out the window, especially a needed one. It seems as though the branches of the trees seem to reach up to welcome the rain and one can almost hear the grass sigh as it is soaked deeply with the rich, needed rain.

Showers of blessing fall in our lives, in big and small ways, not just occasionally but every day. Sometimes we are mindfully grateful of them and stop to thank God and give Him praise. Other times we run on along our way, almost seeming to take God’s rich blessings for granted. When Jesus healed the ten lepers, only one returned to thank Him [Luke 17:11-18]. Although we get busy and often forget, we know we should thank God daily for His blessings. He is so good to us. The Word reminds us that ‘a faithful man abounds with blessings’ [Proverbs 28:20]. Every day we should always be grateful to God for His love and goodness.

I love the concept in the Bible that ‘God will cause the showers to come down in season on us and that there will be showers of blessing’ [Ezekiel 34:26]. As the rain showers come to bless the earth, God’s showers of blessing and love come to enrich and bless us. “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever” [1 Chronicles 16:34].

Prayer:
With thankful hearts we offer gratitude today for the showers of blessings that come to us from God our Father.

Scripture of the Day:
“I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.” – [Ezekiel 34:26]

Note: All photos my own, from royalty free sites, or used only as a part of my author repurposed storyboards shown only for educational and illustrative purposes, acc to the Fair Use Copyright law, Section 107 of the Copyright Act.