Word of Encouragement from Dr. Dora Washington

1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you.

Prayer: Lord, I you all my concerns today. I refuse to worry. I release them to you now. I trust you. May your Holy Spirit convict me when I try to take them back. In Jesus’ Name.

This same man—Peter had previously denied Jesus, was arrogant, and acted out of the flesh is now sharing how loving and caring God is and encouraging us to trust Him with all of our concerns. He had finally learned how to trust God.

Let’s trust our Big God with our little worries. He can carry them.

Devotional by Christian Thompson, Tower of Hope Ministries Graduate, 2019

“The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours; everything in the world is yours—you created it all. You created north and south. Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon praise your name. Powerful is your arm! Strong is your hand! Your right hand is lifted high in glorious strength.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭89‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Today no matter what you face focus on God’s power. If the entire earth is the Lord’s that includes every problem and challenge you face is in His hands and under His control.

Choose to trust and believe God today!

Prayer: Dear God, I know that You created everything, and my world is in your Hands. I will not fear or worry but I know I will come out victorious because you have given me victory over my enemies. In Jesus’ Name Amen.

Confession: I am overcoming everything that is trying to overcome me!

Devotional by Nancy Matus, Tower of Hope Ministries Graduate, 2021

Psalm 41:4 “As for me, I said, ‘O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

We have such a gracious God! When we are obedient and willing to humble ourselves to admit that we are sinners and confess with our mouths that we have sinned against God, He is faithful and so gracious to forgive us and make us clean.

He desires for us to be cleansed from all unrighteousness and to be made whole… to be made new! It is through the shedding of Christ’s blood and the pain He went through on the cross that we are healed. This takes my breath away that with every lash of the whip Jesus received, with every thorn that pierced His skin as a crown of thorns was pressed into His skull, with every strike of the hammer that forced the nails into His hands and feet, I am now being healed.

Let us humble ourselves recognizing that all the pain Jesus went through was for our good and our healing if we would just confess and turn away from ourselves and press into Him. By His stripes we are healed! Thank you Jesus!

Devotional by Tiffany Thompson, Tower of Hope Ministries Graduate, 2019

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:16-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I don’t know about you, but when I find out something involves pain, I try to go in the opposite direction. I try to search out how I can acquire the good thing that I desire without traveling down a path of pain and suffering. More often than not, I have found that this is impossible.

As the Lord began to heal and grow me through TOHM, He has shown me that pain produces the healing that you need. Sounds backwards, but consider the truth in this statement. 2 Corinthians 4:17 says that our pain is producing a glory that far outweighs the pain we had to go through to get it.

From this we see that we should embrace suffering, not run from it.

But take heart, God is so faithful! He says in Isaiah 66:9 that He will not allow there to be pain without allowing something new to be born. Think about a mother giving birth to her baby. The birthing process is filled with great turmoil and pain, but when that mother holds her newborn baby, all she can think about is the overwhelming love and joy she feels as she holds her beautiful baby. Out of her greatest pain comes her greatest joy.

The same is true with us. From our greatest pain, God will produce our greatest joy. Trust God through your suffering, and count it all joy because God is working in your suffering to produce your purpose.

As we learned yesterday with Life Lessons with Living Hope, we have to go through the pain of healing so we can experience the peace of healing. I encourage you today to continue to process those painful traumatic memories and events so you can experience peace, joy and healing on the other side!

Don’t run from suffering. It’s only for a season and it will soon be over. You will not die here. God is holding you up in the midst of it all. He’s with you every step of the way. Your pain is not in vain, it is producing an eternal weight of glory that will make it worth it all.

Devotional by Symone Thompson, Tower of Hope Ministries Graduate, 2020

In today’s reading in the One Year Bible, Nehemiah has a great victory in dedicating the walls of Jerusalem! Nehemiah had two praise choirs to give thanks to the Lord for what He had done in Jerusalem! But after Nehemiah did a great work in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the nobles and priests sinned by not keeping the Sabbath, defiling the priesthood by marrying pagan women and preparing a room for Tobiah (an enemy of Israel) in the house of the Lord!

Just like the walls of Jerusalem, God is rebuilding our emotional walls as we heal. After God rebuilds our walls, if we are not on guard against the enemy, he will try to throw distractions at us like he did in today’s passage.

The enemy will try to make room in your heart for things and people who aren’t supposed to be there. Just like Tobiah was in the courts of the house of God. Or he’ll try to get you to be in connection with people who would cause you to sin like how the priests sinned and married pagan women. Let us be like Nehemiah and make no room for the enemy and kick out of our lives that which should not be!

Nehemiah was such an amazing man of God because he saw that what was being done around him was not pleasing to the Lord and he did everything in his power to put an end to it. I pray that all of us at TOHM would be like Nehemiah and put an end to the things in our lives that do not please God.

Just as Nehemiah did, we should honor God’s Name and make more room for Him and put aside anything that pleases the flesh. After putting a stop to the sin that was all around him, Nehemiah asked God to remember him for the good. I pray that God will remember us for good as well.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to remove what does not please You from my life. Lord, let me praise and dedicate my life to You for rebuilding my walls forever. Help me tear down and overthrow any evil that would cause me to sin. Remember me, for good in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!

Devotional by Lauren Sanders, Tower of Hope Ministries Graduate, 2020

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭23:1-6‬ ‭KJV‬‬

It is amazing how familiar scriptures that we may have learned as early as childhood can come alive and speak directly to our situations when it is time. This is why we should always remember to “hide the word in our hearts.” Here are 3 things that stood out to me when the Lord reminded me of this passage.

1. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

When you think of a Shepherd, you think of someone who cares for every need of the sheep. Think of David, who was willing to fight a Lion and a Bear to save the sheep that he cared for. In this passage we learn that God loves us deeply and is willing to care for every one of our needs. In fact, he considers our ignorance and weaknesses in advance and cares for us accordingly.

2. He restoreth my soul

This passage is especially encouraging for those of us who have had our souls wounded. This includes all forms of heart breaks, disappointments, and trauma that negatively impacted who we are. We may feel that our authentic self was broken or carried away when someone or something abused, hurt, or disappointed, or abandoned us. It is good news to know that God is a restorer! He is able to make us whole again.

3. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

When this scripture came to mind, I pictured a shepherd reaching out his staff to course correct a sheep that was going to accidentally go astray. God is a good shepherd. He will guide us on the right paths and keep us from danger. We can take comfort in knowing that He is always watching and ready to correct us and lead us in the right direction. We don’t have to fear making the wrong decisions because He is always there to correct those he cares for.

Devotional by Quia Reed, Tower of Hope Ministries Graduate, 2018

Revelation 5

Worthy (axios in greek) means of weight/value.

When we determine the worth of a person or thing, we are declaring that they hold weight.

In every situation in our life and especially in this healing journey, we should be living, walking, talking like God has worth. When we have an encounter with God by realizing His worth, we gain a greater confidence, His word brings stability, His presence brings peace.

We’ve all been there where we gave weight/worth to things and people other than God, especially when trauma has been a big part of your life! But it is simpler to shift focus than you think!

A simple way we can all shift our minds from trauma to triumph is through Praise and Worship!

We are faith based & research knowledge at TOHM, so here’s a simple exercise to help jumpstart your faith, transform your mind & create new neural pathways! Make your own acrostic for why Jesus is WORTHY. This may include scripture, a memory, or thought that helps you remember throughout the day that He has worth, weight, & value in your life!

Here’s an example:

W – washed me from all of sins, guilt & shame

O – overcame death hell and the grave just for me!

R – Redeemed and restored me!

T – Transformed my pain into your Divine purpose

H – Heals ALL of my sickness and disease!

Y – YES! Amen! to every one of your promises!

As you declare God’s worth back to him today, I pray He in turn speaks loudly back to you about your worth to Him, that will catapult you into deeper love and relationship with Him.

Prayer:

Thank you Lord for the opportunity to express how much you mean to me! When I’m tempted to complain or despair, help me to tell my problem how much more YOU are worth to me! Bring me closer to you today! In Jesus’ name!

Devotional by Angela Jackson, Tower of Hope Ministries Graduate, 2021

Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.

And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife. Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.”

And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.” And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”

II Kings 5:1-4, 15 NKJV

The scripture tells us this girl was taken from her hometown to serve a people who snatched her from the place she was familiar with. Her situation changed in an instant as she was taken from the place she felt most comfortable, to a very uncomfortable place with an uncomfortable assignment— to serve the people who uprooted her!

There were so many reasons for her to hate these people and especially not to help them! She could’ve been bitter, but instead, she wanted to help her master be better — so she shared the power of her God. Most of us would’ve at least been walking around with an attitude in our hearts. Thinking, “that’s his problem”, “I hope he dies!” However, she showed compassion in her wilderness and pointed them in the right direction WITH A MENTION! She simply mentioned God’s ability to her mistress!

God can use us in the worst situations. In fact, that’s where His glory is revealed most. We may be feeling looked over, abused, or taken advantage of. We can choose to be bitter or better in our hard places. The scripture admonishes us to bless them that curse us and pray for those that mistreat us. This is the way to truly reflect the Most High. Luke 6:28

She yielded to her circumstance, instead of bucking, resisting, and complaining. As a result, people were able to see there’s no greater God than the God of Israel.

Prayer:

Dear God, Help me to bend and not buck! Help me to remember You’re right there with me in my hard place. Help me to humble myself, knowing it’s not about me, but that Your glory may be revealed and Your Kingdom expanded. Lord You are good no matter the situation! I give you all the praise! In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Devotional by Dr. Dora Washington

Blessings to you our Living Hope Family,

We are continuing to read the One Year Bible Devotional as a Living Hope family and as a church family at Church on the Rock. A few days ago in 1 Kings 15, we read about Asa—a descendant of King David. God made David a promise that He would be with his legacy if they kept His commandments and forsook all the cultural gods and idols.

The kings before Asa did what they saw those around them doing, but not King Asa. He determined to leave a different legacy than his parents and grandparents. Asa wasn’t perfect, but the Bible says “his heart was loyal to the Lord all the days of his life.” He even removed his grandmother from being “queen mother” because she made an image of an idol to worship it. That is radical for Christ!!! Asa wanted to leave a godly legacy for his children and grandchildren.

How many of us today are willing to go against family tradition to teach our children about the One True God? How many of us are willing to stand up against today’s culture for the One True God? How many of us are willing to return the hearts and minds of God’s people back to Him?

How many will stand up in this month of June where culture says take “pride” in your actions that go against God’s rules for family? How many will say, “This is not of God” —regardless of who is doing it. We sincerely love all people, but we do not accept sin, regardless of what it may be. I, like King Asa, am quite saddened at the degradation of God’s people and the things we have begun to accept.

It takes courage to stand against the popular views of society on Biblical issues, but I am willing to stand even if I have to stand alone. I believe this nation has turned its back on God just as the children of Israel did repeatedly. I believe God is looking for a few good men, women, boys, and girls who are willing to stand up for His Truth, honor Him, obey Him, and return this nation back to Him. I believe we are the ones at Tower of Hope to begin “The Great Return.”

Prayer:

O Lord, Sovereign and Great God, will You help us lead Your people back to You? Will You heal this nation? Will You forgive our sin? We repent and turn to You. Give us courage to turn away from other gods when we want to be passive and fit in. You called us out from among them, not to fit in with them. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.