March 1, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 14:2 NIV
[2] The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
The band Whitheart has a song called Desert Rose- in it they say “Lost in a windswept land
In the world of shifting sand
A fragile flower stands apart
There in that barren ground
Feel like the only one
Tryin’ to serve Him with all your heart.”

How often do we feel like the only ones trying to serve God with all our hearts? We have people around us who claim to be Christian as well, but their lives speak of compromise and Luke warm taste. It can make us feel lonely, it can make us feel like somehow we are wrong and their way of submitting to sin under the shelter of “love” or “empathy” or the all famous, “Jesus didn’t really say that, it was meant for those times and not for now,” and we feel alone- hurt- confused. Sometimes we feel like David felt, angry. He was angry as he watched the sinful prosper, as he watched them gloat over the righteous. We feel like anger is a sin, but if it is for the right reason and handled correctly, anger is not always a bad thing. We can be angry about sin. We can certainly be angry when people who claim to be fellow believers attack us for standing with God’s word. But see how David uses his anger correctly and takes it to God and brings his pain before Him and pleads for HIS justice.

Take away:

God is still looking on mankind to see if any understand and seek Him. Will He see us as those who have served Him and stand with Him even when our friends turn away? In our anger and hurt do we turn to Him and ask Him for His help and guidance?
Feel your feels, then give them to God. But no matter what those you once trusted and believed in say and do, never compromise your faith and your stand with righteousness. Where the righteous are, God is also.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · found · free · guidance · holy spirit · Jesus · lent · no longer lost · power of God · Prayer · psalms · still fighting · The Bible · True Joy

Psalms 13:5 NIV[5] But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

February 28, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 13:5 NIV
[5] But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
Trust is so hard. How many people do we really trust? We as humans have been hurt by people so often that we live with a tinge of concern and lack of trust. We often turn that fear over to God. We don’t believe that Jesus will truly come through because we put Him on the same level as people. But His love is unfailing. He will never leave us abandoned. He reaches down and pulls us out of darkness and hurt.
In this passage, David is pleading with God to save him from his enemies. How long will you make me wait before you save me? Is basically what he says over and over again. Then he ends by rejoicing in God and praising Him, because David understood that God would always come through for him no matter how dark everything around him seemed.

Take away:
In the middle of trials we may stumble and feel like we are losing faith, but God will always be there with us. We cannot understand the waiting or the time it takes before our troubles end, but we always know that God has not left us and that He is doing something for us.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · found · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · power of God · Prayer · psalms · The Bible

Psalms 9:20 NIV[20] Strike them with terror, Lord; let the nations know they are only mortal.

February 22, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 9:20 NIV
[20] Strike them with terror, Lord; let the nations know they are only mortal.
It is always so interesting how David often shows a sense of seeing the world around him as something that does not love God the way it should.
In Psalms 9:20 we join David as he sings a song of praise to God, (oddly enough to the tune Death of the Son) and then he ends his song with a prayer against people being wicked and ignoring God’s glory. Showing God honor was always the most important thing to David. I have wondered if David would have bothered with Goliath if he had not insulted God. God meant everything to this man. He had so much in his life that was good even before becoming king, and after… well… he was king. Yet despite all the blessings he had, David always held God higher than any of them. Because David worshiped God and put Him first in his times of blessing, it was easy for David to feel and know the power and goodness of God in his times of need.

Take away:
Do we put God first? We often run to Him when life takes a side road, but when things are just good, (not so great that we naturally draw to praising God, just good, fine, decent,) do we turn to God and worship Him? Do we desire for those around us to put God in high authority in their lives? What does He meant to you?
When the world around us falls away from Jesus and turns their backs, we should pray that God strikes them with terror of His power so they change and seek Him. They need Him so badly, yet they do not see it. We need Him so badly, but do we acknowledge it?
Give God time today.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · found · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · Love · power of God · Prayer · searching

Psalms 4:7 NIV[7] Fill my heart with joy when their grain and new wine abound.

February 18, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 4:7 NIV
[7] Fill my heart with joy when their grain and new wine abound.

Welcome to lent 2026! This lent we will mostly be spending time in Psalms and learning from the various authors and artists.
Today we look at Psalm 4:7 where David is lamenting about his people. He asks how long they will ignore God and chase idols. The big thing to always learn from David is this: Feel your feels and then let them go.
Feel your emotions- acknowledge them- turn them over to Jesus.
David begins by feeling disheartened and ends in praising God and saying to Him, “let me see you do something wonderful.”
The very end of this chapter has the beloved verse about lying down and sleeping in safety because of God watching over us.

Take away:
Acknowledge problems and things that upset you. Then take a deep breath and hand them to Jesus. After you do this you can open your eyes to His goodness and look forward to the way Jesus cares for you.

You may wonder what the Psalms have to do with lent. Lent is a time of opening your mind to Jesus and all He has done for us. That means taking extra time everyday to be with Him. The Psalms are a great place to look at God’s wonder and how He cares for His people. Making time for a little more Jesus and a little less me is what lent is for as we prepare to remember the sacrifice of Easter.

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Refuge

February 9, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 121:1-2 NIV
[1] I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? [2] My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
David found his hiding place within the mountains when he hid from Saul. He knew perfectly well how safe a cave could feel. Yet he reminds us here that his rescue did not come from the mountains. His safety and hiding place was in God.
Too often we find comfort in things of this world. In our jobs, in our studies, in health care, in our homes, so on. All these things are very good but they do not replace God. How often throughout the book of Isaiah did God warn the people about setting up thing as idols, about relying on earthly strength instead of on Him? Just like the Israelites then we seek strength for anything we can touch and see because we fear relying on God.
Yet David saw it. My safety is not from these mountains around me, my safety is from the God who made these mountains.
Our safety and strength and success does not come from anything we can touch or see, sure we will have put out effort on our part, but our salvation from all around us no matter what we face, is in God Himself.
These strongholds cannot save me, but God can!

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But you said no anyway

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But you said no anyway

I was listening to soft piano music and this title came up. It reminded me of times with God where we have done all the right things. We have been kind to people who would be easier to be mean to. We have given even when we were poor ourselves. We have gone to church each Sunday when all we want to do is sleep in. Yet God said no to our desire anyway.
Times like those are so hard, and many walk away from their Faith during such days because it hurts too much to keep holding on.
But God’s answers to our prayers aren’t based on how good, kind, and giving we’ve been, they are based on His will and timing.
C.S. Lewis said something once along the lines of:
“It is not that we doubt that God has a plan, it’s that we fear how painful His plan will be.”
The days when God says ‘yes’ it is easy to trust in Him. It’s those days when He says ‘no’ that we stumble.
God never promised sunshine, never once did He say we would never walk in storms, but He always promises that He loves us and that His plans are for our good.
Sometimes He says no and it makes no sense. It may never make sense. That’s why we need faith. Because Faith says to keep holding on, when everything else says to fear and despair.
Jesus has never once dropped you or left you alone to suffer, and He isn’t about to start now.

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Failure

January 12, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

We all are failures at something. Perhaps we have a bad attitude. Perhaps we get angry easily. Perhaps we are gossips. Perhaps we are addicts. Perhaps we are adulterous. When it comes down to it, we all fail God in some aspect of our lives. Paul reminds us:

Romans 3:23-26 NIV
[23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. [25] God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— [26] he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.3.23-26.NIV

We all have fallen short in trying to live the way God commands. Yet because Jesus died we have the chance to be forgiven. His death does not justify our sin, but it opens the door to the forgiveness of our sins, if we will only repent. Jesus knew we would fail. He knew we would screw up often. Yet, He died for us anyway because only through His death could we have forgiveness and deliverance from our sins.

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What is it about anyway?

December 21, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Hell was already here. So many think that the devil comes when the apocalypse begins, but that is not the case. When God cast the devil out of Heaven he hit earth hard and left a crack. The devil claimed earth as his, remember Luke chapter 4?

Luke 4:5-8 NIV
[5] The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. [6] And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. [7] If you worship me, it will all be yours.” [8] Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

The devil isn’t coming, he’s already here. That’s why Christmas is so important. It does not matter when Jesus came, it matters THAT Jesus came. We celebrate His coming, if people want to complain and say He was born in June let them. We do not celebrate a date, we celebrate Jesus.
Christmas is important because the devil had dominion until that night in the manger. Revelation speaks of a great dragon that came and tried to devour Jesus as He came into this world. Revelation 12 is a vivid chapter. Here we see the whole of Jesus’s life from prophecy to fulfillment spread out in vivid images.
The devil knew he had lost when Jesus was born. He kept fighting right up till the cross. But he had lost to the Son of God the moment Mary saw the angel. Before that. The moment when the birth of Jesus was prophesied.
We were not simply living normal lives when suddenly Jesus was born and the war between God and one of His angels who had fallen broke out around us. The evil was already here. Festering. Growing. Manipulating. Then one night in a barn there was a baby’s cry and suddenly we had hope and the evil was afraid.
Jesus coming to save us. That is what we celebrate. That is what Christmas is all about.

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Before the beginning it began

December 7, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

The whole event began centuries before the manger and the star. It began with God speaking the world into motion. With the world falling into sin. With God’s great love for His people. With our transformation from sinners to children of the King of Kings.
Mary and Joseph would have had a long journey on foot. The distance is roughly 90 miles and they would have chanced facing dangers from snakes, wild cats, wild dogs, bandits and even Samaritans. They would also most likely have been required to rest of the Sabbath, making the journey even longer.
The dangers were amidst them, but so was the power of God, and where God’s power is, so is peace and safety. Until it was His time, nothing could harm Jesus. But it is not likely that Mary knew that. She would have had many reasons to fear, and yet she still traveled. Because she was confident that the same God who sent angels to her to deliver an ancient promise, would also guide her and her baby to safety.
Bethlehem was known for it’s perfect, spotless lambs for sacrifice. One night, over two thousand years ago, a baby came to the small city of David to be born the last and greatest sacrifice for all of our sins. Whenever we go through our days, let us remember that we are free, saved and forgiven, only because Jesus came to be born in a stable, hated by so many, killed for the sake of us, forsaken by God until He rose blameless from the grave. All because of us.
What can we give Him in return? Nothing. Nothing is worthy. Yet all He asks for is our hearts.

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The answer was with me, I just forgot to look

December 4, 2025 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Remember when Mary Magdalene in the Chosen saw the Roman soldier ride past and is terrified and hides from him? Then later is so ashamed of her fear and says that she completely ignored the scriptures in her hands and hid.
I have suddenly had a moment like that.
After school ends we all feel we will get jobs right away and life will be the bees, or however that saying goes. Then when it doesn’t, you panic. Will I ever get a job? Will I end up being one more collge graduate who can’t use her diploma for anything outside of space on her wall?
Then you start to really go down hill. Wondering why people less qualified have positions you feel you should have. It’s a mess.
Then I opened my cell phone and my lock screen said Isaiah 46:4

Isaiah 46:4 NIV
[4] Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

The right verse to remind me of God’s power was right there in my hands the whole time. I had just missed it because of my stress.

How about you? How often has stress taken over your mind and made you ignore the truth of God? Too often I would guess, because it has happened too often for me.
The Bible holds all of the answers, we just have to stop and listen.
He’s got us. We just forget sometimes that:
He STILL has the whole world in His hands tonight. -Petra

Goodnight friends 🧡