Psalms 21:13 [13] Be exalted in your strength, Lord; we will sing and praise your might.[13] Be exalted in your strength, Lord; we will sing and praise your might.

March 8, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 21:13 NIV

[13] Be exalted in your strength, Lord; we will sing and praise your might.
It is often a pausing moment to read David and remember that he was king. He was king over all of Israel and yet he always, always gave the victory and glory to God.
When we are doing really well, and life is good, and we feel strong, do we still remember to give God the glory? Or do we turn to Him only when we are down and out and looking for a save?
David remembered God in each moment. In direct contrast, Saul turned his back on God and chose his own will and gave himself the glory.
Giving God the throne even when He has let you sit on it for awhile is honestly the smartest decision to make, because He knows what He’s doing and He will guide your life and your “kingdom” better than you ever could, trust me.

Take away:

God give us blessings and can even make us great. But how we treat those blessings will determine how long we are permitted to have them. Do we give them back to God? Or do we claim them and act as though we deserve them and God owed it to us?
How we treat God is very important. Jesus may have come as Prince of Peace, but He is still king of the world, let us not forget that.

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Psalms 20:1 NIV[1] May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

March 7, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 20:1 NIV
[1] May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
We fall into distress easily. We’re people, it’s natural. But do we remember that God is on our side? When we fall into distress/anxiety/fear/meltdowns, may the Lord answer us. Let us remember to go to Him.

Take away:

Life happens, and it can be terrible, but God is still with us. He alone will save us and protect us.
Life happens, but we are not al

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Psalms 19:12 NIV[12] But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.

March 6, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 19:12 NIV
[12] But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
We all have hidden faults and errors. Pride, arrogance, anger, complaining, it goes on and on. Sometimes we even have faults and sins we do without thinking of it. Not a willful sin, but a sin that has crept into our lives and personalities in some cases. There are many great things about God, but one of them is that He does not just search the depth of our hearts to judge what’s there, He also brings to our attention what’s going on inside that might be wrong. Best of all, He forgives us. We do not even have to be specific, look at the simplicity of David’s prayer; God hears that, knows what you are talking about and forgives. He’s amazing!

Take away:

God searches our hearts and knows the depth, but He doesn’t just sit back and be judge of our mess, He comes to us and helps us see it and clean it up!

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · holy spirit · Jesus · lent · Love · power of God · psalms · The Bible · True Joy

Psalms 18:1 NIV[1] I love you, Lord, my strength.

March 5, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 18:1 NIV
[1] I love you, Lord, my strength.
When was the last time you told God that you love Him?
He loves us so much! Yet we tend to only ask for things, sometimes we thank Him, but when do we say “I love you Jesus”?
Tonight take some time. Even if it’s just a few minutes. Tell Jesus that you love Him -Let Him know from your words as well as your heart that He matters to you.

Take away:

With all we “love” in our day, let us remember to count Jesus in our list. No one loves us more than He does, we should love Him most in our lives as well.

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Psalms 17:8 NIV[8] Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings

March 4, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 17:8 NIV
[8] Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings
Soak that in. We are the apple of God’s eye and He hides us in the shadow of His wings.
Who in your life is the apple of your eye? Who means more to you than anything on this earth? What would you do to protect them? What would you give up?
Jesus gave up Himself. Nothing could satisfy the need for sacrifice for the amount of sins we people held, so Jesus gave up Himself. That’s how much we mean to Him.
In the world we live in, seeing all this darkness spread and grow around us it is easy to feel frightened, angry, and sad. Yet Jesus covers us with His presence. When we remember how much we mean to Him it helps us to feel safe because we know we are loved.

Take away:

We are so important to God that He gave up His son for us.
We are so important to Jesus that He have up Himself for us.
How important to us Is God? Are we willing to give up our lives for Him?

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Psalms 16:6 NIV[6] The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

March 3, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 16:6 NIV
[6] The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
This poem of David is known as a Miktam, which most likely means precious. David made God his precious hiding place and rejoiced in His protection. God surrounds us with His presence and in Him we are safe. Nothing can cross the boundary line that God sets and this is such a precious thing to know. I know that here David is most likely referring to the boundaries that dictate a person’s property due to the mention of a delightful inheritance from the Lord; however I wish to think of the type of boundaries I mentioned earlier.
This past year we built a fence for my dog on our farm. It’s a nice large area right out the front door of our house. It holds a boundary. Due to the fence, I can let him go and run and play and am not worried about the foxes and coyotes because they cannot cross the boundary line.
God sets a boundary line for us. He promises to protect us from more than we can handle, which means despite all we go through in our lives there are things far worse that have been stopped at that boundary line. I can imagine a shining fence surging with power all around me as I rest, many thing prowl outside it but do not dare even coming close, and I am safe. It’s a pleasant thought.

Take away:

The boundary lines of our inheritance from God are wide and vast! Truly a blessing to be joyful in thinking on. His boundary lines of protection for us are also something to take joy in. They are strong and unending, nothing can reach over or under and we are safe in Him.

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Psalms 15:2 NIV[2] The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;

March 2, 2026 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Psalms 15:2 NIV
[2] The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;
David speaks here about who can enter God’s holy mountain. One whose walk is blameless, a person who does not sin, does not slander, hates all that is vile.
I would like to take a moment just to think on that. I have slurred people’s names several times today. It was a rough day for it, it seemed like everywhere I looked people were being a problem. I don’t like to use the word slander for this because slander includes the words you use being a lie. But what if all the terrible things you say about people are completely true, should we say them?
Before we say ‘no’ and walk away feeling good about ourselves let us remember something, we are all guilty of talking behind people’s backs and embellishing events to improve our story. As far as I have met, there is only one person I know who I would say most likely never did this, and even then I am not positive.
When it comes to most sin it is generally fairly straightforward when comes to avoiding it. But pride and slander come circling around with ease. Some are more prone to it than others, but none are immune.
Yet here David reminds us that those who are this way cannot abide upon God’s holy mountain. He says only the blameless can stand before God. And he’s right. Which means that absolutely no one can stand before God, except one.
Jesus is blameless of all sin and He alone stands freely before the Father.
The amazing thing is that Jesus then looks at us. We struggling little beings living on His earth. And He invites us to join Him, all we have to do is ask. If that isn’t amazing I don’t know what is.

Take away:

Even the most righteous of us fall to certain sins. None of us are holy enough to stand before God. But because Jesus died for us we can repent and be given the same blameless purity He has. That is an amazing gift! How can anyone say Jesus does not love them, when His whole book is about how much He loves us!
All we have to do is repent and try and change and do better, that’s all He asks, is for us to keep trying. He knew we would mess up and need forgiveness every moment of every day, so opened the tapestry and said ‘come in and ask.’
Nothing we can do deserves such love as to be able to be forgiven each time we mess up because the only one who was pure died in our pl

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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.

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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.

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February 25, 2026 carriedinthecross1 Comment

Psalms 11:1 NLT
[1] I trust in the Lord for protection. So why do you say to me, “Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!
I really love this! Here we see David singing about the evil who pursue him with underhanded ways. His people (the righteous) try to convince him that they should all find shelter and hide from those who attack them. Yet David believed more in God being his shield than almost any other person in scripture. He trusted so much in God that he refused to flee from his enemies. Sure he had times of great pain and discouragement, even fear; yet he refused to run.
When bad things happen, or darkness rises, it is easy to want to run away. Flee to the mountains to hide and cower. Yet David knew that the only mountain to flee to was the mountain of God. God alone is our mighty stronghold to protect us.
Most of us are not facing violence, sadly some of us are, but we all have some enemy attacking us. It might be anxiety, illness, strife, a wandering child, an addiction, a lost job. Whatever your giant, three headed monster looks like, God is still your safe place to run to. We do not need to flee to the mountains when the enemy draws it’s bow taught, we need to flee to God.

Take away:
A fallen world means people will face pain at sometime in their lives. Pain can come in many shapes and sizes and most of the time it is preloaded by fear. When fear rises and we see pain coming, do not try and find something to hide in that is of this world. Hide in Jesus! He is your safe zone. He is your strong tower. He is the mountain where you run. This world will hurt you and let you down, but Jesus never will.