Devotion written by my grandmother, Nedra Baldridge, October 2014.

For those who have prodigals, weather children or other family members don’t ever give up on God. He loves the prodigal in your life even more that you do, and He won’t stop His relentless pursuit of them. Continue to pray the promises of scripture and cling to what Moses told the Israelites as they were standing on the shore of the Red Sea and the Egyptians were closing in behind them.

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still and know.”

My Savior hears me when I pray. Upon His word I calmly rest; in His own time, in His own way, I know He’ll give me what is best.

Don’t give up on the prodigal in your life. God bless!

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10



If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years as a Christian is there is a battle between good and evil and it never ends. The world and its ways want to suck you into a false hope of wealth, pleasure and behaviors that eventually will harm and destroy your physically and emotionally. Sadly, so many people get caught up in the world’s belief system and find themselves coming up short on joy and satisfaction.



On the other hand, a life that has Jesus Christ at the center will never avoid difficulty, but will find hope in every hopeless situation, will find strength when weak and encouragement for the tough times in life. Jesus Christ has the power to take nothing and make it into something meaningful. His strength never ends and through His Holy Spirit living inside every believer they can experience His strength in their life.



The abundant life that Jesus Christ offers is life sustaining and continues into eternity. Find it today by turning your focus from the world and look to Jesus Christ for hope, strength and encouragement! God bless!

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3



I can tell Fall is approaching. Its that time of year when my sinuses give me issues. For me, it all started over the weekend and has progressively gotten worse. This morning I woke up hurting all over, stuffy nose and chest congestion. Got up and carried myself to the doctor’s office. Once inside, I saw the Doc and he fixed me up with some meds and a steroid shot, on my way to recovery.



But the truth be known, I didn’t want to go to the doctor. My body ached too much, I was tired and wanted to go back to sleep and I knew I’d have some out of pocket expenses. At the same time though, I knew if I was going to get better, I needed to go.



It’s interesting how in life how we face problems or have an injured heart from someone’s evilness, and we often try to heal ourselves without any help. We think we can handle the pain and heal on our own, but the truth of the matter is it’s hard to overcome brokenness on your own. You need help and that is where God comes in.



Today’s passage clearly states He will heal your brokenness, and bind up those wounds caused by someone possibly close to you. The first procedure God uses to heal your heart is a tool called “forgiveness”. It’s like a general anti-biotic, it’s a cure all for just about anything in life. Through the healing power of God and what His Son Jesus Christ did on the cross for you, is the same power that can restore your heart and possibly mend a broken relationship along the way. Come to Jesus for all your healing needs and find recovery much sooner than what you can do on your own! God bless!

And behold a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Jesus saying “have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed….But He answered her not a word. Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord help me!” Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Matthew 15:22, 23, 25,28



Let’s set the scene. So, you have Jesus and His disciples, who were all Jews, when this Gentile woman approaches and ask for Jesus to heal her demon possessed daughter. The disciples encouraged Jesus to tell her to leave their presence. But, He said not a word. Can you imagine the desperation of this woman? She somehow knew Jesus could heal her and bring her daughter back to a normal life again. Yet, He said nothing and I’m sure she felt the brush off from the disciples.



So, what did this woman do? She started to worship Jesus. For a moment in time she put her personal agenda aside and simply worshiped Jesus, because He is worthy to be worshipped. Although I’m sure Jesus was ready to heal her daughter, He wanted to see her faithfulness, and she came through like a light shining thru the darkness. Jesus even called her a woman of great faith. And from that act of worship, Jesus healed her daughter once and for all.



Maybe you’ve got a request for Jesus and you’ve been pleading for His help with not even a whisper from Him. Set aside your personal agenda and spend time worshipping Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior. You’ve got time to praise Him for all He has previously done and claim what He will do through your faith and trust in Him. God bless!

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trails, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1 :2 – 4



If you’ve ever watched football, you know the sport is pretty rough and players can get hurt from time to time. Hurt so bad, that they have to stay out of several games to give their body time to heal from the injuries. Because in football, if a player comes back out with a partial injury, the truth is the opponent will do all he can to hit that injured part of the body to put the player out of commission.



As Christians we too have an opponent, an enemy, Satan. Satan will use things in life such as unfaithfulness of a loved one, personal insults from others, feelings of unworthiness to bring you down to the point where you want to give up. And when you try to get back on the playing field, he will often target those painful emotions to keep you down.



Friend, if this is something you are going thru, its time to take a step back from the game of life and allow God to heal your broken heart, restore your confidence in self and make time for healing through forgiveness. Patience is the key to your healing process. God has NO time table for healing. It might take weeks, months even years to restore you back to good. Allow that time to heal you and grow your faith and wisdom in Him. When you become completely healed, Satan’s attacks will prove unsuccessful and you’ll come out victorious in life! Take time to heal, you’ve got all the time you need! God bless!