Encounter Devotionals by Zach Wood

“Constantly Loving & Faithful”

By Zach Wood

Psalm 117 NLT

Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth. For his unfailing love for us is powerful; the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever.

Most of us notice many changing things every single day. Whether we are going with our family somewhere, going to work, out on a walk or somewhere else, we notice changing things.

I don’t have a long drive to my job each day, but one thing I notice each day is the gas prices. I have to laugh, both at the gas prices and at myself because I react to them. Sometimes I say, “Oh sure, there they go up even higher!” when other times I say in a surprised voice, “Wow, they went back down!” We all know there’s nothing consistent about gas prices other than they’re constantly inconsistent.

I notice a lot of other things throughout my day, whether I am driving, at my workplace, at home with my family or other places. It seems no matter where I go or what I am doing, I notice something that constantly changes. Ads and products are always changing. Weather is always changing. Fads are always changing. Technology is always changing.

I could go on and on about all that changes. It’s like I can’t rely on anything to stay the same. No matter what, something is always changing around me. Sometimes, it really drives me crazy because I’d like to see something stay consistent.

While things are changing all the time around me, it is such a great encouragement to know that each day I wake, God is always the same. His unfailing love never fails me and it never changes. He doesn’t love me less or love me more. He doesn’t change His condition on loving me. His faithfulness isn’t different today than from yesterday. I’m so thankful that I can totally and completely rely on His promise to always be faithful and loving to me no matter what.

Friends, I want to encourage you all with this Psalm. We can praise God each day because He is unchanging. His love never fails. He will always remain the same. He is always faithful no matter what. Even when times are tough and life seems unbearable, His love endures.

Praise Him today and every day for His unending love and faithfulness!

Posted by zwdevotions at 8:05 PM No comments:

“Speak Love”

By Zach Wood

Proverbs 3:13 NIV

Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin.

We have all done it. Every one of us has had a day when it seems like no matter what we say, it gets us into trouble somehow. We have all had days that we treat our spouses, our kids, other family, loved ones and friends with terrible words that hurt. It’s not that we mean to start our day with the intention of hurting others, but it just happens.

There are some days when nothing but positive things come out of our mouths. Then, there are days when it seems like nothing but insults and criticisms flow. There are days for many of us that either we have thought of using vulgar language toward someone, we mutter it quietly, or we lash out with it to someone around us. Before we know it, we’ve changed the other person’s view of us at that moment.

You wouldn’t be human if you’ve never had a day where you said something you regret. I think of the past 40 years of my life and all the things that I have said to others. I hope and pray that I’ve encouraged more than I’ve discouraged. But I’m sure that I’ve said some pretty rotten and nasty things to people that have hurt deeply. I am human and sometimes I have some pretty rancid thoughts and feelings toward others. I pray that God would not only change my words about them, but my heart attitude toward them as well.

This proverb is powerful. Those who work hard to guard what they say will bring wonders to their life. I think sometimes we grow the most when we “bite our tongue” when we could say something really harsh toward another and, instead, speak words of love. When we let our words fly, so often we regret what we have said in the heat of a discussion.

Friends, our words are heavy. They can either be heavy to encourage or to discourage. Which do you want to do? Do you want to bring ruin to your conversations or do you want to light conversations up with your encouragement and love of God? Do you want to completely restore someone in a conversation or do you want to completely destroy their feelings?

It is amazing what our words do. I want to encourage all of us that we need to work harder and pray more that God would guard our lips so that love will flow from us. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing and anything we say should show that we truly love God.

Posted by zwdevotions at 7:49 PM No comments:

“Let Me Tell You!”

By Zach Wood

Romans 1:16 NLT

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.

We all enjoy telling others when great things happen to us, don’t we? We not only get excited about telling people about something cool that we’ve done or that happened to us, but also we get excited about things we have seen and places we have been to.

Most of us could go on for hours and hours telling others about different things we like and dislike. We often find ourselves getting excited and telling other people about so many things that are fascinating to us in this world.

We get excited about sports. We get excited about going on vacation. We get excited about the newest movie that has come out. We get excited about so many things and we cannot wait to get out to work, church or school and tell our friends and family about what we’ve experienced, seen or heard.

Friends, I cannot help but think that it saddens God’s heart that we get excited about so much in our lives, but then when it comes to the opportunities where we can share about our faith and we clam up. When we get so excited to tell others things we often say, “Let me tell you!” and then we go into a long explanation. However, when we have the opportunities to share Christ, how long do those conversations last? Do we take the time to tell or do we clam up and lose our excitement to continue the conversation?

Are we really excited to talk about our faith in Christ? Is it really exciting to us? Are we itching to tell others of the wonderful salvation we have experienced in God? The Apostle Paul was definitely not ashamed of the Good News. He says that it is the power of God at work! Is the Good News the power of God at work through us with others? Are we excited to tell others, more than anything, about how awesome God is?

I must admit that I get into many conversations with others, most often in my workplace, and I find myself seldom bringing God into the discussions. I’m not purposely looking for ways to beat people over the head with the Bible, but I also so often am not intentionally looking for ways to open up and share my faith. I want to be different for sure and show Christ’s love, but sometimes that needs to come through my conversations. I need to be more bold and open to sharing. Not only sharing, but being excited about what I’m sharing.

Let us be more like Paul, who wasn’t ashamed of the Good News and said often to people “Let Me Tell You!”

Posted by zwdevotions at 6:50 PM No comments:

“He Could Have, But Didn’t”

By Zach Wood

Philippians 2:5-7 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus; Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

I want you all to ponder something for a few moments. Imagine if you were promoted in your job to the highest position possible and given authority over everyone you used to work with. How would that change the way you feel about everyone who works beneath you? How would that change the way you feel about yourself? There would be a feeling of celebration for sure! We would all probably be filled with many emotions at the thought of being in charge of all the employees.

With this new position of authority, there also may be some temptations to take advantage of the people who work under you. Would you treat them as you would want to be treated or do you think you’d be tempted to boss them around and make them do everything you want? Don’t answer that too fast. Even if you couldn’t imagine yourself like that, strange things can happen if we were ever given the highest position in a company and the complete authority to tell people to do what we want and how we want it done.

I hope that if we were all given this situation, that we would choose to do our best to make employees feel respected and appreciated, but never to take the advantage of bossing them around in a mean way. Many people in high positions do just this because it gives them a feeling of power and boosts their ego big time!

Think about Jesus for a few moments in this way. We know He never would have done that to people, but He had all authority from God. He could have really taken advantage of the authority His Father gave Him and treated people terrible. Imagine how that would have changed how we look at the Bible?? He did NOT use this authority and power in His position of Son of God to treat people wrong. He did just the opposite! He became a servant. Why? So that people would see just how the character of God really is and what love truly looks like in serving others.

I find it amazing that Jesus could have abused His authority, but that’s not what He was sent to do. He was sent to love and serve and die for us. He could have chosen to treat us as slaves and boss us around, but instead He loved us. He loved us enough He went to the Cross to prove it.

He was the epitome of love and servanthood.

Posted by zwdevotions at 7:32 PM No comments:

“He Knows And Understands”

By Zach Wood

Hebrews 4:15 NIV

For we do not have a high priestwho is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

I imagine that at some point in your life, you’ve told someone “I know exactly what you’re going through.” Maybe you’ve told many people that throughout the years of your life? Perhaps you have heard many people say that to you? You know they mean well and are concerned, but often we wonder if they really know just exactly how we feel. While it’s great in life to do our best to relate to people, we really don’t exactly know how someone feels, even if we’ve been in the same situation. We can’t truly know just exactly 100% how someone else feels. Maybe close, but not completely.

When we get into discouraging times of life, it is a great comfort to know others are there to share with us in our pain, even if they don’t know exactly how we feel or what we’re going through. It gives us a great relief to know someone can relate to us. However, no matter how much others are able to relate, there is no one who can relate more than Jesus Himself. In the times that you are all alone by yourself and your friends and family are not around, He is the One Who understands and sympathizes completely with what you’re going through.

It is such a comfort to know that no matter what we deal with or what pain we experience, every time we come to Jesus, He can give us comfort like no one else can. He has experienced every situation of temptation, yet He never fell to it. He is our High Priest, the One Who gave His life to save ours. You think if someone would give up His life for ours that He would know what we go through?

Have you gone to Him lately for your ultimate comfort? Do you go to Him more than you go to your friends and family? It’s wonderful to get comfort and support from friends and family, but we can’t rely on them to give what only God can give. There are times when God just wants us to come to Him and bask in His presence and comfort instead of always running to family and friends. We need to be alone with Him and know that He always knows and understands our pain. As much as others are able to relate to us, only Jesus truly knows how we feel and what we’re experiencing.

Posted by zwdevotions at 5:07 PM No comments:

“No One More Amazing”

By Zach Wood

Hebrews 1:3-4 NLT

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.

I enjoy watching amazing things that people do. Whether it’s on TV, a Netflix series or in a documentary, I really enjoy watching people do bizarre and amazing things. I like when someone does something and my jaw drops and my eyes become as wide as saucers and I just say, “How did they do that??”

We have all been amazed by different people and different things in life that we see people do. We get a thrill from watching people do some amazing stunts and perform tricks that totally blow our minds. I enjoy watching magicians perform. I know they have a very simple trick to what they do, but it really amazes me when I see them do what they do.

What amazes you? What makes your jaw drop? What makes you say, “Wow! Did that really just happen?”

As much as I like to be amazed by things and people, I often wonder how much more I should be completely amazed by the things God has done and still does. I wonder how much I focus so much on the amazement of things in this world and how little I sometimes focus my attention toward an amazing God. That breaks my heart. I often find myself more amazed at what people do than what God can do and still does.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who was sinless and radiated God’s own glory, came to be an exact replica of God. He was God in the flesh. After all these years of being a Christian, it still baffles me how God can be 3 in 1, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s just amazing! I cannot wrap my mind around it! Jesus radiates His Father’s glory perfectly. Everything is sustained by His command. Wow! Does that amaze you?

Not only did He represent His Father’s glory, but He cleansed us from our sins. He died for those sins. These are all things I should be totally amazed by every day in my life, but so often my actions reveal that I am not really that amazed. I find myself waiting for the next thing I can see with my eyes on this earth and not in anticipation for what God will do.

There is absolutely no one more amazing, incredible and majestic than our Creator God.

Posted by zwdevotions at 7:43 PM No comments:

“Sometimes We Forget”

By Zach Wood

1 Timothy 1:15-16 NIV

Here is a trustworthy sayingthat deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercyso that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patienceas an example for those who would believein him and receive eternal life.

If you’re anything like, you forget things often. It doesn’t seem to matter what age you are, you forget things all through life. It is easy to be forgetful. We tend to forget the simplest things in life and then we do a smack on the forehead when we come to recall what we’ve forgotten and we say, “I cannot believe I forgot that!” You wouldn’t be a human being if you didn’t forget things.

Sometimes we forget important dates. Sometimes we forget promises that we’ve made to others. Sometimes we forget to pickup the kids after an activity if we’ve had a crazy day at work. Sometimes we forget we’ve left stuff in the yard and rain comes to soak it down.

We often forget, sadly, how destined we are to death if Jesus Christ hadn’t come to give His life for us. We get so wrapped up in life that we often forget we cannot do anything without Him. We tend to think so much of ourselves by all the things we can do on our own and in our own strength and we forget how destitute we really are when we take life on our own. If we really think about it, as Paul describes here, we are the worst sinners. Paul didn’t think highly of himself. Even though he became one of the greatest influences in the NT and in the church, He was easily reminded that he was the worst of sinners.

Sometimes, we certainly need a reality check to remember and realize how far off from God we really are and how desperately we need Him. Jesus came to save us because we are filthy. We have turned away from Him and gone our own way so many times. But we often tend to just go through life thinking we are pretty awesome. We get pretty full of ourselves and think we’re doing pretty good. God looks at the prideful heart and sees a sinner who desperately still needs Him. He sees through our beaming attitude of arrogance and knows that we really need Him more than ever.

God is certainly patient with us. He wants us to completely rely on Him and most of all to never forget how very much we need Him. Paul considered himself the worst of sinners. How do we see ourselves? Do we think more highly of ourselves than we ought? Or do we see ourselves as filthy rags that need His cleansing? We are nothing without Him. That’s blunt, I know, but it’s the truth. Jesus saves us from our life of disgust and we need to be reminded of the wonderful cleansing He has given us.

Sometimes we forget.

Posted by zwdevotions at 6:34 PM No comments: