Dona Hake, Author at The Abundant Life Center

“Seeing Through the Eyes of God”

Posted on Dec 31, 2015 in Devotions |

Psalm 32:8 (ERV)

” The Lord says, “I will teach you
and guide you in the way you should live.
I will watch over you and be your guide.”

The Lord desires that we have Him guide us in every aspect of our lives. Today I am sharing this scripture in light of how we treat others. I love this scripture because the psalmist is proclaiming that the Lord has spoken that He will teach us and guide us in how we should live.

Many times it can be easy to fall into the trap of focusing on people’s faults rather than the good things about them. God desires we LIVE to LOVE!!!! Criticizing is not showing His love in any way. The more you focus on anything negative in others the bigger it is going to become to you. Jesus admonished us with the following words from the book of Matthew:

Matthew 7:3-5 (ERV)

“Why do you notice the small piece of dust that is in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood that is in your own? Why do you say to your friend, ‘Let me take that piece of dust out of your eye’? Look at yourself first! You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. You are a hypocrite! First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to get the dust out of your friend’s eye.”

The Lord understands that we will encounter the faults and shortcomings of others but He desires that we handle ourselves in His love. The fault of someone else may cause you to be offended or irritated but it comes back to asking Him to help you to be longsuffering and for His guidance in dealing with such things.

Today let us focus on Jesus’ last words of these verses, “Look at yourself first!” As we continually give our hearts and minds to Him, He has promised to teach us about all that we need in this life. As we are obedient to His process, He will take care of everything that pertains to us and He will lovingly deal with those around us, in His time. Let us also remember that the Holy Spirit is a complete gentleman and He will not impose Himself on anyone. The more we pray for others, the more our heart will be enlarged to love and carry people in prayer rather than be critical toward them.

Lord we ask You this day to help us to see people around us just like You see them. May we purpose to grow in the fruit of Your Spirit, and may we have hearts that love rather than seeking to find fault. Lord, we ask that You search our hearts, and we invite You to help us to grow in the areas in which we need help and strength. We thank You for that Lord, in Jesus Name, amen.

“He Is the God of Faithfulness”

Posted on Dec 29, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Lamentations 3:22-23 (VOICE)

“How enduring is God’s loyal love;
the Eternal has inexhaustible compassion.
Here they are, every morning, new!
Your faithfulness, God, is as broad as the day.”

There is nothing so loyal and beautiful in this life than the love of our God. Everyday He faithfully sheds His love toward us and His compassion cannot be exhausted. As He shows His love to me, it challenges my heart to love the same way. He desires that the love that flows from our hearts to be loyal, enduring and never grow tired and weary. After all, we were created in His image therefore He can enable us to love like Him.

There may be people in your life that you find very easy to flow with and get along with, and yet there are those that just seem to drain you of your energy for they are more challenging. Allow this scripture to challenge your heart. Seek to draw upon His love from above that never runs out of energy and it endures the toughest of challenges.

Remember that every morning you awaken He is seeking new ways to show His love to you. Everything about God begins afresh each day and His compassion is NEVER limited. Everyone of us has a new day ahead of us and each of us will face different challenges. Know this, the God of all love is able to help you endure anything with the love that flows straight from His heart!

“How Many Are His Works”

Posted on Dec 28, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Today I have shared an image that I photographed this morning in my front yard. I am part of a photography group in which each day we are assigned a prompt for the day. We are to shoot our perspective on the prompt. Today’s assignment was called “something awesome”. Sometimes I struggle with ideas especially if I have a busy day in which I do not have extra time to allot to this project. Then there are other times that I have so many ideas I cannot decide. This morning after running errands, I was carrying a bunch of things in my front door, and I happened to glance over and see my ornamental cabbage still in full bloom. The colors of this have been amazing, and I think it is pretty awesome that it is still blooming, but that is not what stopped me to look at it closer. The light was shining down on it, and right in the center of the cabbage there was rain water accumulated, and it was glistening like a beautiful diamond. I thought to myself, “Now that is awesome!!”

This also made me ponder and meditate on how God has made the smallest of things so very beautiful. If you take the time to stop and really look, you can see His hand all around you. I think it is awesome that God can take a whole bunch of raindrops and let them accumulate in the center of a flower, and shine His sun upon it, and make it glisten so beautifully.

You see…many times we only classify awesomeness with the big things or the spectacular, but God is in the big and in the small.

Psalm 104:24 AMP

“O Lord, how many and varied are Your works! In wisdom

You have made them all; The earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures.”

The Lord deals with me often about keeping things simple and not over complicating things. We all have different responsibilities that we must attend to each day, but let us be careful that we guard our time that we do not have time to slow down and appreciate the simplest of blessings. His riches are all around us, let us give thanks to Him for His many and varied works!

“The God Who Never Grows Weary”

Posted on Dec 28, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

How great is our God! It is by His power and strength that we are able to live for Him. There have been times in my life that all physical strength seemed to be gone. As I looked to Him who NEVER grows faint or weary, I am always reminded that He can give me the strength that I need.

I can remember during the entire birth of our second son I had a worship tape being played and right when he was being delivered “I Exalt Thee” by Phil Driscoll was playing. I was feeling totally exhausted right before our son was born yet quietly in the background I could hear Phil Driscoll speaking the following words and those words infused me with strength and joy in a time in which my body needed strength to deliver a our son.

“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God,

the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

fainteth not, neither is weary?

there is no searching of his understanding.”

Isaiah 40:28 (KJV)

Then as our son was taking his first breath I can remember hearing the beautiful words being sung from the song entitled “I Exalt Thee” softly playing in the background…

” For Thou O Lord art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
For Thou O Lord art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods

I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee O Lord
I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee O Lord”

To this day when I hear this song, my heart and mind are reminded of the Lord God being my strength when I needed it desperately. I love testimonies like this that I can reflect and look back on for they truly encourage my faith. Today, let us exalt Him in our hearts as we give praise to Him that never tires nor grows weary of anything. He is the everlasting God!!

“God-Our Refiner”

Posted on Dec 27, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Proverbs 25:4 (ERV)

“Remove the worthless things from

silver to make it pure, and a worker

can make something beautiful.”

You are so valuable and He loves you so much. As we read this scripture we can see that there is a process that we are all walking through as we grow in Him. There is a refining and purification that is taking place in our hearts as we deeply humble ourselves to His Mighty life changing Word. Let’s look at Proverbs 25:4 from God’s Word translation:

“Take the impurities out of silver,
and a vessel is ready for the silversmith to mold.”

The Lord our Refiner desires to bring us to a fine or a pure state; free from impurities. As our Purifier He will cause us to be free from anything that debases, pollutes, adulterates, or contaminates our hearts. God wants every bit of us so He can use us in wonderful ways to glorify Him on this earth.

In the forty one years that I have known the Lord I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard people share from the depths of their hearts as they walked through a difficult trial. Many at the end of the trial admit that they experienced God removing things from them that positioned them to be used in a greater way. Many times those difficult situations can actually cause us to do the soul searching we need to do, and God is able to work in such a wonderful way. As we keep our hearts humble before Him I believe He will continue to refine and purify us that we can serve and be used by Him in greater ways. Praise be to the God who is the Refiner and Purifier!

“Are You Filled To the Full?

Posted on Dec 25, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Are you filled to the full of all the wonderful things God has for you? Today I want to share about how important it is that we pay attention to the condition of our hearts. Is your heart being kept full, strengthened and maintained by the power of the Holy Spirit? You know He desires that we be full and stay full that we may live the victorious life that He intends for us to live. How many things in life do we diligently pay attention to ? Just think about it …our gas tanks, our bank accounts, the parking meter, food in the refrigerator, etc… We keep a mental note and physical notes that we are maintaining these things, yet our spiritual being could be in a state of lack, and we may not even notice. When our spirit is lacking, eventually we are going to pay for it. If we do not tend to our hearts we will not have the strength that we need, therefore we cannot persevere. As our peace is no longer present, we will react to things in a way that we wished we had not.

This past week while I was busy doing errands, running here and there, my “gas is low” light came on and I heard the signal. I kept driving for a bit and I noticed the needle was falling way too close to EMPTY, and felt an urgency to get to the gas station. So it is that we need to stay sensitive to the state of our spirit. When God speaks to your heart, are you hearing Him, and attending to His direction He is giving you? We can not afford to try to live this life on the “fumes” of yesterday’s faith and victories.

Let us diligently watch over the gauge of our hearts and minds. Pay attention to the warning signals. Let us be watchful that we do not become deficient in things that He desires we be filled with.

Many times we come to this place of lack if we begin to live life from our own resources and our own ability. When we stop trusting God for the littlest of things, it eventually snowballs into every area of our life. God desires to fill us that we bubble over with hope as we trust in Him. As He fills you there will be new strength. Your youth will be renewed as the eagle. I encourage you to receive from His hand today. God is so good, trust in Him!!!

Romans 15:13 ERV
“I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much
joy and peace as you trust in him. Then you will have more
and more hope, and it will flow out of you by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

“The Gift of a King”

Posted on Dec 25, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

I love pondering what it must of been like being a shepherd watching over my sheep, and in the dark of the night an angel of the Lord appears out of nowhere to announce the birth of Jesus. I can only imagine what they felt, their excitement, amazement, and anticipation! Let us read from the scriptures about that glorious night.

Luke 2:8-18 Amplified

“In the same region there were shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord flashed and shone around them, and they were terribly frightened.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.
For this day in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord the Messiah.
And this will be a sign for you by which you will recognize Him: you will find a Baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
Then suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host angelic army praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,And on earth peace among men with whom He is well-pleased.”
When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying one to another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem, and see this wonderful thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”
So they went in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the Baby as He lay in the manger.
And when they had seen this, they made known what had been told them about this Child,
and all who heard it were astounded and wondered at what the shepherds told them.”

The shepherds had an immediate and decisive response…”Let us go, and see this wonderful thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us!”

I can assure you that there was no doubt among them, and they began to seek that which they were told, and they did it immediately with great anticipation! I love how the scriptures say that they went in a hurry too. Wouldn’t you have gone in a hurry? If you were there among the shepherds, and saw this glorious angel of the Lord that just declared the birth of the Savior…would you move quickly to seek Him out? I know I would have!

Today we celebrate the birth of our King Jesus, and for those of us that love Him, we truly understand how this changed a very dark world. Even though we were not there on that dark evening among the shepherds to see the Angel of the Lord hear of the proclamation of His birth, we have been given His life, and a hope for our future. Oh how wonderful it is that we can seek God Himself each day with the promise of new mercies, hope, provision, and light for our path! How blessed we are to be able to experience knowing that in the midst of a dark world, we serve the One that brings His Light to us each and everyday! He brings us the knowledge of His will, His Light guides us into all truth, and now we are the carriers of this glorious Light. We are His vessels in which He desires to shine everyday.

Will you be that Light to the one that needs to see hope? Will you be the vessel in which His words of wisdom can flow when He calls upon you to speak? I encourage you today as you think about the the gift of the King that God sent to also think about how He desires to use us for the greater works in these latter days! God bless you, and Merry Christmas!!!

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 Easy-to-Read Version

“We don’t tell people about ourselves. But we tell people that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we tell them that we are your servants for Jesus. God once said, “Let light shine out of the darkness!”[a] And this is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts to let us know that his own divine greatness is seen in the face of Christ.

We have this treasure from God, but we are only like clay jars that hold the treasure. This is to show that the amazing power we have is from God, not from us.“

“How Precious Is the Clean Heart!”

Posted on Dec 24, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

A few days ago I had shared with you regarding resolutions for the upcoming New Year. As I said, when you go into a New Year you can feel like you are wiping the slate clean. A year has passed and now it is time to start a fresh one. Sometimes people may feel like they really had a bad year full of challenges, and they are just ready to start fresh. Again, may I mention that I personally feel this is something we should do everyday. As we live one day at a time, we can start afresh, thanking Him for His new mercies, His grace that will sustain us, and His provision that He promises to give us to help us do His will. Most importantly is His forgiveness when we miss the mark. Isn’t it precious that even when we mess up, all we have to do is ask Him to cleanse us, and get us right back up and running the course that He has set before us!!!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me..”
Psalm 51:10

As the psalmist prayed here you can see he plainly realized that he had lost something, and he wanted it back. He was walking in the blessing of feeling right, he was a persevering person with a spirit that was steadfast, yet he knew something was wrong. He was no longer clean and pure. When we mess up and do not ask the Lord to help us, things are not the same. The longer we put it off the more we will become callous to our spirit trying to let us know that something is not right within us.

I have shared this little teaching analogy before but it will serve to minister to your heart again since we are looking at cleansing and renewal. I can still remember when I shared with some preschoolers a simple little object lesson about forgiveness. It was precious watching their innocent little faces and their eyes light up as they took hold of the truth. I was teaching them the importance of knowing their hearts were clean. I mixed up a big old batch of mud. I took them all outside and we sat down around the bowl of mud. I squished my hands into the mud (may I add the little boys were loving how gross it was!) and rubbed it up and down my arms and my hands were caked with mud. I emphasized to them how bad it felt not to be clean, and I just wanted it off of me.

I shared with them that the mud was symbolic of our mistakes, our sins, etc. I had a pitcher of fresh, clean water beside me. As I poured the pure, clean water over me, the mud totally cleansed my arms and hands, and into the ground the mud was absorbed. “Where is the mud?” I asked them, and the point was made beautifully. It could not be seen anymore and it was gone! These kind of visual analogies are so powerful, not just for children but adults as well.

Psalm 51:2-3 Amplified
“Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin! For I am conscious of my transgressions and
I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me.”

There are two key words here that the writer wrote and these are our keys to living with a clean heart and those words are CONSCIOUS and ACKNOWLEDGE. It is plain and simple, as we stay conscious of the condition of our hearts and we acknowledge it before God, He will always help us, and work within us and renew us again. Let us be quick to humble and repent when we are out of align with His perfect will. We serve a merciful and loving God. Think about anything that has hindered your steadfastness and strength in Him and ask Him to cleanse it so your heart pure and totally restored. This is truly freedom!

“…and the Truth Shall Keep You Free”

Posted on Dec 23, 2015 in Devotions, Uncategorized |

by Dona Hake

It says in Ecclesiates 3:8 that there is “a time to love and a time to hate…” There are times in which we are called upon to hate what God hates. Every day of our life we will be presented with opportunities to make choices, and God wants us to choose His way, and His way is always truth. May we never forget that our Lord detests any kind of falsehood. God desires that our hearts be sold out completely and committed to His Word. May we never ever think that we can pick and choose when we are going to walk in truth. May our hearts desire to know that we are saturated in His Word. May we be determined to walk in a way in which we never waver but stay true to every precept He has given us to live by.

It is as we are with strong conviction about living His Word in our lives that we will take strong stands against falsehoods that would try to pull us down and weaken our convictions. Falsehood is lack of conformity to truth or fact.

Psalm 119:163 (CEB)

“I hate, I absolutely despise, what is false,
but I’m in love with your Instruction.”

Psalm 119:163 Good News Translation

“I hate and detest all lies, but I love your law.”

The truth that our Lord spoke of that will set us free will keep us free as we determine ourselves to never compromise the truth. May we decisively proclaim in our words and actions that truth holds a high value in our hearts, and we will guard and protect it no matter the cost. I have heard it said that “The thing you compromise to keep you will eventually lose.”

These are powerful words that are all so true!

Today Lord we ask that You would give us discerning hearts for we well know that the devil can come as an Angel of Light. He can try to confuse us in order that we walk away from our strong convictions. We thank You Lord that Your grace is able to keep us strong and deliberate in our walk. We ask that Your Word would grow deeper and deeper within us as we proclaim that we love Your law with all of our hearts. In Jesus Name! Amen.

“Let the Lord Direct the Work of Your Hands”

Posted on Dec 22, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

I can hardly believe that Christmas is only days away…where did this year go? It will not be long that you will hear some speak of their resolutions for the fresh new year. Many times people see the New Year as a fresh start and a beginning point to accomplish a desire of their heart, break a bad habit, or press into a goal. If one makes a resolution it is of utmost importance that it is coupled with a desire to accomplish it or follow through with it. My thoughts on this are to live each day as unto Him and do that which He is speaking to your heart about. Do not get me wrong, I think it is great to make plans and goals but I kind of love staying in that place of living one day at a time knowing that I have His hand of blessing on all that I set my hand to, and everything else seems to fall into the right place. The Lord desires that we look to Him every day as a clean slate with fresh beginnings in which He can direct the work of our hands.

Psalm 90:17
“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,

and direct thou the work of our hands upon us…”

I believe as we allow His beauty or His grace to be upon us He will direct the work of our hands and lead us in our God given assignments. He will begin to deal with how we view everything. He is well able to put us in alignment with His will as we stay humble to Him. He will in turn cause all that we set our hand to to be blessed and prosperous. If there are things in your life relative to disciplines that you desire change in, I just encourage you to prayerfully take them to Him. Let Him do the changing and bring growth in His timing.

Lord, we thank You for Your Holy Spirit that is at work within us, and we humbly ask that You direct every work of our hands. As we look at going into a new year let us start each day, and look at it as a new beginning as we acknowledge You. May Your beauty be upon all that we do that we may glorify You, in Jesus Name, amen.