Dona Hake, Author at The Abundant Life Center

“Understanding Our Purpose”

Posted on May 10, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Each one of us was created by God for a very special purpose and we need to know what it is. We each uniquely have our very own finger prints and there is not another one like it. I find that so amazing but our God is so amazing isn’t He? Today I want you to know that you are special, and God has a special
plan and purpose for you while you are here on this earth.

Many times individuals struggle with why they are here, and what are they to do with their life. As people begin to age they may look back on their lives, and they need to feel that they have made an impact on someone’s life or they desire to know that they have done great accomplishments. Only God can bring out of us all they He created us to be! It is so important to understand that God knew
you before your mother gave birth to you. Every stitch and fiber of our being was uniquely knitted together as He formed us in our mother’s womb. Within us He has placed gifts and talents that are an expression of Him.

Psalm 139:13-15 (AMP)
“For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s
womb.
I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the
awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self
knows right well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and]
intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in
the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].”

We need to confess and praise Him for how wonderfully He fashioned us for this life. Deep inside you there may be something that needs birthed. It may be a gift, calling, or some type of creativity that is waiting for it’s awakening. I love how verse fifteen says that we were curiously wrought as if embroidered with various colors. I have never embroidered but I have always felt it to look as if it
was a tedious craft. So it was with us as we were being formed within our mother’s womb. He gave great thought to every part of us and how He fashioned us for the work of our life.

Next time you feel tempted to feel that you have no purpose or you judge yourself as a failure, I encourage you to stop and remember that the hand of a loving God formed you for a time and a purpose for such a time as this. As you walk with Him and commit yourself to Him, He will be faithful to lead and guide you and make plain your paths.

Today I encourage you to think about how you are a gift from the hand of God and as you live for Him, confess that He leads and guides you into all truth and He will indeed accomplish much through you as you seek and serve Him.

“Our Very Thoughts”

Posted on May 9, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Yesterday I shared about hiding God’s Word in our hearts. It is vital that we abide in Him, and as we do His Word, it will be a well spring deep within us. We must do all that we know to do to protect it and continue to deposit it so that we can draw upon it in our time of need. Today I will share about our thoughts and how they can be a potential enemy to our soul if we do not deal with them as God would want us to.

First and foremost we have to have it settled within us that God’s Word IS THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY. If I could underline this one hundred times, I would! No matter what happens in our day, and no matter what comes our way, we must be willing to turn our eyes away from what the natural is speaking, and turn our eyes upon Jesus. I am sure that you can relate to the fact that many times situations have loud voices and our thoughts can have loud voices as well. It is what we do with the voice of our thoughts that will make or break us.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (Amplified)
“[Inasmuch as we] refute arguments
and theories and reasonings
and every proud and lofty thing that sets
itself up against the [true] knowledge of God;
and we lead every thought and purpose
away captive into the obedience of
Christ (the Messiah,
the Anointed One”

I believe there are so many avenues that the devil is trying to use in our world today where the Word of God is being fought against. The devil well understands that he can turn our minds into a battleground of confusion and weakness if we do not guard ourselves. Our education system, news media, etc…is trying to prove God’s Word to be false and invalid. There are arguments against it like never before. If we do not continue to refresh ourselves in the presence of God, and renew our minds with God’s Word this has the potential to wear us down. When one gets worn down they are on a fast track to being pulled into the deceptive current of this world’s thinking. This is so dangerous, and we must constantly keep our hearts and minds protected from such things. The world is trying to make God’s Word and ways look foolish so that we back away from the truth. The Word of God is the most powerful tool we have to live this life. His Word says in Hebrews 4:12 (NASB)

” For the word of God is living and active
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
and piercing as far as the division of
soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts
and intentions of the heart.”

If the Word of God is hidden within us, it will rise up in our time of need. It will cut through the deceptions that are trying to pull us down. We will feel our heart being touched with His pure truth
because His Word,as a knife is cutting deeply, and dividing the lie from the truth. You will be able to clearly see the choice you have to make in light of seeing both sides and then the decision is yours.

God desires that we always choose life but He gives us the choice. If the Word is not hidden in your heart my friend, it will not be there to help you win the battles this world brings, and you will heed to the swift currents that sin brings. God desires that we choose life, He desires that we choose to put His Word deep within our hearts, and then He desires that we guard it with all diligence for from it flow the issues of this life! Praise God for that life giving force that is well able to guard our hearts and minds!

“Make God’s Word Your Hidden Treasure”

Posted on May 8, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

When things are precious and valuable to us we keep them in special places. Things that mean something to us should never be left in unsafe places. If we are not careful we could suffer consequences of great loss. When you come to value something as precious, you begin to appreciate it more and more. You also think about how you can not live without it.

Today I will be sharing with you about hiding and protecting the Word of God within your heart. Many times the things that happen in our everyday experiences help us see things more clearly, and I love to parallel such experiences as I share His Word. Today I will share a little experience with you in which I was negligent in going the extra mile to protect something valuable to me. As a photographer I have different lenses for my camera. I have favorite lenses for my camera too, and there is one in particular that rarely comes off of my camera body. If I switch up a lens for a particular reason I have a special way of doing so, and I am meticulous about doing it as well. I always keep my camera on the kitchen table and extra lens so it is right at an arm’s length for me. So one day I came to realize that the dining room table is not the safest place to sit it!

I will never forget the day I learned a good lesson about not being careful enough to guard that which is not only special to me but very expensive. I was watching my Granddaughters, and the youngest was really going through the exploration mode. Actually she is still very much that way, but I can remember how her little eyes would study things, and her little hands moved along with her mind, and would take things apart, etc… I had totally forgotten to move my favorite lens to a higher place or should I say a safe place. She was not yet walking but she was well able to climb, and do some pretty interesting maneuvers with her little body. I turned my back for a minute, and there she was sitting on top of my dining room table like a little center piece!!! She sat there contently playing with my favorite lens. She popped off the protective lens cap, and then unscrewed the bottom protective cap. I still take a deep breath when I think of that moment.

I can laugh now but in that moment I saw all kinds of scenarios in my mind. The interesting thing was because of how she observed me with my lens, she gently removed the lens cap, and examined it. I quietly and slowly walked over and took it from her. The whole time I was walking toward her I was scolding myself for not being more careful with such a thing of great value. To say the least I could have suffered loss that day, and it would have been my own fault because I was not keeping the lens in the safest place.

I would like to take that little life experience of mine, and bring it over into what I am sharing with you today. Many times we hear God’s Word, and we know in our hearts that it is needful for our growth, yet we are not careful to respect it enough to first of all receive as ours to grow by. We can go to church, and hear the Word, and walk away exclaiming what a good Word it was yet not take hold of it as our very own and hide it within us. In Psalm 119:11 it says:

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee.”

Another translation says that “I have laid up your Word…” The Hebrew translation of the the word hid is to reserve or protect. We need to understand that reading our Bibles or going to church is a good thing, and it is needful but it is vitally important that we are acting on what we do with the Word that we read or hear. You see when we hide God’s Word in us, and meditate upon it that Word becomes part of us, and it rises up within us in those times that our minds and thoughts are screaming at us to give up.

Proverbs 4:23
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for
out of it are the issues of life.”

Another translation of the the word hide in Psalm 119:11 is to hoard. That word could give you a bad picture in light of a certain TV program that strikes some of us as terrible and unbelievable. Yet when I think of that word in light of God’s Word I think of the individual that refuses to let go of anything they have received while hearing God’s Word. They take it all in, and they are determine that there is a place for it, and it will be used some day. Meantime, it grows deeper and stronger within the heart that hoards His Word. You see in this life, and all the circumstances it presents brings us need of God’s life giving promises. Today I encourage you to be diligent to hide His Word deep within your heart,and protect it diligently.

“Give To Others”

Posted on May 7, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

God is so good to us. Day after day we rise and He faithfully meets us as we look to Him. We enjoy
all of His benefits and we must never forget one of them. We should have a renewed appreciation of all that He has done for He has done great things!

Today I want you to think about the many times that He has been there for you since you have met Him. Think about the times that you have sinned in your heart yet you turned your heart to Him and repented and He forgave you once again. Oh that we should praise Him for His endless mercies and lovingkindness toward us. As we draw upon His mercy, love and all the wonderful things that He has blessed us with, we must be mindful to share it with others. So how do we do this? I want you to look at Colossians 3:12 with me:

“Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked
representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God
Himself, by putting on behavior marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy,
kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience
[which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever
comes, with good temper].” (Amplified)

It can be easy to be so caught up in our outward appearance yet how much more should we be sure to be clothing our inner man appropriately with the beauty of our Lord. As we are diligent to clothe ourselves by putting on behavior that is marked by being tenderhearted and merciful, people will surely see us as a light in this world. We need to also be thinking about how we can live our lives prepared in our hearts and ready to help someone that may need God’s love, a word spoken in season, a listening ear,etc… Today I want to encourage your heart to give to others that which the Lord has so graciously given to you.

As we have experienced God giving us answers to our prayers, and comfort in our time of need we need to to equip ourselves to be ready and share that same comfort and love with those in need. God does not bless us with all these wonderful and bountiful blessings for us to just talk about and keep to ourselves. He desires we pass them on and be a living testimony of His goodness! The following scripture that I am sharing is addressing the giving of comfort to someone in need. We need to be ready to bless those in need with the same comfort that we have been blessed with.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (VOICE)
“All praise goes to God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He is
the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort. He consoles us as we
endure the pain and hardship of life so that we may draw from His comfort
and share it with others in their own struggles.”

What an instrument of God we can be as we lovingly share the life giving testimonies of our life with those that may be walking through a similar experience and has need of an answer. As you share what God has done for your life, it will be a testimony of His love. I encourage you today to pray for opportunities to be used as a vessel of giving His life, love and comfort to those around you. He watches for those that are willing and ready to be used.

“Looking For and Seeing…”

Posted on May 6, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

I would like to share my heart with you today as to how I was so blessed yesterday. I was fortunate to be delightfully blessed to see and overhear a conversation that was a much needed blessing for me. You see, I left my home yesterday very saddened in my heart. Before I turned the news off, I saw once again the video that has gone viral, and is trending in our Nation. In the video you see a young woman jumping up and down of the beautiful American flag making a mockery of it. My heart has been so sickened by this. The three times that I have seen this, it was followed with interviews of young men that served our country for our freedom. To see them share their heart about it is so touching.

Last week we saw tensions rise as massive violence swept the city of Baltimore. So many senseless things happened. Our policemen are being disrespected, and I think it is terribly wrong, and my heart is grieved for men and women that have committed themselves to protect us, and maintain peace, and this is how they are being viewed and treated. Needless to say, my heart has been very grieved by all this is going on in our world.

The Lord began to speak to my heart yesterday after I left a restaurant with my Granddaughter. He reminded me that there is good around us, and we need to stay focused on what good we can still see. If we choose to focus too much on the ugly, surely we will miss little surprise blessings that I had witnessed in the restaurant.

As I sat in the restaurant, I noticed an elderly gentleman sitting at a booth. He was a very jovial man, and I noticed him enjoying himself as he ate his breakfast. Then I saw another older black man walk by him as he was going to pay his bill. They both exhibited joy as they saw each other. This is thing though…they did NOT know each other. They both had caps on that identified what branch of service they were in as they served our country. The black man said to this elderly white gentleman, “God bless you brother!!!” They shared when and where they served, they teased about how old they were. The one said proudly…”I was born in 1930, you figure out how old I am!!!” As they parted, you could tell they were both lifted up by them meeting each other, and it truly blessed my heart to witness it.

So in the midst of the horrible racial tensions, I saw a very sweet sight between a white man and a black man. They understood what really mattered, and it was not their differences. It was about what they stood for and fought for as young men. After all these years they are still proud of the the fight they fought, and the cause they stood for. I saw the older white gentleman struggling to walk to his car. He had a cane in both of his hands to help him walk. Oh how my appreciation for those that have served once again welled up in my heart. A sweet moment that was a good moment, and the Lord reminded me to to not be consumed with all that is going wrong, and appreciate sweet moments as these.

It got even sweeter…my little Granddaughter climbed into her car seat and said, “Wait Grandma, I must buckle my seat belt because I must be obedient to the policemen.” So from the heart of a three year old I heard respect and a desire to obey her authorities. A few words from a little one can bless your heart if you keep your ears open to listen. I encourage you today to look for good and sweet things around you. Look for those things to set your heart upon, and be blessed!

“Looking For and Seeing…”

Posted on May 6, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

As I sat in the restaurant, I noticed an elderly gentleman sitting at a booth. He was a very jovial man, and I noticed him enjoying himself as he ate his breakfast. Then I saw an older black man walk by him as he was going to pay his bill. They both exhibited joy as they saw each other. This is thing though…they did NOT know each other. They both had caps on that identified what branch of service they were in as they served our country. The black man said to this elderly white gentleman, “God bless you brother!!!” They shared when and where they served, they teased about how old they were. The one said proudly…”I was born in 1930, you figure out how old I am!!!” As they parted, you could tell they were both lifted up by them meeting each other, and it truly blessed my heart to witness it.

So in the midst of the horrible racial tensions, I saw a very sweet sight between a white man and a black man. They understood what really mattered, and it was not their differences. It was about what they stood for together. I saw the older white gentleman struggling to walk to his car. He had a cane in both of his hands to help him walk. Oh how my appreciation for those that have served once again welled up in my heart. A sweet moment that was a good moment, and the Lord reminded me to to not be consumed with all that is going wrong, and appreciate sweet moments as these.

It got even sweeter…my little Granddaughter climbed into her car seat and said, “Wait Grandma, I must buckle my seat belt because I must be obedient to the policemen.” So from the heart of a three year old I heard respect and a desire to obey her authorities. I encourage you today to look for good and sweet things around you. Look for those things to set your heart upon, and be blessed!

“God Our Integrity”

Posted on May 5, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Today we will meditate upon how our integrity which comes from following the Lord will guide us. First I would love for you to read this short quote as we think about our Lord guiding us in the ways and path of integrity.

“God shall be my hope, My stay, my guide and lantern to my feet.”

William Shakespeare

If God is our hope, He is always ahead of us. No matter what is going on wrong or if discouragement seems to be bringing us down, may we look to Him as our hope for tomorrow. If He is our stay, He is always all that we need in the present. He shall be the loving Anchor of our soul, and we shall not be moved. If He is our guide, He is all that we need while we are moving and if He is our lantern to our feet we will be moving in His divine direction. It is so vital that we look to the Lord in all things that pertain to life and godliness. Even the smallest of things matter to Him. Many times people go about their lives from day to day and do not consult the Lord on the simple matters. I believe the sooner we exercise the habit of looking to Him for guidance in as much as possible, our life will flow in such a greater way.

As we practice living, breathing and moving by the Spirit of the Living God we will be a people of integrity. Because integrity becomes our desire, every breath we take, and all we do will be to glorify Him and only Him. From the depths of our being there will just be a natural desire to please Him and do the right thing. Oh the beauty of walking in the integrity of our God!

I am going to share two versions of scripture from Proverbs 11:3:

New Life Version
“The honor of good people will lead them, but those who hurt others will be
destroyed by their own false ways.”

Amplified Bible
” The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the willful contrariness and
crookedness of the treacherous shall destroy them.”

We thank you Lord that Your integrity shall guide us, and that integrity will also draw people to You! We praise You for being our Hope, our Stay, and the Lantern to our feet that we may exhibit integrity in our lives.

“Rooted Deep In Him”

Posted on May 4, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Colossians 2:7 ” Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in
Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming
increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were
taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.”

This scripture gives us such a picture of how our spiritual strength should be. I think of my garden as I read this. I just love my garden each summer and I look forward to planting soon and tending it. Each flower planted will be different in its own unique way. One will love sun all day and one may want shade only. When planting I will take extra care where to place each one so it will thrive and grow to its potential. I can remember a time of noticing one of my Gerber daisies just totally wilted so I gave it a bit more water than the others and it was all perked up and beautiful again. It reminds me of the importance of watching over my heart in a diligent manner. When we see there is an area of weakness, we need to be quick to give it the attention it needs, and seek God’s help on what to do.

Many times the fruit of our life is flourishing, but the devil is seeking ways to choke out that work in us. Let us look at how weeds try to take over our beautiful flower gardens. It seems like it is a constant fight against them. Did you ever notice how they seem to thrive no matter what water or light they get. They need no attention and if let go, they will kill the beauty of a garden. The Word of God speaks and tells us to guard our hearts with all diligence. Our enemy would love to sneak in random “weed seeds” to keep the gardens of our hearts from flourishing. Weed seeds such as worry, lack of peace, gossip, critical attitudes, etc… May we never excuse ourselves from thinking it is okay to play around with these things for it truly is the little foxes that spoil the vines of our hearts.

We must seek to know Christ more and more each day that our spiritual roots grow deeper and deeper. We want our lives to be beautiful for Him so our spiritual “root system” is important to watch over. As we submit to the Lord and the counsel of His Word we will continue to become steadfast and unmovable. When the “weeds” of this world try to come in and choke the life out of us, there must be diligence on our part to rip them out and be watchful that they do not come back. Let us look at Psalm 1:1- I love how this portion of scripture so beautifully depicts the one that lives a guarded life before the Lord. He who is diligent over his soul will be like a strong tree with strong roots and he will not
be moved.

Psalm 1:1-3
1 “Happy is the man who does not walk in the way sinful men tell him to, or
stand in the path of sinners, or sit with those who laugh at the truth.2 But he
finds joy in the Law of the Lord and thinks about His Law day and night. 3 This
man is like a tree planted by rivers of water, which gives its fruit at the right time
and its leaf never dries up. Whatever he does will work out well for him.”

Oh how wonderful to think of our lives being as vibrant healthy trees planted by cool streams of water with fruit that ripens and God uses our fruit to reach those around us. Remember…as we humbly submit ourselves to Him, He is growing fruit in us, but it is in His timing.

Don’t be impatient with yourself. As you are obedient to Him, He is faithful and He will complete His work in You. It is as we remain steadfast and diligent that we can know that all that we put our hand to will prosper and we will bear fruit that will remain.

“…and He Will Cause You To Rest”

Posted on May 3, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

Matthew 11:28-29 (AMP) “

Come to Me, all you who labor and
are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. I will ease and
relieve and refresh your souls. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I
am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest relief and
ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.”

I love the word ~ cause ~ in this scripture. Cause defined is when something is brought about. Today can we meditate upon the fact that the Lord desires to bring about rest to our souls. This scripture tells us how Jesus understood the nature of man and man’s temptation to do more than what he was created for. I think the biggest mistake we can make is to rely on our own ability and strength to accomplish things.

In verse twenty eight Jesus was giving an invitation to the overburdened and weary.He speaks of relieving and refreshing our souls if only we go to Him, and lay our burdens down. It reminds me
of Psalm twenty three where the psalmist said in the very beginning “He makes me to lay down in green pastures” and “He leads me beside the still waters.” The first step in the right direction when weariness hits our soul is to to go to Him. Yes, simply GO to Him. Do not turn to your own means of rest and peace. Jesus proceeds to tell us to take His yoke.

Farmers used to yoke the young ox with the old experienced ox to train them. The old ox will take the major load, and the young one would walk along and learn from him. If you read this verses in light of this, it brings so much light to the scripture. As we walk along side of Jesus, and learn of Him, things will go so much better for us. I think it is important to note that Jesus made a point to say immediately that He was gentle (meek) and humble(lowly) in heart. The opposite of these two things is the pride of man. So many times we resist God in some areas, and attempt to do things our way. We can not claim to have Jesus walking along side of us, and insist on doing things our way, and in our own ability.

Jesus wants us to truly submit to His way and His Word. Jesus set us free from the bondages of this world. If you are under the yoke of sin, guilt, failures, anxieties or worry you need to consider humbly giving your burden to Him. Jesus has set us free from that weight that we are trying to carry. Walk with Him today. I encourage you to ask yourself if you are carrying anything in your life that has become a burden. If you are, please consider the words of this devotional and humbly lay your burdens at His feet.

“He Is Able”

Posted on May 2, 2015 in Devotions |

by Dona Hake

I would like to continue with sharing about the precious peace of our Lord. It is so wonderful that we can be saturated, permeated, and filled to the full with God’s peace. I find it interesting that the Lord has so many blessings that can surpass our understanding. In other words they can not be figured out. With faith He wants us to just believe and not be moved by what we see nor should we be moved by what we do not see. It always comes back to the fact that we have to keep our mind, will and emotions out of the picture. We need to keep all of our being submitted to Him and continue to
allow Him to transform us.

Today I want to share about Him straightening your paths. Many times in our lives we may encounter feeling like we do not know what direction to go or we feeling like we are on a crooked and bumpy road. You may feel you are in a place that you have never been before and it could potentially bring apprehension or fear to your heart, which in turn could rob us of our peace.

My GPS has always taught me little analogies of trusting in God especially when I feel like I am clueless about what to do in a situation. I can remember once that my GPS took me totally off course from a very busy, high traffic means of travel to a beautiful and scenic way. I had absolutely no clue where I was yet I totally trusted that the GPS was keeping me on course…it was just a different course.

Because this device has shown me it is faithful and accurate, I just sat back and enjoyed the journey to my destination.

As I was pondering this devotion and the following scripture I began to think how many times in life we just do not know nor do we understand what we are to do and we just need to simply trust Him and keep our mind, our smarts, and our opinion out of the equation.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ” Trust in the Lord with all your
heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him, And He will make your paths straight.”

I encourage you today to trust Him with all of your heart. One way that we can rest and trust is to stop over thinking how we feel God is going to work. Allow Him to take us places in the Spirit that we have never been before and enjoy the journey. Many times He takes us places just so He can show more of Himself to us. He wants to surprise us with so many things as we just let go and believe Him to make our paths straight.