Joshua Kennedy's Weekly Devotion

  🔥 When God Isn’t First, Everything Falls Out of Place. The people of Judah returned from exile with one mission: rebuild the Temple—the visible sign of God’s presence among them. But after a few years of opposition and discouragement, they stopped. Life went on, houses were built, businesses grew—but God’s house remained in ruins. Then came the word of the Lord through Haggai: “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” — Haggai 1:4 They hadn’t rejected God—they had just replaced Him. Comfort took priority over calling. Delay became disobedience. And that’s how spiritual drift works. We don’t usually walk away from God—we get too busy to walk with Him. ⚖️ Misplaced Priorities Bring Empty Results “You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough… You earn wages to put into a bag with holes.” — Haggai 1:6 God told His people to “consider your ways.” Their lives were full of effort but empty of fruit. They...

Radical Renewal: When God Makes All Things New Zephaniah 3:9–20 Every great move of God in Scripture begins with a divine upheaval. Before God renews, He reveals. Before He restores, He exposes. And before He sings over His people, He silences every idol. That’s the journey we watch unfold in the book of Zephaniah — a fiery prophecy that begins with warnings but ends with worship, begins with judgment but culminates with joy. And at the center of its final chapter is a promise every believer needs in this hour: God is not only the Judge who confronts your sin… He is the Redeemer who restores your soul. This is the heartbeat of Radical Renewal . The God Who Hides His Own Zephaniah’s very name means “The Lord has hidden.” That’s more than trivia — it’s theology. It reminds us of a spiritual truth: Those who are in Christ are hidden from God’s wrath and covered by His mercy. Zephaniah ministered during the reforms of King Josiah. Josiah tore down idols from the streets; Zephan...

  “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” — Habakkuk 3:18 I. Introduction: The Power of a “Yet” Praise The name Habakkuk means “embrace.” It signified his prophetic calling to draw people to be embraced by God in the midst of difficult times. Habakkuk begins in complaint, wrestles with God in confusion, but ends in worship. His story is a radical transformation from worry to worship, from fear to faith, from collapse to confidence. When life doesn’t make sense — when what you see doesn’t match what God said — radical rejoicing is the faith response that shifts atmospheres. “Rejoicing in the Lord is not denial of pain; it’s a declaration of dominion.” II. The Setting of Radical Rejoicing (Habakkuk 3:1–2) The first two chapters capture a prophet in tension — Habakkuk wrestles with God, questioning His methods and struggling to reconcile divine justice with human suffering. He acknowledges the sin and spiritual decline of Israel, yet he cannot ...

  Radical Restoration: How God Makes All Things New. When God steps into our story, He doesn’t simply repair what’s broken—He recreates it. True restoration isn’t a return to what was; it’s the beginning of something brand new. God doesn’t rewind—He rewrites. A New Kind of Restoration. We all carry things from our past—pain, disappointment, fear—that try to poison the present. But through Christ, we are made new . Isaiah 43:18–19 reminds us to “forget the former things” so we can see the new thing God is doing. When we stop clinging to the past, we finally make room for His healing to take root. The Message of Micah. The prophet Micah understood the tension between judgment and hope. His words reveal God’s heart to tear down what is false so He can rebuild what is true. Micah’s message points us to the coming Messiah—our Good Shepherd , who leads not by force, but with love, strength, and peace. When we let Him direct our steps, our once-crooked paths begin to straighten. Th...

  Introduction Habakkuk is unlike any of the other prophets. Instead of delivering God’s word to the people, he gives the people’s pain to God. His name means to embrace or to wrestle — and he does both. He wrestles with God’s plan but refuses to let go of Him. His world was violent, corrupt, and unjust. Sounds familiar. Turn on the news — wars, corruption, racial tension, crime, political games, innocent lives lost, families broken. People are still crying: “God, where are You?” Quote: Augustine – “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” I. The Prophet’s Burden (Habakkuk 1:1) The word “oracle” means burden, something weighty that the prophet could not escape. God often speaks to His people through vision, opening their eyes to see what He sees. His vision is never empty; it carries direction for our steps, plans for our future, and hope in the midst of despair. What God shows you is never random; there is always a message in ...