Devotions with Pastor Stanton

Imagine being invited to the home of a billionaire. He looks at you and says, "I want to give you the keys to my estate, full access to my resources, and a guaranteed inheritance that will secure your family's future for generations." And in response, you look back at him and say, "That’s great. But really, if you could just give me five dollars for a cup of coffee on my way home, we’ll be good."...

Have you ever tried to make a deal with God? You probably didn't call it a negotiation, but it sounded something like this: "Lord, if You just get me out of this financial mess, I promise I'll finally start giving." Or, "God, if You heal this relationship, I'll go to church every Sunday." We often treat our faith like a contract negotiation. We want a guarantee of comfort before we give God our co...

Have you ever gone through a season so difficult that, once it was over, you just wanted to erase it from your memory completely? When we experience pain, discomfort, or failure, our natural human instinct is to run from it, hide it, or throw it away. We want to leave the hardest parts of our story behind us as quickly as possible. But what if the very things that are causing you the most discomfo...

Have you ever found yourself in a season that just feels... completely uncertain? Seasons where your soul feels restless, like you're trying to sleep on a bed of rocks. The hardest part isn't even the discomfort; it’s the spiritual whiplash. You know the promises of God, but your current reality feels like a complete contradiction. You catch yourself asking, "If God is so faithful, why am I here?...

Think about a time you tried to force a heavy door open, throwing all your weight into it, only to realize it was locked from the other side. In the same way, we spend so much energy trying to control our own lives, fighting for control over our families, our careers, and even our futures. We push, we pull, and we scheme. But what happens when our stubborn plans collide head-on with the sovereign...

Have you ever decided to "help God out" because He wasn't moving fast enough for your liking? We all have an instinct to take matters into our own hands. When we want something, even a good, God-ordained something, we often adopt the mindset that the ends justify the means. We bend the truth, we force the issue, or we manipulate the circumstances, all under the guise of securing a blessing. But wh...

We live in a world obsessed with merit. From the classroom grades to the performance reviews at our jobs, to the way we select players for a sports team. Our default operating system is that the best person gets chosen. It makes sense to us. It feels fair. So, because of this, it is incredibly easy to project that same operating system onto God. We secretly assume that God chooses to bless those w...

Have you ever looked around your family, your church, or even your own heart, and wondered: Is things too broken for God to work here? We often carry this quiet assumption that God needs a stable, spiritually impressive environment to accomplish His Sovereign purposes. But what happens when the very people entrusted with God's holy promise are entirely compromised? Today, we are going to look at o...

Have you ever been completely in the right, but found yourself in a bitter conflict anyway? You did the work, you followed the rules, and yet someone else stepped in and claimed the credit or tried to shut you down entirely. Our natural instinct in those moments is to clench our fists. We want to fight for what is rightfully ours. We want to defend our reputation, demand fairness, and force a vict...

When a severe storm comes and you find yourself in danger, what is your first instinct? You run for cover. You immediately look for a shelter to protect yourself. But what happens when the storm isn't weather, but a threat to your security or your reputation? What materials do you use to build a shelter to protect yourself and your image? We often reach for half-truths, manipulation, or compromise...

When hardship hits, it loves to preach. A sudden loss, a difficult diagnosis, or a season of profound waiting, these circumstances climb right into the pulpit of your mind and start telling you who God is. They preach a sermon that says He is distant, uncaring, or slow. And if we aren't careful, we will let our circumstances interpret our God, rather than letting our God interpret our circumstance...

We usually think of fear as a sudden fright, like a a jump scare. But there is another type of calculating fear that I call sinful spiritual fear that is far more dangerous. It’s the quiet panic that sets in when you realize you are losing control of a situation. It’s that slow realization fear that the money is running out, the marriage is growing colder, or the waiting is taking too long. And in...

As a people, we are incredibly prone to trade something of immense, long-term value for an instant gratification. We are experts at this kind of exchange. We sacrifice our long-term health for a quick junk meal, our integrity for a fast track to success, or even our future peace for a temporary thrill. But what happens when those temporary appetites and instant gratifications collide with the holy...

Have you ever tried to "help" God out? We read His promises, we know what He has said, but when things seem to be moving too slowly, or going in a direction we don't quite understand, we panic. We grab the steering wheel. We operate under the exhausting belief that if we don't manage the situation, God's plan will somehow fall apart. We want to orchestrate outcomes, especially when it comes to the...

Think about how the world naturally works. The strongest usually wins. The most talented gets the promotion. The one with the best resume gets the job. We are hard-wired to expect a natural order, a ranking system based on merit, birthright, or sheer strength. But what happens when God's grace enters the picture? Does God play by our rules of who deserves what? Today, we are looking at a divine an...

Have you ever looked around your life, maybe at your family background, your church attendance, or your moral habits, and secretly thought, “This is why God loves me. I’m doing the right things”? It’s a natural human instinct. We want to point to our traditions or our good choices as the reason we possess spiritual life. But what happens when the religious routines feel dry? What happens when you...

Have you ever read a massive, epic novel, only to find that the final chapter feels completely disconnected from the rest of the story? It leaves you frustrated and confused. The Bible is a library of sixty-six books, written by lots of authors over thousands of years, filled with laws, poetry, prophecy, and history. If you read it looking for random pieces of daily advice, it will feel totally di...

Imagine trying to navigate a big city using a map, but instead of actually looking at the street names and landmarks, you just close your eyes, point to a random spot, and start walking. You'd get lost immediately. Yet, this is exactly how many of us approach the Bible. We dive into the middle of a chapter, ignore the context, and expect God to give us a personalized, magical message for our day....

We live in an age of instant experts. If you don't know how to fix a leaky faucet or cook a perfect steak, then a quick internet search will give you a tutorial in seconds. Because of this, we hate admitting when we don't know something, and we fiercely protect our independence. But what happens when we bring that same "I can figure it out myself" attitude to the Bible? When we refuse to ask for d...

Imagine driving down a road. Within just a few miles, you pass three different churches. If you were to walk into each one and ask about major, life-altering issues, things like human sexuality, the sanctity of life, or the nature of salvation, you might get three completely different answers. But here is the crazy part: everyone standing behind those pulpits is holding the exact same Bible. Every...

Imagine you are at the grocery store. Your cart is overflowing, and when the cashier rings it all up, the total is a massive sum you cannot afford to pay. Just then, a generous friend steps in, swipes their card, and covers the entire cost. You are incredibly relieved. But as you walk toward the exit, a security guard steps in front of the doors and demands to see your proof of payment. It wouldn'...

Imagine you are wandering through a blistering desert, desperate for water. After miles of searching, you stumble upon an old stone well. You happen to have a perfectly crafted wooden bucket and a thick, unbreakable rope. With great hope and complete confidence, you lower the bucket down into the darkness. But instead of a splash, you hear a dull, hollow sound. The bucket hits dry dirt. At that mo...

Imagine walking into a courtroom. A witness takes the stand, places their right hand on a Bible, and swears to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now, imagine that witness looking the jury dead in the eye and fabricating a story about an event they never saw. In a court of law, that’s called perjury. It’s a serious crime because lives and destinies hang in the balance of a witness’s t...

In the winter of 1979, an Air New Zealand flight took off toward Antarctica. But the night before, a programmer had adjusted the flight’s navigation coordinates by a mere two degrees. To most of us, a two-degree shift seems completely insignificant. But in aviation, it changes everything. Because of that tiny, unknown shift, the plane missed its safe passage and tore into the side of a massive vol...

Reading an article sent from a friend. Hoping it would encourage you as you bear your own cross for Christ.