Daily Devotional by Dino Rizzo
One Prayer Daily Devotional
By Dino Rizzo, Lead Pastor, Healing Place Church
Just Be Nice
Colossians 3:12-14 NLT
Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You must make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony.
Sometimes it can be as simple as just being nice and compassionate. I mean, “real-deal” compassionate. When you think about what happens during the course of a day—the frustrations that pound away at us and the challenges that that come our way in the form of people and pressures—it can be a pretty rough scene at times.
But if we can remember what Paul told the church in this passage, that we should be wrapped up in mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience—wow! What a different picture life can become. Rather than let circumstances dig away at you, just be nice. Remember that people around you, every single one of them, are precious to God. So precious that He is thinking about them at that very moment and is giving you an opportunity to show them His mercy.
Just be nice. It sounds so simple but is actually very powerful, because when a person hurts you, the kindest, and often most difficult, thing you can do for them is forgive them. Forgiveness is also the kindest thing you can do for yourself. It releases you from the hurt and burden of unforgiveness, which no one can bear. When you do that, you are being nice to yourself as well.
So today be generous with your kindness. Be generous with your forgiveness. And be extremely generous with your love—because the more you give these gifts away, the more your capacity for them grows. That, my friend, will be a well-lived life.
As we fast together today, remember it’s not just about denying ourselves food, or caffeine or tv. It’s also about being nice even when it hurts(Isaiah 58). How can you incorporate being nice into your fast today?
HEY PASTOR DINO U R SO FUNNY AND I JUST WANTED TO SAY I WOULD NOT WANT ANY OTHER PASTOR EXCEPT U.I GO TO HEALING PLACE IN BATON ROUGE AND I ALWAYS HOPE THAT U WILL PREACH THAT DAY
FROM JADE
for God to honor all the pray request that was deleted. and for my sister JULIE to be bless with a Godly husband. pray to reveal to my sister bell if her boyfriend is her future husband and for the miracle they are seeking to grant if its Gods will. pray for my sister bell that God may bless her to raise her adoptive children without anxiety and financial problems. and to bless her with a mini van, without putting her into great debts. pray for her son anger management and lying spirit. And for her daughter to be obidient. pray for her sister hernia to be repaired without surgery and her miracle weight lost. Pray for my brother to love his children and be happy and content with God. and for my friend smoke to turn to turn his heart to God. pray for Greg that he may fully turn his heart to God and change his life style and to love his kids. pray for my friend Altoine to turn his heart completely to God and love his daughter with a Godly love. Pray for Luther to resolve his issues with his ex- wife and God may help him with his anger problem, and that he may turn his life over to christ and one day have a relationship with his first born. pray for Anthony to realize he needs God in his life and for him to accept Christ before he dies, and for God to show him how to love and be loved.
and finanaly for God to give me peace in my life and to turn my heart back to him and for me to be a good mom and furture Godly wife.
Straight up. We just got to die to ourselves. Plain and simple.
" It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me".
Its such a hard concept to fathom for we sheep (including myself), but if our life is given over to God, there should be no more of us left. We died, along with all of our passions and desires.
Dino,
Thank you for the encouragement. This is something that I work on everyday. We all have that "one" person that it is sometimes difficult to be nice to. My prayer is that I would not fall into that trap of retalliation and God is merciful to me so I must be merciful to others, including this person. It is a choice to be nice or not to be nice. My prayer is always to live the life that brings Glory to our Father.
Be Blessed!
what is fasting
I live this out daily. Well, let me rephrase that, I try to live this out daily. I find that other peoples' moods affect my day and my constant prayer is to be delivered from negativity and exude kindness and patience. Ironically, I prayed to be released from my darkened heart toward an individually based on a situation that happened the day before and forgave that person and the first thing that happened when I walked in the door in the morning was that they apologized for their behavior. And, although this is a very common situation for me, I pray that the continued growth in my relationship with God will help me be better prepared for these situations and be proactive instead of reactive.
I strive to be a light - to be different; to make a difference!
so good!! Thanks for the reminder...the simplist things are often times the hardest...
I've been thinking about forgiveness a lot lately. I was extremely hurt and betrayed by a circle of
friends almost a year ago. One of them was my best friend. The hurt and pain I felt in this area
was like no other pain I've felt before. I would be lying if I said that it hasn't afftected me in the
area of trust. I later came to the realization that one of these people tried to physcially harm
me at one point.
I had to come to the understanding that the Lord's Prayer is true. We have to forgive
the people that hurt and offend us because God has fogiven us of all of our sins. Every
single last one of them.
I'm still working towards COMPLETE and TOTAL forgiveness for what happened and
trying hard to resist the urge to constantly remind some of these people of how
badly they hurt me. Please pray for me as I work towards a place or total forgiveness.
I also ask for prayer to accept that God has forgiven me for all of my sins. I often am very
hard on myself for my personal sins of the past and am working to come to peace with those
things as well. Thanks and God Bless.
Hey Pastor!
It is so timely that you posted this. I just had to walk this out yesterday. Forgiveness and kindness can be so difficult when you have been hurt by someone but God is true to His word and peace will follow. Thank you for another great message!
Dino:
Thank you so much for that Scripture, and analysis. I agree it sounds like a simple thing, but so many times I just plain forget who I am supposed to be and stumble all over my stupid human self. Which only causes others as much grief as it does me. I hope God will help me to be a nicer person. I believe that niceness breeds niceness. It is hard to be angry or obnoxious to someone who is genuinely happy and free. I am going to work on this some more today, with Gods leading
Best regards
RPW
Dino:
Thank you so much for that Scripture, and analysis. I agree it sounds like a simple thing, but so many times I just plain forget who I am supposed to be and stumble all over my stupid human self. Which only causes others as much grief as it does me. I hope God will help me to be a nicer person. I believe that niceness breeds niceness. It is hard to be angry or obnoxious to someone who is genuinely happy and free. I am going to work on this some more today, with Gods leading
Best regards
RPW
and above all.... LOVE ONE ANOTHER.....
This is to Rebecca. The only way we can bear fruit is by abiding in the vine. The more time we spend in fellowship with the Godhead, the more we take on the image of God and start to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus said without Me you can do nothing. He said abide in Me and I will abide in you. It is that simple. Start your day by seeking HIm first and seek Him thru out the day. That was the example Christ gave us thru His earthy ministry. He would wake early and go get alone with the Father and then He would go minister.
it is so hard not to react in anger! my prayer is that i can be a bearer of the fruit of the spirit and not scream and yell and cuss and burn with anger and rage! how can we stop flarring up? i need advice
OK, so this is the second devotional today that talks about God's mercy towards us & how we should extend it to others & I must admit, I used to be good at it, but now I have fallen away from that practice & it's
obvious that God wants me to get back doing it!! I need accountability in that area, anyone
interested ?:)
So needless to say it was a great devotional & I feel tremdously blessed & also like I just got slaped in the face (in a good sort of way:) for the second time today! Is that what they call
"awakenning?" :)Thank you so very much Pastor Dino for sharing your wisdom with us!!
Dino-saur, I don't know anyone who better exemplifies true compassion than you and the people at Healing Place Church. I have learned so much from you! Thanks for your friendship and example!
This is so true to the heart. Love is the greatest gift. Way better and way more meaningful than any material gift. I pray to love more, and forgive better. I pray we all do.
Great devotional. It's funny how this is the devotional because this has been the very thing i've been working on and also struggling with in my life. God sure knows when I need to pay attention to something.
I'm ready to make that change for the better to be able to love and be nice. Life is too short to dwell on the little frustrations that happen every day. Every time something happens I pray that God fills me with His love so that I am able to show His love through me.
today i met a homeless man and gave him some money. i ended up giving him my phone number and i was told that that wasnt the right thing to do because he could take advantage of me or worse. i was really disturbed by the fact that we are taught to automatically assume that people are out to get us. on the way home i was questioning what is the right thing to do if someone takes advantage of you. then i read this... "when a person hurts you, the kindest... thing you can do for them is forgive them."
"give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you" -matt 5.42
thanks dino ,,,i needed this today..thank you gary
thanks dino,thats deep and powerful
Thanks Dino!
God's timing is remarkable! I have had the opportunity again today to be offended by a coworker who is never a "happy camper". By the grace of God I chose to forgive & pray for her. Every time I would start thinking about it, I would pray for her. God has given me so much mercy that it's only fair to have mercy on others. I have learned that if I pray for that person who offended me every time the thought pops up I fill up with the love of God; for her & for everyone I come into contact with. God is awesome!
This is good application stuff! I so need the message here! I enjoyed the South OKC Campus of Lifechurch.tv wioth my kids but have moved to the Fort Wayne, Indiana area and use the internet to keep up with everyone. I'm so grateful for the Like with the body of Christ there and love the streatching arms of the body of Christ, even to Indiana!
Hey Pastor Dino,
This is a tough challenge. Can't I just read another chapter in my Bible each day? Maybe I could pray for 10 minutes more each day. Or give more or serve more. Be nice? Be generous with my love? Tough stuff... but great stuff!
LifeChurch.tv Oklahoma City Campus
Hey, Dino -- what a great devotional. This passage is such a challenge to me every time I read it. You are right -- it takes us down to those everyday moments when we have the choice to put God first or ourselves first. Thanks for the reminder.
Yet another GREAT reminder that I needed today. I especially loved the quote to "be extremely generous with your love-because the more you give these gifts away, the more your capacity for them grows". I needed to see that and to be reminded that "every single person around me is precious to God". I sometimes get so caught up in my own struggles that I forget that.
Today (what remains of it), I am going to seek out opportunities to encourage and support my husband, to shower my boys with hugs and kisses, and to offer words of encouragement to those I come in contact with. I am going to make a conscious effort to look past things that may "irk" me and to seek out ways to offer a helping hand and encouraging word.
Thank you for this AWESOME reminder!