Mike Cowart Ministries

10/23/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Psa. 30: 5 ...Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning… David learned a powerful life lesson, and that is: no matter what took you into the night joy would be waiting on you in the morning. Joy comes in the morning. When you wake up each morning, God sends you a special delivery of joy. It comes knocking at your door. No matter what lead you into the night. Trials, sorry, attacks from the enemy, God’s joy will be waiting on you in the morning. When morning comes and you get up in faith and make the declaration that “this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it,” do you know what you just did? You just answered the door. You just received the gift of joy that God sent to you. The problem is that some people never answer the door. Joy has been knocking for months and months, years and years saying, “Come on! Let me in! You can be happy! You can cheer up! You can enjoy your life!” Why don’t you make up your mind to answer the door for joy! Decide to wake up every morning and say, “Father, thank You for another beautiful day. I’m going to enjoy this day. I am choosing to answer the door and receive Your gift of joy, today!”

10/22/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Pr. 12:18 Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing… According to Solomon, reckless words pe*****te like a sword to the heart of those spoken to. Reckless words have the ability to infiltrate even breach into the inner man. Reckless words are thoughtless or hasty words. Words that are marked by a lack of thought. We may have not even meant them, they may have been a slip of the tong. And yet they become some of our most powerful words. Just as the word of God is sharp and a double edge sword (Heb. 4:12), so are our words. Your words can bring healing rather than harm, but only if they are wise words. Words that have been chosen before they were used. Today, choose your words wisely. Don’t allow your tong to speak unless your mind has been put in gear. Think before you speak.

10/21/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Romans 15:13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit… Everyone likes to feel secure. People look for security in their finances, their job, their family, their appearance, their talents, their health, and more. But every single one of those things can be taken away. And they know that—so they’re constantly feeling insecure. For genuine security in life, you have to put your trust in something that can’t be taken away from you: your relationship with God. The apostle Paul knew that was true. He had many earthly securities taken away from him and still he said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” (Philippians 4:13). If you’ve spent your life trying to build security through things that aren’t reliable, it’s time to replace those efforts with the truth of God’s Word. It’s time to fill your mind with what God says about you in the Living Bible paraphrase: “Once you were less than nothing; now you are God’s own” (1 Peter 2:10). To truly live with security and confidence, you need to make Jesus Christ the most important person in your life. He says that you are acceptable and valuable and lovable and forgivable and capable. Because of God’s grace, you are capable to carry out the good plans God has for you.

10/20/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Philippians 2:14,15 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure… Fretting and fighting over the small stuff will always cause you to lose your happiness. This is a hard habit to break because people are negative by nature and conditioned by culture. Ever since Adam and Eve, we have been going around excusing and accusing. We excuse ourselves for the mistakes we make, and we also accuse everybody else for our mistakes. We tell ourselves things like, If I just had a different job, then I’d be happy. If I had just never gotten married, then I’d be happy. If I just had children, then I’d be happy. On and on we come up with “when and then” thinking—when this happens, then I’ll be happy. But you are as happy as you choose to be! You can’t blame anybody else for your unhappiness because happiness is a choice. You have to stop excusing and accusing; you have to stop fretting and fighting over the small stuff. Today’s scripture may be some of the most difficult verses in the Bible. But the scariest verse in the Bible to me is Matthew 12:36, where Jesus says, “And I tell you that on the Judgment Day people will be responsible for every careless thing they have said.” That ought to send shivers up your spine. How many times have you complained, grumbled, or argued about something when you shouldn’t have been sweating the small stuff? The first law of life is this: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Law number two is this: It’s almost all small stuff! Paul said, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Gratitude is the healthiest attitude. What do you have to be thankful for? Remember, no matter what is going on in your life, God is always with you, God is always in you, and God is always for you. That’s cause for gratitude, not grumbling.

10/19/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Matt. 5:7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy… I have come to a place in life and decided that if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on the side of being too gracious, too merciful, and too forgiving. Why? Because Jesus did all those things perfectly for me and you on the cross. This means I have to be patient with people’s little quirks. We all have them, you know. I believe our quirks are little peculiarities God defined each of us with. They give us personal identity. Too often I have misjudged or been critical of others because of their quirks. If I’m going to be merciful to others the way God has been merciful to me, then I need to be patient with them the way God has been patient with me. This also means giving people a second chance. And a third, and a fourth, and a… well, you get the idea. One more thing: mercy is being kind to those who have offended you. That is probably the hardest one. To do that, I have only to think of how I have offended God and remember His mercy toward me. It then becomes a lot easier. I also have a selfish motive to show mercy. God blesses those who are merciful. I love it when God blesses me.

10/18/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Mark 4:39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm… What do you do when the storms of life seem to be raging against you? Do what Jesus did. First he rebuked the winds. To rebuke is to tell someone off. In other words he said, “What do you think you are doing?” The winds were causing the waves that were rocking the boat. They were making trouble for the sea. Second: Jesus spoke to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” And the seas were calm again. He told the waves to stop reacting to the wind! Rebuke whatever is causing you trouble and then tell your life to stop reacting to the troublemaker. Like the disciples, people around you will be amazed when they see you at peace when others are afraid.

10/16/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Mark 12: 29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”… This scripture tells me that God’s Greatest Desire is That We Love Him and Love Those Around Us. While the rest of the world is focused on climbing the corporate ladder, God wants his children to focus on pleasing him. Our lives are measured by how we love God and others — not by how high we can climb. The object of life, according to Jesus, is breathtakingly simple: Love God and love others. Jesus expressed greatness in two great commandments, each built around a single word: Love. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, he said. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do you give God the attention that he deserves? If you love him unconditionally, not only will you grow in giving him the adoration he deserves, but your affection for others will grow as well.

10/15/2026

Mike’s morning Manna Hab. 3:17,18 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior… I’m not sure if it is age or the ability to look back and learn or maybe the older I become the easier it is to grasp wisdom. When I look back on my life, I see that the Lord had a unique plan for my life, one that did not change according to unexpected circumstances. I am encouraged to tell you; it is the same for you. When you confront a situation that does not line up with your understanding of how God wants your life to proceed, you must stop and look to Him for direction. Sometimes He allows disappointments to occur so you will learn to rely on Him more fully, to walk by faith and not by sight. Sometimes, people and difficulties are the hammer and chisel God uses to shape our lives. But never forget this: While disappointments are inevitable, discouragement is a choice. You should never allow the challenges that arise to steal your zeal or confidence in Him. In the daily disappointments that threaten to consume your emotional resources and deflect your attention away from the Lord, you have real hope and a real choice for joy and abundant living in Christ. Circumstances don’t control you; Jesus does. You never have to be the victim of your feelings. You can choose to look to God, listen, learn, and move ahead. As you do, the wounded, sad places in your heart and the scars of old disappointments will melt away in God’s restoring love. God does have blessings for you—more than you can imagine. Let go of disappointments and the fear of hoping and trusting again. God holds your future in His hands, and you will never lose by looking forward to what He has in store. Disappointments are inevitable, discouragement is a choice… yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

10/14/2026

Mike’s Morning Manna Psalm 119: 96 Nothing is perfect except God's word." (TLB)… Do you know you don't have to be perfect for God to love you? Put that on your refrigerator door. Grace is the only antidote for perfectionists. God understands you completely. He's fully aware of your humanity. He knows your faults, your fears, your foibles, your failures and frustrations, and all those things. He knows you. He doesn't expect you to be Superman. He's like a father. "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” When your children were learning to walk, and they would stumble, you didn’t say to them… "What are you doing stumbling? Get up. Can you do better than that?" Of course you didn’t! And yet you think that's how God treats you. You think that every time you stumble, God says, "Get up! What are you doing, you dummy!" There is nothing that you will ever do that will make God love you more than he does right now. There is nothing that you will ever do that will make God love you less than he does right now. His love is unconditional. It's not based on what you do or don't do. Nothing is perfect except God's word. So relax in God's Grace.

10/14/2026