I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
God’s promises always amaze me, but none more so than those I read in my devotional this morning.
My hope is in God, so I am blessed. He is the Maker of heaven and earth and all that in is them. And, best of all, the promise is that He remains faithful forever. Not just for today when things may be difficult. God is there for the good times, the bad times, all the times.
And in case I am wondering how I will get safely from point A to point B, God graciously reassures me that He takes me by the hand and tells me not to be afraid. Just as I hold the children under my care and cuddle them and tell them that it will be alright. God does the same for me. It’s up to me to listen. God is there and promises His help.
God’s Word is always lighting up my path and He always seems to know when I need a brighter light shone or when I need to see something new that I haven’t noticed before. I pray for each of you to find the help and hope that you need in the Lord God, the Maker of Heaven and earth, and the Creator of YOU!
May God bless you with a new revelation from His Word today!
I have heard this short phrase most of my Christian life (over five decades), but it has only become more real to me recently as I have pondered what it really means to live for Christ. Does it mean that I cease to exist and that all that matters to me is no longer important? God is slowly revealing to me that He wants all of me dedicated to Him but He does not want me to be a Christ-figure. He wants me to be walking around, doing what I do and be Christlike in my attitude, words and choices. Christ died for me, so the least that I can do is live for Him.
In other words, I should not be making choices to gain something for me, but to expand the Kingdom of God. My own happiness matters to God so I need to let go of trying to make myself happy and start trying to do and say what would please the Lord and lead others to Him so that they can find true fulfillment in a relationship with Him. It’s frustrating being around people who don’t serve or worship God. Imagine how difficult it must be for God, our Creator, to constantly deal with people who refuse to acknowledge Him in spite of all of His blessings to them! I don’t lose anything by serving and living for Christ, but I lose everything if I just choose to live for myself.
I don’t know if I want length added to my years or not unless it is for God’s benefit. I just want to do what pleases Him and to stay here on earth for as long as he wants me to. Sometimes, I get weary…bone-weary, spiritually exhausted. Then God tells me to get up and keep going because He isn’t finished with me yet. If I am living for Christ, I need to be willing to keep on keeping on until God tells me that my race is done.
This is a prayer I say often and not just as a thing to say to appease God. I say it because I truly want to please the Lord. He is all to me, my reason for being, so I want my life to reflect His. My prayer for you is that you will grasp hold of the concept of living for Christ and know that it means turning over your words and your heart to Him completely. He is worthy and capable of giving you the words to speak and a changed heart to show others.
May your day be filled with the wisdom that comes only from the Father, the joy and comfort from the Holy Spirit and the compassion and love of the Son.
I have been working on being content in my life, with the things I have, the people who are around me, with life in general. Today’s Scripture in my devotional brought to mind the old fairy tale about “The Three Bears.” I’m sure that you remember it. Goldilocks kept trying out things and finally found what was just right. I think it’s an analogy for my life sometimes. I kept trying one thing after another, seeking happiness in things, and then I found the real secret. What God has already given me is “just right.” I may not have a big home, but it’s big enough. I may not have a fancy car, but it’s good enough. And I certainly don’t have a gorgeous body, but it’s good enough. I want to be pleasing to God, not to man and the constant quest of mankind for more things, more toys, more to show off to the world. I want to be content and know that what I have is enough and it’s just right for me.
May your day be blessed with contentment, knowing that your possessions and everything about you is “just right” because it is your inheritance from the God who loves you!
I am and always have been a person who seeks the approval of others. I want people to like me, to appreciate what I have done and to notice that I am helping. I don’t think that I am alone in this desire, but I do know that this need to work towards acceptance isn’t necessary with my relationship with God.
I have read these verses, memorized them, taken notes from numerous sermons about them. But they are now settling into my heart. I spent years trying to please my mother, but there was nothing I could do to make her happy with me. I just was never good enough. I had straight A’s on my report card, but my mom brought up the fact that I had gotten a C on a test recently. I was just not good enough. I knew from a young age that my mother cried when she had me, stated repeatedly that she never wanted me and even refused to name me. (My dad names me, ironically, for my mother.) In spite of a less than welcoming childhood and all kinds of physical problems, I grew and matured and at the age of twenty-one, I became a Christian. I didn’t have to do anything special for God to love me. I just had to be me…a sinner saved by grace. There was and is absolutely nothing I can do to make myself more acceptable to God. He loves me just the way I am. That has been a freeing truth in my life. I still like to please people, but if I don’t, I’m not totally devastated. I just keep trying to please God instead by serving others. Not because He requires it, but because He doesn’t require anything of me except for me to believe and accept Him as my Lord and Savior. I have been changed from the inside out and it’s freeing to know that I can’t earn grace!
May you, too, find the freedom that comes only from accepting God’s free gift of salvation. And may your day be blessed with finding others to tell about His love, mercy and grace!
I don’t know if I am the only one, but I admit that I am having difficulty talking to people about the Lord these days. It’s not because I’m not talking, but it seems to be that they are turning a deaf ear to whatever I am saying. I feel like the problem lies not in my speech or in their hearing but in their hearts. People just want to sin, believing either that there is no such thing as judgment or believing that they still have time to change should they want to or believing that they are just fine as they are. Of course, there is scripture about this condition of the heart.
God knew when He sent Moses and Aaron to talk to Pharaoh that he would not listen. Yet, God offered the truth to him anyway, and a chance to change along with it. But Pharaoh continued to harden his heart even to the end and his ultimate destruction. I am convinced that there are people today who won’t listen to anyone God sends to them because they have hard hearts. They are determined to go to eternity without God and I am afraid that God will allow them to perish in their sins because they refuse to acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior. I cannot change other people’s free choices, but I can and will continue to testify about God’s power, greatness and gift of salvation. It is up to the individuals whether they choose to listen and change or not. I can only do what God has told me to do and then leave the decisions up to the person, praying that God will soften their hearts to really hear and accept the truth.
May you never give up telling the truth and may God bless you with fruitfulness, listening ears and a soft heart in each one you speak with. Have a blessed day!
Many today are concerned about leaving an inheritance for their children and grandchildren. My husband and I have never had a lot, but we have had enough. Unfortunately, our children will not be rich when we die, but we hope to leave them riches that cannot be counted. The inheritance we hope to leave is that we pray that the lives that they continue to lead after we leave this earth will be one that is filled with the Word of God, His Spirit, His truth, His peace and His mercy and grace. We are counting on the promise that when we train children in the way that they should go, as they age, the knowledge of God will come back to them. Of course, they still have a free will, but I am believing that the inheritance that I leave behind will be one of eternal value.
May you wisely spend your time, money and effort where it really counts, on winning the souls of your loved one to the Lord. Earthly wealth soon disappears but the knowledge of God is forever. Have a blessed day!
I have discovered through experience that this world is filled with liars. Many lie to save face. Others lie to make themselves appear better than they are. And some lie deliberately to deceive others for personal gain. So, how are we to discern who is telling the truth? God has the answer to our dilemma.
When Jesus ascended to the Father in Heaven, He left behind the promise of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2 (I encourage you to read this first encounter of a multitude of people with the Holy Spirit of God), the Holy Spirit is poured out, revealed, if you will, to a great crowd of people. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and He is the One who leads us into truth. He helps us discern the truth of God’s Word and when others are lying about God and what His Word says, interpreting for their own benefit or gain. He is God, just as the Father is God and the Son is God, and He cannot and will not lie. Thus, He is totally dependable as a truth teller and is available to all who seek the truth. Many want to have their “ears tickled” and don’t want to know the truth, but for those of us who desire to know what God is saying to us today, the Holy Spirit is our conduit of communication that speaks clearly the words from the Father and opens our hearts and minds to understand.
May your hearts and minds be watchful for the truth that the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to you. And may you, in turn, share that truth with others who are ready and waiting to hear it. Have a blessed day, my friends!
I have heard a great deal about a production called “The Chosen.” I haven’t seen it because we just recently got streaming services, but I do plan to do so someday. Supposedly, it is Biblically accurate, but I would like to check that out for myself.
In the meantime, I am one of “the chosen” of God. He chose me and then gave me a job to do for Him.
God chose me not so that I could sit around and bask in His glory or sit idly by while others do not know the truth about His Word and His way to salvation. He chose me and then He sent me to bear fruit. I think that my bearing fruit for the Lord goes hand in hand with my asking God for answers to prayers and He answers them. If my prayers are according to His will, which all has to do with leading others to Christ, then I can expect that God will answer. Maybe not the way I want or when I want, but He always answers. The fruit that we bear for Him remains eternally, just as we have eternal life with Him.
Have a blessed day and may you feel the call of being chosen to serve and lead others to the fruitful life of eternity with God.
In general, I have found that people are discontent with what they have, where they are living and how much they have accomplished. God has been speaking to me lately about being content and not always striving for more. After all, as He has told me repeatedly, “The only things that matter are the legacies of faith that you leave behind you.” I used to really want a nice home where I could make memories with our children. After twenty plus military moves, I felt that I somehow deserved a place to settle that was ours. When we bought our house in Pennsylvania, I was absolutely thrilled to have a home to call our own, one in which I could hang pictures, set the heat to the temperature I chose and even plant flowers if I wanted. Alas! We were only there for four years while I fruitlessly searched for a teaching job in the state that refused to hire me because I was too expensive for them. (I had experience and a master’s degree.) So, we moved to Maryland, spent a year in a rented apartment and then bought a modular home which is all that we could afford in the expensive economy there. In fact, when we chose to move to Virginia, we took that home with us, bought four acres of land and have settled into that as our new dwelling. No memories of children growing up there because they were mostly all grown when we moved there. But God is not calling me to reminisce bitterly about the past and dreams that didn’t unfold the way that I expected. He wants me to be content with what He has provided.
I have always had enough, maybe not all I wanted, but enough and I am delighted to say that I can truly bless the Lord for His provision. Moving to Virginia has been good for us in many ways. Our home isn’t all we want but it is all we need and that’s enough.
It is always a good time to praise the Lord and to let others know about how faithful He is on a daily basis. He has walked with me for over five decades, talked with me, cajoled me into taking steps into the unknown with a little faith and been with me through it all. He is a good God and He has been devoted to me even when I was whining about my circumstances.
May your day be blessed with reminders of His constant love and faithfulness to you.
It’s easy to be kind to people who are kind to us, but it’s a challenge sometimes to be kind to those who don’t treat us so well. But God’s Word tells us to treat all kindly and, more importantly, to forgive each other JUST AS Christ forgave each of us. It’s also easy to hold a grudge and then justify it because the other person’s actions were reprehensible. Fortunately, Jesus does not hold grudges, and we are to follow His example. “Just as” means in the exact same way as Jesus did. He even asked God to forgive His tormentors, even as He was undergoing excruciating torment on the cross. I have never been lead to a cross and nailed there, but Jesus was, for me and for you. If He can forgive in those circumstances, I am certain that I should be able to forgive the petty things that others do to irritate me. Even the things that I give great weight to and decide that I am justified in not forgiving, God tells me that I’m to forgive all because that is what Jesus did.
In another version, the “make every effort” is translated as “pursue.” In my youth, I pursued good grades, making every effort to get straight A’s on every report card. I was single-minded and totally focused on that goal. God exhorts us to make that kind of effort in living in peace with everyone. We are to show that we are holy, that is “set apart”, from what the world is doing and how they behave. Those who are pursuing peace should definitely be seen as different in this world of cultural wars.
Have a blessed day and remember to forgive “just as” Jesus did and to pursue peace with all. Your life will be better for it!
