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.
There is a lot out of our control, but one thing we can reign in is how we think.
I have been having a tough time here in NC because my sister is angry and frustrated over her condition and I have become an unwilling target for her. As a result, my blood pressure has been climbing. So, today, I’m staying in the back room and thinking good thoughts (as much as I can) and asking for prayer. I can go home early but that would probably enrage her more, so I’m trying to stay calm and prayerful. I wish she knew the Lord but she doesn’t and says she doesn’t believe as I do. It’s all very sad and stressful. Thank you for prayers.
I know with certainty that I have read this verse many times throughout the years. I have sat in classes with Ephesians 6 as it’s focus. But for perhaps the first time, I really noticed a very important word in this verse. Do you see it? The word is “when”. It says WHEN the day of evil comes, not “if” it comes. It seems to be a foregone conclusion that the day of evil is coming, not just a possibility or a probability, but a reality of life.
To some, this might be a “whoa, hold on there, you prophet of doom.” This is not a prophecy about evil coming; I believe instead that it is a prophecy about our being able to stand firmly WHEN it comes. We prepare in advance and then we can stand through anything that the enemy throws at us. We have to always be prepared since we don’t know WHEN the enemy will hurl his fiery darts at us.
Having been a teacher for almost four decades, I know all about preparation and lack thereof. I would spend every Saturday preparing lesson plans for the upcoming week, and most days it took almost the entire Saturday to do them. I had to make sure that I was ready to stand before my classes and teach the subject matter in a way that would make sense to them and so that they could use it to further their knowledge of the Spanish language. Nowadays since I am retired, my preparation is to get ready for the day and I begin each day with a devotional and Bible reading. I like to think that I am preparing myself for WHEN the evil days come, just as I got ready for when the students asked hard questions.
There is no such thing as a sneak attack if you are vigilant and always prepared for whatever may come. Because evil is there, waiting for you to let down your guard. The word is WHEN, not IF!
May your day be blessed with the knowledge that you are fully prepared to face whatever happens because you started the day putting on the full armor of God!
Are you a morning lark or a night owl? I have always been a morning person, no matter how late I stay up. I awaken at about dawn and get up to start my day. However, there are many nights when I cannot sleep, tossing and turning, going to the bathroom, drinking water, etc. I discovered years ago when I am unable to sleep that it is a perfect time to talk to God. During the late night or early morning hours, with my husband sleeping next to me, I just tell God all that is troubling me and then I listen for Him to speak His loving reassurance into my heart. Sometimes though, my night watch becomes a praise session, thankfulness for all that has gone right recently in my life. I have found that these nighttime prayers, although rare for me, invigorate me for the new day when I awaken to face it.
God’s promises are many and I have found that as I speak them back to Him, I am not reminding Him of His promises, but rather, I am reminding myself of what is already in His Word and there for me. Psalm 91 is a favorite of mine to recite in the night when I cannot sleep. Hiding under His wings gives me comfort and often I fall asleep meditating on those verses or on a chorus that encourages me.
The night watch is a good time to intercede for loved ones as well as for strangers that I have encountered during the day. God knows their needs and I think He leads me to pray for those who need it most. Pouring out my heart before God is good for me; it allows my heart to be emptied and ready to be filled by His sweet presence again.
If the Son of God spent the night praying to God, it should not be hard to imagine that God may at times call each of us to spend time in a night watch. Perhaps a few minutes, an hour or more, or all night. That is between you and God. I just encourage you to be open to God’s speaking to you at night when you are having difficulty sleeping. Perhaps a better use of your time than tossing about is to just talk to our Heavenly Father and release any burdens you have left from the previous day, knowing that He is there listening no matter how late it is.
Mothers are not a big focus in the Bible; rather it is the men, the fathers, who are mentioned most often. Therefore, the fact that my devotional today was about mothers was instantly interesting to me, so I think I read very closely to see what the theme was.
“His” refers to Abraham and Paul is addressing a dispute about whether Christians must live under the Mosaic Law and be circumcised. His argument is centered around the mother of each of Abraham’s children. Isaac was a child of promise, the one who was led away to be sacrificed but for whom God provided a ram in his place. He was the promised child that Sarah and Abraham waited for, the one Sarah laughed about because she overheard the prophecy that she would have a child in her old age. God brought His will to pass and gave her Isaac. Ismael, however, was the son of a slave woman named Hagar. Impatient to have a child, Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham and urged him to have a child with her. She was a child who came from the fleshly desire to have a child right away instead of waiting for God’s promise.
So, I ask again. Whose child are you? Are you a child of the law and the flesh or a child of the promise? That sounds easy enough to answer, doesn’t it? But if you are bound up by the law instead of walking in the freedom of the promise, then you are not truly free. Christ died to set us free from sin and death, so remember who your mother is and don’t return to bondage.
Have a blessed day, rejoicing in the fact that you are a child of the promise and giving glory to God for His great plan of salvation for us all.
What does the word “seeking” actually mean? According to http://dictionary.com, “seek” means “to go in search or quest of.” Synonyms sited for “seek” include to pursue or to follow. So, having defined the word, why should you care what it means?
Do you see that? Jesus told us to love others as we love ourselves and Paul wrote to seek the good of others, to pursue their good, to look for it diligently. We are to show preference for others and their needs. In this world of constant competition and one-upmanship, we as Christians need to be an example of putting others above ourselves and our own needs. That may mean going back in a line further so the harried mom can take your place. It may mean yielding to the driver who cut you off instead of trying to “show them” how they should be driving. It also means fulfilling commitments because others are counting on you to be there when you said you would.
We are to value the interests of others more than we value our own. I can honestly say that my husband Harry has done this for me in more ways than I can count since I had my stroke seven years ago. He may really want to watch a football game on Saturday afternoon, but if I need to go to the library, he will leave the game and take me. More importantly, he takes me cheerfully without one word of complaint. If I need to eat an early dinner because I’m tired, he leaves the news that he enjoys nightly and makes an early dinner for me. In fact, Harry has made almost all of the meals since 2015 when I got home from the hospital. At first, it was because I couldn’t stand long enough to cook or even recall how to do so. But his cooking became a labor of love as he looked for new menu items that would entice me to eat without salt and now, with low potassium, too. There are too many things he does to name them all, but the same man who used to tell me to leave him alone until his game ends now leaves the game behind and helps me with whatever I need. So, what do I think happened? Well, he became more like Christ when he almost lost me in that ER and ICU. I think, although I do not know for sure, that God touched him in a special way while I was healing and the heart that had become accustomed to having me around saw me as more valuable to him. I like to think that we both see more value in each other and put each other’s interest higher than our own. Thus we have been married for almost fifty years and both regularly choose what the other prefers. Harry needs the radio on a high volume when we are traveling in the car because of his hearing deficit. I tolerate the loud noise because I know that he can’t hear the show otherwise. He, in turn, turns the radio down when a loud commercial comes on, especially if it has a lot of bass to it, because he knows that since my stroke I cannot tolerate those reverberations. There is a lot of give and take in our relationship and we work at making it work for us.
But this verse is not focused on marriage relationships. Instead, it focuses on all of our personal interactions with others. When you are shopping and give the clerk a ten dollar bill and they accidentally give you too much change back, do you return to them the extra amount? When you are walking down a crowded sidewalk, do you move to the side so the woman with packages and two small children has room to pass by? During the pandemic, items like toilet paper became hard to find. Did you step back and allow others to have the coveted item, deciding to wait longer to fulfill your own need? There are numerous ways daily in which we can show others that we value their interests above our own. Take a few minutes and think about how you are doing in this endeavor. Don’t beat yourself up because you fall short; we all do sometimes. Rather, strive to do and be better. That’s called growth.
As I write this, I am at my sister’s home in NC. She is adjusting better now and not as negative as before, so that is a praise report. While I am here, I know that my needs have to come secondary to hers, especially since she is going blind and is very unhappy with life in general. So, when I am tired, I stay awake anyway to keep her company because I know that she is lonely. We eat dinner on her time schedule, not mine, because she has to take meds at a certain time daily. In general, I knew before I came that her interests would need to be placed first and because I love her, that has been easy to do, not a sacrifice at all. That being said, I will be here for almost two weeks, so I need to keep my eyes focused on meeting her needs and not my own. For that, I would like your prayers.
Have a blessed day as you look for opportunities to seek the good of others!
Often in today’s world of plenty, we think that we need more than we really do. This is especially true for me when I am packing for a trip. I pack a lot of things that are “just in case” items. I was packing yesterday to go visit my sister again and counting up how many tops, pj’s, and other things I would need for almost a two week stay. Then I started counting my pills, making sure that I had enough to last me while I am there. I spent hours making sure that I have packed all that I will need. Then, a light went off in my head. What if I forget something? Will the world as we know it come to a screeching halt? No, of course not. I would just have to figure out a way to obtain the missing item from one of the hundreds of stores around there. So, problem solved and stress abated.
This morning I read my devotional and a verse just jumped off the page at me and made me chuckle at my mad hat attempt to pack yesterday and to think of everything that I might possibly ever use in the next two weeks.
Sometimes I find myself rushing around trying to solve my own problems and setting up what if scenarios to plan in advance. Meanwhile, God is in Heaven, probably amused by my frantic attempts and waiting for me to realize that He is the good shepherd and He will make sure that I have all that I need. That reassurance is calming to my spirit and like an ointment on my frantically beating heart that wants to plan everything in advance, including planning for all contingencies. God spoke to my heart this morning and told me clearly to just calm down; He will make sure that I have all that I need. As I go into spiritual battle in a household without God, I am taking Him with me, and He will make certain that I don’t lack anything, not the words I need to speak or the attitude that I need to show. He has prepared me for this trip, just as He has gotten me ready for everything else I face in life, and He wants me to know that He loves me so much that I can just let go and let Him take over. Mostly, what I need to pack is a heart full of grace and love, mercy, peace and acceptance. Now, I’m ready to go…I’m taking God’s suitcase of promises with me and I’m ready!
No matter what today brings, remember that in Christ, you lack nothing. Have a blessed day filled with the Lord and the knowledge of His great love for you.
Sometimes it’s hard to make a decision about something and take that first step into the unknown. I faced that after my stroke. The neurologist who was treating me in the ER was on a Zoom call rather than in the room and he told me and my husband that he was 99% sure that I was having a stroke. He gave us the option of my having an injection that could help me (30% chance) or could kill me with about the same percentage. Those didn’t seem like good odds to me, but in my foggy brain, I knew that we needed to pray and call our daughter to pray with us about it. The doctor told us that time was limited because if I did not get the injection within an hour of my symptoms beginning, it would not work. We prayed and asked God for wisdom. Actually, Hope and Harry prayed while I listened since I could barely stutter words at the time. We talked and decided that I would take the injection since the doctor told me that without it, I would not improve at all and may never walk or talk normally again. Was I frightened? Honestly, yes. But I had to take that step in order to ever be able again to take others. That TPA shot, also called a clot buster, saved my ability to function and may have saved my life. But the decision to take it was like standing on the edge of a precipice and knowing that whatever happened, God would be there to catch me.
God has been faithful to take care of me since that first scary step. And, of course, there have been other scary steps along the way of life. That’s what life is about…seeing the choices and taking a step in what you hope is the right direction.
Like Moses, we couldn’t just stay in the wilderness of indecision. We had to take a step. Just, move on. Pray, decide, move.
Once the decision is made, God walks with you and makes His glory shine through whatever choice you have made, provided you have consulted Him and are truly trying your best to follow Him and His will. Delighting in God is more than a happy smile on your face saying that you love the Lord and know that all will be okay. It is a deep feeling that springs from your heart that no matter what happens, God will still be there.
That word “whatever” is important. We have a tendency to make our plans and then ask God to give what we have decided His “rubber stamp of approval.” It just doesn’t work that way. First, we talk to God about the choices we have and ask for His guidance, then we step out in faith and move in the direction that we think He is leading us. If we go the wrong way, we can be assured that God will let us know and get us back on the right pathway, usually after learning a valuable lesson that He is trying to teach us. The most important thing is to make sure we include God in our decisions before we make them rather than asking Him to bless the decision that we have already made.
Who is the “them” in this verse? We, the ones the Lord has redeemed by His blood, are the ones who are to give our testimony to others. This is a sacred responsibility that we should not take lightly. We are able to be thankful because He already showed us His love that never fails and does wonderful things for us daily.
Who is this foe that God has redeemed us from? Sin and its consequences, death. Telling our story may plant a seed so another person can be redeemed by God, set free from sin and ready to receive His love and forgiveness.
So, today and every day is a day to be thankful, a day to lift up the name of God and to bless His name before others. No matter what our current circumstances are, there is always something to be thankful for, not the least of which is that He has counted us among the redeemed.
Notice the promise that He WILL save us. No question! No doubts! God said it and He will do it. The same God who created us will also save us in the end to be with Him forever. That’s quite a promise, isn’t it?
Whatever we are waiting for from the Lord, He continues to be gracious and our strength. This is a prayer we can pray daily. Amen and Amen.
May you see the Lord’s grace and feel His strength in your life today, regardless of the circumstances. May you know that He is and always will be our salvation.
If you have ever gone into a crowded place with children, you know that sometimes you cannot walk side by side. Instead of walking ahead of my children, I used to walk behind them, guiding them with my hand on a shoulder or telling them which way to turn to get where we needed to be. It never dawned on me that I was guiding them in the same way that God sometimes guides me until I read this Scripture today in my devotional.
Notice the word “behind” in this verse. God is not always ahead of us although sometimes He is. Other times He is behind us and we have to listen carefully to hear His voice of instruction. If we turn the wrong way, He will tell us if we are listening. And if we turn the right way, He will also let us know. He doesn’t leave us to flounder alone on an unknown path. He is behind us, until He needs to step in front of us. I find comfort in the fact that God is all around me, if I just get quiet and listen. I can depend on Him to be just where He needs to be in my life, always. God is never too late or too early or in the wrong place at the wrong time. If He needs to be behind us in order to make sure that we are paying attention, then that’s what He will do.
This is a prophecy from Isaiah, but I believe with all of my heart that we can claim this promise today. We who are Christians are not blinded to the truth of the Gospel. We have chosen to hear that truth and now we can use our ears and the gift of the Holy Spirit to truly listen to what God is saying to us about our the choices we are making. He will let us know if they are good ones, if we just listen.
My prayer for you today is from Paul who says it better than I ever could. God bless and keep you, my friends.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 