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.
During the pandemic, I discovered a new way of communication with my distant family members. I had used FaceTime occasionally but during the pandemic, I found myself craving to see the faces of my loved ones. Just hearing their voices was not satisfactory to me. So, once a week, we scheduled time on FaceTime. I even used Zoom once with my daughter and her family at home and my college-aged grandson on his campus. How delightful it is to see their faces! I still use this miracle of technology these days. Yes, I can go visit them now, but not as often as I would like to, so seeing their faces on the screen is like desert in a dry place for me.
My devotional this morning was about connecting with God. No, I don’t FaceTime with Him, but I do call on Him. I praise His Name, tell Him all about my struggles and what I need help with, and then I listen. I know He listens to me because there is a feeling of peace that goes with me throughout the day after my quiet time with God. And the least I can do is listen to Him. Sometimes, He speaks to my heart and tells me to calm down and just wait. Sometimes, He speaks to me through His Word. Sometimes, He speaks to me through a song I hear as I worship. But, no matter what, He always listens. He knows what I am going through and our relationship is important to both me and to God. How do I know that? Because He loved me enough to send His Son to die for me, so He is not going to leave me now. His Word tells me that He will never leave me and I believe Him. So, I can’t see God, but I can feel the touch of His Holy Spirit all around me. I call and He answers. Sometimes it’s not the answer that I wanted, but He‘s a good Father and He always answers with just what I need for that time. Meeting with God daily is nourishment to my soul, the food I need to get through every hour of every day.
Have a blessed Sunday! I hope that you are planning on going to church and meeting with your brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord hold you close and answer when you call on Him today and every day.
Have you ever tried to tell someone about Jesus and the gift of salvation and they just turn away? They act as if they have heard it before and just don’t want to hear it again. I think it’s because our actions (or the actions of those who have gone before us) have spoken so loudly that our words have been muted. The Bible gives sound advice about how we should be acting and speaking.
One of the words that I see online a lot is “karma.” The folks using it seem to think that “karma” is their ability to call on the powers that be and await the results, on the other person, of course. What the Bible teaches is that we are not to wish bad karma on others but instead, we should be blessing them, asking God to bless them because in blessing others, we are blessed. It sounds really strange, doesn’t it? Remember when Jesus reviled the sinners and called the angels down to rain bad karma on them because of their unbelief? No, you don’t remember it because it didn’t happen. Jesus didn’t condone their sin but neither did He condemn them. He had compassion on them and offered His free gift of forgiveness. He blessed them with healing, miracles of provision and wisdom from above. Not once did He rail at them that they were all going to hell unless they straightened up and flew right. Hmm. And yet somehow, we think that our hellfire and damnation speeches will convince people that Jesus is a loving God who died for them. Perhaps the way of Jesus is better…a blessing and not the insult. This is the example of the words we should use.
Next, how do we live? I have lived for over seven decades and I have never had the Lord remove me from a situation that was difficult and away from non-believers who were annoying me. He has been much more likely to place me in the middle of them and then wait for me to act the way He has been teaching me to act. I cannot take advantage of every opportunity to bea witness if I’m so busy thinking I’m so much better than those around me just because I’m a Christian. I’m just a sinner saved by grace. They are sinners who still need to know that grace is available to them. I’m the vessel through which they can hear and see this grace, so I am responsible for my actions in front of them. Our testimony is not just what we say, but it is also how we act.
I still have a lot of work to do in my life on myself. God did not put me here to fix other people but to tell them that He can fix them. He can mend their broken hearts and lives and give them a hope for eternity with Him. I can show them how He has fixed me and tell them how He is still repairing all of my broken parts. I’m not perfect yet, but one day, when I’m with the Father, I will be. That is my testimony that I want others to know. God works with us right where we are to make us what He knows that we can be…our very best selves.
Have a beautiful and blessed day, my friends! May you ever be mindful of your testimony, both in word and in deeds.
Notice what comes after the action verbs. Trust in your unfailing love. Rejoice in your salvation. Sing the Lord’s praise. Why do we trust, rejoice and sing? Because the Lord has been good to us. Every day that we live is a gift. Every breath that we take is from Him. Instead of bemoaning circumstances that we cannot change, let’s choose to trust, rejoice and sing!
Have a blessed and awesome day as you look to the Lord for His salvation and His love and as you praise His name throughout the day.
I have read a lot of commentaries and different Biblical versions about putting on the whole armor of God. But what goes under that armor is also important. Did you know that the Bible tells us how we are to clothe ourselves?
I have read the book of Colossians numerous times, meditating on its verses. But this verse somehow escaped my attention until our Bible study group met on Monday night. I pondered it then and today this same verse was in my daily devotional. God does want us to put on the whole armor of God, but underneath that armor, He wants us clothed with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. If we are clothed in something, that is what people see when they see us, those qualities that make Jesus’s presence evident to others.
The chapter continues with this verse about forgiveness. How can we be clothed with Godly characteristics if we don’t forgive? The answer is that we can’t. It’s like going out in public with a shirt that is ripped down the middle and expecting no one to notice. Lack of forgiveness causes a root of bitterness inside the person who chooses to hold on to it. The person you are not forgiving is either not aware of it or chooses to ignore it. Either way, it doesn’t hurt them as much as the lack of forgiveness hurts you. The very important word in the verse is “as”. A tiny little word that means so much…the same way the Lord forgave you is how you should forgive others. He forgave each of us of everything, so we should do likewise to others. Grudges are not an item of clothing that we should be wearing around our shoulders.
Finally, there is love, the binding agent. I vaguely remember my chemistry class in which we were making a glue-type substance and we were told that one of the elements we were using was the binding agent, so we had to be careful to add it at the proper time. Love has to always be added to all of the other clothing that we are wearing because it is the seam that holds the clothing together on our bodies. Without love, we can’t exhibit the other qualities in any way that creates unity. In this divided world, love is an absolutely necessary quality for Christians to put on daily. You don’t like someone’s politics? Love them anyway. You don’t like someone’s selfish actions? Love them anyway. Someone is rude to you, in traffic or in a store or at work? Love them anyway. Love is the one thing that will draw people to you and to your witness about Christ. Once they see love, they can look at the other “clothing” that you are wearing and examine the gifts of His character that God has put on you. But first they must see love.
Have a beautiful and blessed day in the Lord, making every effort to put on the right clothes before you venture out into His creation.
You can count on God in all circumstances. What you are going through does not change who God is. I would appreciate prayers for my granddaughter Teryn. She has an injury to her clavicle that the doctors cannot explain but the specialist is insistent that she give up gymnastics. She qualified for nationals, so this is a really hard thing for her. Please pray that her bone will get the blood supply it needs and that her mom will be able to find a suitable replacement for gymnastics that she has been competing in for about ten years. We are all praying and waiting for God to act. I hope that you will join us.
May God bless you as you wait for your answers to prayer.
We give thanks to God because He is good, not because of what He does for us, but just because He is God. Think about that. He is all goodness and we are not.
I know that you have probably been on a roller coaster ride and your companion probably looked at you and said laughingly, “Hold on tight!” Well, that happened to me once and only once because I am not a fan of roller coasters. I hate the feeling of not being in control and hurtling around corners and down hills at a high rate of speed. My children had assured me that this particular coaster was very mild and I could check off my item on my bucket list about riding a roller coaster. (Actually, I don’t remember putting that particular item on there, but I was assured that it was there.) So, with much fanfare and hesitation, I rode the coaster, watched my husband’s eyes twinkle as he told me to hold on. I don’t remember much of the ride, just the terror and the screaming because my children’s idea of a mild ride was not the same as mine.
Sometimes I think that life can be like a roller coaster ride, with unexpected twists and turns, a slow move to the top of the hill and a death-defying plunge to the unknown at the bottom. Throughout life, God has always been there for me and never wavered, always reminding me to just hold on to Him. I may not know what is coming or how the future may affect me, but God does and He is always faithful. I don’t have to be afraid or anxious in any way because God is the one who has told me to hold on and He will do the rest!
Have a blessed and wonderful Saturday, filled with moments in which you hold on and God is faithful!
For almost four decades, I was in a classroom teaching children. Sometimes I taught younger children in a Christian school, but mostly I taught high schoolers in a public school environment. No matter where I taught, I rarely heard the words, “I don’t know. Teach me.” The problem seemed to be that the students didn’t know what they didn’t know so they didn’t know to ask to be taught. That is also my problem when I approach the throne of God. I don’t know what to pray. But today’s Scripture verse addresses this dilemma.
This is ultimately what I need to be taught, to do God’s will. He is my Lord and Savior and He constantly leads me on safe ground so that I will not fall or stumble. I can trust Him to teach me to do His will while I am on earth, to follow Him as a sheep follows its shepherd’s voice. I have to learn the lesson of letting go and just following where He leads. Is this a lesson you need to learn, also?
Have a blessed and glorious day in the Lord! He is worthy to be followed and He will never lead you on a wrong path.
These verses were in my devotional this morning and they are so appropriate that I just have to share my testimony about what happened at the retina institute yesterday. As I wrote previously, my ophthalmologist had diagnosed me with dry macular degeneration. My sister has the wet kind which leads to blindness and insisted that I go to see a retina specialist since mine is just starting. So, I jumped through all of the insurance hoops and three months later (yesterday) I got an appointment at the Retina Institute of Virginia. I had to be there alone because of restrictions about patients only, so I was really nervous. Where was my faith? It was still there, but the real me was anxious to find out what was going on with my eyes and what the solution would be, if any.
The first nurse was very nice, jovial and encouraging and explaining all the drops that she had to use in my eyes and how the ocular thing worked with pinholes in it. Then, I sat in a dark room for about ten minutes waiting for my imaging. The next lady was quite rude and impatient, but I prayed for me and for her to get through that part of the test and eventually we did. Next step, a dark room to wait to see the doctor and get his diagnosis of my condition.
I was there long enough to start being assailed by doubts and fears. Of course, it didn’t help that my sister has told me repeatedly for the last three months that I’m going to be blind. (She is not just a cup half empty person; her cup is also cracked and leaking.) Anyway, my answer was to pray and ask God for His presence to be really near me. I cannot say that I heard an audible voice but I did hear God speak to my heart to hold my hand out and He would hold it and be with me. Honestly, I have no idea what I was thinking, but I put my hand out on my lap and the Lord spoke to me and told me He had my hand and I was not alone and all would be okay, no matter the verdict from the doctor. I prayed quietly, thanking God for His comfort and calming presence. I can’t say that I felt the Lord holding my hand, but I felt comforted and knew He was there with me.
When the doctor came in, he showed me the photos of my eyes and told me that my left eye has a trace of macular but my right eye has no signs of it at all. He finished his exam and told me that he would see me in a year, that he’s pleased with the radiograph and the photos. My response was to thank him and to thank God, of course! He had me all along, even in that dark room where I was feeling so alone and frightened, He took my hand and spoke words of encouragement to me.
Naturally, when I called my sister to tell her, her response was negative. She informed me that the disease will get worse, there’s no cure, it will go into my right eye and I will go blind, just later instead of sooner. But you know what? I didn’t argue with her or point out to her that God is taking care of the whole situation for me. I knew that in my heart, but she doesn’t know or accept God and His truths, so I wanted to just hold His love for me close to me and enjoy it rather than listen to and accept her harsh words. Shortly thereafter, my husband arrived to take me home and my trial was over. I shared with him what had happened and he was like, “That’s good. That’s really good news.” The best news is that my faith was renewed (again) because God showed me not only that He is powerful but also that He cares about the tiny details in my life. Since I needed someone with me, He was that someone for me. Always there, never intrusive, always willing to console and encourage. That’s my God! I’m ashamed that I needed to be reminded, but I wanted to share my humanity with you all. I don’t have it all together all the time, but God does and knows just what I need and how to meet those needs.
May you be blessed today with the certain knowledge that God is with you, helping you and protecting you in all circumstances.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 