Category: Scripture

From the Holy Bible

God’s Love and Joy

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App1 Comment

www.bible.com/reading-plans/45776/day/7

We can look at the reality going on around us and get discouraged, or we can choose to see God moving in that reality and know that He is working His plan.

Today, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with pneumonia for the second time in less than six months. I could get discouraged, but instead I am encouraged by the doctor’s meticulous care and the patience he showed as he waited for me to quit coughing to tell him what all was happening. He prescribed my regular steroids and an antibiotic, but he also gave me nausea meds since I haven’t been able to keep anything down for the last two days, not even water. With a stern admonition to go to the ER if the meds don’t start working quickly, he said he hopes I feel better soon.

Well, I’m not all the way better yet, but I was able to sip some electrolyte water (which he said I needed) and that is a great improvement. I also laughed at a message my son sent me. He and his wife took their three year old son to the zoo today on a preschool field trip. When Nathan saw the alligators, he turned to his dad and said, “I saw a dragon. I saw two BIG dragons”! So, it’s all about perspective and how you see reality.

God’s Purposes are Greater

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This is a particularly poignant message for me today because I am sick…again. I have bad allergies and this is allergy season, so no surprise when I started with the usual symptoms of drainage and a sore throat. Then, last night, I had to use my inhaler. This morning, I am getting ready to use my nebulizer. Thus is the progression of things when I start getting click. Others want me to just “Name it and claim it.” They think that if I confess that I am healed, the miracle will follow. Well, I am healed and I am being healed but it may not manifest itself here on earth. I believe that God gave me the breath of life to begin with and even when I am struggling to breathe, He is right there, giving me each breath that I take. Would I like to be completely well? Yes, but I am willing to wait for God’s timing because His plan is the perfect one. I am not doubting God’s power, love or ability. I am just taking life one breath at a time, knowing that God is working on my lungs so that one day they will be as whole as they are meant to be. I don’t know when that one day will come, but I know it’s coming!

Where Doubt Meets Belief

In Mark 9, we read the story of a father who loved his son. He loved his son so much that, when his son was possessed by a spirit, the father brought him to Jesus, believing that Jesus could heal him and drive out the spirit. ”If you can do anything,” the boy’s father said, “take pity on us and help him.”

The boy’s father believed Jesus could drive out this spirit. But he didn’t know it for sure. He brought him to Jesus, but he still doubted—after all, no one else had been able to heal his son.

Have you ever felt torn between that same belief and doubt? The boy’s father shares a struggle many of us have—the struggle to hold onto faith during life’s trials.

Yet Jesus doesn’t shame this father. Instead, He responds in faith: “‘If you can’? Everything is possible for one who believes.”

Jesus invites this father to a decisive choice. To trust either in Jesus’ authority, or to doubt.

In this story, Jesus did drive out the spirit through prayer, while his disciples could not (Mark 9:26-28). However, we must also realize that Jesus’ response does not promise us that faith guarantees our every desire will be realized. Faith isn’t a license for wish fulfillment. Instead, it challenges us to recognize God’s supreme power and ability to fulfill His will, His way (Mark 1:40–42). True faith always comes under the authority of God’s sovereignty.

Faith, in its truest form, trusts that God’s purposes are greater than our understanding.

His Love Endures Forever

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song, YouVersion App1 Comment

https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/23192/day/9?segment=0

Sometimes I find myself only taking time to thank God for what He has done for me and not just for Who He is. I want to remember that God is the only One in my life who sustains me, gives me strength and courage and makes me whole. But I also want to always be mindful that God is worthy of thanksgiving just because He is God.

His Love Endures Forever-Chris Tomlin

Remember God’s Faithfulness

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App1 Comment

www.bible.com/reading-plans/45776/day/4

How do you handle disappointment? I know that I used to have a saying that I used frequently (in my Eeyore days) that if it hasn’t gone wrong yet, it will, just wait. Oh, my! Now I have a new mantra…Wait! God is still working! Things may look gray right now, but the Sonshine is on its way!

How you handle disappointments depends on your focus. If you are focused on the bad things that are happening, then you are more likely to be disappointed with anything that happens that is not the exact outcome you wanted. But if you focus on God’s faithfulness in the past and His ever-present love for you, you are more likely to face challenges with a firm belief that God will see you through whatever it is and the lesson you learn will be something you need for your future or to help others in the future.

How did my mantra change? Slowly, as God worked on my attitude and helped me to see things more clearly from His perspective and not just my own. Sometimes, I slip and start to slide back into my Eeyore attitude, but the Holy Spirit quickly reigns me back into line with God’s Word and helps me to get back on the right path again. Filling my heart and mind with God’s Word, being thankful every day for the small things, and looking for God’s faithfulness in the middle of bad situations helps me keep my focus on Him.

What helps you to handle disappointment?

Anxiety or Peace

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/45776/day/3

Every day, I have to choose whether I will deal with life’s daily challenges with anxiety or peace. I know that some days are more difficult than others to choose correctly and sometimes I get started on the wrong foot, listing to God all the reasons that I should be anxious instead of the reasons why I know He is there and that He is my peace. We have to make a conscious choice to focus on God’s presence with us, knowing as I have said many times, “Nothing is going to happen today that God and I cannot handle together.” The saying is in my mind. And I am working on getting it deep into my heart, with the knowledge that God’s presence is with me all the time, but especially in the hard times when I need Him most.

Need a Vacation?

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/23192/day/6

Everyone looks forward to getting away for a while, escaping the humdrum of everyday life. But I have found that when my husband and I get away, we take the humdrum stuff with us. My husband still listens to news like it’s his source of life and reports the things he considers important to me diligently. I have told him numerous times that I don’t watch the news for a reason, but he has decided that it is his obligation to keep me informed. So, I just listen without commentary. Anyway, the news goes with us. The challenges we face in life before we go away don’t disappears; they are just placed on a back burner and continue to simmer there. I like the advice in this column that tells us to be thankful and know that God is right there through it all. Being thankful is a choice, just as focusing on the things that make us need a vacation to begin with. If we could just keep our focus on the “author and finisher of our faith”, we would be much better off and more likely to be thankful first and complain later, if at all. God listened intently to the whining complaints of Job’s friends and how they blamed Job for all his own troubles. Then, God listened to Job and his complaints about how he had been faithful and still suffered. When God answered, it was not to tell Job that he had valid points and should have been able to complain. No, instead, God reminded Job of who He is and His sovereignty. Job recognized God’s control all along and pointed out to his friends that God was still his Lord in spite of his circumstances. If we could only get to the point where we can be thankful regardless of our problems and the world’s pressures on us, I think that we wouldn’t be feeling as much pain in our dilemmas and we would be able to be thankful all days in all ways. Vacations are necessary, but they shouldn’t be to get away from problems. I think they should be used to get closer to God and to ask Him to see our problems with His perspective.

Knowing What Direction to Go

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/45776/day/2

It’s hard to know what choices to make sometimes, so the best thing to always do is pray, follow the leading of the Spirit, and take a step forward. If it is the wrong step, God will let us know so that we can get back on the right track. If others ask us for advice, the best thing we can do is pray with them and ask for God’s wisdom and guidance. We don’t have a crystal ball or anything similar, but we do have the Holy Spirit who will lead us to help others if that is what God wants us to do. We always have to be careful not to step out in our own wisdom and give advice from our own mind and heart. It’s okay to tell the person that we will pray about it and get back to them when the Lord gives us an answer. It is never okay to lead someone in the wrong direction, even if the intentions are good, and shrug it off when things don’t work out for them. We are the called and the chosen, not the know-it-alls of the world. Let’s act as though God can use us and He will, in His timing and for His purpose, not to glorify us but always for His glory.

Reaching Out the the Lonely

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App1 Comment

www.bible.com/reading-plans/45776/day/1

I was once this person, the lonely one who didn’t understand the busyness of the world while I was suffering all alone. But God reached out and showed me that I was not alone…He had been there all along. And He sent others to talk to me and affirm that they would walk alongside me even in strange places with my husband deployed thousands of miles away. Now, it is easier for me to notice people who are sitting alone, who are not engaging in conversations with others, and it is a thing I strive to do, just to let them know that I see them and I am there if they want someone to listen. Sometimes it isn’t what you say that matters to the person that is lonely; it is just taking the time to be there, close and ready to hear their heart when they are ready to speak.

Jump! You Can Do It!

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/44313/day/7

We have all stood on the edge of the unknown, afraid to move forward and knowing we cannot go back. God has already prepared the way for us, but we have to take that step into the unknown, out of the comfortable and into the arms of our Father who is ready to catch us. Jump! God will always be there to catch you when you step out in faith as long as you are acting according to His will.