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.
www.bible.com/reading-plans/23192/day/13
We can be like most people today and take God and His favor for granted, or we can choose to be like Daniel and establish the habit of being thankful. Then when tests and trials come, our natural inclination will be to continue to be thankful in spite of them, not because of them. I want a deep well of thank-full-ness that flows from within me to the Lord, knowing that no matter what is going on around me, He is still God and He deserves my thanks.
www.bible.com/reading-plans/45490/day/5
This is a devotional I am reading based on the new movie by Karen Kingsbury. The movie has been extended for another week (original started on April 2nd and supposed to run for only two weeks), so if you get a chance to go to the theater to see it, please go. My husband and I went opening week and it was awesome to see a Christian film in a secular theater. Anyway, now that I have encouraged you to see the movie, I also encourage you to take Karen Kingsbury’s advice to heart. Remember that no matter what is happening in your life, God has the last word. He had the last word with King Zedekiah who tried to burn the scroll with God’s message to him, thinking that would stop Babylon from overturning his kingdom. God’s Word doesn’t change and He always has the last word. Even as our grandson is going through cancer, we are encouraging him that God is with him through this trial. He doesn’t want to hear it now, but we are praying that our words will speak to his heart and God will bring them back to his mind when he really needs them and can hear them. Like Zedekiah burning the scroll, Isaac is discarding God’s words because he is angry and doesn’t want to go through this hard thing. But, God will have the last word in Isaac’s life (and yours and mine), so we may as well read His word and hear its lessons to us while we have the time to make life changes that could be eternal. God bless you and you hear from God today and every day. Just remember that you can’t hear from Him if you aren’t listening.
www.bible.com/reading-plans/23192/day/12
Each of us at sometime will go through a valley. No, I am not a doomsayer or prophet. Bad things happen, even to good people. Life is hard but God is good and He will take us THROUGH the bad times if we will let Him. One of the ways we can lean into God during the hard times is to be thankful. I’m not saying to be thankful FOR the hard times, but to be thankful IN them. When the going gets tough, the tough turn to God. Last night, as I coughed and choked after having taken all of my meds and still couldn’t sleep, I prayed for relief. God’s Spirit gently spoke a psalm into my heart, the one that says that His love endures forever. I said to myself, “Although I am coughing and cannot sleep, God’s love for me endures forever.” And I drifted off to sleep even though I don’t recall doing it. I want God’s Word to become such a part of me that it is with me when I am getting ready to sleep and when I am fully alert and walking around in a lost world. I want to be fully aware of all that God has prepared for me as I step out so that I am thankful for all of it. I think that is the way to be spiritually healthy and in tune with God.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
narrowpathministries.wordpress.com/2024/04/20/lessons-from-silence/
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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.
