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.
We could all sit around some days and have a little pity party about all of the bad things that are happening in our lives and in the world around us. We could lament the fact that we prayed, but we haven’t gotten an answer yet. (At least, not the one we expected or wanted).
How about instead of a pity party, we have a praise celebration? Instead of thinking about all the negatives, start thinking about what God has already done for you (and for this sinful world). Satan certainly doesn’t want us to remember so I think he tries to block our memory of the good things and puts the bad things at the forefront of our minds. We need to purposely choose to think of the good things, as Philippians says:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/php.4.8.NIV
It is when we start remembering what God has already done that we have a testimony to share and a faith that cannot be quenched! So, let’s get out of the pits of despair and stand on that mountain of faith that God created for us to stand on.
This is my prayer for you and for myself and it is a memory verse that I have been working on this week.
Do you enjoy Crowder songs? This is one of my favorites because it reminds me not to “get amnesia” but to focus on what God has already done!
From the YouVersion Bible App Devotional “Advent, Day 7”
What Is Peace?
What do you think of or imagine when you hear the word “peace”? Maybe you imagine your favorite vacation destination, when the rest of the world seems to come to a standstill. Perhaps your brain takes you to the resolution of a previously chaotic event. It’s possible you even think of a time when you had inner peace, when anxiety or worries seemed to quiet down.
Writers of the Bible sometimes use the word shalom as a way of describing peace as complete wholeness. At its core, peace is a state of wholeness, calm, and renewal between us, God, and others.
This can seem great in theory, but has the potential to feel unattainable when we look at the world around us—especially in the rush of the holiday season. Still, when we look at different stories in the Bible, we can see how God has been our source of peace since the beginning of time.
We’ll take a closer look at different examples in the days to come, but here are a few things we learn about peace as we read Scripture:
Peace comes when we keep our perspectives locked on God. (Isaiah 26:3)
Peace fights against fear. (Psalm 56:3-4)
Peace is a gift God gives us through the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22)
Peace isn’t limited to the circumstances happening in the world around us. (John 16:33)
Peace doesn’t always make sense, but it always connects us to God. (Philippians 4:7)
As you look at your life today, peace might feel impossible. It takes a lifetime to work toward peace, but we all have a step we can take today to more fully experience this gift. You might take a few minutes after you finish today’s reading to sit in God’s presence and thank Him for today. As you do, ask Him to fill you with His perfect peace.
Pause and Pray:
God, thank You for the gift of peace. Help me to experience You in new ways. I trust that You are my ultimate source of peace, even when I don’t understand. Please work in the areas and relationships in my life that feel far from peaceful. Bring them into a state of wholeness and renewal with You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
My Thoughts
Even as I type these words, my mind is churning away with a list of things I need to get done today. My bare Christmas tree is visual evidence that I am behind on my chores, but still, here I sit. I am seeking God’s peace to come through to my heart this holiday season. I don’t know what happens at your house for the holidays, but my life is filled with the regular things I have to do, plus ordering gifts for children and grandchildren, decorating (I do it sparsely, but I do it) and running errands as well as medical visits. Whew! Just writing out the list is somewhat overwhelming!
But the real reason for the season, the birthday of our Savior, is not lost on me. So, I tackle one thing at a time and I am thankful for the energy to get things done. They may not be perfect, but they will be done with my best effort for my age and physical limitations.
With the passing of time, I have found that the more I sit quietly in God’s presence, the more likely I am to be organized and cheerfully ready to take on that day’s tasks. I tend to get more irritable as Christmas Day draws closer, knowing that I only have a certain number of days to complete the shopping, decorating, etc. My prayer is always for God to help me to do what I can do each day and He always comes through. His peace seems to envelop me as I play Christmas songs and read His Word. It is His peace that connects me to Him and that helps me keep my focus on Him and not all that I have to do.
Here is a song that I listen to that helps me remember why I am doing what I do these days. I’m not a big fan of the singer and her current woke attitude, but I do like the song and the message to be still before God.
From the YouVersion Bible App, “Advent: 25 Day Countdown to Christmas,” Day 2
How Can We Have Hope?
Is your life going to get better, or will it get worse?
How about the world? Will it get better, or will things spiral further out of control?
Or what about a person in your life who keeps making hurtful choices? Will they change? Or are they doomed to keep causing pain?
Delightful questions to start day two of a Christmas Bible Plan, right?
So why did we ask these questions? Because how you answer reveals your hope.
It’s easy for life to steal your hope, even if you’re naturally a “glass-half-full” kind of person. Tragedies, unrest, division, aging, and natural disasters can make it easy to feel like our best days are behind us or impossible to reach.
But is that true? Or could it be possible that by reflecting on the story of Scripture, we can find real, resilient, and realistic hope? The kind of hope that can keep you afloat, no matter your circumstances.
First, what is hope?
Hope is the wholehearted, evidence-based conviction that God is making the future better than the past or present.
Sounds great, but what evidence? Well, let’s go back in time to over 2,000 years ago.
In those days, in a province of the Roman empire called Judea, people were low on hope. Most of the evidence from the past told them to give up. A handful of powerful empires had steamrolled their people, and it seemed like their story was almost finished.
But God was still writing their story. And through both prophets and ordinary people, His message of hope spread throughout Judea: a promise He wouldn’t leave them alone in the darkness, but would come to save His people when the time was right.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s only day two, after all. For today, ask yourself, “How’s my hope?” Ask God to help you renew your hope in Him.
Pause and Pray:
Thank You, God, for making me new in You. When things feel out of control or painful, please help me to remember that You’re working. Help me to build my hope step by step until I have complete faith in You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
My Thoughts
I have always been a “glass half empty” kind of person, thinking that if things are going well now, all I have to do is wait and something bad will happen. Generally, I have not been disappointed in my low expectations. God has been working on me to help me overcome this negativity. I am better, but I am not there yet and I know it, so I have to continue to press into the promises in the Scriptures in order to keep myself focused on God and not on what might possibly happen. The middle scripture above is just right for me!
I like that the devotional points out that God is making the future better. I look back on my younger years and remember having energy, a fulfilling job and children at home. I miss those years. Presently, I am aging and right now I am sore from wrestling with a toddler who wanted constant attention and for me to pick him up and hold him, even when he was very wiggly. Do I like feeling sore? No, but I know that the soreness will pass but the memories I made with my grandchildren will last. I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know Who holds my future and I am confident that He will bring me closer to Him even as I move away from life on earth. That is a future to look forward to!
Because of Jesus, when I find myself discouraged, I can go right before God, into His holy presence and tell Him exactly how I am feeling. He already knows anyway, so being honest with Him is the only way to go. Once I do that, I usually feel encouraged. Why? Because I am not carrying the burden alone; Jesus has taken the burden away from me and that helps me to see things more realistically and with a hope that comes from His steadfast love and faithfulness.
I trust that you are enjoying the days leading up to the greatest holiday of the year. Christmas is a time to renew our hope in the Lord and to show others how hopeful we are. It’s not about who is President or the wars going on in the world. It’s all about Jesus! He’s where our hope lies!
First, I must admit that the days before an election have found me anxious and fearful for the future of our nation. Over and over again, God has spoken quietly to my heart and told me to have peace, that He is sovereign and in control and nothing is impossible for Him. But it was not until this morning that I had a real breakthrough.
After the strong storm came up and Jesus awakened and calmed the storm, Jesus’s words to His disciples, those who had been following Him and seeing all of His miracles, were, “Where is your faith?” That is what He asked me this morning. If my faith is in a man to lead this nation and help us to become more moral again, then my faith is in the wrong thing. If my faith is in a party or a church leader or anything or anyone that is not God, then my faith is misplaced. The same God who commands the winds and waves commands the whole world and He can take care of the United States or judge it or whatever He want to do. Whatever God chooses to do is part of His ultimate plan and I can neither change His mind or divert Him from His plan. So, instead of being afraid in the rocking boat, I am choosing to do as Jesus did, to be at peace and to rest, trusting that the Father has it all under control.
As a side note, another interesting thing I got from my devotional this morning is the times Jesus healed and told the person not to tell others. Jesus wants us to focus on the majesty of God, on His glory, grace and mercy, not on the miracles He does for us. Yes, they are numerous and they happen every day. Sometimes we aren’t even aware of what God has done for us in any given day. But the focus of our lives should not only be on what God has done for us, although gratitude is important. Our focus should on our response to what God has done. Are we truly in awe of Him and His power and actions for us? Are we honestly thankful or do we just take Him and His work for granted? Do we tell others the testimony of how He has changed our lives and we are not the same? Or do we only talk about miraculous healing? I am not saying that miracles are not important; they are, but they are not the reason we seek God, or at least I hope that isn’t the reason. God wants a relationship with us, not for what He can do for us, but just because He loves us and wants us to love Him because He is our God. God is not our personal genie (I said the same thing in a previous post long ago.) There is no magic bottle that we can rub and summon the Lord God. He is always there, right beside us, listening to us and waiting for us to come into a right relationship with Him, one of respect and genuine amazement at who He is, yet He still notices us and all the little details of our lives. Our God is truly an awesome God!
This devotional really tugged at my heartstrings and my memories. When I was a child and afraid of the dark, I called for my “daddy” and he always came, sang a little song and hugged me, telling me that he would be in the other room and I didn’t need to be afraid. Focusing on God keeps us from focusing on the fear. In reverse, focusing on fear takes our focus off of God where it should be. Whenever I am afraid, of a new medical diagnosis or changes in my life, I try really hard to focus on God. I tell myself that I have lived over fifty years with God as my Father and He hasn’t failed me yet!
I have a tendency to magnify the bad things that happen instead of focusing on the blessings. When I started choking and coughing so hard yesterday that I could not attend church for the second week in a row, first I was discouraged. Then, I spent time with God and was thankful that our church streams the 9:30 service, so I was able to join them in worship and listen to the pastor’s message as if I were there. The Lord calmed my spirit so that I could spend time focused on Him instead of on my coughing. I wish I could report that the coughing spasms miraculously went away, but they didn’t. Paul had his thorn in the flesh and I have asthma, which makes it harder for me to breathe when I get sick. I have learned from experience that the condition is exacerbated when I am anxious or upset, so staying calm is a must for me since I like breathing. I have learned and I am still learning not to focus on my gasping breaths but to focus on the One who gave me the breath of life to begin with and to be thankful for each breath I can take.
The key to breathing for me is to focus on the Lord, not on the problem. When I focus on Him, just like Peter walking on water, I can continue to walk and not sink. It’s when I take my eyes off the Lord that I begin to panic and my breath comes in short gasps. I am blessed to report that the panicking is less frequent and the thankfulness for each breath is more common. I am a little dismayed that I have been sick for two weeks so far, a period of time that is longer than usual, particularly after I have started antibiotics and a steroid dose pack. But I am waiting for God to heal me; the doctors help, the medicines help, but God does the healing. Meanwhile, I am working on staying calm in order to keep my focus where it belongs.
Whenever we are in the middle of a storm, it seems so vast and scary that we are overwhelmed by it. But as we come out on the other side and look back, we note that it wasn’t so bad after all. Why is that? I think that in the middle of the storm, we are focused on the storm, but when we come out on the other side, we are focused on moving forward. I also think that God wants us to keep our focus on moving forward with Him no matter what storms life may bring.
The Bible says that our present troubles, or storms, are small and won’t last long. Our perspective makes them seem bigger and then we start feeling helpless. We are never without God as our refuge and if we see the storms as opportunities to grow closer to God and to become more mature as a Christian, then we can move on from the storm and into the peace and calm that God wants us to always have. My problem is that I focus so much on the storm and the small troubles that I can’t seem to keep my eyes on the Lord. Once again, I have been rebuked by the Lord for my shortsightedness. It’s like getting up and stumbling around without my glasses. I know I should reach out to the table next to me and put them on, but I figure I will only be a minute in the bathroom or wherever, so off I go. And then I stumble over something that my nearsighted vision did not see. May the Lord be ever near me and help me to see the world and the small troubles through His eyes, that I may learn the lessons He can teach me through the troubles and that I may use that wisdom to help others!
Over many years I have come to realize that I control what I think about. True, sometimes my mind wanders and seems to take me places that I don’t want to go, but it is up to me to rein it in and think about what I should be thinking. And what is that? God has the answer in His Word.
Heaven is a reality, not a pipe dream. Heaven may not be as I picture it or even as movies and books portray it, but it is real, just as Jesus was a real man who walked the earth and died for my sins. Christ is already in Heaven and the Bible tells me He is preparing a place for me there. The best thing that I can do while I wait is to think about the things of Heaven. How do I do that? I keep my focus on God’s Word, on His truths that He has spoken and is speaking into my heart. It’s easy to be distracted by all that is going on in the world around me, but I have found if I just take a deep breath and say to myself, “But God…” then I focus on how great God is in the circumstances and know that He will work all things out in the end.
Praising God with song is a great way for me to stay focused on Him, particularly if the song is based on Scripture and has helped me to memorize verses. Many years ago, one of the churches we went to had a pastor who was also a songwriter and guitarist and he set many favorite verses to music and played them during our worship time for us to join in with him. I remember many of those songs and have found others since then. A group called “Integrity Music” distributed a lot of cassettes with such scriptural songs and we had them playing in our car and home frequently. These days, the cassette has ceased to function, but I have discovered the music on You Tube and encourage you to listen and enter into His presence. Step away from the world and into the throne room of God. There we find our peace and our stability in a world that is rocking around us.
Have you ever watched a new infant and how intently he/she watches you? The eyes are fixed on you, following the sound of your voice as you move around them. As the child grows older, their attention may be momentarily called away to another object, something shinier or more interesting to them. But if you say the child’s name, like magic, their focus returns to you. At least that is the way I have noticed things happening until the child is about six or so and then all bets are off about whether you can get and hold their attention or not.
What is our focus when we are talking about our spiritual walk? As a new Christian, I was eager to learn all I could about God and His love for me. I didn’t want to miss a single minute of His guidance or plan for my life, so my eyes were fixed on him. Then, as a child maturing, my focus was captured by other “shiny” things, this pastor or that evangelist and a new message that they were giving. Or sometimes, my focus was captured by friends, family, trials and sicknesses. In other words, as I aged, I took my eyes off the One who created me and started paying more attention to the creation. God has reprimanded me and let me know that is the wrong path to take and I am working on forming new habits.
Another reason to come to the Lord as a child is the total trust we have in Him and the way we don’t let Him out of our sight. No matter what room I moved to when my children were young, they were right there beside me. I called them my shadows because they kept their eyes on me and when I moved, they did, too. That is the way I think we should keep our eyes on God. A steady looking at Him for our guidance and for direction for what our next steps should be. When we keep our eyes on Him, all of the problems we have seem to fade into insignificance because we know that they are temporary but He is eternal.
Everywhere you go, people will say things like, “Times are hard,” or “I wish things would change” or my favorite, “I can’t wait until God judges all of this wickedness.” From higher prices at the pumps and in the grocery store to absolute evil being promoted over the airwaves, most of us are tired of the direction things are going in our world today. So, what should be our response? Instead of bemoaning all that is wrong and wishing for God’s imminent judgment, I think that we need to be encouraging each other to hold on, be steadfast in our faith and to keep loving the unlovable. I think that is what God wants us to do…to “occupy until He comes.” We cannot do that if we are being like the other people in the world and focusing on the problem. We need to focus on what is good, kind, righteous and uplifting. Be a Tigger in a world filled with Eeyores!
We need to let others know when we see them doing something good and right, encouraging them to keep walking along that path. There are few in the world who hand out sincere compliments, but I believe that Christians should make it a point to do this daily.
My hope is that you are already encouraging each other, but this verse says to just keep on doing it. The times are tough and they promise to get tougher because Satan knows his time is short and he is pulling out all of the stops. Just remember that God is in control, He is greater and you need to encourage others just as they encourage you. Be sincere in your praise, but praise often and smile at those you encounter. You may not make a big difference right away, but the difference you make will be in your heart and in theirs. Feel like whining and complaining about the situation and the current state of the world. Tell God how you are feeling and tell the world how God has taken that burden and you are letting Him handle things in His way and in His time. Again, be a Tigger, not showing a fake happiness, but demonstrating the real joy that only comes from having spent time in God’s presence and laying down your problems before Him. Be joyful with a positive attitude that shows others that you trust that God will come through in the end. I hope that you are not wishing for God’s judgment to come right away. The Book of Revelation with all of the judgments to come is scary and awesome, but I am appreciative that God is delaying His final return in order that as many as possible will seek His forgiveness and repent. I want Jesus to return as much as anyone, but I want it to be in His perfect timing and according to His will, not according to how hard we whine.
Have a blessed day and as you encourage others, may you find encouragement yourself, in His Word and in the difference you are making in the lives of others.
www.bible.com/reading-plans/1201/day/12
www.bible.com/reading-plans/12309/day/1
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 