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!
If you read my blog last week, you know that the week was a hard one for me. Two friends passed away and I was devastated and faced with my own mortality and the certainty that death comes to everyone. I got through that week, only to be faced with another challenge.
My husband and I have one vehicle. For many years, when both of us were working, we had two, but once I had my stroke and my husband retired, he started doing most of the driving, so we just have one car now. We drove that car for thousands of miles last month to get to graduations and then at the beginning of June to go to the beach to meet my brother from Colorado. All of those trips were definitely worth the exhaustion I felt when we got home. Unfortunately, the car is feeling the effects of that long, arduous trip, also. On the way to the visitation for my dear friend, I noticed the engine was grinding so I told my husband that it needs to be checked again. Just before our trip, I paid almost $1000 for repairs because it needed a new valve cover gasket. So, I am not looking forward to new repair fees. When my husband checked the oil on Saturday morning, it was low, so he added oil. Now I have an appointment tomorrow to take the car in to have it checked for oil leaks and to have the oil changed again. That sound you hear is a big sigh from me.
My scripture verse this morning is one that I am now working on memorizing because I really need it.
That word “as” is very important in this verse. Joy and peace come at the same time that we trust in Him. That’s where we find our hope. So, even as I am frustrated about the car, anxious about the finances to pay for it again, and disappointed that this is happening now, God is telling me to trust and He will give me joy, peace and hope. That is quite a promise and one I really needed today.
We need to start looking for another car, but we are in total disagreement about what to look for. My husband wants a car for $5000 or less, so he is looking for what I call a “junker clunker.” I don’t want to put more money into repairing a car while we are paying for it, so I want to look at a mid-priced car with lower mileage, thinking it would last longer. We are not at a total impasse, so I am praying what to do. I love my husband, but his decisions are not always the wisest although they may be the thriftiest. I hope you will join me in praying that God will show us what to do in this situation and that we can reach an agreement by following Him.
Meantime, I will continue to focus on this verse and pray fervently that I can trust even as the anxious thoughts attack incessantly. I hope that you will join me in my prayers and that you, too, will find the joy, peace and hope you need for whatever you are facing.
From the YouVersion Bible App Devotional, “Advent, Day 25”
It’s a Merry Christmas
Two thousand years ago, the world was waiting for a Savior. He would be their hope for the future, peace in the present, joy in all moments, and love for all people. Little did they know that God was working out His grand plan through a small, lowly family in Bethlehem.
Today, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, who brought all those things, and more.
Where there was no hope, Jesus brought a new hope—hope founded on His life, death, resurrection, and the promise of His return.
Where there was no peace, Jesus brought a new kind of peace. A peace that isn’t dependent on the whims of humans, but on the unchanging nature of God who sustains us, makes us whole, and gives us a calmness the world can’t touch.
Where there was no joy, Jesus brought joy. To everyone under the oppression of sin, He offers freedom. And to the foreigners and outsiders, He offers a seat at His family’s table. Through Him, we can find joy in all things.
Where there was no love, Jesus brought love. During His life on earth, He spent time with people across varying social classes and ethnicities. He disregarded who culture told Him to associate with and instead offered His perfect love to everyone He met.
The Son of God made Himself low so that He might be raised above all. This Christmas, finish your Advent season by worshiping Him!
Pause, Read, and Reflect:
As you’re with family or friends, spend time reading today’s Scriptures aloud. Then, take a moment to read and reflect on this Christmas prayer together.
Lord, thank You for Your Son, who died to unite me with You. Today, I thank You specifically for Jesus’ birth, and the way this moment changed everything for the better. Help me to follow You with the same level of commitment that Christ had during His time on earth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I created this using Canva, so feel free to share if you would like. It’s my online Christmas card.
My Thoughts
I was thinking that I would be sad today because it is just my husband and me here and no one is coming to celebrate with us until the 28th. But, I am not sad at all. I have shed a few tears but that’s because of the wonderful difference Christ has made in my life. I hope each of you have found the hope, joy and peace that only Jesus Christ can bring to you. Have the most wonderful Christmas ever! I am blessed to be a blessing and hope that you are, too.
From the YouVersion Bible App Devotional, “Advent, Day 5”
3 Practical Ways to Find Hope
In the Bible, hope is the wholehearted, evidence-based conviction that God is making the future better than the past or present.
Hope isn’t a vague positivity or a naive optimism. Instead, true hope acknowledges the pain, problems, and dysfunctions of our world. Hope knows the worst life has to offer yet still believes God can and will create a better future.
Hope is like a lighthouse on a dark, stormy night. It doesn’t make the waves go away, but it does offer you direction and a reason to keep going.
The Bible has quite a few stories about light and darkness. Early in the Bible, God leads His people through the wilderness using a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of smoke during the day. These people had been slaves, and now they were walking across a barren desert. Yet they could have hope because they knew God was leading them to a new and better future.
But what about today? We don’t have divine pillars of smoke or fire to follow when we’re low on hope. So where do we look to find hope?
1. We find hope in friends.
When we’re feeling hopeless, we can turn to trusted people who can lend us their hope. So if you’re searching for hope, include others. Their words, stories, and guidance could be exactly what you need to renew your confidence in God’s plan.
2. We find hope in our stories.
Look back to who you were before you knew Jesus. What’s different about you? How do you live, think, and act differently? Avoid letting exceptionally bad days define your journey with Jesus. Instead, try to see the big picture. Reflecting on God’s work in your past can give you hope for your future.
3. We find hope in God’s story.
The Christmas story is one of the main events in God’s big story. In the story, we see Jesus, who is God, choose vulnerability and humility to show us His love. So when you feel hopeless about the direction of the world or the direction of your life, remember that God will do whatever it takes to make all things new.
Of course, none of these three ways to find hope are quite as dramatic as a divine pillar of fire, but they can serve the same purpose. They remind us God is present, even when life is hard. And they help us keep moving forward with confidence, no matter what storms we’re facing.
When we cling to others, reflect on our stories, and explore Scripture, we can expect to find hope. But hope can also come from unexpected places. So keep your eyes open for hopeful moments all around you.
Pause and Pray:
Lord, please be a light to me as You were to Your people in the wilderness. Thank You for dying for me while I was still a sinner so I could be united with You. Help me to set my hope on You. In Your name, amen.
My Thoughts
I cannot imagine what it would have been like to have God going before me in a pillar of cloud or fire. I suspect that I may have been so awestruck that I would not have been able to move at all unless someone else prodded me to do so.
Since we don’t have God visibly present in this way, we need to tune our spirits to see Him in other ways. We can see Him in others, in our own testimony about the past and in His Word. I think that I mostly depend on God’s Word for assurance and hope for the future. I do have friends, but most don’t know me intimately and I am not in frequent contact with anyone except our daughter. I do know that contact is important because God created us to be social beings. Thus, when I need that personal contact, I reach out to others with a phone call or a text. I have members of our small group from church who check on me and my husband often, just to make sure that we are okay and don’t need anything. And we do the same for them. It’s all about connections, isn’t it?
That’s why it’s important to connect to God and to stay that way. We shouldn’t be wandering off into the wilderness of life without Him right there with us.
Now, another prayer request. My daughter’s friend Desiree is in the hospital in Pittsburgh. She discovered this week that she has a large mass in her brain. She had brain surgery yesterday and the doctors think that there are other “specks” that they weren’t able to remove. She is having tests today. Please pray for Desiree, her husband Joel and their four children. The youngest is only eight and the oldest is fourteen. If you follow me on Facebook, I posted a GoFundMe photo of them all together. The youngest child is the most distraught and Hope, my daughter, says she is crying a lot or screaming in frustration because she wants her mommy. Joel is with Desiree, and his mom is taking care of the kids. I know that this situation didn’t surprise God, but it certainly surprised this young family, and they need as many prayers as they can get. Thank you in advance for remembering them. Please pray that God will be close to them all and give them hope.
From the YouVersion Bible App, “Advent, A 25 Day Countdown to Christmas, Day 3”
Hope When Things Go Wrong in the World
Yesterday, we said hope is the wholehearted, evidence-based conviction that God is making the future better than the past or present.
But what about when all the evidence this Christmas tells you the future might only bring more pain? When forces outside of your control, like war, the economy, and sickness, cause chaos all over the world.
If you’re asking this question, you’re not alone. Around 500 years before Jesus, the people of God were invaded, captured, and forcibly deported to a faraway nation. They were separated from their families, homes, and, for many, their hope.
Their forced migration is called the exile, and its trauma influenced countless Scriptures.
Today, you’ll read a lament (a pain-filled song of praise) by a few of these people. These exiles were musicians, but after their capture, they were taken as servants or slaves to work at a farm in a nation called Babylon. Their captors asked them to play the music of their people, and they responded with despair, saying something like, “How could we sing songs of hope and praise to God when we’ve experienced so much pain?”
Global events outside their control made hope feel impossible. Can you relate?
When things go wrong in the world, it feels like evidence that God is against us, ignoring us, or He’s left us behind. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Throughout their time in Babylon, the people of God not only survived, but learned to thrive. They discovered God was present in their pain, and God still had a plan for their future.
In fact, one of the most famous Bible verses (Jeremiah 29:11) is about God’s plan for His people in exile. In that verse, He promises to give them hope and a future. And God delivered on His promise.
Your pain isn’t evidence God doesn’t care or is far off. It’s evidence that God is still working on His plan to make all things new.
True hope doesn’t ignore the pain of life. Instead, it trusts God’s plan despite the worst life has to offer.
Yes, it’s a slow process. And it’s normal to get frustrated with God’s timing. But when we look at the experience of the exile, we see the evidence of God’s faithfulness in the middle of pain and in the fulfillment of His promises.
Pause and Pray:
Lord, thank You that even in the darkest of times, You are working for good. Help me to have hope even when things are hard in my life. Help me to share the hope I have in You with those around me. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus. Amen.
My Thoughts
My heart is not heavy today, but it has been in the past. I want to know what God is doing to bring the suffering in the world to an end. I want things to get better, but they seem to get worse instead. I know the Bible says that these are signs of the times, but sometimes I am just ready to stop being a foreigner in a strange land and be home with the Lord where I belong.
God’s Word to me is to be patient and wait. He is working out His plan for me, just as He did for the Israelites who were exiled in Babylon for decades. He didn’t say to them, “Well, you sinned, so I am just going to leave you to suffer through your consequences.” He never stepped away from watching over them and keeping His promises to them, and He hasn’t left us either. God is the One who is working on His plan, not my plan or your plan, but His plan. He sees the big picture, and He continues to methodically work with fallen man to work out His plan for the end of the age.
So, while I may be impatient with things as they are, I can be thankful that God is patient. How many would be lost already if He were not patient with all of us? I just read a Christian book about human trafficking that absolutely broke my heart. It’s fiction but it could have been ripped from headlines. The story of a group of girls stolen from their village in Peru and sold to men to be used, abused and discarded was hard to read but it also had a message of hope and faith. It is undergirded with the message of the Prodigal and the Lost Sheep. We have all been prodigals at one time, and we have all be a lost sheep. God sees and He cares about all of the cruelty and injustice in the world. There is no one who loves more deeply than our Heavenly Father.
This is the book that I am referring to and I highly recommend it. It is hope for the hopeless and a light in the darkness. The author is new to me, but I can recommend this book because I just finished it and cried through many of the gut-wrenching scenes. It isn’t too graphic but it does deal with difficult topics, so I would rate it five stars and a PG-17.
This is one of the songs that I have requested be played at my funeral. Yes, I am one of those controlling people who plans in advance, but not for control but rather for the comfort of my family so that they don’t have to worry about details. When I heard this on the radio years ago, it spoke to my heart because of all of our military moves and the fact that I have never really felt settled into a home or community. When I arrive to my eternal home, then I will truly know what home is like and I am looking forward to that day. Until then, I will wait, just as God is waiting, patiently working out His plan and hoping that I am helping in some small way to help Him fulfill it.
From the You Version Bible App devotional, “Advent: 25 Days”
Find Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love This Season
How are you feeling this holiday season? Is life like a Christmas movie, full of wonder, happiness, and endless cups of hot cocoa? Or are you feeling stressed out, anxious, or maybe even grieving? The classic Christmas song says it’s the most wonderful time of the year, but for many of us, it can be the most overwhelming time of the year.
We can’t guarantee that reading this Bible Plan will make it snow on Christmas or magically make all your holiday worries disappear, but it is designed to help you find hope, peace, joy, and love this season.
What Is Advent?
Advent is a Christian tradition of anticipating Jesus’ birth on Christmas. Each week of Advent focuses on one word that reveals how Jesus’ birth changes us. The four words which you’ve seen already are hope, peace, joy, and love.
Now, let’s pause because if you’ve been to church, read the Bible, or spent any time around Christians, then you’ve probably heard these words a lot. And maybe these words feel a bit vague. That’s why we’ve defined these words below.
Hope: A wholehearted, evidence-based conviction that God is making the future better than the past or present
Peace: A state of wholeness, calm, and renewal between us, God, and others
Joy: A resilient cheerfulness anchored in the goodness of God
Love: Following Jesus’ example by treating everyone as valuable and worthy of sacrificial care
Over the next few weeks, we will explore the Bible and see how God’s gift to us provides hope, peace, joy, and love. We’ll also see how these gifts impact how we live every day.
So whether you’ve practiced Advent for years or you’re just learning about this tradition, we can all find hope, peace, joy, and love this season. Tomorrow, we’ll begin our first week by taking a closer look at God’s plan for hope.
Pause and Pray:
Lord, thank You for the great gift of Your Son. Please help me focus on You this Christmas season. Free my life from distractions and give me Your hope, peace, joy, and love. In Jesus’ name, amen.
My Thoughts
I researched a little bit and found out that Advent comes from that Latin word “adventus” which means arrival. Arrival of what? At Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of Jesus on the earth, the only One who can reconcile us to the Father and who teaches us about what true hope, peace, joy and love are.
I just returned from a trip to Maryland and got to witness just a little. I shared with my young grandchildren about our tradition of baking a birthday cake for Jesus. We have been doing that since our children were very young. I told them that Christmas isn’t about the tree and presents but it’s all about Jesus. One of the kids was amazed while the toddler was bored and the oldest wandered away. But I least I got to share about the real meaning of Christmas and hope that it stays with them in some way for a long time. It breaks my heart that the only meaning some people have for Christmas is a wish list and a visit to Santa. The real meaning is lost in the commercialism of the season that the retailers have hyped so much that Jesus seems lost in the commercials for the newest gadgets, toys and must-haves before anyone else has things. I don’t think Jesus minds our enjoying giving, but I am fairly sure that He does not appreciate the greed associated with the “this is what I want for Christmas.” If we have Jesus, we actually have all that we need.
I hope that the first day of Advent is one that you can take time to reflect on the arrival of the One who changed your life forever. That’s my goal for today.
From YouVersion Bible App, Devotional, “In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake”, Day 5
God wired us for home. And to a certain degree, our earthly homes are supposed to be miniature Edens. For many of us, home is where we first experience what it means to be loved. It’s where we discover the security of belonging. Homes don’t just define where we live, but in many ways, they define who we are. Which is why leaving home can be so hard. But even these homes we have to eventually leave.
So it’s no surprise that we all experience homesickness in different ways and in different seasons. Eventually we leave our home, but our longing for home, the one God made us for, never leaves us. We all live with that “memory.” We never outgrow homesickness.
We were not born in Eden but outside of it. And as beautiful as this life is, it’s not enough. It’s temporary. A prelude of sorts, of what is to come. It’s why the New Testament describes us as “exiles” and “foreigners” (1 Peter 2:11).
God has made us to hunger and thirst, long and wait, for a new home. A greater home. A restoration of what went wrong in the Garden of Delight. The road to this home is bumpy. It’s full of suffering and weakness and pain. But the weeping is meant to be like a welcome mat. Instead of feeling homesick for the place behind us, we begin to long for a home that is ahead of us.
You might be in a boat in the middle of a lake. But you are not alone. And that lake has another side. One Jesus has promised to get you to. “Let us go over to the other side,” Jesus said. There will be many storms. Some smaller. And maybe some bigger. But there is a shore. We’ll say it again: there is a shore.
The promise of safe arrival.
Rest.
Renewal.
Victory.
Home.
God’s presence. . . .
So let us press on in the storm. Let’s continue to trust the God who meets us in our storm.
Your chaos will cease. It will not last. You have a future. We have a future. And it’s a future filled with God’s goodness and love and beauty. It’s a future filled with God himself
My Thoughts
I am not sure anyone can understand the life of a military wife except another military wife. In a little more than thirty years, we moved twenty-five times. We would stay at a base for two-three years and then move on to the next one, as my husband pursued his career and a higher rank. I hated that lifestyle but I really loved the people that I encountered and the lessons that I learned from all of that change that I was forced to make, not to mention the independence that I had to learn since I was alone a lot of the time. You see, we didn’t just move. Each time we moved, each new place generally required a new school for my husband to attend while I stayed in the new location and took care of the children. When Harry was in the navy, it meant months (almost a year sometimes) of being alone in a new place. And one year, there was a remote tour to Iceland for a year while the children and I stayed in South Carolina. Lots of adventures, but no real home!
I remember telling my husband in Arkansas that I just wanted a stable home, a place that I could build memories for me and the kids. Alas! That never really happened! We did eventually purchase a home in Pennsylvania when Harry was getting ready to retire, but I couldn’t find a teaching job there, so once again, we moved, this time for me. Suffice it to say that I have been a little perplexed about what God’s plan for me has been. Until I met and married Harry, I had lived in one town all of my life and one home for most of my life. Now, suddenly, I felt uprooted, a stranger in a strange land…over and over again.
Today’s devotional pointed me in the right direction and reminded me that all of this time I have been moving around, Jesus was right there with me. He is still working to bring me safely to shore and to my “forever home.” We have a home now that Harry and I live in alone since our children are grown and have their own families. It does my heart good to know that they are settled into homes of their own and have been there, in the same place, for over a decade now. That is what I wanted so badly for them and for me when they were growing up. But Jesus was gracious to keep me through all of those moves and to grant the desire of my heart for my children to have what I considered a “real home.”
I am grateful for each new experience that the Lord has allowed me to have and for His mercy that He has shed on me, even as I whined and complained about more boxes and another new place. I had the opportunity to go to places I would never have chosen to see, much less live there. I have seen how people lived in the cotton fields in Arkansas and in the bitter winters of northern Maine. I have made friends in eleven different states and met people from churches who welcomed me wholeheartedly, even though they knew I would only be there a short while before the military would move us. I learned acceptance, resilience and how to adapt even when I was a reluctant learner.
I like the word picture of “safe to shore” No matter what life’s circumstances, there is a shore we are headed for, and all of the trials of today will be worth it. We just have to hold onto that hope that He placed in our hearts on the day of our salvation.
From YouVersion Devotional, “In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake”, Day 2
There is one thing we don’t want you to miss. We want to encourage you that our deepest hurt is also where our greatest hope emerges. While we experience pain and loss, those circumstances are also the fertile soil for new beginnings. For new life. For a new day.
Accepting hurt never means you are over the hurt. It means you’ve come to grips that this reality really is yours. It’s your boat. Your lake. You’re coming to terms with the fact that, with every death, there is new life.
This is one of the things that is so beautiful about this short and sad book of Lamentations. Right in the middle of the hurt and pain there is the promise of new life. Like a protest to the pain, there is this proclamation of God’s goodness and the newness of life in him.
We know it might seem impossible to envision right now. We know there may be things we’ve lost that we’ll never get back. But biblical hope enables us to see differently. To see our pain, feel it, but not be consumed by it. To see through it and see God’s purpose for it.
Hope reminds us that our current reality is not our final reality.
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope,” the writer of Lamentations says. This reality, this season, these circumstances, this hurt will not last forever. It doesn’t have to last forever. God wants to give you hope. His hope.
Here’s the good news. Even Jesus experienced pain; he entered pain for us and felt the weight of our pain in a way that we will never know. He lamented, cried, questioned, and even asked God to change the plan.
“Abba Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).
Jesus accepted the pain and endured it. He was crucified for us. But he was also raised to new life for us. There was glory in the pain and glory on the other side of the pain.
There can be the same for you. Today. Right here, right now. It’s okay to not be okay.
My Thoughts
I am always thankful that my current situation is not my final reality. It’s not that my current situation is awful or anything. It’s just not what I really want in my life. I would like to be closer to children and grandchildren, but I am thankful that I get to visit them or they visit me. I would like so many repairs done around our old house, but I am thankful for the shelter it provides and the warmth and comfort I find here. I find myself looking back in my life and all I have been through and knowing that, without a doubt, God was right there beside me in that rocking boat or walking in the wilderness. A childhood that was not ideal. God was there, even though I didn’t recognize it at the time. A marriage that was rocky at times. God was right there, and during those times, I knew it and prayed to Him for resolution and reconciliation. A stroke that could have taken my life…God was there and I was praying to Him, even though I could not speak aloud. I am still learning the lesson that my timing is not God’s. It does no good for me to point to my watch or my gray hair, explaining to God that the time is short and He needs to act faster. He acts according to His timetable and His timing is always perfect. I may not understand it, but I can trust in His love for me. I am thankful that whatever happens, the final reality of my life will be so much better than I can ever imagine!
Here is my prayer for each of you today. God bless you in your current circumstances and help you hold onto the hope that wherever you are is not your final reality.
When you come upon the scene of an accident, you will usually find two groups of helpers there: the police and the ambulance. They have totally different jobs. The police are there to investigate and uphold the law, to find out who is at fault and to hold them accountable. The ambulance is there to find out who is hurt, where they are hurting, how serious their injuries are and to transport the injured to the hospital if necessary.
When you come upon a person who is not saved, are you the policeman or the paramedic? By that I mean, are you there to investigate their sin and condemn them, letting them know in no uncertain terms that they are headed for hell? Or are you there to find out what is hurting them and to help them to feel better in whatever way you can? Think about that for a minute.
Many of us, including me at times, meet hurting people and instead of offering them the love of Jesus, we tend to hit them upside the head with the Bible that we profess to believe in. We want them to change, right now, and if it takes berating to get them to the point of confession and repentance, then that is what we use. We are being a policeman for their hurting souls, and that is not what the sinner needs in order to change. I don’t think that condemning a person with our judgment about their wrongdoing is going to change anyone’s heart. We aren’t put on the earth to investigate the evil in it; we are here to help people change so that good wins and not evil.
I had a Bible study group last night and this was one of our discussions as we read and pondered the first chapter of Romans. Is that how Jesus approached sinners? He confronted their sins and demanded that they change? No. With the exception of the Pharisees whom He did confront and call out for sin, Jesus went to every sinner with compassion and love. He understood their weaknesses and wanted to help them know forgiveness, grace and the strength to overcome that only comes from God. Jesus was like a paramedic, if you will, assessing the need and offering whatever is needed to make the person whole again. He takes people from their place of pain to the hospital of forgiveness and acceptance where they can be made whole again.
I want to be the paramedic, not the policeman. God didn’t give me a badge to carry around and let everyone know I’m an authority that they need to listen to. After all, I don’t have all of the answers anyway since I am a sinner saved by grace, just like the person I am trying to share with. Rather, He gives me the cross and reminds me and the person I am speaking to that it’s all about sacrifice and God’s great love. Yes, people are committing some atrocious sins, but that doesn’t mean that it’s up to me to tell them how awful they are. What is up to me is to show them and tell them about God’s love for them, even while they are sinning. God doesn’t categorize sins as “great sin, lesser sin.” ALL have sinned and all sins are the same to God because they separate mankind whom He loves from the Creator that made them and wants a relationship with them.
The gospel rides along with us wherever we go and brings the good news to all who will hear and believe it. So, let’s ride in the ambulance, not the police car. Let’s remember that the gospel has power all by itself when we apply it correctly, with a heart of love and not one of condemnation and judgment.
Sometimes, God answers our prayers right away. But I have found that most often, His answer to me is to wait. I am not very good at waiting. I want to act, to help out like Sarah tried to do when she told Abraham to go ahead and take Hagar and have children with her. I want to help God…that sounds funny, doesn’t it? God certainly does not need my help or my advice about how He can best answer my prayers. He just says to wait.
I think it’s interesting that the Spanish word for to wait is “esperar.” That’s because this word has another meaning…HOPE! We wait and we hope with faith and trust in God. Those two words that seem to be different are a pair that go together. It is by hoping that we know we can trust God. And it is in the waiting that we learn to trust Him more.
Every day we wait for something. Sometimes it’s a phone call, other times it’s a personal visit. We wait for packages to arrive and for a special day to come. But do you know who else is waiting? God is waiting for each of us to turn to Him as we wait and to communicate with Him about our fears and frustrations, to be honest about the problem we are having waiting. I cannot imagine how hard it would have been to send my son to die, knowing that it was inevitably going to happen, but having to wait for that hard part, the time of separation from my only son. That’s what God did. He didn’t hurry things along, come up with a Plan B or change His mind about the sacrifice of His Son. No, He waited for the perfect time for Jesus to be born and the perfect time for Him to die for each of us. God wants us to wait because in the waiting, we can experience a closeness to Him because He also waited. He didn’t have to learn any lessons in His waiting since He already knew everything. But God, in His great love and wisdom, knows that we need to be in the waiting room sometimes just to hear His voice and to wait for Him expectantly. Not demanding our way, not trying to work out our own solution, but just to wait, to hope that the answer is coming. God, who did not hold back the sacrifice of His Son, is not holding back good things from us when we wait. He is working His perfect plan for us, helping us to be more like Jesus and less like Adam. God’s schoolroom is the best place for us to learn about His character and how to wait patiently while also being brave and facing whatever it is that is a problem for us. We have to learn to wait well, not to wait while we tap our feet, constantly look at our watch or the calendar, with an attitude of “well, God? What’s up with this? I’m still waiting!” You know what? He knows we wait, He wants us to wait and learn from the experience. Waiting builds faith if we will let it.
Waiting Well
Waiting can be hard.
Most of us would prefer quick, efficient, and, when possible, instant results and answers.
But waiting is a part of life.
We must wait for seeds to grow into food, for one season to fade into the next, for babies to mature into adults, and for trees to stand tall enough to finally offer shade.
Like it or not, waiting takes patience.
We can wait days, months, years, or even decades for a prayer to be answered, for an overdue apology, for the timing to be right, or for a dream to finally come to pass.
Waiting requires courage.
King David lived nearly 3,000 years ago, but he knew what it meant to wait for God’s timing, to wait to be king, to wait to be rescued from his enemies. He wrote:
“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”
Psalms 27:14 NLT
If David thought waiting on God was important enough to write it twice in one verse, we should probably pay attention.
But waiting patiently for the Lord isn’t an excuse to do nothing.
We can proactively wait on God by staying in communication with Him, by looking for His fingerprints in ordinary moments, by reading about His story and His plans in His Word, by worshiping Him no matter what’s happening across the globe, by serving the people both inside and outside of our circles, and by thanking Him for the gifts He’s already given us.
Just because a specific door isn’t opening, or a particular opportunity isn’t available at this moment doesn’t mean that God isn’t moving.
Even when we are waiting—God is working.
Noah spent decades building an ark as he waited for God to do what He’d said. Ruth journeyed with her mother-in-law and worked in the grain fields while trusting in God’s provision after her husband’s death. Joseph stayed faithful in prison for several years before his promotion to second-in-command of Egypt. John trusted God’s ultimate will for his life, and wrote several books of the New Testament while sentenced to exile on the island of Patmos.
So, no matter what you’re facing, you can ask God for patience and trust that He is in control of your future. No matter what uncertainty lies before you, when you rely on the Lord, you can be someone who waits well.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 