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.
How can one read the prophecy in Isaiah and not worship Jesus as King? It boggles my mind that so many read this important passage once a year, usually at Christmas, and quickly pass over it to read the story of His birth in Luke 2. The prophecy that reminds us of His position on earth and in heaven is an important part of His story and thus an plays an important part in our salvation. Worship springs from a heart grateful for all He was, all He is and all He will be!
What a challenge this is to keep preaching when it seems none are listening! We live in a world in which so many things grab people’s attention, and unfortunately, God is not usually their attention grabber. In a world of Apple, Microsoft, Google and Tik Tok, we are called to be an “Isaiah,” one who does not let people bad choices dissuade us from sharing the truth. We never know when one might turn to God, and after all, isn’t one soul worth all of the effort we put into going and telling. We are being obedient; God is waiting. Maybe this is our time to step out, accept the challenge and tell until there are no more left to hear.
Where do we find Godly wisdom? In His Word, of course. So, with that thought, here is a potpourri of verses that I read and meditated on this morning. These are in no particular order except as I read them in my devotionals this morning. They all spoke to me in different ways. Which one, if any, speaks most to your heart?
Do you have a favorite verse that speaks to your heart and resonates within your soul? Please share it in the comments.
Note that all illustrations above were created by me on Canva. I usually use the YouVersion Bible App and its designs but it was down this morning, so I created my own. Glory to God for His Word that gives me comfort, intelligence and all I need to face a new day!
Have you ever had a really good friend who knows everything about you and still loves you in spite of it? This was my meditation this morning and I am blessed by how well God knows me and still loves me. He even knows my thoughts and my words before I speak them. Even when I speak from anger instead of love, God knows and loves. That is a sacrificial love that chooses to love in spite of who I am and not because of who I am. It’s WHOSE I am that really matters to Him! The really good news is that He loves each of us the same way, with the same fervor and the same knowledge. How can we do any less than seek to know Him better each day and to be pleasing to Him in our thoughts and words?
Have a blessed day and enjoy your fellowship with the Lord today!
Have you ever wondered who you really are, beneath the makeup, clothes and all the external trappings? There was a time in my life, two actually, that stand out in my memory as periods of time when I wondered who I really was. One was when all of my children had left the nest and I wondered if I was still a mother, just without children to care for, guide and admonish. Of course, I was and I am still a mom but my loneliness without my children there was tangible. I had to convince myself that I would always be a mom, just from a distance. The second time was when I retired from teaching. My identity was wrapped around my ability to teach, a career that I pursued for almost four decades before retiring. Then, it was time to retire and I questioned myself about what I am without teaching. This question, God has answered lovingly over the last six years since retirement. I am His child and I still have the gift of teaching, but I use it in different ways now.
This morning in my devotional, I read this Scripture about Jesus.
Jesus was in the temple and reading from the book of Isaiah. It boggles my mind that Jesus was born knowing exactly who He was and the destiny that He would fulfill. He accepted Himself just as He was and went about doing what He was called to do. Wouldn’t our lives be simpler if we did likewise? Just ask God what He wants us to do with our lives that He has gifted us and then fulfill His will for us here on earth? Jesus knew His Father intimately and knew exactly what He was going to do to complete His work on earth. He had no identity crisis and no one, not even the scoffers, could move Him from His path or convince Him that He wasn’t exactly who He said He was.
Jesus’s confidence in God inspires me to seek God more and to find out the next step for my life. My identity has not changed but my role that I play in life has, due to circumstances like aging. But that does not limit God from using me, so my new identity may be as a grandmother who lovingly tells her grandchildren about the Lord and all of His marvelous works. It may also be as a Sunday school helper, again working with children. My identity, and yours, is only limited by our own vision of how we see ourselves fulfilling God’s purpose. I’m still the same person I was fifty years ago when I started teaching. I’m also the same person I was forty plus years ago when I gave birth for the first time. There is no book I can pick up and read what the next step in my life is, but all of the wisdom of God is available to me through His word and through my prayer life, talking to God and waiting for Him to tell me the next step.
God wants to take us from where we are to where He wants us to be, no matter what stage of life we are in. There is no such thing as an identity crisis for those who are children of the living God. He has a plan and He will carry it out. We just have to listen instead of being captured by the latest psychobabble of the current generation.
May each of you have a blessed and wonderful day, filled with the knowledge that your identity is in the Father and He loves you with an everlasting love.
This morning during my devotional, God spoke to me through various Scripture verses. I am grateful to Him for His Holy Spirit who leads me and guides me each day and shows me truth from His Word.
God works in each of us if we will allow Him to do so. He has a purpose and a plan and it pleases Him when we follow His plans instead of our own pursuits.
When we see others suffering and just pass by instead of being a Good Samaritan, then we are denying the fact that we are part of that suffering. We are all one, together. When one suffers, we all do.
Some of the people who consider themselves wise are not following the admonition to live humbly. I have always heard that if you toot your own horn, then no one else does. We are expected to make humble and wise decisions in ALL that we do, every day in every way.
This is a song that I used to sing in church many years ago, one that still gives me great pleasure as I focus on the coming Day of the Lord, when all of the Redeemed will gather together. There will be only joy, no sorrow or mourning. This particularly touched me today as a fellow co-worker from my school passed away Friday from Covid. He had been vaccinated, so there are a lot of questions in my mind about how this could happen. He was only in his fifties and leaves behind a loving wife and five children. I hope to see him again someday when all of us together go to Zion, singing with gladness because Christ has redeemed us and for all eternity there will be no more sorrow.
Thank you, my friends, for reading through today’s ramblings with me. I need God every day. I need to hear from Him every day. And, while I am still on earth, it gives me great pleasure to share His Word with you. Have a blessed day, filled with His Spirit. Be the Good Samaritan. Be the difference that the world sees and wonders about.
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Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 