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.
Yesterday’s meeting was a true blessing for me! I got to meet a lot of new ladies and interact with them. So, that is my good report.
Today, in my devotional, I read the blessing that God told Moses and Aaron to speak over the people of Israel as they continued to travel to the Promised Land.
I am praying this promise over anyone who reads it today as well as over the people of Israel as they face a mighty and devious foe. Grace and peace from the Lord is a real blessing.
I really enjoy finding prayers within the context of scripture. It’s like God is saying to me, “Pray this one.” So, I do and it always blesses my heart. May your heart be blessed with this prayer and may you indeed be filled with hope.
That word “submitting” is not very popular today as it evokes memories of men “lording it over women” and women subserviently doing as they are told, when and how they are told. But submission is actually a protection provided to us by God, especially when it refers to submitting to God.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “submit” means to allow another person or group to have authority over you. You willingly give permission to God to have authority over you. That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to me, especially since God made me and knows exactly what I need and exactly when I need it. When I am submitted to God, then I have peace. Why? Because peace follows naturally once I know that all that I am and ever will be is in the loving hands of the One who knows me best. And why will things go well with me? Does that mean nothing bad will ever happen? I really wish the latter were true, but life happens every day when we are making other plans. We just have to be willing to learn from the things that we consider bad and move on. I have found that in the moment of dealing with a crisis, everything looks really overwhelming. But when the crisis is past, I can look back and see that they really weren’t so bad. Frequently, I can see God’s hand at work in these circumstances, not that He caused them, but that He works with me in them. He is constantly by my side, helping me to be the one He wants me to be instead of the one that I insist I want to be. For example, we just got home last night from a week of visiting our youngest son and his family. Today, I am just finishing four loads of laundry and then I have to go to the laundromat because our dryer is broken. The parts are coming in sometime next week, but in the meantime, I am inconvenienced by having to go about half an hour away and wait for the clothes to dry before coming home again. Crisis? Not really…but a definite “life happens” moment. Going to the laundromat is not my idea of fun times, but I expect that God can use that time with me to reach my willful heart as well as use me to reach out to others at the laundromat. Perspective…it’s all about perspective. And being willing to submit.
I live on the east coast and we have a good number of hurricanes or tropical storms pass through. The worst one that I can remember was Isabel, a storm that took out our electricity for almost two weeks and forced us to evacuate and stay with friends for a while until the roads were cleared and it was safe to go home again. I vividly remember hearing that the storm was coming and getting ready for it, with flashlights, bottled water and canned foods as well as crackers. Then, as the storm got closer, Harry and I prayed together for safety. The rain was pounding, the thunder was crashing and the lightning just seemed to light up the sky with one lightning bolt after another. We didn’t sleep much that night; the electricity went out early in the evening and since we live rurally we were in total darkness except for our small lanterns and flashlights. But, we made it through the storm safely. When Harry went out to scout around, he found that there were electrical lines down everywhere and it wasn’t really safe to go anywhere yet. But once it was, we moved to stay with someone else who still had electricity. The storm was powerful and scary, but there are worse storms to be in.
There are storms of broken family relationships. My siblings don’t all talk to each other but they all talk to me. That makes things awkward for me, to say the least. Some of my siblings won’t talk to my sons because the latter are so liberal. I don’t believe as my sons do, but they are still my sons, so I try to mediate that situation, too. My sister has a health issue that is causing her to go blind. My daughter had a cancer scare last year. We have three grandchildren going to college this year, and we all know that college is expensive and sometimes their ideas aren’t worth having. My husband and I are both getting older and have decisions to make about our future. The list of storms of life goes on endlessly.
As I look around the “boat of my life,” I am convinced that I would not have made it this far without Jesus calming the storms. He doesn’t always calm the storms around me. He calms me so that I have a different perspective and can maintain peace even in the middle of the storm.
When the storms of life are shouting for attention, Jesus makes them whisper and when the waves want to toss me around, Jesus makes them still. Are there still storms happening? Yes, every day. Why, I can’t go a few hours without someone trying to disturb my peace with a troubling story or a complaint. I take them all to the Lord and continue, with my sea calmed and the voices becoming a whisper in the background. The voice that stands out will be that of the Lord telling me to “Peace, Be still.” Yes, that’s right. He calms me so that I can face the storms. Does that mean that I am always calm? No, but I am a work in progress. What it means is that I am trying to remain calm and when that doesn’t happen naturally (which it seldom does), I ask for Jesus’s intervention and He is faithful to calm me to face the storm. Then, He calms the storm and the thing that I feared or dreaded is not a hurricane but only a mild wind storm that passes quickly.
One of the reasons that I dreaded traveling was because of my recent problem with insomnia. No matter what time I would go to bed, I would wake up in the middle of the night (between 3-4 a.m.) and have difficulty falling to sleep again. That led to my taking naps during the day because I would just be too tired to make it without one. So, when we planned our trips to MD and PA to see grandchildren, I knew that naps would probably not be possible and dreaded how tired I would get. But, surprise! It’s almost time to return home again and I have actually been sleeping all night every night that we have been away.
I have prayed this prayer faithfully for about a year now, hoping but not really believing that I would be able to sleep well. I confess that for this issue, I was at a low point in my faith journey. God showed me that He answers prayers many times in spite of me and my own doubts. I am thrilled that I have slept so well at our son’s house and at our daughter’s. I pray that this new pattern continues when we return home, but if it doesn’t, I will do what I was doing before. I was wakeful and praying as God brought people to mind. Perhaps He needed me to be praying but I can’t say that with certainty. No matter the reason for my insomnia, God can use it to teach me lessons and to have me pray. God gives me safety and I don’t need to be afraid, even of not being able to sleep.
I pray daily, throughout the day. Some days my prayer is a whisper, a hopeful murmuring to the Lord. Other days, my prayer is intense. Yesterday was a day of intense prayer as our grandson was traveling alone to D.C. to start his new internship there. But his trip was delayed due to car troubles, so he ended up having to travel at night. So, my husband and I prayed that God would work out things with the car and get him there safely. God came through for Isaac as he left about 6 p.m., arrived at 9 and missed a lot of the awful traffic on the beltway. Sigh of relief and praise of thanksgiving that he arrived safely in spite of all of the obstacles. Of course, prayers will continue for him and our other loved one in the days ahead. I must admit that sometimes I am ashamed of how little confidence I have that God will answer my prayers. I pray, wait for an answer and hope that it will come but I am not surprised when the answer is delayed or doesn’t take the form that I thought it would. There is a prayer in scripture that addressed that for me this morning.
Knowing that God is the source of hope helps me to trust in His sovereignty. My confidence is in His answering in His timing and in a way that is best for all concerned. Look at the powerful words in this verse: joy, peace, trust, overflow and confident hope. This is a verse that I need to personalize daily and pray over myself as I come before the Lord and present my thanksgiving and petitions. Today, I pray this prayer for each of my readers, with the confident hope that God will completely fill you with His joy and peace as you trust in Him.
“Be the light!” the preacher proclaims from the pulpit. “Shine in the darkness,” says the Sunday school teacher. All good advice, but the practicality sometimes escapes us as we hurry away from the darkness and try to stay near the light ourselves. We are missing the point that we are the light and in our haste to move away from darkness, we are missing opportunities to shine His light on a dark world.
We try to stay insulated in our protected group of Christians who all believe as we do when what we are supposed to do is go into the world and shine the light that we have on the people who don’t yet know that they need Jesus. When we are doing what we should be doing, we are going to naturally attract others and need to have an answer for the hope that is in us. Be ready at all times to tell others how Jesus has made a difference in your life! Like a moth is attracted to a flame or any kind of light, so people in darkness need to know that there is a light that they can turn to. At the most unexpected times and from some of the most unexpected sources, you may have people seeking answers from you because they have seen your light and want to know more about what makes you different. Be ready to be that light!
The light that is in us comes from the Lord Jesus. When darkness is all around, we can continue to shine and attract others to the beauty of salvation and the peace and hope that it offers.
Just when I was beginning to think that I was on the mountaintop, looking down into the valleys of all my trials and worries, a new medical test comes along, and boom! There I am, calling out to God for help to get through this one. I awakened a lot during the night, knowing that my EMG is early this morning. Each time, God would bring a praise song to my mind and I would drift back to sleep. It doesn’t help my state of mind that I have had this test before, know that it’s uncomfortable and takes about an hour of pins and electric shocks, simultaneously. Nevertheless, I am trusting God to get me through it without tears of anguish and frustration. The last time I had the test was over eight years ago, after my stroke, so I don’t recall a lot, just the pain and the feeling that it was taking a long time. I think a “long time” is relative when you are in pain that is being dealt out by a machine in the hands of a technician who gently says that it will be slightly uncomfortable. But, just as God has been with me through all the other tests, He will walk with me through this one, too. It reminds me of the wilderness experience of the Israelites. God took them through the wilderness, not around it. So, through this trial I go and I am confident that I will come out the other side, more compassionate for others going through tedious and painful medical procedures.
Fixing my thoughts on God helped me sleep during the night, so I know that fixing my thoughts on Him will help me get through the pain of electricity coursing through my body. Honestly, childbirth does hurt more, so there is that. And I know that my Lamaze breathing helped the last time I had the test done, so I will take deep breaths and with each inhale, I will say a prayer of thanksgiving that I am able to have the test done and a prayer that the test will show what the doctors need to know.
I think that peace comes as a result of prayers, so I am wearing my full armor today, including the shoes on my feet that come from the peace of God’s Good News. As He continues to remind me, nothing will happen to me today that He and I cannot handle together!
Most who know me well are amazed that I have not been “falling apart” lately as I go through multiple medical tests weekly, all without really coming to an answer for my medical problems. However, those who know me well also know that I have put my trust in God and my eyes remain fixed on Him. He knows the root of the problem and He has the answer. If He reveals it to a doctor and there is a treatment for it, that’s good. If not, that is okay, too, because He is in control.
That is not to say that I have been enjoying being poked, prodded, stuck and next week, I get electricity coursing through me as the doctors study my brain. No, no enjoyment here, but rather peace in the process. My mind is focused on the Lord, trusting Him to bring this all to an end in His time. I have had to postpone visits with grandchildren and other family, an extended trip with my husband to celebrate our fiftieth anniversary and other plans that I had looked forward to with great anticipation. That is all of little importance to me these days. I know that God is holding me in the palm of His hand and He knows what needs to happen for me to feel whole again. So, I wait, I trust and I keep my eyes on Him. I don’t want to be like Peter and lose my focus so that I start to sink into the deep waters; instead, I am spending more time in God’s Word, talking to Him continually and asking Him to show me what to do next. Trust is an easy thing when there are no tests or trials, but the more trials that come along, the harder it is to trust. I am determined to be steadfast in my pursuit of the Lord, regardless of outward circumstances. I hope that is where you find yourself, too…peacefully waiting for God to act and trusting that in His time, He will.
This promise was made to Moses and the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. God doesn’t say “you will rest.” He says firmly, “I will give you rest.” God says the same thing to each of us as we wander through life, sometimes aimlessly and without any notion of where the end will bring us. It is up to each of us to receive the rest that God offers us. His Holy Presence provides the security and comfort and total protection that we need no matter what we are facing, but we have to take time to just rest in Him and accept that He is there with us. This is particularly appropriate for me right now as I just returned from an extended stay in Maryland with my son and his family. I dropped a lot of balls that I have been juggling while I was there because my priority was caring for an active and mischievous toddler. Book reviews were put on hold. In fact, reading novels was mostly put on a back burner as I was usually too tired to read much when I headed to bed at the end of my long days. However, God promised me rest and I got it, in spite of illness, cold days and colder nights and general feelings of being too tired to rest well. God’s presence never left me, and I was ever aware of the strength that He was providing to help me to watch over little Nathan.
Now that I am home again, the pressure of book launches is there but it isn’t as stressful as it could be. Why not? Because God has promised me rest. I read a little when I go to bed but I don’t stay up late to do so. I turn off the light, pray and fall into a deep and restful slumber knowing that God is with me. And if He gives me a new day to serve Him and to do the work that I have committed to do, He will also be with me and help me to fulfill the commitments that I have made. His very presence gives me a calm peace and rest that can only come from Him.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 