Tag: Relationship with God

Assemble Together

On By vickleaIn Admonition, Scripture2 Comments

I must confess that assembling together in a large church body is difficult for me because I am introverted and prefer no groups or small groups. But our church is big, we have been content there with pastors who preach from the word and a caring group in Sunday school. But why not stay at home? After all, the service is streamed. The Sunday school class is on YouTube the following week. So, why bother to go?

I think we honor God when we come together as His body and share with each other about Him. God is always listening, to our whining and complaining, to our gossip (that we aren’t supposed to do) and to our praise. I would much rather have an attitude of healthy respect for God when I go to church and remember the real reason I am there, to worship Him. To be honest, I have gotten irate in the past when the sermon doesn’t seem to apply to me or when the music is too loud (which is every week nowadays). But I am not there for entertainment; I am there for relationship, with God first and with other like-minded individuals. I think we need church to refocus and center our thoughts on what is really important in our lives.

This week was hard, with so many innocent children and adults dying in the Texas flood. I followed the news carefully, praying all the while that more survivors would be found and saved. I know and knew then that God is in control and this flash flood did not catch Him by surprise. I was, however, upended by all of the sweet little faces of those who will never go home again. Then, the Lord spoke to my heart that they are in their “forever home” with Him and He has them in His comforting, warm embrace.

So, going to church yesterday was like the culmination of my thoughts over the weekend. I wanted to do and be there and help, but I was here, across the nation, and all I could do was pray. How was I able to pray for complete strangers whom I will never meet in this life? Because I have a relationship with God and He is their Father, too.

That’s why we go to church, assembling ourselves together and talking to each other about the hard things, the toll that the deaths have taken on us emotionally. And the family of God encourages us to keep going, keep praying, keep obeying. God puts us where He needs us when He needs us to be there, and yesterday, I needed to be with my church family to be reassured of God’s constant presence and love even during a disaster and great tragedy.

Greater Is He…

On By vickleaIn Admonition, promises, Scripture, YouVersion App3 Comments

As I sit and write this post, I have been watching the VE Day Celebration in Great Britain on BBC. That is not usually what I do in the mornings, but my husband arose at o’dark thirty and left the TV on and I was drawn into the pomp happening on the screen. I watched the king salute the troops, I watched Kate and Prince William and their family greeting people. Mostly I watched faces. People looked happy and perhaps grateful to be there. Eighty years since this big war was over and the evil Nazi empire was stopped.

It has been over two thousand years since our victory was won and yet many of us (including me) still go around with long faces some days, looking as though we have lost or are about to lose everything. But the victory was ours the minute that Jesus said, “It is finished” and we accepted Him as Lord and Savior. The battle was for our souls, our future with God and we won because Jesus fought for us with His life!

Unfortunately, the battle for our minds continues as Satan wants nothing less than to come between us and God. He wants to convince us that he is more powerful than God and that there is nothing we can do about it. Here is a portion of my devotional from the YouVersion Daily Refresh on May 5th:

Our enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. To pervert, manipulate, and confuse, distract, divide, and disable. 

But God is greater than the doubts that clutter your mind, the enemies that frustrate your plans, the heart-wrenching and even soul-crushing situation that’s currently consuming your thoughts. 

You can fight from a place of victory because the battle has already been won. 

Jesus has already conquered death. And now, while we wait for others to come to salvation and for God to bring all things to completion under Christ’s authority, we can fight with a confident hope.

Knowing that God is greater should give us peace in our hearts and help us to be ready to win the battles here on earth. They are small skirmishes compared to what Jesus had to go through, although to us they may seem like the great battles of WWII. We need to keep a perspective that God is greater and that we can and will get through to the other side. Years of testimonials to this truth help to assuage the doubts and fears; we just have to remind ourselves of our relationship with God and that He is always faithful.

I found this graphic online and I thought it was cute as well as appropriate. I hope you get a chuckle from it and also remember what it says when you face the next challenge. I don’t want to discourage you, but the challenges will come in this life. It’s our response that makes the difference for us!

Victory in Jesus

From Broken to Whole

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

I remember well when our children would run to me crying about a broken toy and expect me to fix it for them. Sometimes I could and other times, I would have to tell them that it could not be repaired and they would be very disappointed in my inability. There is One who takes each of us, broken as we are, and who “fixes” us completely and makes us whole. Our sin and the darkness all around us that accompany that sin are changed to light and an indescribable feeling of being whole. I think that it because the God who made us is able to have a relationship with us due to the sacrifice of His Son. We are no longer broken by sin but made whole by His grace. Thanks be to God for His plan that makes us whole! God never turns anyone away and says we are too broken to be repaired; there is no such thing as “too broken” with God. We can all be made whole in the name of Jesus. This is “Amazing Grace”!

Healed by His Wounds

Brokenness. We see it all around us. We experience it ourselves: in our relationships, in our dreams, in our bodies. And yet, something happened over two thousand years ago that still has the power to heal that brokenness.  
 
1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 

Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, took the weight of our sins upon Himself. He carried them to the cross, giving up His life not because of His own wrongdoing, but because of ours. This is the essence of the Gospel. Through His sacrifice, He offered us a path out of darkness and into His light—a life transformed by His grace. 

Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we’ve been given a profound healing of our spirits; new life taking the place of sins and darkness that separate us from God. Through His wounds, we are offered forgiveness and a new relationship with God, healed and whole.  

Understanding His sacrifice transforms us. We can’t live in darkness anymore. Brokenness may surround us, but it is no longer within us. His righteousness washes over us. His healing wells up within us. Our entire life shifts as a response to the profound love and sacrifice Jesus showed us, and the healing that He alone can provide.

Trust God, Not Circumstances

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App1 Comment

www.bible.com/reading-plans/31835/day/4

Good things happen and we are delighted to praise God. Bad things happen and we turn and blame God for them. Our circumstances are not caused by God; in general, our circumstances are caused by the sin in the world, our fallen world and our own wrong choices. My sister wants to know why she is going blind. Why would a loving God cause that to happen? My reply is that He didn’t cause it, but He has allowed it and no matter the circumstances, we are to continue to trust God. This life is a schoolmaster for our eternity with the Lord. We either learn the lessons we need to learn from the hard things we go through or we learn them later from another hard thing. Unlike some school teachers who just shake their heads in frustration and give up, God doesn’t turn away from us and give up. He wants a relationship with us that is based on His sacrifice and our trust, and if it takes hard times to get us there, then He will allow it. Harsh God? No, a loving Father who wants the best for each of us.

Feeling Forgotten

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/15112/day/1

I think being forgotten and feeling rejected go hand in hand. So many times in my youth and after, I was the one not picked for the teams until the teacher pointed out that I had not yet been chosen. I was the one who seemed to be “forgotten” and I did feel rejected. When I got married, I thought those days were behind me. But the wives of the military spouses had their own cliques and once again, I often felt rejected and forgotten. My husband was busy building his career and gaining rank while I was in a new place with no friends. But I quickly found out that God had not forgotten me. Each time I prayed for a job in a new place, I got one. And if there was no job, God opened doors for me to do volunteer work and get to know others that way. I also always found a church to belong to so that when my husband was thousands of miles away, I still had a support system. God has always been there for me and has reminded me over and over that He has not forgotten me. I am thankful that He doesn’t need strings on his fingers or a notepad to carry with Him to remind Him of me. He just remembers, and I pray that I will never forget all of the times that He has faithfully and lovingly remembered me.

Prayer is Vital

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

Do you know what that word “vital” means? It comes from the root word for life, and prayer is vital for our life with God. How do you have a relationship with someone that you never talk to? If the only time I talked to my husband were to give him a list of things I needed him to buy for me or do for me, that would be a very poor basis for a relationship indeed! Yet we don’t hesitate to wake up in the morning, read the Bible and then give God a “laundry list” of our expectations for Him. What if we took time to “be watchful,” to just observe what is going on in our small part of the world and then extend that watchfulness out to what is happening in your state, your nation the world. Instead of a laundry list of wants, I think watchfulness results in a prayer that speaks back to God from His heart’s desire for us and for others. Yes, the times are troubling, but God isn’t asleep. He is listening for His people to pray according to His will. He is working out His plan for the world and we can be a part of that plan by joining in prayer with God. We need to talk WITH God, not to Him. We need to be willing to listen as we watch and hear the heart of God for the hurting people of the world. We need to take time to be thankful for all God has done and is doing, knowing that somehow He is working things out for the good of all mankind. Prayer changes things, but only if we participate in an active prayer life, communicating with God as though He really cares. Because He does.

A Life of Prayer

Take a moment to think about the habit of prayer in your life. Is prayer a regular part of your life, or is it something you don’t really pay attention to?

As Paul is closing out his letter to the church in Colossae, one of the things he reminds them of is the importance of prayer. For Paul, prayer is more than just asking God for what he needs. Prayer is the way Paul’s energy and ministry is sustained. Prayer is a source of God’s power for Paul.

He asks the Colossians not only to engage in prayer, but to be devoted to it. Paul understood that if the mission of God was to be effective through them, they needed to be devoted to talking to God about every aspect of life.

This means they not only needed to spend time in prayer for a few minutes in the morning, but they needed to make prayer a part of their entire day.

Paul tells the church to be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful. These are two aspects of prayer that we can engage in as well.

The first is being watchful or discerning of what’s happening in your life. We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us discern what God is doing in and around us, to make us aware of His work. Second, we can use our time in prayer to worship God through thanksgiving and gratitude.

Prayer is a vital aspect of the Christian life. Spend some time not only praying to God, but thinking through how you can make prayer a central part of your spiritual life.

Growing Trust

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion AppLeave a comment

www.bible.com/reading-plans/44313/day/1

“Trust” is my faith word for the year and I had an inkling when I prayed about it and chose it that this would lead to some testing. Well, of course, it has, but that is okay, because it has also led to my pressing in closer to God and being more willing to wait for Him and to listen for His voice. Trust isn’t an easy thing for me, but I am learning what it means to trust and planting seeds of trust along my journey of life’s challenging and bumpy road.

Praise and Relationship

On By vickleaIn praise, Scripture, Song1 Comment

Remember the first time you started a relationship with someone? If the relationship is going to last, the two of you need to communicate with each other and trust each other. One of the ways to build that open communication is to honestly say kind words of appreciation to each other. Gary Smalley calls it “The Love Language.” The Bible tells us to build each other up, to encourage each other. Some days, after my husband has done one irritating thing after another, it’s hard to find something kind to say, but I look and there it is! Kindness leads to communication which leads to more kindness, appreciation and love.

Did you know that God desires us to worship Him? Not because He needs our worship but because our praise opens the doors of communication with Him. After all, our relationships on earth are a small mirror to what our relationship is supposed to be with God. So, praise should be a natural outpouring of our love for Him. We show our appreciation to the Lord for all He has done and our love for Him in our words of adoration and praise.

If you can’t find your own words to praise God, read the Word. It is filled with praise for our Mighty Creator. No one is like Him and no one deserves the praise that is His just because of Who He is.

A creature is a created being, one created by God. The creatures in Revelation know to praise God, the One who was in the time of creation and all of the patriarchs, the One who is fully present in our lives today and the One who is coming again to rule and reign forever.

Holy, Holy, Holy-Audrey Assad

No Excuses

On By vickleaIn Scripture3 Comments

How can anyone look at all of the marvels of God’s creation and not believe in a Creator? The answer lies in their hearts. They have been deceived by science and man’s own desire to explain away God so that they can be God. Every day I marvel at something new that I see in God’s creation that I never noticed before, and I am thankful that He led me down the path of belief in Him and in His great power. There are so many mysteries in life, but the creation of the world is not one of them. “And God said…and it was good.”

May you be blessed today with feelings of awe and wonder at all God has created for us to enjoy. And may you, in turn, bless the Creator who gave each marvelous part of this world to us and desires to have a relationship with His greatest creation…you!