Tag: testimony

Your Story

On By vickleaIn devotional, Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

Since it is the day after Christmas, I am starting a new devotional and will share parts of it with you and I share my heart. Yesterday was a really good day, and not just because of presents. Rather, it was because of the presence of the Lord. I got to FaceTime with two of our three children and eight of our grandchildren. It was so much fun seeing their joyful faces as they opened gifts and expressed their appreciation to us and to each other. Plus, I got to talk to our son while he was traveling back home to Virginia from his Christmas visit to his wife’s family in Pennsylvania. I also talked to three of my four siblings and had talked with my youngest sister on her birthday on Christmas Eve. So, lots of communication with family.

The best thing that happened is after years of praying, my brothers talked to each other, cordially and with love and hope for the future. They had not talked for over seven years, and I have been praying for reconciliation the entire time, but I must confess that I didn’t have a lot of faith for it because I know my brothers well. Anyway, it happened and that was like the best Christmas gift ever!

I want God to write into my story that I tried to be a peacemaker. That is a goal for me, to bring people together and not apart. There is too much division in this world of ours and I don’t want to be a part of that. I want to help people see their commonalities and to build a relationship on them.

Now, onto the devotional…

From the You Version Bible App Devotional, “Daily Power by Craig Groeschel, Day 1”

One small decision today could have a big impact on tomorrow. Chances are you can think of something right now that you know God would love to include in your story. Just consider what might happen if you remember to floss tonight or work out tomorrow morning or attend church this Sunday or spend some special time with someone you love.

It doesn’t always take a long time to see big differences in your life. What story do you believe God wants you to tell five or ten years from now? What does God want you to want? Jot down your thoughts about what you believe God wants for your future. Your ideas don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to commit to what you write just yet. Just capture on paper the first thoughts that come to mind.

Based on what you believe God wants you to want, what discipline do you need to start doing to head toward where God wants you to go? Choose one thing. You’ll be tempted to pick three, four, or even ten, but don’t. Whatever you do, pick just one thing. Because if you pick more than one, you likely won’t achieve any of them. But if you select just one, you absolutely can start writing the story God wants you to write.

Power Lift: Show me how you want me to grow this year, God. Give me your wisdom and discernment to know how to focus my habits, choices, and routines on one area of change.

If we are keeping in step with the Spirit, we are in step with what God wants for our lives. Sometimes, I think I have totally missed the Holy Spirit, and then something happens and I know that He is watching me and urging me to “come on and get with the program.” God is writing my story and I know that I am not what He wants me to be yet but neither am I what I was.

How to Find Hope

On By vickleaIn Christmas, prayer request, Scripture, testimony, YouVersion AppLeave a comment

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.

Loving Your Neighbor

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App4 Comments

I hesitated to share my story about my neighbor because it brings back some shocking memories. When we first moved into our little house in the big woods, our neighbor tried to block us every way he could from accessing our home. We had to hire a surveyor and get the county law enforcement involved before we could move in. Then, since we had four acres, I took an extra job teaching a college class at night so I could buy my husband a riding mower. Well, I cannot say for certain that the neighbor vandalized it, but there was gray paint put into the gas tank and the mower was ruined, invalidating its warranty. When the police investigated, they found gray paint in his shed, but that was circumstantial evidence. We tried, we really did. We took bags of candy, baked goods, all kinds of small gifts to let them know we were friendly. After being told that we were trespassing and could be shot for our efforts, we stopped going there. Then, the corker happened. My husband was mowing our front lawn (on his second mower that I got him) when the neighbor attacked him physically. He knocked Harry off the seat of the mower and once he got him on the ground, he beat him up. Now, Harry is not small, but he is twenty years older, in his early 50’s. Anyway, once he finished bruising him up pretty badly, Harry ran into the house and called the police. The neighbor was arrested and charged with assault and battery, and we went to court to testify. Our testimony wasn’t needed…the judge read the abusive neighbor the riot act and put him on warning to ever come near us again. All that being said…he is still our neighbor and I still pray for him and for his wife. When his only daughter died a few years ago, we didn’t feel free to go over and comfort them, but we sent a card and prayed for them. We both figure he has has a hard life to act in such a way, and as a result he resents everyone who is white. Not a problem! Jesus loves everyone, so we pray and wait for God to change his heart. He lives next door to us, but he is not our only neighbor. As the devotional points out, our neighbor is anyone who could use our assistance, which includes our prayers and loving thoughts.

A True Neighbor

Have you ever wondered: “What does God want me to do?”

If you’re looking for a verse that summarizes the commands in both the Old and New Testaments, here’s what Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia…

“For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Galatians 5:14 NLT

Paul’s words echo a command Jesus gave when He was asked what the most important commandment was (Matthew 22:37-40). What they’re both essentially saying is: beyond loving God with everything in you, you should love your neighbor as yourself. 

Who is your neighbor? A Jewish expert in religious law once asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) So Jesus told him a story about a man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. Both a priest and a Levite walked by and ignored the man—but it was a Samaritan who sacrificed his time and money to help him heal.

For many reasons, Samaritans were despised by Jews. But that didn’t stop the Samaritan in this story from showing compassion. What Jesus wanted the Jewish expert (and us) to hear is that anyone, anywhere is our neighbor—and everyone is worthy of our sacrificial love.

How do you love yourself? When you have a need of any kind, you work hard to meet it. You don’t have to think about how to treat yourself; it’s just something you do. The care we unconsciously show ourselves is also how we should care for others.

How can you love your neighbor as you love yourself? If someone needs help with their home, job, or children, you can serve joyfully. If a family is struggling financially, you can give generously. If there’s someone in your life who doesn’t have a godly example to look up to, you can step into the gap. 

Being a true neighbor is not always convenient and it will likely cost you, but you can still choose to love them as you love yourself. And when you serve others in this way, you are serving Jesus, too.

Today, take a moment to consider the people around you who could use your help. Then, ask God to reveal how you can love and serve them this week.

Telling Is Important

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App1 Comment

www.bible.com/reading-plans/13696/day/20

The faith we have is meant to be shared with the next generation. They need to hear about how we came to believe in the Lord Jesus and all that He has done for us during our lifetimes. It isn’t enough that they see our lives, although that should be a good witness to them. They also need to hear the stories. I think I have told all of my children and grandchildren my testimony but since my memory is faulty, it will not hurt to tell them again. It is in the telling that I am reminded to God’s goodness to me just as I am telling others about all that He has done. Just as the stones were set up by Israel when they crossed the Jordan River, I have memories from all of the churches we attended and what I learned there. I have Bibles marked with verses from various sermons by various pastors and notes that I have taken over the years, both in my Bible and in notebooks. You may not think so, but your children and grandchildren need the evidence of your faith shown to them so that when times get hard for them, they can look back and remember to keep the evidence of God’s working in them and their own faith. God does everything for a reason; we often don’t understand it at the time, or ever here on earth, but God has a plan and a purpose and He knows what He is doing. I needed to remind myself of that today as our oldest grandson is facing a tremendous medical burden. Please pray for him and for his family. I don’t know what God is doing here, but I know that He is control and can take care of cancer and all of its ill effects just as He took care of me when I had a stroke. God is good…always and in all ways, even when we don’t understand.

Choose to Forgive

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App3 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/11667/day/19

I had a real problem with forgiveness for a really long time. First, I had to forgive my mother who was emotionally and physically abusive to me. Now, I can write those words without my heart racing and bitterness consuming me. My mom was a human with a lot of problems and she took them out on me. So, I forgave her. Then, many years after I was an adult and had my own family, my mom died in a suspicious manner. Unproven though it was, it looked a lot like the father who had protected me so many years from my mom, had committed the ultimate act of hatred by withholding her seizure medication and letting her die an excruciating death. We couldn’t prove it, but daddy came just short of admitting it. He himself was a drug addict and I am not sure what led him to do such an awful thing. My siblings and I were devastated. I lost my mom when I was in my 30’s, just when she and I were getting to know each other as friends and mothers. For many years, I carried the burden of knowing what daddy did and not being able to forgive him. Then the Lord spoke to me clearly and told me that He had given His Son so I could be forgiven. There is no other sacrifice and I was only hurting myself by not forgiving my father. God’s word to me was helped along by my father’s sister, a woman who loved the Lord and who on her deathbed begged me not to give up on my father. So, after almost a decade of distancing myself from my father, I started calling him and checking on him. My siblings were mostly outraged that I would contact him, but I continued my pursuit of re-establishing a relationship with him. Finally, in my 60’s, my husband and I traveled to Florida where daddy lived and went to visit him. His dwelling was awful, in a terrible neighborhood and barely livable. We took him out that day to the aquarium and to lunch and I told him that I forgave him. I don’t think he really understood in his drug-addled state what I was forgiving him for, but I had to say the words for me. I then pestered my siblings to let daddy back into their lives. One at a time, they all did, except for my older sister. They each visited daddy, the siblings in Florida checking on him and making sure he had groceries and other necessities. My youngest brother, the one who swore never to forgive daddy, was with him and prayed with daddy when he died in the VA hospital in Tampa. So, I am here to tell you that forgiveness is absolutely necessary, not to free the other person from the sin against you, but to free you from the destruction of bitterness that will eat your soul alive. My father died, knowing he was a sinner saved by grace. Will he pay for killing our mom? I don’t know. God is the final judge, and I will leave that in His capable hands. I loved and forgave, even when I didn’t feel like it.

Answers and Waiting

On By vickleaIn Scripture6 Comments

I like how this verse encourages us to be brave and courageous as we wait for the Lord. We can depend on Him to answer at just the right time and with our good always at the center of His answer.

God answers with good things and then gives the answer in front of all, even the doubters. God’s answers to prayers for us are a living testament to His goodness and grace. We are a walking testimony every day, if we will but share the good news of all He has done for us.

After months of testing, I can share my testimony that God has restored my health and is continuing to strengthen me. I am not as young as I once was and don’t have all of the abilities that I once had, but I am strong enough to do what God blesses me to do, and that is enough. Praise His Name for the answers to prayers that all of the tests showed nothing remarkable and the fainting is simply a reaction to my heart medicine!

A Testimony and a Praise

On By vickleaIn Quotation and Citations, Scripture6 Comments

These last few months, I have felt as though I knew what it was like to be the desperate woman who reached out to touch Jesus for her healing. I have been to specialist after specialist and had more medical tests than I knew existed, but the answer to my fainting and dizziness has been elusive. Then on Thursday, I saw a Balance Specialist. If you are blinking and looking again to see if you read that right, I can assure you that there is such a thing although it’s a totally new concept to me, too. My cardiologist had done innumerable tests and suggested I see my ENT to check for an inner ear problem. My regular ENT referred me to a Balance Specialist, a physician’s assistant who is actually a specialized physical therapist. I must admit that I went to the office with a little trepidation, wondering what in the world the new test would be like. This likable thirty-ish young man spent about half an hour with me. First he used some goggle like instrument that made me feel as though I were playing a video game in total darkness. He said that was checking my inner ear and there was no problem there. Then he had me lie down on a table, took my blood pressure, sat me up suddenly and took it again. Voila! An answer! It seems that the med that I am taking for my high blood pressure is a Beta blocker that keeps my heart from speeding up as it needs to do when I change positions. As a result, I get dizzy and if it doesn’t correct quickly enough, I faint. So, I was given instructions to talk to my cardiologist about changing or modifying my medicine. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But apparently it wasn’t since I have been to five different specialists since February and not one of them picked up on this problem. Anyway, I still have a few more tests to undergo to satisfy my neurologist but I am delighted to have an answer that seems to be something that can be easily addressed. What amazes me is that God knew all along what has been happening and has kept me right in the palm of His hand. I haven’t been frustrated, angry or discouraged as I am accustomed to getting when faced when plans that had to change. God has comforted me and encouraged me that everything will be okay if I am patient.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my “word” for the year is TRUST. I set out at the beginning of the year with the goal in mind that I will learn to lean into the Lord, trusting Him no matter what. God took me at my word and is helping me to fulfill that promise.

I would like to think that the worst is behind me, but even if that is not proven to be true, I know that I can completely trust God’s love for me. My health may not be what I want it to be, but my soul is thriving with God.

This is a quotation from a devotional that I read this week. Hudson Taylor had a lot of challenges in his life, yet he could still write these words and mean them with his whole heart. I plan to copy this and put it on a card on my bathroom mirror, just to remind myself that I am still moving forward and God is still with me, fulfilling His promises to me.

What has God done for you lately? What is your testimony of His greatness in your life? Small things, big things, all things. Give God all the glory!

Living for Christ

On By vickleaIn Scripture1 Comment

I have heard this short phrase most of my Christian life (over five decades), but it has only become more real to me recently as I have pondered what it really means to live for Christ. Does it mean that I cease to exist and that all that matters to me is no longer important? God is slowly revealing to me that He wants all of me dedicated to Him but He does not want me to be a Christ-figure. He wants me to be walking around, doing what I do and be Christlike in my attitude, words and choices. Christ died for me, so the least that I can do is live for Him.

In other words, I should not be making choices to gain something for me, but to expand the Kingdom of God. My own happiness matters to God so I need to let go of trying to make myself happy and start trying to do and say what would please the Lord and lead others to Him so that they can find true fulfillment in a relationship with Him. It’s frustrating being around people who don’t serve or worship God. Imagine how difficult it must be for God, our Creator, to constantly deal with people who refuse to acknowledge Him in spite of all of His blessings to them! I don’t lose anything by serving and living for Christ, but I lose everything if I just choose to live for myself.

I don’t know if I want length added to my years or not unless it is for God’s benefit. I just want to do what pleases Him and to stay here on earth for as long as he wants me to. Sometimes, I get weary…bone-weary, spiritually exhausted. Then God tells me to get up and keep going because He isn’t finished with me yet. If I am living for Christ, I need to be willing to keep on keeping on until God tells me that my race is done.

This is a prayer I say often and not just as a thing to say to appease God. I say it because I truly want to please the Lord. He is all to me, my reason for being, so I want my life to reflect His. My prayer for you is that you will grasp hold of the concept of living for Christ and know that it means turning over your words and your heart to Him completely. He is worthy and capable of giving you the words to speak and a changed heart to show others.

May your day be filled with the wisdom that comes only from the Father, the joy and comfort from the Holy Spirit and the compassion and love of the Son.

His Wonderful Deeds

On By vickleaIn Scripture4 Comments

I have been living in a very busy household for the last few weeks. The oldest child has an activity daily after school, and sometimes she has more than one. The youngest daughter had two activities this week. My only “activity” was to watch the toddler each time there was an activity that required the parents to be elsewhere. Meanwhile, about ten days ago, I got sick. It started with a sore throat, then nasal congestion and finally, the inevitable bronchial cough. I talked to my son about getting me to the doctor but there never seemed to be a good time to go. Well, yesterday was like a day planned by God. My son had to pick up groceries, so he dropped me at the clinic, went to do his errands and I called him when I was done. (Diagnosed with acute bronchitis and sinus, but I have meds now, so I hope to get better soon,) When I called my son to pick me up, he said that he was putting the groceries in the fridge and would be there soon. The baby had fallen asleep. The end of the matter is that I got to go to the doctor, get my meds and not totally upend the family’s schedule. I figure that’s one of the things that God does for me all the time, frequently without my noticing. He just works things out for me, even when I am discouraged or not as hopeful and filled with faith as I should be.

So, what wonderful deeds has God accomplished in your life? That is your testimony for others, so share and proclaim your thankfulness!

May the Lord who richly blesses His children bless you “real good” today and throughout the week!