Saturday, December 31, 2022
Friday, December 30, 2022
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Monday, December 26, 2022
Friday, December 23, 2022
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Monday, December 19, 2022
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Saturday, December 17, 2022
Friday, December 16, 2022
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Let Me Walk With Thee
I love the old hymn entitled "Just a Closer Walk With Thee." Here are the lyrics from hymtime.com/tch/ (The Cyberhymnal):
Refrain
Refrain
Refrain
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Saturday, December 10, 2022
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Monday, December 5, 2022
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Prayer for Dealing With Other Human Beings
Saturday, December 3, 2022
Hearing His Voice
When we pray, praise, and read our Bibles as we seek God's will about an issue, we can be sure the Lord will guide us through our circumstances and also through impressions on our hearts.
We must avoid moving forward in our own logic and reasoning; the first step in seeking God's will is to lay our own desires on the altar. We can certainly pour out our hearts to God and receive His love and compassion in return; He has such empathy and love for us and in His mercy He takes action on our behalf. But apart from an earnest seeking of God's vision where our own can't reach, our dependance on our own logic and reasoning robs us of His enabling strength. Our life decisions must be grounded in prayer and the humility that comes from the conviction that God knows best. When we can pray, "Thy will and not mine be done" we are on track. Most times, when people say they can't hear God's voice, it means they have not released their will about a given situation into God's hands.
Resisting the Holy Spirit is not a happy way to live. Lord help us to trust You more, seek Your face, and humbly release our resistance to Your good and perfect will. We trust You, Lord. Let Your good and perfect will have its good and perfect way in our lives, in Jesus' Name we pray, amen.
Friday, December 2, 2022
God's Love
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:10
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God's love doesn't need our participation to be effective. But when we love God in return, our minds and hearts open to Him so that we trust Him. With trust comes the calm assurance that the Lord is in control, and we are enabled to release our frantic efforts to make everything right by our own effort.
When we believe in Jesus Christ, we are saved, not because of anything we have done, but because of what He has done. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
The moment we take our eyes from Him we begin to panic. We think everything depends on us and even worse, we become fearful that other human beings can rob us of blessings God has ordained for us. Trust in His unfailing love provides what we need to walk in His will without stumbling.
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But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Psalm 13:5-6
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
The Lord Is the One Who Sustains Me
I wear orange-tinted glasses called "migraine glasses" when I am a home. When I am suffering chronic headaches, the glasses protect me from the trigger of bright light. But although they help prevent eyestrain, the glasses also adulterate my color perception. Yellow looks pink, and green appears blue.
This morning I carefully arranged a blue snowflake towel beneath the picture on my bathroom wall, which was (I thought) a similar shade of blue. I stepped back to admire my work and suddenly remembered my tinted glasses. Yikes! Without the glasses, the picture was green and clashed with my pretty little towel! I put my glasses back on and smiled to myself. Through my tinted glasses things looked just fine.
Later, during my devotions, I brought my health concerns to the Lord. Balancing needed medications is difficult, communication with doctors is a challenge, and I was upset. The Lord answered my anxious thoughts with gentle direction to have faith in His ability to sustain my health. I remembered my orange glasses. Looking through them changed my perspective so that things appeared a lot more coordinated! Faith acts similarly to help my perspective to be more positive.
Oh--and that picture on my wall? I'll insert a photo of it so you can see it too. It says, "Faith!"
Monday, November 28, 2022
Blessings Remain
...say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Keep Your Lips Zipped, Grammy
My son is a brave man.
He strides forward in his vision of the Lord's plan for his life, seeking the path that lead's to fulfillment of God's will for those he loves and himself.
His mother--that's me--is not brave. If I'm not prayerfully careful, I speak words of fear cloaked in a disguise of caution, or even wisdom. This tendency can muddy the waters of God-given truth, and I run the risk that my inspired words will be dismissed in the way the proverbial baby was thrown out with the bath water.
Thus the need for the prayer I've placed in today's meme; "faith, not doubt; confidence, not fear."
When we pray for God's protection and guidance, He hears. We can trust Him.
Meantime, I pray to be brave to ride the roller coaster of our lives without giving way to weakness or fear. Roller coasters can be a lot of fun if you are strong enough to enjoy the ride.
Lord, please grant me strength!
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Rest in the Lord's Knowledge of the Situation
I really hate that I am prone to anxiety, and I don't think the Lord likes it either. Various sources tell me that the Bible tells us not to be afraid or anxious over 100 times.
Sometimes, we can't help it. When fear suffuses me it can be like a tide I can't swim against, and it is then I have to humble myself to ask friends to pray for me.
Lord, help me to "fear not." But thank You so much for providing for me when I am afraid. And thank You for praying friends. Amen.
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As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:13-14
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So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
Friday, November 25, 2022
Beware the Voice of Self-condemnation
Self-condemnation will spur us to efforts to make ourselves right in our own strength. The Holy Spirit's conviction moves us to repentance and release of our strivings to the Lord. Pray to discern the difference between self-condemnation and the Spirit's conviction of sin. Trying hard to do better isn't wrong unless it is motivated by self-justification rather than repentance.
Thursday, November 24, 2022
Family Gatherings
Holidays bring family gatherings, and we have to pray hard not to bring more than a covered dish to the table. If we aren't careful, past hurts and fear of future injustices taint our interactions with the people God has given us as companions for this earth journey. A simple prayer goes a long way toward defusing the power that past hurts and fear hold over our hearts:
Lord, I trust You. Thank You for forgiving my sins of the past and covering me by Your grace, so that even people who witnessed me acting sinfully are able to treat me in accordance with Your mercy. Now Lord, I forgive those who have sinned against me and entrust my well-being--past, present and future--into Your hands. Enable me to love as I've been loved, and forgive as I've been forgiven. In Jesus' Name, amen.
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Monday, November 21, 2022
Trust in God's Sovereign Knowledge
Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
Psalm 37:3-6 NIV
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Humility and Courage
Friday, November 18, 2022
Thursday, November 17, 2022
All the Way My Savior Leads Me
This post is for my daughter, who celebrates her birthday today! She is one of life's greatest blessings to her father and me and we pray blessings for her. The Bible promise over her life is the blessing of Benjamin found in Deuteronomy 33:12:
“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him,
for he shields him all day long,
and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.”
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All the Way My Savior Leads Me
Words: Fanny Crosby, in Brightest and Best, by Robert Lowry & W. Howard Doane (New York: Biglow & Main, 1875), number 64. Hymn information from hymntime.com/tch
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Monday, November 14, 2022
Sunday, November 13, 2022
Saturday, November 12, 2022
Don't Fear Human Beings
Isaiah 51: 6, 12-13
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It isn't that other people can't frighten or harm us, it's that when we belong to the Lord, He hears our cries, and will take action.
If some situation in your life is oppressive, cry out to the Lord and look to Him. He will come to your aide. The initial gift may come in the form of endurance; we are often given the strength to bear some life situation that is difficult. It always comes with the promise of deliverance; our God will rescue us in His time. In the interim, we can trust He is at work and will see us through.
Friday, November 11, 2022
Avoiding the Confusion of Conflicting Loyalties
Lord, I release my will to You. I release to You these things I do not want to do, labors I do not want to perform, journeys I do not want to take. I give You permission to work in my heart and mind to transform my will to match Yours. Your will, not mine be done. I entrust myself, my loved ones, my past, my present moment, and my future into Your hands. Amen.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
Psalm 84:5-7 NIV
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Let Go and Hold On
At this writing, my daughter's family is down with Covid, my son has flown off to Orlando for business, and as of today a tropical storm is bearing down on his position. For some reason, this week I chose to decrease my dosage of an antacid I take daily; not my wisest life choice.
I'm a little tense.
As a parent of adult children, it is an ongoing challenge to stay emotionally engaged with my children while simultaneously releasing them to God's care. When my motivation is my own well-being (what would I do without them?) I increase my attempts to advise and control. But this way of dealing with my adult kids is stressful and so I then rob them of any real benefit I actually am able to provide (how about a prayer and maybe some chicken soup?) because I'm exhausted trying to make everything right for them as I did when they were small.
As I said, it is an ongoing challenge. I am prone to try to do it all; I labor in prayer, make chicken soup, and dispense advice as I try to anticipate potential dangers in their path. Yes, I need to keep the prayer and maybe the soup, and let go the crushing responsibility to take care of their circumstances; Lord I release my children's circumstances to You. Again.
"Entrusting is not the same as abandoning. We can carry our loved ones in prayer without carrying loads God does not intend for us to bear" (100 Days to Freedom, Day 15).
Father, help me to stay alert in prayer, courageous in the face of scary circumstances, and strong in my faith in You to take care of my children and grandchildren; in Jesus' Name I pray, amen.