Fueled With Hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (New International Version)

I received an email from a friend who admits to struggling with staying hopeful that her situation will improve. She sees small rays of light and many moments of uncertainty. Another friend lives with physical pain and a debilitating disease. In the midst of more pain than wholeness she too fights to hold on to hope. For some it is finances, job security, difficult marriages, wayward children, strained or severed relationships, or any number of scenarios that lie outside our ability to bring about the change we long for.

I am involved in a study entitled Created to be God’s Friend. At times, the lessons can be profound as God uses them to shine the light of truth on my internal world. This past week as I was answering questions, one answer exposed my own feeling of hopelessness. I was forced to admit my doubts about forthcoming change in me. Because I still battle on a daily basis certain mindsets and attitudes, I succumbed to the idea that complete freedom and wholeness would not be realized in this life time. I know now that it is a dangerous thing to wave the white flag of surrender over any area of my life that stands within the arena of God’s transforming touch. God, who never changes, does not view me as unchangeable, and He wants me to trust Him enough to bring about those changes.

With the truths of Scripture, the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and timely counsel of a wise friend, my hope has been re-ignited. I am not a basket case or a statue of immobility when it comes to God’s work in my life. My situations of the heart are not outside the realm of His potter’s wheel. How the enemy must detest truth that he knows will set me free.

To any who are facing what feels like hopeless scenarios, I give to you the words of today’s verse and ask you to allow God to speak them over your life. In the midst of pain, turmoil, or disappointment, it is God’s intent that you walk with hope, peace, and joy. Those are not empty words! They are banners of victory waved over us even though we can’t see the end of our stories. The God of hope wants to lavish us with the hope that only He can give. As I allow Him to do that I notice what I am hoping for is changing and with that change I am being changed.

Father, my view of You and what You are like is changing for the good. I live in the hope You provide and I dance with delight! Amen.

The Voice of Hope - Lara Martin
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qbk1TGe5k0Q

I welcome your questions and comments to any devotional thoughts. I am honored and delighted to share my journey with you and privileged to hear of yours.

When It Is Part of God's Plan

So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. Genesis 21:14 (New King James Version)

I have been trying to take in the truths of Genesis 21 throughout last night and into this morning. It is a story that hits home with me and forces me to rethink some conclusions. It is personal because I have experienced a similar scenario in my own life.

Abraham was commanded by God to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Ishmael was his first born son whom he loved deeply and had dreams for. Sending him away entailed a death of those dreams but not of his love. It involved seeing God’s separate plans for him and Ishmael. It displayed a trust that God knew what He was doing and would carry out His plan for both their lives. It demonstrated a harsh reality for me as I read it. God’s plan called for a separation and severance. I cannot imagine the sense of loss, confusion, and feelings of rejection that must have entered the life of Ishmael at that time. I don’t know if he ever saw God’s hand in it or how he ever viewed his father from that point on. But Scripture does tell me that God was with him in the wilderness and made of him a great nation. The loss of his relationship with his father did not mean the loss of God’s plan for his life. It meant the fulfillment of that plan.

I know what it is like to be in relationship with a spiritually significant person. I know what it is like to build hopes and dreams on how that relationship will continue. But I also know the sense of loss, confusion, and feelings of rejection when separation and severance is called for. It feels worse than death and leaves one stripped raw with emotional pain. Yet it is imperative that I see for myself what I see in the story of Ishmael. God has a plan for me and will see that plan through to fulfillment.

For me, that plan entails keeping my eyes on Him and allowing Him to do His work in and through me. He knows that I still desire the relationship He brought to an end. He knows I still battle negative thoughts and feelings. But none of that stops Him from keeping His hand on my life and directing me down the path of His choosing. I am slowly learning to trust Him to finish what He started. I anticipate the day when I experience beauty for ashes and joy for the sadness. Today, the anticipation grows just a little more.

Father, I see my story in Your Word and I long for the completion of that story. Amen.

Beauty For Ashes - Crystal Lewis & Ron Kenoly
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2CZ6IsGjEug

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. Job 36:16

Promised Victory

A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust. Matthew 12:20, 21 (New King James Version)

There are times when I feel like a bruised reed (battered and shattered) but this morning I see two promises that speak life to me. God is not going to break me even in the weakest condition and victory is forthcoming. I need those words and embrace them for a new day.

I have witnessed victory in some areas of my life that I was sure would do me in. I have felt broken in the midst of disappointment, loss, and heartache. But I am here to tell you the victory did come and the it strengthened my hope for future victories. I am convinced there is not an area in my life that is a permanent condition….especially when it comes to heart issues and attitudes. When I see them, they stand as reminders that God will work. God will give the victory.

This past weekend, I attended a women’s conference entitled “From Brokenness to Blessedness.” The theme alone told me God had something in mind for me, so I made the decision to not invite anyone to go with me. I wanted to be unhindered and undistracted so that I could respond freely to whatever would happen. Little did I realize the work He was about to do in me. As the speakers talked, an issue I had been battling rose to the surface and I was reduced to tears….many tears. No sound, simply tears. Just as they would subside, a fresh flow would start. They seemed to be driven by a profound sadness….the very spirit of heaviness that had enveloped me for the past two years. It took Friday evening and Saturday morning for me to reach the place where I had completely drained myself of tears. What followed was an internal peace that had been eluding me. What made me sad all this time has not changed but the sadness is gone. Gone! It has been three days and I am proclaiming victory! This will forever be a spiritual marker in my life and one I will recall and recount often when future battles rage.

I share this to say, other issues I am dealing with are under the same death sentence as far as God is concerned. I don’t know what the deliverance will look like but I know it is coming….I have God’s Word on it and a past experience to treasure!

Father, I marvel at what You have done. You have not only delivered me from a spirit of heaviness, You have birthed hope within me. Help me see the victories that still await my realization. In the name of Jesus, amen!

Power of Your Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga6Qtxzd6vk&feature=related

If what you are reading is touching your spirit and increasing your thirst for God then you are one of the reasons I wrote it. I want to extend a personal invitation to you to join my email devotional family and allow me to send them to you directly! Simply send an email to shattuck7@sbcglobal.net and request to be added to my devotional list. It would be my honor and privilege to do so.

Necessary Persistence

And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." But He did not answer her a word. Matthew 15:22, 23 (New American Standard Bible)

I marvel at this miracle account in Scripture. When a non-Jewish woman approached Jesus for the purpose of wanting her daughter healed, His first response was silence then the statement that He was sent only for the House of Israel. She didn’t leave it at that, she persisted! And because she persisted in faith, her daughter was healed…instantly! I marvel at her persistence.

If I had been her, I would have walked away in shame after the initial response of silence. I would have assumed the worst and regretted I had even asked. How do I know? I am that way when someone comes across as distant, unapproachable, or disinterested. I don’t want to run the risk of being hurt, so in order to guard my heart I back away. For me, it is safer to go without than to feel the sting of rejection or abandonment. That’s one of the reasons it takes a while for me to initially open up to a person and ask for help. My mom use to say, “Ask! They can only say no.” What she didn’t realize was that the one thing I feared the most was that ‘no’. It was a response that left me with the idea that I was out of line for asking and the shame was painful. So I came into adulthood trying not to ask.

While God understands my apprehensions and hesitations, He is continually nudging me to take some risks. That is a hard thing to do when you are already battling misperceptions and insecurities. So even as recent as today, I chose to play it safe with someone with whom I became uncertain. I didn’t persist. Instead I distanced myself.

This Canaanite woman is becoming a role model for me as I ask God to make me more like her. She didn’t allow a first response to freeze her in her tracks. She didn’t distance herself. She didn’t walk away. She persisted and she received what she longed for….a miracle of healing. I need one as well.

Father, I walk in fear of certain individuals and I know that is not of You. I long for the freedom to not take people’s responses the wrong way. I am in need of Your touch! Amen.

Help Me God - Kathy Troccoli
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmSSWHO8ueA

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. Job 36:16

When It Finally Clicks

Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Isaiah 55:2 (New King James Version)

Over the past number of decades I have sought ways to lose weight. While I could get the pounds off initially, my problem was always that my poor eating habits and wrong relationship to food had never been permanently altered. At best, I would modify my behavior only to relapse into the very things that were detrimental to my physical well being. The bottom line was that the programs and plans never clicked and therefore the changes never lasted. The past few months have been a different story for me. I now take in food for the nutritional value rather than the filling of emotional voids. My choices are different as are the amounts. When I shared this with my weight loss instructor she looked at me and said, “It is finally clicking!” Those were profound words for me and had spiritual significance.

God quickly helped me to draw the parallel between what I was doing in the physical realm with what I needed to do in the spiritual realm. I can easily take in the truths of His Word and just as easily express those truths but a text message from a friend yesterday pinpointed the necessity for those truths to start clicking. When I confided to her that I was battling condemning thoughts she simply said, “Pam, in love I say to you, you can choose. You have all the head knowledge. Choose as an act of your will to believe.” She was urging me to apply the truths I have been taking in. Being a doer of the Word and not simply a hearer. We both could tell it was time for me to live out of the truths God has been graciously showing me.

This morning, God is reminding me to seek my satisfaction and delight in Him. My constant looking in all the wrong places keeps ending in empty results and God is inviting me to let what He is teaching me click! Taking my thoughts captive, setting my affections on Him, turning to Him for my needs of approval, significance, and direction, seeking Him, listening to Him. With each struggle I am seeing what has clicked and what has not.

I must allow what is in my head to extend to the farthest fiber of my being. His Spirit and His Word are in me to assist me in the process of application. The transformation will come from Him but the cooperation is my responsibility. He is calling me to trust, yield, and obey as I continue in the things I have learned and am learning.

Father, I want the change that only comes from living in connection with You and heeding what You tell me. Help it to finally click! Amen.

Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wutmEjdbedE&feature=related

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. Job 36:16

How He Works

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8 (New King James Version)

Victories are short lived and trouble abounds when we do not understand who our greatest enemy is and how he operates. Satan opposes God and thus opposes any who belong to God. It is his desire to keep individuals from coming into relationship with their Creator, but if he is unsuccessful at that, he goes to any lengths to keep them from walking intimately with Him. The Bible is clear that we are to be aware of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Many of us are alert to the things of the world and the pull of our flesh, but we give little attention to the way the enemy is seeking to devour or destroy us individually.

It has taken me decades to learn to detect his fingerprints on my day….and to be honest, I am still learning. It is usually after the facts that I realize he was active once again…..or at least his accomplices were! Any wounds, unresolved issues, weaknesses, propensities, and unrealized ambitions are ammunition he uses against me. Today it was feelings of regret over handling some relationships wrong. I found myself wondering why I tend to repeat the same mistakes. What is it that drives me to do the things I do? I should have realized that the forthcoming feelings of condemnation, self loathing, hopelessness, and despair were signs that he was prowling! But I didn’t.

Instead, my Father gave me needed direction. He helped me to see that my focus had once again turned from Him to my past and joy would return only as I did an about face. Instead of beating myself up over what can’t be changed, I needed to look at who He is and what He is doing in me. What I lacked in knowledge and wisdom at the time, I now have and am urged to act upon it. It doesn’t matter that I made wrong choices at one time. What matters is that I start making right choices NOW! My past does not define me or dictate the course of action I can now take. My past is simply experiences I can learn from and then proceed forward.

The signs of the enemy faded quickly as I saw what he was using against me. Hopefully, victory will come sooner next time. He is a defeated foe and I need to live out of the truth that “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.” I cannot stop him from prowling or seeking to devour, but I can limit him greatly by the grace and power of almighty God!

Father, You are always closer than the enemy. Help me to remember that often! Amen.

God's Armor Glenville
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J6lok4sGMSQ

I welcome your questions and comments to any devotional thoughts. I am honored and delighted to share my journey with you and privileged to hear of yours. http://pathways2freedom.blogspot.com/

Words from God

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 1:20 (New King James Version)

God knew Joseph’s thoughts. He knew they were based on false perceptions and fear. How gracious of Him to send an angel to speak truth to Joseph and give him needed instruction and direction. It is a scenario played out many times in Scripture via angels, dreams, and the voice of God.

While I have never experienced a visit from an angel or God speaking to me in a dream, I have known the wonder of having God interrupt my thoughts with His voice of truth. It may be a verse that comes to mind or simply a truth phrase that speaks directly to me but when it happens I have no trouble recognizing that God is behind it all.

Yesterday was a case in point. After sending the devotional out, God later brought to mind a phrase I had used. I wrote of disappointment when people cannot or will not give me what I want from them. God wasted no time in letting me know a third aspect needs to be added to that list. Sometimes it is that they should not give me what I am wanting from them. This is especially true when what I am seeking is not meant for me, is replacing God’s supply, or will do me harm. For me, that truth put the loss of a former mentor in a different light. While I desired nothing more than for her to remain my support and “leaning post” that was exactly what she shouldn’t have done! Why? Because it would have kept me from turning my attention and heart toward God. My eyes and my journey would have remained focused on her. It has been in her stepping away that I have slowly turned my face and ears toward my true Savior!

If I will take the time to quiet my heart and listen, God has many things to tell me. He will let me know when false perceptions and fears are driving my thoughts. He will let me know when I am drawing wrong conclusions and heading in dangerous directions. He will continually give me instructions and directions. That is the responsibility He has taken upon Himself and He delights in my seeing that and living out of it.

I am finding that as I seek people less, God’s words to me are becoming more frequent and clear. He is definitely a God of communication and I thrive when I take in His messages to me!

Father, for too long I sought the voices of others and failed to know when You were speaking to me. I joy in the times when that is no longer the case. Speak volumes to me, Lord, I am listening! Amen.

Word of God Speak ~ Mercy Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JK_6osCH74&feature=related

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. Job 36:16