Seeing the Whole Picture

Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. Luke 6:47-48 (New King James Version)

As believers, it is imperative that we take in the whole picture of Scripture. Often are the times when people approach the Bible with a “smorgasbord” mentality whereby they see and hear only what they want to see and hear. Many principles go hand in hand and must be embraced in their totality. Today’s passage is one such case in point. At a quick glance one might assume that knowing Christ as Savior will keep them from falling apart when life takes a turn for the worst, when in actuality there is a condition to the promise.

Jesus prefaces His promise of one not being shaken with the personal responsibility of coming to Him, listening to Him, and obeying Him. If those factors are not in place the storms of life will shake us up even though our salvation is secure. It goes back to James’ admonition to be a doer and not just a hearer of the Word.

No matter what the issue or struggle is in our life, there is a verse or principle of truth that will require action on our part. If I am struggling with a dependency issue, God’s call to me is to fix my eyes on Him and trust Him to meet my needs. If I am fearful, He reminds me to allow His perfect love to cast out that fear. If I am focusing on the weaknesses of others, I must align myself with the truth that I am to live with an awareness of my own weaknesses and trust God to strengthen us both.

Last night, I spoke with a friend about an area in my life that is in need of the most change presently…..doing battle when I sense a shift in my mood, attitude, and spirit. In those times when I want to curl up with misperceptions and negative thinking, God has steps of obedience for me to take. Those steps entail taking my thoughts captive, thinking on what is actually true, and renouncing the lies that desire to take up residence in my mind. In order to not be shaken each time the spiraling begins, I must choose to listen to His voice and obey His words. It is a daily (moment by moment) decision that God promises to bless and honor. He will help me if I will but cooperate and accept His help.

Father, I have lost so many battles but You have not given up on me. Thank you for not abandoning me in the midst of failure but rather extending to me hope, help, and healing. I look to You for help to obey. Amen.

Bow the Knee - Paula Orr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9z6l1PXsFE&feature=related

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.

God's Desire

And ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 23:49 (King James Version)

The very heart of Scripture and the very heart of God are found in this verse. All that God does is done to reveal Himself to us. Ezekiel chapter 23 is a difficult chapter to read. It is explicit in its detail of God’s people facing the consequences of their idolatry and spiritual adultery. It repeats the phrase of their minds being alienated from the ones they once ran after and God’s mind being alienated from them. A quick read through would leave a person thinking God had totally given up on His people. But the last verse reveals the truth. All is done….all is said….all is brought about so that in the end He is known. Contrary to what we may sometimes think, God is not playing a spiritual game of hide and seek with us. He is not hard to find if we know how to look for Him.

He tells us to look for Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. That is not possible if our hearts and allegiance are divided. If our lives are filled with other things and our interests are in other places. He will not share His glory with any one or any thing else. God desires our undivided attention so that we can realize His undivided attention toward us. That desire that He has placed within each one of us for intimacy in relationship reveals what He longs for us to find in Him.

I don’t want my mind to be severed from the One who loves me so much! Sometimes God has to allow me to become busy enough, distracted enough, and empty enough to realize I am missing Him. It is then that He begins to probe my heart and show me the areas that need His touch. He is after my genuine, authentic, personal walk with Him. It is too easy to try to duplicate someone else’s walk with Him. God does not want that! He wants me to know Him in a way no one else does. His relationship with me is meant to be a one of a kind relationship. He has no twins!

What He wants me to understand is that my life is worth living and the person He created me to be is worth being known by Him. He wants me to know that I must relate to Him on my own individual level. I want to know and experience Him in an unduplicated, undiluted way. I want to know Him in a real way….His way!

Father, I once again take off the masks and other things I find so easy to hide behind. I can only know You when I come to You as myself. Amen.

Knowing You, Jesus - Robin Mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q_YQPa66kk

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.

Interactions in the Wilderness

I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. Hosea13:5 (New American Standard Bible)

I look back at the children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings and I marvel at the loving care God displayed to them time and time again. Just His miraculous provisions of food and water leave me in awe. For forty years God had them in a place which forced them to look to Him for their most basic needs to be met. How slow they often were to realize His availability to them. Lessons were learned and relearned. But each time they cried out He answered. Each time they sought Him He was found. If I am ever looking for a picture of God’s tender, compassionate heart I need look no farther than the account of His people in the wilderness.

Isn’t it strange though how often the children of Israel accused God of forsaking them when needs arose? As difficulties came the worst case scenarios played out in their minds and they gave voice to all the doubts. “We are going to die here” became their motto. They could not conceive of the fact that God would get them through each crises. Even when God came through for them each new test seemed to take them back to doubts and discouragement.

It is times like that when the practicality of Scripture becomes a reality in my own life. Each of us have our wilderness experiences in the Christian life. For whatever reason life becomes hard, our spiritual life becomes dry, we feel forsaken and forgotten, our resources no longer help us, and we find ourselves at a place when we have no choice but to look to God for our daily needs. We might even find ourselves giving voice to every doubt and fear that wells up inside us. “I am not going to make it through this one” becomes our motto. The answer?

Realize God leads us into and stays with us through the wilderness times. Review His awareness of, His words to, and His acts of kindness displayed on His people. Know that He is just as involved in your life! If nothing else, find one truth about God’s character and hold on to it. Trust Him even when all the evidence seems to be against you and Him. Wildernesses are the places God desires to display His power on your behalf.

Father, each time I find myself in a wilderness may I look for and sense Your presence. The opportunities will abound for You to act on my behalf. I give You praise! Amen.

He Knews My Name - Maranatha Singers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXsiWoyjw60&feature=related

Holiness is a furnace that transforms the men and women who enter it. - Eugene H.Peterson

The Need for Prayer

And He said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch. Mark 14:34 (New American Standard Bible)

Jesus’ grief was not only felt in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was expressed to His closest friends. He let them into the darkest moments of His life. The One who created the world, performed miracles, and eventually died to bring salvation to the ones He created, felt grief to the point of death and He asked others to pray for Him during that time. The One who Himself answered prayers was asking for prayer. That truth broadens my view of how much Jesus can relate with us when we experience the painful, sorrowful, heart wrenching, disappointing, depressing, and “point of death” moments and seasons of life.

Jesus knew that prayer could go beyond the words and sympathies of others. Even when we can finally find the words to speak and have the opportunity to let someone know what is tearing our life apart, there comes a time when the conversation will end and we will be left alone with our thoughts. Prayer goes beyond the conversation and comfort of others. It carries the person when all human support and help is unavailable. Even if one were able to physically be with you throughout a difficulty, there would still be the sense of aloneness. A place only God can enter and touch.

I have been in that dark place and know first hand the necessity and benefit of others praying for me. They listened when I poured my heart and story out to them. Their concern and willingness to listen held me as much as their arms did. They reminded me often that their prayers were with me and I knew there were actions behind what they said. What they could not do for me themselves they trusted God to do for me. For the most part, that dark season of my life is behind me and I can now say I am out of the cave that had been my abode for two years. Many were the times I did not think I would make it but they knew I would and so did God. Their prayers and reminders strengthened me.

This morning, my heart aches and my prayers are being raised for a close friend who is just now entering a season of extreme darkness. The same words Jesus spoke to His disciples were in essence the words my friend spoke to me last night. As I prayed with her on the phone, I couldn’t find all the words to express her heart and mine, but I know the same God who carried me through my grief will carry her. I know that the same Power that brought me through will bring her through. I know that the same Spirit that sustained and strengthened me will sustain and strengthen her.

Father, even when I can’t find all the words to speak, You still hear and answer my prayers. How faithful and tender You are! Amen.

Prayer for a Friend - Casting Crowns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN3D0Carn3U&feature=related

Fixing my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith!

Real Love

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Revelation 3:19(New International Version)

Rebuke and discipline are two aspects of love that I have struggled to understand. Recently, the Lord showed me why that is the case. He helped me to see that my own definition of love was getting in the way of my understanding. Because love can sometimes feel good I can easily draw the conclusion that what does not feel good is not love. Because love can sometimes nurture me emotionally I can just as easily draw the conclusion that what doesn’t feel nurturing is not love.

In the book, Relational Masks, Russell Willingham states that true love gives others what is for their good and spiritual growth. I read the words but found it hard to grasp the truth of what I was reading. The fact that something for my good and spiritual growth could also hurt had me in a place of confusion. I needed a fleshed out example and God graciously gave one. He put me in a position whereby a close friend had to be straight forward with me with the truth of my actions, attitudes, and demeanor. She saw what was hurting me spiritually, emotionally, and relationally, and spent a great deal of time pointing out various aspects of my heart problems. She pin-pointed specific areas that not only needed change but needed my willingness to change.

As uncomfortable as it was to hear her words, I knew she was speaking the truth and I knew she was saying everything out of love. She was not coming across angry or frustrated, just frank and to the point. I glared and stared through most of her talk but she persisted at being God’s mouth piece to my ears and heart. Her words became rungs of a ladder I used to climb out of yet another emotional pit. Internally, my heart shifted and externally my demeanor changed. I left our conversation with a heart that was ready to take in necessary truths God would show me the following day.

Although being nurtured and feeling good may still be a part of love and enjoyable for me, I now see that those must take a back seat to what is for my good and growth. It is imperative that I live by this truth rather than by my emotions and feelings. That which feels good may actually hurt me in the long run. With God’s help I have now turned a new corner in my journey to freedom. May that continue to be my experience as God continues to finish what He started in me.

Father, getting a true picture of love is helping me to rewrite personal interpretations of past experiences. I can see now that what didn’t always feel like love was in fact loving indeed. May other people’s good and growth be the motivation of my actions as well. Amen.

I am a Friend of God - Phillps, Craig, and Dean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMnMN08sv4k&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

Fully Passing Over

When all the nation had fully passed over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, Joshua 4:1 (Amplified Bible)

There is a scene from the movie, Titanic, that grips me each time I witness it. It takes place after the Titanic has gone down and the two main characters are clinging to each other. Rose is on a trunk and Jack is in the water. There comes a point when Rose realizes Jack is dead and although she doesn’t want to let go of him, she does. She knows from that point on her life will never be the same but there is a life she must choose to live. That is her “fully passing over” moment. Letting go of what was to take hold of what is to be.

Each of us are on a journey with God and within that journey are times when we must also let go of what we want to hold on to in order to embrace what lies ahead. Until we do that, we remain frozen in a place in which we are not meant to stay. The children of Israel were meant to fully pass over the Jordan River. They were not destined to camp there! It would separate them from the only past they had known. God’s intent was to not only free them from their past but to free them from the pull of their past.

Some of us have yet to fully pass over our Jordan to a new aspect of the Christian life. It may be a former job we hold on to in our mind. A former relationship. A former possession. A former dwelling place. A former church. A former way that God worked in our life. Whatever it is that we are holding on to, God is speaking to us the words of Isaiah 43:19, Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.

How do we begin to see and experience the new thing God is referring to? By letting go of our desire for the past to still be a part of our present and by choosing the new over the old. It may require repentance and confession on our part for wanting our way rather than God’s way and to accept the forgiveness God will extend to us. Those are the keys to freedom that God offers each one of us.

For me, I am picturing myself on Rose’s trunk, letting go of the ones from my past that I want to hold on to. Seeing the death of what was and turning toward the life God is offering me. He has finally helped me to come to the point of wanting the new thing He is doing. Oddly enough, there is no sorrow now but rather peace and anticipation.

Father, it has taken several years to come to this point. Thank you for persistently working to bring me to this place. It is new and it is of You. Amen.

Painting Pictures of Egypt - Sara Groves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcIA4Cnj6j4

This blog site now houses 900 former devotionals with the theme and book of the Bible at the end of each. Click on to the theme or book and you will then see every devotional written on that theme or from that book. Or click on to the date at the left and see what was shared a month ago or several years ago. Enjoy!

That Is What He Is Like

Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21-22 (New American Standard Bible)

The forgiveness of the father for the prodigal son, the forgiveness of the king for the servant who owed what he could not pay, and the higher standard of forgiveness given to Peter when his own was less than extravagant, go far beyond what God wants us to demonstrate. Each is an example of His willingness and capability to forgive and to keep on forgiving.

I marvel when someone sticks with me each time I fail, take steps backwards, give in to the dictates of my flesh, and just plain blow it! When it is all said and done, I look to see if they are still around and when I see that they are I wonder at their patience, persistence, and love. Each time I feel least deserving of their friendship and support they end up giving me the gift of compassion and companionship. Their ability to see the small steps of growth among the times of getting side tracked, off track, and back tracked makes me realize afresh how very little I truly understand about unconditional love.

The same is true of God. How He wants me to see that His love never falters. His forgiveness knows no limits or expiration dates. He sees the heart behind the actions and knows the desire for change. When what I thought was conquered comes back with a vengeance, He says, “I forgive you.” When my love for others is blocked by the hindrances of my own heart, He says, “I forgive you.” When failures are repeated and attitudes of the heart have once again been apparent, He says, “I forgive you.” Whatever I bring to Him is always met with the same words, “I forgive you.” His words entail more than a fresh start and stain removal. They let me know He is not giving up on me, tired of me, or disgusted with me. He is not seeing me as an impossibility or lost cause. He does not view my set backs as cancellation of all that He has done so far.

I drink in grace today whether it is extended to me by God or by another person. It is the only way to keep condemning thoughts and feelings from taking over and robbing me of the joy He intends for me to walk in.

Father, thank you for those who are Your hands and heart to me. They often flesh out the truths about You. Amen.

What a Faithful God - Robert Critchley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLEgyKpzyUw&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