Category: Devotional

Today and Everyday- Psalm 37

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Today’s devotion took me to a familiar Psalm, one I have written notes and dates around in the margins of my Bible. Today God spoke a fresh Word to me from the ones I’ve read and marked so many times. This Psalm is full of verbs, so of course the English teacher in me has marked them with an underline. These are words to BE and DO.

It was easy for the first verb to get my attention- FRET NOT!

This is a timely reminder because today’s schedule is not what I originally planned. I’m helping a senior with a doctor’s appointment. The time has changed a couple of times. It’s an interruption that will leave me tired and wanting to choose a nap over productivity.

This instruction is simple- FRET NOT over what I’m facing today, but I’m sure you’d agree, this is not always the easiest thing to do. Thankfully the Psalmist continues with another list of verbs instructing me in what to do instead.

TRUST in the LORD . . . DO GOOD

DWELL IN THE LAND . . . BEFRIEND FAITHFULNESS

DELIGHT IN THE LORD

COMMIT YOUR WAY TO HIM . . .TRUST IN HIM

BE STILL AND WAIT FOR HIM . . .

FRET NOT!

I found myself writing a prayer for the day ahead as God used his wisdom to instruct me and shift my perspective-

Help me, Oh Lord, to live as the Psalmist- not fretting and full of worry and angst but trusting in you and doing the good work of your Kingdom that you require. Today it’s helping with a doctor’s appointment. This is how I dwell in the land and do good today. Grow me up to see this as a way of delighting in You. I want it to be my pleasure to do this kingdom work. I want to be committed to your way- trusting you to act and work and order all of the things that need to be accomplished. Help me to be still in your presence- at peace instead of restless and agitated about what‘s ahead.

God is challenging me today to shift my perspective. To see the tasks of the day as the good work of his kingdom- to complete them as unto Him. To surrender them to Him and FRET NOT because of them. As I continue through the Psalm, there are more verbs that God ascribes to Himself.

HE WILL GIVE . . . HE WILL BRING FORTH

THE LORD KNOWS . . . ESTABLISHES . . . UPHOLDS

THE LORD LOVES . . . AND WILL NOT FORSAKE

HE PRESERVES . . . EXALTS

HE HELPS AND DELIVERS

HE IS A STRONGHOLD FOR THOSE WHO TAKE REFUGE IN HIM

Today’s challenge meets me where I live-

Will I surrender the things that I’m fretting over today to the LORD and trust that He is working it out as I delight in Him and the good work of his kingdom?

This Day is Holy

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My daddy celebrated 95 years in May, but it was not the party we had planned. Two and a half weeks before his milestone birthday, he fell and broke his hip. Surgery and a hospital stay followed by rehab has resulted in a detour for him that we never saw coming. It has been a hard stretch in his journey especially now that we see the detour becoming a more permanent and different path.

I’m asking the question today-

What do you do when the detour becomes the road?

It’s not what you planned. It’s harder and out of the way. You didn’t see it coming, but here you are all the same. There doesn’t seem to be a way to redirect or get back to where you were. You’re tired and about out of gas.

I’m in this spot with my dad at the moment. The fall has left him more bound to a wheelchair and in need of long-term care. Many days I feel disoriented and confused. The road is unfamiliar and hard to follow, but I don’t want this hardship to be in vain. I want God to use it- to teach me and grow me up in Him.

And God is faithful- He is teaching me some deep and abiding truths. I asked my dad recently to say the blessing, and he thanked God for being good to him everyday of his life. I haven’t forgotten it- everyday of his life. Really? That includes today.

This is the lesson for me- THE GOODNESS OF GOD IS NOT FOUND IN CIRCUMSTANCES. GOD IS GOOD EVEN WHEN LIFE IS NOT; THEREFORE, I CAN CELEBRATE AND HAVE JOY EVERY DAY!

I needed a little help with this, so I relocated some scriptures that I memorized and prayed over several years back from Margaret Feinberg’s study, Fight Back with Joy. I’ve pulled them out again, and I shared Psalm 16:11 in the last post.

I’m finding Nehemiah 8:10 another powerful word to me-

What a powerful truth!

Even this day is holy to the LORD. God has made it, and He is good. I am challenging myself with two application points- I’m asking God to open my eyes to see at least one good thing to enjoy each day? Instead of dwelling on the stress, I’m reminding myself of the goodness of God. My prayer is that this will produce joy-filled strength to stay the course since the detour has become the road.

A New Year . . . Again!

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I’m reposting a devotional from 2019 because it is speaking loudly to me in this second week of 2021. As I wrote last week in The Gift of Love–

“The troubles of 2020 have not disappeared with the calendar change,” and I’ll add to that- “they have picked up speed and appear to be setting up permanent residence.” 

It’s my prayer that these words will encourage me to Begin Again with a ‘Hallelujah Perspective’–

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As I flipped through my Instagram feed on New Year’s Eve, this Peanuts cartoon got my attention. The caption reads, “My favorite memory from 2018 was . . .”

My husband and I were on an unexpected, cross-country, road trip, so I thought this might just be an interesting conversation starter. Sure enough, it prompted an almost immediate response from him as he quickly identified several highlights and answered prayers that were a part of his 2018. The surprise came to me when it was my time to answer. As I flipped through the year in my mind, there was no stand-out highlight that I could identify.

 

In my mind, 2018 had been a hard year– one of taking a step, then the next one, and then one more after that. I felt tired from the daily grind that includes caring for a senior parent drifting farther away each day into the depths of dementia. While a long season of joblessness came to end for my husband, it had come in an unexpected package that left me still wondering what God was doing. Even though it had been a busy and fruitful year of ministry leading a morning women’s Bible study, I had ended the year feeling overwhelmed and tired, more ready for a break than I could ever remember.

There were certainly answered prayers and refreshing times sprinkled through the year, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of one thing that I would really classify as memorable. It had been a year of more ordinary than extraordinary, more difficult than ease, more head down moving forward than I would have preferred. Realizing that much of the stuff of 2018 would continue walking with me into the new year ahead, a sense of dread and anger swept over me.

How would I begin 2019 with many things still unresolved?

Continue reading “A New Year . . . Again!” →

The Gift of Love

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Today, I’m late finishing the Christmas Conversation series I started for the advent season of 2020.

The week before Christmas my husband and I were diagnosed with Covid-19, and with the phone call that relayed the positive test result, our celebration of Christmas and the end of the year took a turn down an unexpected path.

While we were thankful to have mild cases, I found the anxiety that comes with the presence of the virus and the fatigue which accompanies it was enough to keep me from finishing what I had started.

I also struggled with the impact that Covid-19 had on our Christmas plans. We missed it- entirely. All of our adult kids who were planning to be home had to redirect and celebrate elsewhere. Our loss of smell and taste kept us from enjoying even the simple pleasure of food and goodies thoughtfully left at the door. The headaches and congestion made it hard to concentrate on the basic disciplines of quiet time and prayer.

It was a time to rest in the grace of the greatest gift ever given-

The Gift of Love, the incarnate Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh- who came to dwell among us and for us!

And a time to know that nothing in this world has the power to cancel Christmas!

The Gift of Love has come, and Romans 8:35-39 was still true- nothing can separate me from the great and powerful love of Jesus Christ!

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A week into 2021, I’m grateful to be safe and secure in the great love of Jesus Christ!

The troubles of 2020 have not disappeared with the calendar change, so I’ll close today with two PICs that I’m praying often.

I pray that in whatever you are facing, you will know that God is for you-

And I pray you’ll join me in loving others well this year by intentionally praying for their health and well-being.

Thank you Lord Jesus for loving me enough to come so that I could know how much God loves me and is for me. In 2021, root me securely in your great Gift of Love– in Jesus. Be alive in me as you dwell in me this year. Help me to face these times with courage and confidence in you. I want to love others well, showing that I am yours.