Blog
reigniting Your First Love
Do you recall when you hungered to feast upon the Word of God at length? Do you remember the excitement pumping throughout your body as you shared the gospel with someone? How did it feel when His strength carried you through the impossible?
Do you remember where you met your spouse? What was your first impression? Do you recall the warmth of his hand or the butterflies in your stomach on your first date?
Is it Possible to Stop Doubting God?
Do you struggle with doubt? If I doubt, am I doubting God? How can I trust God more? Find some answers to these questions in my recent article...
Why We Must Tear Down the Wall of Unforgiveness
Today, I will expose the subtle deceit of unforgiveness. I don’t know about you, but I struggle with forgiving. The offending person is the bad guy. I am the victim, but the truth is I am being victimized by the enemy.
When I fail to forgive. I am building a wall around me. This wall doesn’t protect me. It prevents the goodness of God from reaching me.
Grace in Suffering and Serving
How will I learn to live differently than in my past five decades? How will I learn to use braille and a talking computer that I love to hate? How will I share encouraging devotions with people? God’s grace enabled me to do all that and so much more when I lost the majority of my vision and God called me to write.
That’s the short answer, but we find the long answer in our focal verse.
The Truth About Worry
What is the difference between a worry and a concern? Some may say they’re identical, but Jesus told us not to worry. He never told us not to be concerned.
Room for Jesus
Have you ever bought a piece of furniture only to begin measuring as soon as you get home? How will we make room for it? Perhaps, you have added a new weekly event to your calendar, and you start scurrying to find that extra hour. In both cases, we only have an allotted amount of room whether it’s in our house or our schedule. If something new comes in, something old has to leave. The same is true for our lives.
Where can we make room for Jesus? We struggle to give Him our time. Jesus, You have to understand. I didn’t realize all this was going on today. I’ll pray double tomorrow. Jesus, we are in church on Sunday morning. Surely You will give us some slack when the game is on Sunday night.
We give our tithes and offerings, but Jesus has to understand when things get tight, we’ve got to cut back just a little. Jesus, we didn’t know You wanted to control all our finances. Isn’t ten percent enough?
Jesus, do You really need to be in the midst of our marriage? Marriage is between a husband and a wife. We didn’t realize our marriage needs to please You too.
The Emptiness of Fullness
What are the empty things in our lives? Surprisingly, they take up most of our time and energy. Emptiness isn’t void. It is filled with the wrong stuff.
What fills your typical day? Look at our calendars with scribbles of doctor appointments and school activities. Necessary things. Good things, but they might be empty things.
Staying on the Path of Transformation
I vividly remember caterpillars crawling up the stucco foundation of my childhood home. Warmed by the afternoon sun, I captured the furry creatures. Sometimes content to let them crawl on my arm, but my goal was to keep them and watch them transform into butterflies. I released many ugly moth-looking creatures, knowing that one day, they would return with wings colored by God’s paint brush.
A Silver Lining in My Suffering
Do you remember the tin man from the movie, The Wizard of Oz? With each painful step I took, I felt like someone needed to oil my joints, like they did for the tin man. But I didn’t have an oil can, nor did I have any way to lubricate my stiff joints. All I could do was cry, “Help me, Lord!”
After a few laps down the hallway and through the kitchen, I worked the stiffness out.
On many of my most grievous days, I thought of the crown of thorns piercing the head of my Savior. I thought of the agony He endured as spikes were hammered into His hands and feet. He endured all that pain for me and you, my friend.
Many times, I turned to distractions during the worst hours of my pain. If the Hallmark channel didn’t have a good movie on, I read. I found myself reading the best-seller of all time most, the Bible. What better words to read to take my mind off the horrific pain.
As I landed on this verse, I meditated on it for a while, and then I studied it further.
Double Persistence
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