Category Archives: Devotional

How to Pray When Words Won’t Come: A Prayer for the Philippines

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Photo from Associated Press

Photo from Associated Press

The following is a prayer written by a friend of mine, living in the Philippines. Along with Melody, her family and many others, I am praying this prayer for them. Will you join us?

In Melody’s words: “With unprecedented force, Haiyan is possibly the most powerful typhoon ever recorded… ever. The full impact is still being revealed, but thousands were killed and many towns and villages decimated. We were spared here in Manila, but our hearts grieve with this country. “

Photo from Melody

Photo from Melody

Melody’s Prayer

I hardly know how to pray, Lord, for faces (seen and unseen) whose names I do not know. But You know every one, see their need, understand their sorrow. Help me to pray.

I hardly know how to grieve, Lord, for all the lives lost and all the lives never the same. But You, Lord, grieved with Mary and Martha even when you knew resurrection was just around the corner. You know and care deeply about the pain in every heart. So help me to grieve, Lord — with You, with this nation, and with each heart that bleeds.

I hardly know what to do, Lord, when what is needed most is in the hands of other people. Resources, coordination, infrastructure to deliver relief assistance. But You, Lord, know exactly what is needed, and when, and by whom. Help me to do what is mine to do, and pray for others as they do what is theirs to do.

Lord of impossible resurrections, please cause Your kingdom to come and Your will to be done amid this chaos. Pour Your mighty strength into and through Your servants (those who know they serve You, and those who don’t), that they may serve the hurting in Your name even as they themselves are hurting, too. And give all of us strength and commitment to keep doing our part — praying, giving, caring in the name of the One who first cared for us.

In Jesus name,

Amen.

“Thanks so much for your prayers with us. I imagine the incense rising before the Throne, and believe our loving Father is moved by the heartfelt cries of His children that echo His own heart desire to touch and comfort the victims of this disaster.” –Melody

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Mission to the World Global Disaster Response

A way you can help In response to this disaster: http://www.mtw.org/Pages/Disasterphilippines.aspx

A Prayer for More Grace

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A Prayer for More Grace

“He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. But he gives more grace…”  James 4: 5, 6.

Gracious Father, It’s hard for me to believe that you are jealous over us, desiring that we worship you more than anything else. You are jealous for our love and affection because you are consistent with your love.

You cannot love us any more than you already do and you will never love us any less.

Heavenly Father, you have given us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. You promised never to leave us or forget about us. With an everlasting love you have compassion on us, for you are our Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:8)

Please, Lord help me to worship you in spirit and in truth. I don’t understand how to truly worship you. Please change my heart to learn.  Please keep my heart from growing dull and my ears from barely hearing the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  Father, I pray that You would open my eyes to your truth and in so doing, I will turn to you and be healed. I need more grace. ( James 4:6, Isaiah 6: 9, 10)

Gracious God, you are the giver of grace. You have rescued me with your grace.  Please, Heavenly Father, give more grace to love you more.

I submit to you as my Prophet, Priest, and King. You are our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness and our redemption from God (1 Corinthians 1:30) With the eye of faith, I set my gaze on you, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen

A Living Hope is a Confident Expectation That God is Good

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Isla at the Gate

God is good all of the time. All of the time God is good.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope…I Peter 1:3

Like the stars in the sky, there is no variation in God’s character. He is infinitely good. He is fixed in his divine nature and character. Because God is good, God can only give what is good, even sometimes when wrapped in harsh packages like trials, because ultimately we know in the midst of it God is working something out in these trials.

He’s seeking to produce in us something we could not produce on our own, and that is a maturity…a steadfastness, a sense of weaning ourselves from our own self-reliance so we can cling to Christ for his sufficiency in all things; that we’d get more of Christ in the midst of this so that the power of God would be manifest in our weakness. [1]  (“…rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…1 Peter 1: 6-7)

My prayer today has been, “Lord, I believe but help my unbelief and my heart to see that you are good all of the time. Heal and free me from my unbelief. Believing that you really want us, desire us, and enjoy us is almost too much to take in. That you have caused us to be born into a living hope…to an inheritance that is imperishable. The fact that you love us with an everlasting love and lavish more and more grace upon us seems impossible, and tragically, at times not enough. When I am distracted, deceived, and drawn away from the wonders of your love and forget this living hope and your goodness, everything else is affected. Help me to love you more with unfettered abandon, to treasure this living hope, to be thankful–with a confident expectation that you are good all of the time.”

A living hope is a confident expectation that God is good.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  (I Peter 1:3-8 ESV)

[1] Our Hope in Trials: Shea Sumlin;  http://www.thevillagechurch.net/sermon/our-hope-in-trials/

To Count It All Joy is a Real Life-Change

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TRUST

I’m so thankful to have coasted through life without a major illness, broken bones or high blood pressure, or anything else. I’m never ill and instead of medications in the medicine cabinet there are vitamin supplements. I love to run and work out at the gym but now all of that has come to a screeching halt. I’ve not been able to pick up a thin brush to watercolor paint, nor able to sit at my desk in front of my computer because of excruciating nerve pain. It has not been easy to deal with this trial.

I understand that no one is exempt from difficulties and trials. The business you work for is downsized and suddenly you find yourself facing the trial of how to provide for your family when you are unemployed. We hope our children are given a pass from hardships, but they are not exempt from a serious illness or being bullied by a cruel kid at school. Every individual and family will have their share of trouble and stormy seasons to plod through.

Trials should be expected. But you don’t know where your heart will go until you’ve been hurled into a specific trial that will cause a life-change. This life-change can be one of bitterness and constant complaining or it can be a life-change of joy and perseverance that keeps you in the boat, steadily rowing against the headwind, perhaps exhausted but not without hope. (Mark 6:45-52) There are moments when we’re crying out, “Where is the grace of God?” and we’re getting it. But it’s not the grace of relief, and it’s not the grace of release. Largely, those are to come. We get them in pieces, but largely they’re to come, because what we need right now is the grace of refinement. We better become committed to teach, comfort, preach, and encourage one another. [1]

I’ve been close to losing hope and have the weight of depression over this unfortunate situation. I once wrote a post about being a “Mat Carrier”…the service of intercessory prayers, carrying my friends to Jesus when they can’t walk to him on their own. (You know the story in the bible of a lame man being carried on his mat by four good friends so that he could meet Jesus and be healed.) In my state of despair and weariness, I realized that I am like that lame man in need of help from my family and friends to carry me to God through prayer.

The faithful and consistent prayers of family and friends on my behalf has helped renew my strength to persevere, to be hopeful, to experience more grace from God to stay the course…to be steadfast with rowing, making headway painfully for the wind is against me. (Mark 6:45-52)

I would like to say that I’m a brave person, able to face any challenge, but I’m actually afraid to face the unknown. I’m frequently asked, “How are you doing?”  So, instead of saying that I feel awful, I answer with a brave response which I believe they would rather hear. I think being afraid and wanting to be brave all in the same heart-beat is quite normal. Being angry or sad and asking God, “Where is the grace?” is quite normal. “If you have a body, you are entitled to the full range of feelings. It comes with the package.” (Anne Lamott, Grace (eventually): Thoughts on Faith)

What isn’t normal for me (or perhaps for anyone) is to have my first response to a trial as the apostle James exhorts us to do in James 1:2: …”to count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.” Contrary to the way many believers sometimes think and act, Christian joy does not mean that we ignore or deny the pain of suffering and grief. Nevertheless, suffering and grief can lead to joy, for trouble provides an opportunity for us to deepen our relationship with Christ and to learn how to walk more intimately with Him. [2]

And there’s the rub! Suffering and grief can lead to joy…there is an opportunity for us to deepen our relationship with Christ and to learn how to walk more intimately with Him. I must make the choice to pray to God for more grace to be able to count it all joy. My life-change is becoming a deeper story of knowing Jesus more intimately and holding on tight to the gospel of grace.

Sure, I’m asking God, “Why now?” and “How long will this continue?”  I don’t know the answers to those questions  but I do know that the key to rejoicing in suffering is to trust that God is good and is sovereign. I am asking God for a life-change of deeper faith, a faith that is not just something I do with my brain (head knowledge) but the way that I live my life. [1] I am not being forsaken. I am not being forgotten. I am being refined. I am loved.

A memory I have from my childhood home is seeing the phrase, “Count it all joy” written on index cards and taped to the fridge, or in the corner of a bathroom mirror or on the dashboard in our car. My mom would also write those words in perfect calligraphy, framed and displayed on our family room wall. My mom suffered through chronic pain and illness for most of her life. Those four words, count it all joy, reminded her that God is good and she will lack nothing. I once read that joy is the best makeup [3] and mom wore it well. Truly, I am depending on more grace from God to strengthen my faith before I can even begin to smear on joy.

The joy is not in the trial but in the work of the gospel transforming and changing my heart. God is giving me more grace, albeit an uncomfortable grace. I visualize myself in that row-boat with Jesus’ disciples, fighting the headwind and struggling to row through the storm.  And there Jesus is, walking on the water towards me.  “I AM” is here! The One on whom all the covenant promises rest. The One who’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. The One who created the world by spoken word. The One who holds it together by his power. The One who is sovereign over every experience I will ever be in. The “I Am” has invaded my life by his grace. [1] This testing of my faith will produce steadfastness and I will lack nothing.

Throughout life, our faith must grow. We start with a small faith, but as we live the Christian life our faith becomes stronger, enabling us to trust God more and more. As the disciples once did, so too must we ask God to increase our faith (Luke 17:5). This He will do by bringing us through various trials so that our faith will produce the steadfastness of perseverance, guaranteeing that our sanctification will be complete. [5]

I’ve been writing this blog post for a few weeks, already, taking a few quick moments here and there to type a few lines or to share a few quotes from authors and pastors that communicate my thoughts precisely. This trial is not over and is bound to change in time, in some way. What will never change, however, is God’s gift of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. His grace is filling and satisfying my faith. God’s grace is enabling me to count it all joy. That’s a real life-change!

God will take you where you haven’t chosen to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own. ~Paul David Tripp
Count it all joy…when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV)

Footnotes

 [1] The Difference between Amazement and Faith |Faith is not just something you do with your brain; faith is the way that you live your life. | Paul David Tripp. [2] Counting It All Joy | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org.  [3] Anne Lamott  [4] Anne Lamott |Grace (eventually): Thoughts on Faith. [5] Trials of Various Kinds | R.C. Sproul

To Be Present

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Monterrey

Monterrey, MX

Here I go! The great adventure begins tomorrow morning at 3:27 AM when I wake up to sound of crickets coming from my cell phone alarm. I’m writing this quickly without editing so that I can close my heavy eyelids for needed sleep.

The best part of my everyday work life has been involved part-time to full-time in ministry to children and families. I get excited about helping parents help their children learn more about Jesus. It thrills me to be present in a community of people who are passionate about the same things that I am. I enjoy being present in the lives of young children every week but it’s especially grand to know them years later as teenagers still having fun learning about our awesome God…and if I’m really fortunate, I will meet them again as adults…

God is faithful to be present from generation to generation to generation. If you live long enough, you will experience seeing this too.

So, I’m going on an adventure to Monterrey, MX with some of those young adults that I knew in children’s ministry years ago. I love that! What gives me the most joy is that they will lead me on this mission trip. I love the full circle of this story about God’s faithfulness to be present as evidenced in the lives of these “kids.” And I love that we share the same passion to be present in the lives of more people–children!

We have teamed with Mission to the World, an organization that is very passionate about serving people all over the world such as: rescuing street children, working to stop human trafficking, church planting, mercy, clean water, education…the gospel. MTW’s vision is to be present. I am glad for the opportunity to partner with this organization, to serve children in a small community in Monterrey and also to connect with families in a rapidly growing new church. This church is making a big impact in their community.

I’ve written two other posts on the topic of this adventure. You can find them here.

Imagine the Adventure and A Simple Devotional about More

So, I’m going on an adventure in a few hours! More Grace to be present.

Números 6:24-26

Nueva Versión Internacional (NVI)

24 »“El Señor te bendiga
y te guarde;
25 el Señor te mire con agrado
y te extienda su amor;
26 el Señor te muestre su favor
y te conceda la *paz.”

Numbers 6:24-26

New International Version (NIV)

24 “‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’

Photo credit: Wikipedia/Monterrey

Linking up with everyone for Five Minute Friday, where a remarkably encouraging and loving community gathers to write for five minutes. This week’s prompt is: PRESENT.

A Forever Season of God’s Faithfulness

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Forever Faithful Seasons of Life

Life is a lot like the weather…it’s seasonal. It has a way of pushing us into the next season whether we like it or not.  And the seasons are constantly changing in our home.

Little ones are growing quickly and want a new adventure to experience everyday while our white-haired loved ones do not want anymore adventures…they just want to tell us about the wild ones they had as young adults and the often challenging seasons of life they experienced years gone by. We have experienced loss, brokenness and desperate grief and yet have celebrated the total opposite of all that.

Regardless of your season in life, you can count on God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness is a constant in a season of change.

The word faithful can be illustrated by the image of the strong arms of a father that uphold and protect his helpless child. When the word faithful is used with regard to God, it means that He is worthy of absolute trust, and that we can depend upon Him without doubt or reservation. It is important to understand that God is faithful, not because He does everything we want, but because He does everything that He has promised. [1]

The following are ways you can depend on God’s forever season of faithfulness:

A. The character of faithfulness is ascribed to God:

  1. Deuteronomy 7:9 The faithfulness of God keeps covenant and steadfast love…
  2. Deuteronomy 32:4 The God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright…
  3. Hosea 11:12 The Holy One who is faithful…
  4. I Peter 4:19 The faithful creator

B. God is faithful to do all that he has promised:

  1. Psalm 135:5-7 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does…
  2. Isaiah 14:27 For the Lord has purposed…who will annul it?
  3. Ephesians 1:11 We have obtained an inheritance…
  4. Isaiah 54:10 My steadfast love shall not depart from you…

C. Not one word of all the words that God has spoken has failed:

  1. Joshua 23:14 …not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised…
  2. I Kings 8:56 …not one word has failed of all his good promise…
  3. Isaiah 40:8 …the word of God will stand forever.

D. We can trust God to be forever faithful:

  1. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
  2. 2 Timothy 2:13 …if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
  3. Deuteronomy 7:9  Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
  4. 1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

There are seasons in the lives of all when it is not easy to believe that God is faithful. However, remember this: “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.” Psalm 36:5

We can look upwards to the stars of night, and see the “faithfulness” of God “established” in the material heavens. Our unfaithfulness to trust never alters the faithfulness of God. [2]

“I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8

How are you experiencing God’s faithfulness in your season of life? 

Footnotes

[1] The One True God, Paul Washer │[2] The Faithfulness of God, John Macduff

A Simple Devotional about More

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A Simple Devotional about MOREI’m leaving in a few days on an adventure! A missions trip to help a church, children and their families. I’ll travel with an awesome group of adults and college students. I was asked to share a simple devotional for the Mom’s while their children are occupied with games and activities. I will have an opportunity to talk with a group of women that I’ve never met before.

I wanted one word that would resonate with a mom, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a friend…even through a language barrier.  I was given a time limit. I will have an interpreter.  Choosing a word was not easy. But I think the word I chose is the right word for this occasion.

I chose the word, More.

I could preach a long sermon on the word, ‘more,’  but I have only a few minutes to share a simple devotional…

I like it when my husband says to me, “I love you.”  When we were newlyweds, I frequently asked him, “How much do you love me?”  I still ask him that question and all of these years later, he answers me the same way, “I love you eleventy-times-seven.”   And then I always ask another question, “How much is eleventy-times-seven?” And his answer to that question has always been one word, “More.” There is no number that can measure his love for me.

I get it! I am loved. My husband will always love me more. But even as grand as the word ‘more’ is, it can never totally satisfy the love that I need. There is only one perfect love and only one love that is more than enough and that is God’s love for me. I will never comprehend the true meaning of love until I come to understand that love is the very essence of God, because, God is love.

My family has experienced a lot of change and some unrest recently with moving to a new city and home. Everything is new such as a new state, a new community, new friends, a new church, a new job.

During this transition, I would often say a prayer asking God to overwhelm us with his love. The one thing I wanted my family to experience–to rest in, to be sure of in the midst of complex change and uncertainty is this: God loves us more…and his love is enough.

Be amazed and in awe by the vastness of God’s love for you!

All my life I’ve heard people say, “God loves you.” It’s probably the most insane statement you could make to say that the eternal Creator of this universe is in love with me. There is a response that ought to take place in us, a crazy reaction to that love. Do you really understand what God has done for you?

John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he gave his only son…God gave himself, totally and absolutely for you, in his son Jesus Christ. Do you understand that God gave us his only son Jesus? Jesus bled, died on a cross, was buried in a tomb and became alive again so that we may have life everlasting. God’s incredible love gift to us is Jesus. There is no greater love than this! God loves us…more!

This is why I prayed for my family to be overwhelmed by God’s love. Through God’s son, Jesus, we have forever hope, forever peace, forever joy, forever mercy, forever forgiveness, forever life, forever love. Forever more love than we can comprehend!

This week I remembered the profound answer of a young boy when his mother asked him, “How much does God love us?” And his answer will fill your heart with a smile and a laugh, “God loves us more-ther than the house is big; more-ther than the city is wide.”

Psalm 36:5 says: Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.

Let’s praise the Lord for his great love! God’s love is wider than any continent, longer than any road, higher than any mountain, and deeper than any ocean. God loves us more!

I am continually overwhelmed by the love of God. If you ask me if I’m alright, I’ll simply answer the way that little boy did when he was asked that question, “I’m doing very alright! I’m more alrighter than the sky is blue!”

You may like to read this: Imagine the Adventure! (where it all began…)

A Stumble and a Bumble

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Stumble and Bumble
She pulls open the bottom drawer of the dresser and searches for the “colorful bathing suit” to put on. The black and white swim suit will not do. It must be the colorful one. “Let’s go to the pool, Gigi!” Already at three years of age, she talks about being on a swim team one day.

Out the door she bounds…walking too fast, slightly unsteady on the top step. Down she goes! Thankfully there are only two wooden steps to stumble and bumble over, plus there was a thick carpet remnant on the concrete floor of the garage, a cushion for her forehead and nose. After a good cry, lots of hugs and comforting, I prayed with her and thanked God that she wasn’t hurt badly and especially for that cushion of carpet. While driving to the pool,  she said, “Gigi, I did a stumble and a bumble but I’m okay.”

Don’t we all stumble and bumble! And we all want to be okay.  We stumble with anger, anxiety, envy, resentment, self-pity, disgust, or frustration. We bumble through discouragement, lust, irritability, impatience, hard-heartedness, brusqueness, unkindness, or withdrawnness. [1] We hope for a cushion of carpet to break our fall.

And you know…we can be more than, “Okay.”

This is what we must do. We must read and know and think and believe that it is trusting in the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to cover the stumbling and conquer the bumbling. This is the only way we will be more than okay.

I read the book of Jude today. It’s not long…just 25 verses. Here is verse 24:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

How awesome is that?  One day I will stop stumbling and bumbling…but not today. John Piper is wise when he wrote, “Whether you are in your twenties or sixties, you probably have some long-standing heart-responses you don’t like. These are like reflexes. You don’t choose them. They spring up unintentionally from your heart, usually in response to the people around you. When any one of these attitudes springs up unbidden, you hate it. You have fought it for years with gospel-faithfulness, trusting in the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to cover it and conquer it. Still it returns. You weep over it, and ask your closest friends to pray for you. There is a short season of reprieve. And there it is again stamping you. Telling you: This is who you are. You say no. In Christ, this is not who I am. His stamp is on my life. True. But O you would be done with this! O to be new, through and through!” [2]

So the key is not to give up. I’m sure God has reasons for why he allows us to fight so long, but he never intends us to give up on Scripture. [1]  Don’t give up when you stumble and bumble.

God’s designs are to bring a surprising verse into your heart in a surprising moment in a surprising situation and do a surprising work of transformation. [2]

Expect a “cushion of carpet!” God’s word is there to break your fall.

Footnotes

[1] See 2 Timothy 3:16-17 │ [2] Is There a Key to Godliness? by John Piper