Every Day

“I will extol You, my God, O King;

and I will bless Your name

forever and ever. Every day I will

bless You, and I will praise Your name

forever and ever.  Great is the Lord,

and greatly to be praised; and His

greatness is unsearchable.”

     Psalm 145:1-3 (NKJV)

It is easy to praise God when time are good, when our lives are working well.  But when we’re going through a situation we don’t understand, when we’re hit with disappointments, when we experience heartache, we can sometimes find it hard to bless God as we should.  Yet He is always worthy of glory and praise.  Our joy is in the Lord at all times, even in the darkest days. 

My heart is still broken over a relationship with someone I dearly love that became estranged years ago. There is no sign of any healing on the horizon, yet I praise God in this trial.  Through it, He is teaching me to trust Him and strengthening my faith. God has been so faithful, so steadfast.  He wipes away my tears and comforts me. He is always there for me to lean on. He guides me and loves me and provides for me so well.

If we can praise God on the mountain top, we can praise Him in the valleys.  He never changes.  He is always faithful, always worthy.  Every day.

Thursday Devotional - Pressing Questions

What is the one thing you want to know right now? Do you have a pressing question or dilemma?

Right before Jesus ascended back to Heaven, the disciples had a pressing question.

Acts 1:4-9            ⁴ On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” ⁶ Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

The disciples wanted to know if Jesus was right then going to restore the kingdom to Israel! He didn’t directly answer their question. He didn’t answer it the way they wanted, but gave them far more than they asked! He gave them what He knew was best for them to know right then. He does that for us today.

I’ve had several pressing questions over the years. After our miscarriage and years of infertility, Joe and I wanted to know if we were to have children, when, how, etc. God didn’t answer all those questions at once, but through the guidance of the Holy Spirit gave us what we needed to know for the next step.

           

God provides what He knows we need to know (and not always what we want to know).

What part of your and my life is confusing right now? If we are seeking His direction and desiring to follow Him, He will give us what we need, when we need it. We can trust His purposes and plans. He will prepare us for the next step, just as He did the disciples!

Alice

No Pain, No Gain

“You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.”  1 Thessalonians 2:1-3 NLT

Derek Redmond was a great Olympic sprinter.  In the 1992 Olympic Games, he was running well in his event, the 400 Meters, winning his first two qualifying heats with ease.  In the semifinal, he started well, but midway through the race, something went terribly wrong.  He tore his right hamstring, and knelled to the ground in sheer agony.  Not to be deterred, he stood up, and hobbled on his good leg the next 100 meters even though the other competitors had already finished the race.  Still having another 100 meters to go, he was joined by a familiar face that would walk with him the rest of the way; his father.  As he sobbed on his father’s shoulder for the remaining 50 meters, the crowd at the stadium, which first started with a courteous applause, now had begun to cheer … louder and louder as they got closer to the finish line until his father and him crossed it.  In Derek’s pain and suffering, he still lost a race.  Because his father helped him across, he was disqualified.  However, he gained a world of fans and appreciators that watched his heroic feat.  No one remembers who won the race or even the gold medal for the 400 meters that year.  Everyone remembered that moment (https://youtu.be/t2G8KVzTwfw).

Some of you cannot relate to this kind of story, but many of us had parents who sacrificed a lot to ensure we could have a better life.  If so, I hope you appreciate all your parents did for you as mine did for me.  They many times struggled, but it was the pain of that struggle that allowed my brothers and me to do two things.  First, it set a standard for all our children to follow.  Second, it garnered attention that served as a platform to speak about who we are and who we serve.  These are the things that had me think about the writers of the Books of Thessalonians.  Like many of the early Christians, they suffered for what they believed in to reach something greater.  Something more important than a race.  Instead, it was the salvation of all mankind.  It reminded me of a saying my mother told me and what many of you have heard before; no pain, no gain.

Suffering is the currency of living a faithful life serving God.  Paul’s writing to the Thessalonians speaks of the suffering they encountered prior to their writing.  It is not the suffering that is of the greatest fascination.  It is clearly the ‘why’ behind it.  They saw a greater good in their suffering.  It allowed them to share the Good News of Christ.  It’s the suffering that gives credibility to their teaching.  We often look at suffering as tests of faith, and that is often true.  However, it is usually in preparation for something bigger that God has in store for you if you are willing to endure what comes with it.  We must prayerfully discuss with God His purpose, and remember the words of Hebrews 10:23, which says, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”

While no one should look to suffer, we should always view it through a Godly lens.  Jesus Himself did not want to endure the suffering that came with the crucifixion saying in the beginning of Mark 14:36, “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me.” But as we read the latter half, He acknowledged the ‘why’ behind His suffering showing love for both God and us completing His thought saying, “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  Whenever we are faced with suffering, let us remember our ‘why’ knowing there is something greater God has planned for His purpose.  What pain and suffering are you enduring today that could use a Godly perspective?  What lessons from the suffering of Jesus and Paul can you draw from in your life?  My prayer is that we remember the purpose of suffering along with the saying, ‘No pain, no gain.’  Amen.

The Power of Prayer

James 5:14-15

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. 

I tend to ask for prayer a lot.  Sometimes for me, sometimes for others.  I know some people that are shy to ask for prayer as they don’t want to burden others.  Prayer should never be a burden!  This last week, I begged my community of people for all the prayers I could get.  I knew that God was the ultimate healer!  You see, I ended up in the ER Monday for very severe chest pain.  I really thought I was having a heart attack.  After they ruled out the heart and a blood clot, they discovered that I had pneumonia.  What??  I hadn’t even been coughing. 

How could this be?  Simple, the power of prayer!  Either of the things the doctors were evaluating me for would have been far more serious.  My community of people prayed hard over me.  God answered their prayers.

What is it that you could use prayer for today?  Do you have a community of people that will pray for you?  If you need prayer, please know that we as a group are here to pray for you.  The leaders of this group will pray for you in private if you do not wish to share with the group. 

The Lord answers the prayers of those who come to him in prayer.  Even when it is not always answered the way that we are hoping, he still answers them.