Thursday Devotional - God Is With Us When We're Afraid

Have you ever been really scared, all alone in the dark?

When I lived alone, I came home late one night from Bible study and found my back door open. I was paralyzed in fear. Staying in my car, I prayed and tried calling various family members and friends. No one answered their phone. Then, I prayed again, knowing God is always available and there with me. 

In a state of continual prayer, I scoured the house looking in all the closets, behind every door and under the beds. Finding no one, it appeared I must not have closed the door securely and it blew open. It was quite scary, but I was comforted knowing God was with me no matter what.

Joseph and Mary were in the dark and probably in a greater state of fear much longer than me! Their journey to Egypt was over 100 miles and started in the dark.

Matthew 2:13-16 “When they [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”   Matthew 2:13-16

God didn’t remove the threat or the fear, but He was with them and directed them through it.

What is your greatest fear right now? Will you and I take comfort knowing God is with us? He has a plan for us, and His plans can’t be stopped. He will give us direction when we’re afraid.

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Sin and Death or Victory and Life?

We just remembered Jesus death on the cross this past Friday and celebrated His resurrection on Sunday!

After a Good Friday service, we came home and got baths and then had our evening Bible reading and prayer time in a dark bedroom (instead of in the well-lit den). I used a flashlight as we read the crucifixion story together from the book of Luke. It’s a new tradition we started last year, remembering the utter darkness God sent while Jesus hung on the cross to pay for our sins. The kids had clear memories from a year ago (when we read the account from John)!

It’s hard for us to grasp all Jesus did in those dark hours on the cross. His death freed us from the penalty of sin and His resurrection freed us from the power of sin.  

Romans 6:1-5                     What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Are you and I truly living in the new life Jesus provided and looking forward to our resurrection someday?  Or, is there some habitual sin that reflects a lack of union with Jesus’ death? Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome those sins, living in the victory Jesus has already won!

Alice