Thursday Devotional - God is With Us, to Dispel Doubts 7/14/22

 Have you ever doubted if something would work, but you tried it anyway?

Some of Jesus' disciples doubted Jesus' resurrection, but went to meet Him anyway.

Matthew 27:16-17 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

We know Thomas was as least one of the disciples that doubted at one point (John 20:24-31). I think there may have been more than just Thomas, though, because it says "some doubted." From the other Gospels it is clear that some of them doubted the report by the women (Mark 16:9-11), doubted the witness of those who had seen Jesus (Mark 16:12-14), and even doubted Jesus himself when he appeared to them personally (Luke 24:36-43).

We know they didn't stay "doubters!" Mark 16:19-20 says "After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up in to heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it."

Even though some disciples doubted, they still did as Jesus commanded and went to meet Him in Galilee. They took their doubts to Jesus and then He was able to give them the confirmation they needed. What if they hadn't obediently gone to Galilee? Some of them may have remained doubters.  

We can do the same today with our doubts. We can go to God in prayer and ask our questions. We can then study and search the Bible for answers. If we have doubts, but don't go to God and His Word, then we can't expect to receive answers. 

What doubts do you have? What doubts do those around you have?

How will you and I take those doubts and questions to God and ask for the Holy Spirit to help us know the truth as we study the Bible? Then, we can proclaim the truth with confidence, as God dispels doubts!

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us, While Others Spread Lies 7/7/22

Lies are prevalent all around us - in the news, in the media, on social networks, etc. Twisting the truth and facts isn’t new. It happened all around Jesus’ life, death and resurrection!

Matthew 28:11-15      While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹² When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ ¹⁴ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” ¹⁵ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

The Jewish people were told a lie, and many believed it. However, they could have stopped to think about whether it made sense instead of accepting it at face value. First, they could have sent out search parties to look for the “stolen” body, questioned the disciples, and searched their homes. If the body was stolen and hidden somewhere, someone could have found it. Someone would have “leaked” the secret. Plus, if the disciples were such cowards to flee at Jesus’ arrest and not speak up at his trial, then why would they suddenly have courage enough to steal his body from a sealed and guarded tomb? 

Also, if the guards had really fallen asleep, the chief priests would have certainly had them killed. At a minimum, the guards would have been fired! Guards are trained to watch without sleeping. So, it wouldn’t make sense that ALL of the guards fell asleep! Plus, it says "some" of the guards went to the chief priests, so maybe the others weren't bribed and actually circulated the truth.

Some of these details may have taken weeks to flesh out, but the truth could have been uncovered and known. Hundreds of people saw the resurrected Jesus and lived to tell about it. The people had to want to know the truth, ask questions, and stop and think.

God was with the women and disciples, and made sure they knew the truth. As we stay close to God, He can help us know the truth, too.

What lies might you and I have accepted at face value?

What truth about God have others tried to discount or twist?

How will you and I stop and think, go to God with our questions, and study His truths in His Word so we aren’t deceived? He is with us to help us discern truth from lies!

Thursday Devotional - God is with Us, Pursuing Goals 6/30/22

Can you believe we are halfway through 2022??? So, how are you and I doing on our 2022 goals? For those who set goals, did you and I ask God what His plans and purposes were for us this year?

Proverbs 19:20-21       Listen to advice and accept discipline,
    and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

²¹ Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
    but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Now is a good time to revisit our goals and have a mid-year check-in with God! How does He think we are doing in relation to His purposes and goals for us?

Alice 

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us, In Our Fear of the Unknown 6/23/22

 Are you afraid of anything or anyone right now? Is something worrying you?

Several years ago Joe and I were worried and sick to our stomachs over an attorney letter we received from a former renter’s lawyer. They were threatening a lawsuit because we hadn’t returned their deposit money (but, they had left several damages and hadn’t cleaned the place).

Joe and I prayed for help and direction and that we would learn what God might be teaching us through this experience. We knew God was already aware of the situation and would be with us, but it was still hard not to worry about the outcome.

The women that visited Jesus’ tomb had a similar combination of faith and fear. Previously, they experienced a violent earthquake, watched a brilliantly shining angel roll the stone away, and witnessed the guards become like dead men in response! Who wouldn’t have been afraid! Yet, they heeded the angel’s direction to go quickly to tell Jesus’ disciples.

Matthew 28:8-10          ⁸ So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

In response to Jesus’s reassurance, the women didn’t say a quick “thank you Lord,” but stopped, bowed down and worshiped!

In Joe’s and my situation, God gave Joe an opportunity four days later to meet with the renter and resolve the whole thing! Like the women, I couldn’t help but immediately praise God!!! He was with us before, during and after the fearful situation!

How will you take your fears to God and then look for His presence?

Alice

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us When Satan Attacks 6/16/22

Spiritual battles aren’t always easy to recognize. Peter certainly had no idea Satan was using him to distract, tempt and stumble Jesus. Jesus knew it, though, and was with Peter through it!

Matthew 16:21-24 ²¹ From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Jesus told Peter and all the disciples that in order to truly follow Him we must give up control of our lives (which we don’t have anyway). Then, we can submit to God and His plans. The result will be true spiritual victory through Christ and not ourselves.

God was with my niece the other night to bring spiritual victory in the midst of Satanic attacks.

My sister told her husband a few days ago that she felt a spiritual battle going on with their middle child. She thought Heidi was close to accepting Christ as her Lord and Savior, but Satan was attacking her. Then, Tuesday night, after their family Bible reading, Heidi looked at my sister and said “I want to be a Christian!” They talked about what that meant, prayed, and then rejoiced! Afterwards, Heidi was more giddy and excited than she had ever been and began singing “I am a C... I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N!”

Are you feeling attacked by Satan? If so, will you cling to God, denying your selfish and earthly desires and submitting to His plans? He has the victory already!   

Alice

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us in our Stand for Him 6/9/22

Last night we read about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and how they bravely faced death for standing up for the truths of God (from Daniel 3). As we were talking about it, Sarah (8) said if someone threatened her, she wouldn’t be afraid because she knew she would go to heaven, where it is perfect. (I pray the Holy Spirit never lets her lose the confidence she has in God and His eternal plans!)

Our Bible reading and devotional time last night tied right in with the passage of Scripture we had started memorizing the day before from Matthew!

Matthew 10:28-33 ²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

³² “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³ But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Where are you and I afraid to take a stand for God? Let’s remember He is with us and won’t let anything happen outside of His plan and care. 

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us in our Disgust 6/2/22

 I walked into work the other day and someone shared how disturbed they were to hear all the terrible news in the world. They said it was especially difficult to hear and see about children being harmed. I agreed.

God is disgusted, too. I was able to share that I just re-read Matthew 18:5-7

⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. ⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!

I said I know God will bring justice. We often want it immediately, but He will bring it in His time.

However disgusted or appalled you and I are, we can be assured God is even more disgusted. We can trust His timing to rightly judge.

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us in our Marriage 5/26/22

 Today is Joe’s and my 15^th wedding anniversary! We got married on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and Joe planned a surprise honeymoon to Niagara on the Lake. (I knew we were going somewhere, but I didn’t know where.) I had said I didn’t want to go on a long or far away honeymoon, in case we ended up too exhausted after the wedding and couldn’t fully enjoy it! Plus, we needed time to get use to each other – living together, sleeping together, etc.

God takes two people and makes them one. We are now one couple, one family unit, and one tax return! 😊 God’s plan is for us to grow closer to each other as we grow closer to Him. If we are both growing closer to Him, then I don’t see how we can grow apart.  

Matthew 19:3-6    ³ Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he [Jesus] replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

God is to be at the center of every Biblical marriage. He wants to help marriages. Whose marriage will you pray for today? Pray for them to recognize God’s presence, His desire to help, and His purposes for them as one.

Alice

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us, Meeting Our Different Learning Styles 5/19/22

Are you more of a visual or verbal learner? For the most part, I’m a verbal (or auditory-sequential) learner and Joe is a visual/spatial learner (opposites attract!). We will experience, see, hear or read the same thing and remember different aspects of it.

What kind of learners were the disciples or the women who went to the empty tomb? I’m guessing there were some of both. God took care to cover both types! Not only did God send an angel to sit on the stone to visibly confirm that the empty tomb and violent earthquake were God’s doing (as we saw last week), but God had the angel also verbally confirm this truth.

Matthew 28:5-7   ⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” (italics for emphasis)

God reminded the women and the disciples (and us today) that all this happened just as planned and just as Jesus said! God offered the proof visually and verbally.

God teaches us today both visually and verbally. We can visually read His Word and verbally hear it taught. We can visually see His hand in creation around us and verbally interact with Him in prayer. Through His Word He gives us the big picture (spatial) of His redemptive plan for the whole world and He also gives us specific practical details (sequential) for everyday life.

God doesn’t just have one way of teaching. He reveals Himself in different ways for every learning style. He is the ultimate creative teacher with unlimited variety!

How has God used various ways to teach you His truths?

Alice

Thursday Devotional - God is With Us, In the Proof 5/12/22

Did you know there was an earthquake both at Jesus’ death and his resurrection? God may have seemed silent or far away during Jesus’s trial and crucifixion, but He was behind all the supernatural events that simultaneously exploded.   

Matthew 27:50-54           ⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

Matthew 28:1-4   After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. ² There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

Not only were there numerous people who witnessed Jesus’ death and resurrection, but I’m guessing thousands more experienced and remembered the earthquakes! God offered evidence to people who weren’t even looking for proof! I’m sure the guards never forgot either day. Plus, I love how God sent an angel to sit on the stone so that no one could think the empty tomb and earthquake were just coincidence. God was behind it all!    

Who do you know that isn’t even looking for proof from God? Let’s pray their eyes are opened (like the centurion) to see the obvious evidence of God all around them!

Alice