A Devotion May Be Someone's Only Bible
Focusing our minds on Christ. . .studying His word, drawing tight into a relationship that is unbreakable. This is when His Spirit lives in our minds helping us keep our eyes focused only on Him.
A beautiful young woman felt her love was so strong that it would open her fiancée’s heart to Jesus. However, since she wanted her future children to go with her to heaven, she told her fiance’ that she could not marry him unless he entered a relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The young man was an electrical engineer and a devout Buddhist. I met him in my psychotherapist’s practice—since the young woman had made becoming a Christian a condition for her to remain engaged to him. She realized that being yoked is no joke.
During the young man’s therapy program, I exposed him to the reality that there are only two religions in the world. The first entails doing something, learning something, or joining a belief. The second involves believing God has done everything necessary for us to have a relationship with Him.
Thankfully, in our last session, he said, “I thought I had been educated at the university, but I’ve come to believe that I was only half-educated.”
All of this resulted from his fiancée’s firm understanding that being yoked is no joke when it determines the quality and direction of a person’s life.
Refuse to be yoked with unbelievers, no matter how persuasive or intrusive they become.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and sarangib.)
While I am up and about with the larks, as usual, I spend some happy time in spiritual meditation. It’s the best part of the day. I like to pray in silence, sometimes with inspiring Christian music. I believe in God and His blessings, especially His great gift of Jesus Christ.
Praise be to God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. As I reflected on this verse, I understood that God loves us just the same, sending us blessings and healing by Jesus, our Lord.
I decided that I like being kind to unkind people. Over the years, I have developed patience and tolerance. I seek to be a humble Christian, realistic and solution-focused.
Our Lord Jesus is an inclusive top healer and teacher. His message is still holding today: Love your neighbor.
Although it is good to think, “Bless your heart,” when people play Negative Normans (or Normas), we can all be catty Christians. I aim to devote my senior years to faith and literacy while focusing on prayers for peace for humanity and the environment.
No one can predict the future. But we can pray to do a great job for our Christian faith, develop the church’s mission, and love God and appreciate His blessings. Doing this works for me, and I hope it does for you too.
Thank God daily for His blessings.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and 1857643.)
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I walked up and down the store aisles, struggling to carry an awkward, heavy box as I shopped. The simple floor lamp would probably meet my needs, but I still questioned myself while looking at the kitchen rugs and curtains. Lord, I need a buggy; this lamp is just too heavy, I thought to myself as I turned the corner at the end of the aisle.
A tall man pushing an empty shopping cart approached me and asked, “Ma’am, do you need a buggy?” As I glanced around, I saw no one else in sight. He was speaking to me.
“Well, yes, I do. Thank you.” I shook my head and chuckled. His gesture was another gentle reminder that God hears my prayers.
We pray expectantly, so why are we surprised when God answers our prayers? God gets my attention in many instant answers like these. In seemingly trivial situations, He affirms He walks in step with me. God kindly drops a gentle reminder that He hears all my prayers, including needing a shopping cart.
Often though, I wait impatiently for God’s answers. My prayers seem unacknowledged. Should I pray longer or close my eyes tighter? Should I use more eloquent words and pray out loud? How can I get Him to hear my prayers and act?
However I choose to pray, or however God may answer, He lovingly lets me know He has heard every prayer and will answer when the time is right. God’s perfect will is to accomplish His greater plan and purpose. We know without a doubt that His plans work for good.
When you pray, trust that the Lord is listening.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and pexels.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
In frustration, I threw the ink pen in the trash can.
Sitting in my favorite coffee shop and writing in my spiritual journal is a frequent habit. But one day, the ink pen, still full of ink, refused to write. “What good is a pen full of ink that won’t write?” I muttered as the pen clattered through the lid of the trash can.
The sting of conviction was immediate. I was the pen full of ink that wouldn’t write.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, I am filled with the Holy Spirit, always ready to share my hope and write the love of God into the world. However, my self-doubt, insecurity, and anxiety often convince me I have nothing meaningful to say or that what I have to say will be dismissed. As a result, I keep my thoughts to myself.
In a well-known passage in John’s gospel, we read the story of the woman at the well. So many wonderful things are happening with this woman from Samaria as she draws water. She was at the well at noon, likely to avoid the village's other women. A stranger asks her for water in a culture where Israelites didn’t speak to Samaritans and men didn’t speak to women.
When she understood she had spoken to the Messiah, she immediately put down her water jar and went to the people of her village. She told her story and invited them to meet the man who was the Messiah.
The Samaritan woman’s fears, insecurities, and bad reputation didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she had an encounter with the living Lord and told others about it. Because of her testimony, others were motivated to seek Jesus.
As believers, we all have a similar story, whether we speak or write it. Find ways to tell your story to others so that others may know Jesus.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and Sponchia.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
One evening, a dazzling sunset caught my eye. A tremendous cross blazed across the sky with shafts of blue, gray, and pale-yellow streaking out from its center. The colors split on each end like giant tinker toys. Behind the cross, puffy, white clouds lined up like sheep with their wool glistening bright white.
My heart expanded, and my mind exploded with God's message in the clouds. "What are You saying, Lord? I can only see what You depict in the sky.”
God, the master artisan, painted this scene in the clouds with strokes of magnificent colors to remind us of what His Son, Jesus, accomplished on the cross. God is pure and holy and cannot look at sin. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, He put them out of the Garden of Eden. God required a sacrifice of blood to cover their sin.
But God loved us so much that He sent Jesus, the final sacrifice, to redeem us of our sins. His blood cleanses our hearts, and we become pure and holy before God. Jesus's blood bridges the gap between us and God.
What I saw as white puffs of clouds like sheep reminded me that we wander like sheep. Sheep are so busy grazing that they do not realize the flock has moved on. They stop focusing on following the shepherd and lose their way.
We, too, have wandered away from our Shepherd. We have turned to the sinful world and sought our own way. We get so busy and distracted with life that we forget to focus on why Jesus died on the cross.
Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection created a way for us to return to the Father. What a beautiful and splendid portrayal of God's message in the sunset clouds. God replicated what He offers us, a place in heaven beyond those clouds, where joy awaits us. He proclaimed His message of love for us to spend eternity rejoicing in heaven with Him.
God offers us the gift of His love. Don’t follow your way. Instead, come to the cross and follow Jesus.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and LevaNevsky.)