February 24

Psalm 16:11
"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

The fullness of Your grace is here with me
The richness of Your beauty's all I see
The brightness of Your glory has arrived
In Your presence God, I'm completely satisfied


For You I sing I dance
Rejoice in this divine romance
Lift my heart and my hands
To show my love, to show my love


A deep deep flood, an Ocean flows from You
Of deep deep love, yeah it's filling up the room
Your innocent blood, has washed my guilty life
In Your presence God I'm completely satisfied

Divine Romance by Phil Wickham
{Hear the song}

January 25

Isaiah 55:10-11
"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall proper in the thing for which I sent it."  (NKJV)

 God clearly states here that His purposes will be accomplished.  His word shall not return void.  Whether it is us or someone else, God’s word will not return void.  I want to be a part of that!  God has refreshed me and I don’t want to forget it and go about life “as usual” but I want to live my life to declare it!  I’ve noticed that the first day of anything new seems easy.  For example, that first day of exercise is good—its nice to get moving; yeah I’m burning calories; my side hurts a little, but it’ll be worth it in the end!  It’s the second day that gets you—my muscles are sore; it wasn’t this hard yesterday; my lungs are burning, is this really worth it?  The first day of spiritual growth is good—my sins are covered and I’m forgiven; God has put a new song in my heart; pain may have lasted for the night, but joy sure came this morning!  It’s the second day that sets the tone—I don’t feel like I have anything monumental to turn from today; I’m still feeling refreshed today and I prayed a long prayer and read a lot of the Bible yesterday, so I’m covered for today too right?  Queue Satan’s entry as we don’t get through that second or third day and he dumps guilt in our lap for not living up to what we were so committed to yesterday.  We feel guilty and give up hope and resign ourselves to being a failure.  Well, God’s word will not return void!  Don’t sit on the sidelines because you have failed—get back up, ask forgiveness, and resume that sweet fellowship with God!  It is the daily denying of ourselves and His power being perfected in our weakness, in which we will be continually refreshed and in sweet fellowship with Him!

Lord, we know your word will not return void.  I thank you for that and I pray I may be a part of that.  And I pray that this devotional makes sense too.  It’s kind of jumbled, but I pray it accomplishes what you wish and that it brings you glory.  May we daily give ourselves and our power up to You—the One who holds the whole world in His hand.  May your power be perfected in our weakness, because we’re broken and it’s all we have to give.  Amen.

January 24

Acts 3:19
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. . .” (NKJV)

The Lord has truly refreshed me.
I havn’t had close fellowship with God lately.  I wasn’t listening well and was being prideful and stubborn, doing things my own way.  (Hence the lack of posts the last few days.)  Thankfully, God humbled me today and brought me out of the pit I’d dug for myself.  He is in the midst of showing me so much right now, I can’t even verbalize it all yet.  I feel like Mary, storing all these things up and treasuring them in my heart.  One major thing He’s teaching me that I can verbalize is this: God is in control.  And lately, with different things going on in life, I’ve just had to repeat to myself: God is in control.  God is in control.  Do you get it yet?  Do I get it yet?  God is in control. 
I recently read a biography on Corrie ten Boom, and something her sister said in it has stuck with me: In God’s world there are no “ifs.”  Ever since I’ve read it I’ve been in situations where I keep catching myself saying “If only . . .” or “What if . . .”  or even “I wish I’d known that because if I had . . .”  Each time God has reminded me that in His world there are no “ifs.”  He is sovereign and He made me for a purpose and none of what is happening right now is on accident.
Today was a big day of being humbled and repenting.  I praise God for that!  It has been a day of being drenched in His grace as my sins have been blotted out.  I praise God for that!  And even as hard as the day began, it has been the most refreshing in a long time.  I praise God for that!

Keep me in your presence, Lord, that this refreshing may never cease!  Amen.

January 16, 17, 18

I felt led to share a song for today's devotional (which encompasses the past three days).  The following verses are by Audrey Assad, and it is her song "Show Me."  I definitely recommend buying this song--better yet, the whole CD.  It has definitely ministered to me, as I hope it will to you. 

"Show Me" 

You could plant me like a tree beside a river

You could tangle me in soil and let my roots run wild

And I would blossom like a flower in the desert

But for now just let me cry

You could raise me like a banner in a battle

Put victory like a fire behind shining eyes

I would drift like a falling snow over embers

But for now just let me lie

Bind up these broken bones

Mercy bend and breathe me back to life

But not before You show me how to die

Set me like a star before the morning

Like a song that steals the darkness from a world asleep

And I’ll illuminate the path You’ve laid before me

But for now just let me be

Bind up these broken bones

Mercy bend and breathe me back to life

But not before You show me how to die

Let me go like a leaf upon the water

Let me brave the wild currents flowing to the sea

And I will disappear into a deeper beauty

But for now just stay with me

God for now just stay with me

Psalm 1: 1-3

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall proper.

January 15

Isaiah 32: 9-10

Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.  In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come.

I am not a professional photographer (obviously!).  I do like to take pictures, however, and I am working to get better at it as time goes by.  The above represents what I might get if I never tried to improve, but just stay where I’m at.  The above represents being satisfied with mediocrity. 

It is all too easy to become complacent—in family, in work, in our spiritual life (in our photo blogs).  We are satisfied with where we are.  We are comfortable.  Our behavior in these situations seems to say: “I’m not going to push for anything better, but I will hope things don’t get any worse.”  If we are complacent in our spiritual life, all other areas are not far behind. 

I thought about not doing a devotional tonight.  Here was my thought process: “I didn’t do one last night because I was so tired and it was late when we got back home.  Why bother doing one tonight—I haven’t even taken a picture.  It rained all day and there were no good things to take pictures of.  I’ll just skip today too.  No one ever reads this blog anyway.  I don’t want to be dogmatic about it and feel like I have to do it every single day.  It’s okay to skip two days in a row.  Don’t worry about it.” 

Did you pick up on anything there . . .lets see . . . umm . . .EXCUSES?!?!  It’s easy to make excuses and rationalize staying right where you are.  But in the case of my blog, however, I knew this was something God gave me to do.  I thought about the times when it was 10pm and I had nothing for the day and He gave me a picture and a Scripture.  As I reflected on God’s faithfulness, it encouraged me to push forward.  I wanted to honor what He has already done, what I know He will do, and what He was called me to do.  That motivated me to get going. 

The same can be said for our spiritual life.  We should constantly be pushing forward, delving deeper into God’s Word, striving to know Him better and tuning our hearts and ears to His direction and voice.  If you have become complacent in your spiritual life, reflect back on what God has done for you.  Don’t feel like God has done anything for you lately?  Maybe you should read your Bible—read the gospels, focus on the crucifixion and the resurrection—that should give you a starting point. 

There is new life in Christ—that should be motivation enough to push through laziness and complacency to know Him more! 

Father, thank You for the new life You give us.  Thank You for revealing Yourself to us.  Thank You for not tempting us beyond what we can bear.  Thank You for never leaving or forsaking us.  Thank You for the calling You have placed on our lives.  May Your power be perfected in our weakness as You draw us ever closer to Yourself and out of our complacency and excuses.  May You be glorified in all these things.  Amen.

January 13

James 1:2-4
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (NKJV)

 

Many times as we encounter trials we feel mixed up—like a lot of pieces in our life are out of order.  But God tells us in His Word to count these times as joy!  This is difficult.  The important thing is to keep your eyes on the prize—an eternal reward in heaven, spiritual maturity, the glory of God.

I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube tonight.  It seems a perfect example of enduring as you keep your eyes on the prize.  I’ve never solved a Rubik’s cube before (unless you count taking the stickers off and putting them back so it looks solved!).  It was hard and frustrating, but the person teaching me the method for solving was very patient.  Sometimes I got mad and told him I did the step right and it didn’t work, so he must have written it down wrong.  Even when I made such accusations, he still rejoiced with me when I got a step right.  He kept teaching me and correcting me and helping me until I was able to solve it.  And then I went on to solve it all by myself!  As I kept doing the steps, I discovered that the step was wrong because I did it wrong—his directions were right all along.

It seems this is what we do with God.  He offers us a great adventure and we accept.  But we get frustrated and mad when it gets a little tough and hard to understand some things—when we go through trials.  When things aren’t going the way we want, we tell God that we’ve been doing things right, so He must have made a mistake somewhere along the way.  Despite these accusations, He remains with us, patiently instructing us in the way to go, the steps to take.  He rejoices with our triumphs and is pleased when we give Him the glory.  We discover that He was never wrong, we were.  And we (sometimes) can see how He worked it all together for good.

Remember that God has you on this journey for His purposes, not yours.  If you will let Him be in control, and patiently endure the trials along the way, and let Him teach you in the midst, you will learn so much—far more than if you fight it.  And in the end, you will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing!

January 12

Psalm 30:5“For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (NKJV)

It is a comfort to know that if we are in Christ, joy will come in the morning.  That morning could be a literal morning.  It could be when a period of mourning comes to an end, and we focus on the good memories we had.  It could be after days or weeks, or even years, of hard and trying times.  That morning could even be when we join our Heavenly Father in Paradise.  Psalm 16:11 says “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  When I am going through hard times, it the hope of that joy set before me that keeps me going.  I know that the Lord will bring joy in the morning—even joy in the midst of suffering.  And one day I will enter His presence and my joy will be complete in Him.  Will yours?

Thank you, Father, that though weeping may last for the night, Your joy comes with the morning!  Thank you that in your presence is fullness of joy.  May we be found in You, Lord, and on that day our joy be made complete!  Amen.