Provider

By Heather Allen –

You do not like your job. He does not like his car. She does not like her yard. I really dislike my kitchen. Add the small things. Scuffed shoes, gray hair peeking out at the root, a belly where there once was toned muscle. Look in the mirror. Wrinkles, receding gums, loose skin. The discontentment builds. Pause to take inventory of what goals have been met, and the tally falls short. But the years are clipping along, sailing faster than it takes to get your life preserver on.

Maybe it is turning forty. Maybe it is having teenagers and remembering when my parents were forty. Mid-life crisis jokes are something we grow up with. We might smirk at the fifty-year-old who has decided to grow a ponytail, get an earring, and buy the Mustang he always wanted.

The only sense I can make of this bittersweet pilgrimage is in scripture. I turn to Psalm 84. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (KJV, Psalm 84:11).

I keep reading.

“O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” (KJV, Psalm 84:12).

“Define good,” I say to myself.

I meditate on the passage longer. Mentally I have re-worked it to read “no comfortable thing” rather than “no good thing.”

Costs are up. I weave a plan to compensate. I ask God to bless it. The plan unravels. I go back to the drawing board and ask God to look over the plan with me. I do not get a definitive answer. It comes out like this “it is good to wait for the Lord.” And for some reason this makes me cranky, from my gray roots to my chipping pink polished toes.

I start to analyze the situation. I narrow the problem down to my righteousness. Maybe I do not qualify for good things. Perhaps I have not walked uprightly enough. I start thinking about volunteer opportunities and supporting an orphan. And then in the quiet of my plotting a new more righteous course, I am softly reminded that my works will never qualify me for anything good. Verses packed with the truth flow from my lips as I remind myself that Christ is my righteousness. He came to save the lost because we could not save ourselves.

I ask my husband to walk with me. His quiet strength modeling meekness. God provides. Whether it is provisions or righteousness, He always provides.

And almost to punctuate this learning experience, the vise tightens. Expenses grow, the river floods, fishing trips cancel. My fisherman by trade glances at the rivers view from our back deck gauging the flows. I stand next to him, placing my shaky hand in his. He kisses me “trust God.” The river is swollen and muddy, and like all creation, in God’s hand.

I go back to Psalm 84 and think on verse twelve. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.”

And while I am still uncomfortable, I know the truth. Trusting God means waiting on Him to use what looks bad, or scary, or hazy for my good. It means finding my safe spot in Him not in what I have stored up or can manufacture. It is choosing to believe God is love, when Satan tempts me, as he did Eve, to question His goodness toward me.

I choose to believe He does not withhold any good thing from His own.

Everybody Loves…

By Elaine James –

…. Raymond. Do you know the show Everybody Loves Raymond? If so, then you have seen Raymond blurt out something to Deborah and right away you think, “Oh no! He shouldn’t have said that!”

My husband had one of those moments. He said it, and he could not take it back. I immediately put up my defense. He’s not going to get away with that. I’m going to make him pay. At that moment, I was making his lunch. The thought came to me, I just won’t give him lunch.

Then a whispering, sweet voice said, “Elaine, have you ever said anything wrong?”

If I have to be honest, yes.

“Have I forgiven you and given you grace?”

Yes, Lord, you have.

“If My grace is sufficient for you, then my grace is sufficient for your husband. Can you make him the lunch for me?”

With you, Lord, I can do it. Without you, Lord, I want to ……

I made the sandwich. My mind and heart were battling the whole time. I will throw the sandwich at him. Honestly! I can make this sandwich and serve it with Christ. I made the lunch and gave it to my unsuspecting man. I got to thinking, I can really only do this because of God’s grace. I didn’t deserve what my husband said, but I chose to give him grace.

Have you ever felt that way toward anyone? When the whisper of God speaks, sometimes I ignore it and do not listen. It is hard at times.

“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit” (Romans 8:5 NLT).

I did have revengeful thoughts. My insides hurt. I did not want to serve, but when I finally did, I felt really good inside. I was able to move on. Only God can do that for me, and for you. What do you do with your revengeful thoughts?

Let’s Pray: Father, sinful things sometimes dominate within me. Help me to stop and listen to You. Forgive me for the times I have not listened. I want to please You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

But They Desired a King

By DiAne Gates –

In December of 1620, a ragged band of pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, running from the King of England, searching for the freedom to worship the Almighty God. It cost them, and most of our founding fathers, their lives. But their determination to maintain their allegiance to God birthed a nation—under God—the United States of America.

And as long as Americans pledged their allegiance to the God of our Fathers, He blessed our land, our people and our children.

But the seed of Adam’s sin infects every generation. Just like in the Garden of Eden, man still struggles with the sin of rebellion against God. Each of us must decide where to place our allegiance. Each of us must choose the laws we will follow. Each of us chooses to give our love and our heart either to God or to Satan.

There is no middle ground. “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NAS).

We are no different from our ancestors, all the way back to Adam and Eve. We think we’re different because we’ve tossed mud into the waters of the sovereignty of God, hoping our pitiful attempts to obscure His truth in education will silence His Word. But God’s Word will remain forever, in spite of our futile efforts to diminish, twist, and destroy it.

God is the same God in Genesis that He is in 2013. His ways are the same. His authority is the same. His power is the same. And His judgments are the same.

Fifty-one percent of Americans are screaming for a king. Fifty-one percent of Americans want nothing to do with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Fifty-one percent of Americans desire a government like other nations who have either a dictator or a king.

And God will give the people what their hearts desire.

Just like He did to the Israelites who stood on the border of the land God and assigned their loyalty to ten lying spies who refused to believe God’s Word and His promise. And that choice cost those folks forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Until they died.

Choices bring consequences.

Refusal to address sin and rebellion in our lives, in our families, and in our nation is a refusal to seek God’s presence. Without Him there will always be chaos.

What will it cost Americans if we continue to reject the Lord God Almighty and pursue the desire to be like the other nations? What will the consequences be if this fifty-one percent grows to seventy-five percent? What will become of our young people, our grandchildren, being schooled in the murky waters of Day Age, Evolutional Creation, self-worship, pride, homosexuality, infanticide and millions of other deceptions writhing in the cesspools of evil?

Are you satisfied with Jesus? Does your heart truly belong to Him? Is He your Lord, your God, and your King?

Or does your heart desire another king?

Holy Glasses

By Cheri Cowell –

One of the little frustrations of life occurs for me when I get my hair cut. When the hairdresser has finished cutting my hair, he hands me a mirror so I can see the back. But I can’t see a thing until I pull my glasses from under the cape and put them on. The mirror won’t do me any good without my glasses. We, as Christians, are like the person sitting in a salon chair, being handed a mirror from God, who says to us, “Look and see what great things I have done.” We strain to see what He is talking about, but often we miss it. Why? We need to put our glasses on.

You and I sit in God’s salon chair day after day, inviting Him to remake us in His image. He tells us great things, and hands us a mirror so we can see into the heart where His great work is being done. But we don’t see anything. He points the mirror toward others so we might see and thus believe the promises for ourselves, yet still we can’t see. Then He gently whispers in our ears, “Put on your glasses.” We pick up the Word of God and through that lens we begin to see and discern the heart of God. The living and active Word of God helps us to see things we cannot begin to see on our own.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV).

PRAYER: I praise You, God, for the living and active Word we have been given. Give me eyes to see, through the reading and studying of Your Word, what You are doing in my life and in the lives of others around me this week.

Never Doubt Obedience

By Carin Leroy –

My three-year-old grandson and his family visited recently, and his Mom was trying to get him potty-trained. Since I had a bowl of gumdrops up high, she bribed him with, “If you use the potty, I’ll give you a candy.” As he eyed the colored sweetness, he understood that if he accomplished what Mommy asked that he would get a reward. It wasn’t long before he started tearing off clothes and heading to the bathroom.

He returned with his little hand out saying, “Candy?”

Sure enough, he would get the promised treat. He learned that obeying and accomplishing a certain task provided a promised reward.

Just as my young grandson was learning the benefits of obedience, we can also be assured that when we listen and obey God’s voice that we will also be blessed.

An example of faith and obedience bringing personal blessing was David. As a young man, he was anointed to be king by the prophet Samuel (I Samuel 16). But instead, he was met with hardships for many years. Yet his choice to have faith and obedience did eventually bring him the kingship of Israel.

Many in the Bible were personally blessed because of obedience:

• Mary’s obedience meant she was the mother of Jesus.
• The widow saved her son from slavery when she obeyed the prophet by collecting many jars and filling them with the last of her oil (II Kings 4).
• Abraham became the father of a nation because he obeyed God when He said, “Go to a land I will show you” (Genesis 12).
• The disciples caught a huge net of fish because they obeyed Christ’s command to cast the net once more (John 21).
• The man born blind received his sight when he listened to Christ and washed the clay off his eyes in the Pool of Siloam (John 9).

Charles Spurgeon once said, “Love is the chief jewel in the bracelet of obedience.” Obedience will flow from a heart that truly loves God. Blessing will follow. We may not understand or see instant results (just like young David), but we can trust we will be blessed, too. Not only do we gain the benefit of growth and maturity in our spiritual life, but we reap the outcome of that step of faith to obey. Never doubt what your obedience to God will accomplish.

PRAYER: Lord, give me a heart that obeys because of a true love for You. Remove any rebellion in my life, so that I can fulfill the purpose that You have for me. Help me not to doubt what my obedience to You will accomplish.

“How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, who obey the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe His rules, and seek Him with all their heart, who, moreover, do no wrong, but follow in His footsteps. You demand that your precepts be carefully kept. If only I were predisposed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, if I were focused on all your commands…With all my heart I seek You. Do not allow me to stray from Your commands!” (Psalm 119:1–6, 10 NET).

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