First Place

By Cheri Cowell –

“Now why didn’t I think of that?”

That is the question we ask ourselves when we see one of those new inventions that seem so logical it should have been thought of before. We know when we see them that the person who patented it is going to be financially set for life, and we wonder why we didn’t think of it first. I’m talking about things like Velcro, Wet Ones, and Post-it Notes (how did we ever get along without these things?). Secretly, we go even further by asking God if we will ever get there first. Will we ever be the one with the winning ticket, the big idea, or the first place prize? This yearning to be number one has been placed in us by our heavenly Father, not so we can achieve it here on earth, but so it will point us toward God. In Him we are never last. In Him all of us can have first place.

“The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully” (Deuteronomy 28:11-13 NASB).

In this passage, Moses details for the Israelites the decision they must make when they enter Canaan: to fully obey God’s laws and be blessed, or live outside of His laws and be cursed. Verses 1–14 describe a blessed life. When we obey God’s teachings we will be first among many in God’s eyes.

PRAYER: Thank You, God, for Your promise to provide wealth when I obey Your teachings, not wealth as this world defines, but Your wealth of placing me first in Your heart. May I have the courage to give You first place in mine.

Forward! Crawl!

By Anne C. Johnson –

“It’s a girl!”

I glanced up and searched my husband’s eyes. Joy shined through his tears. “She’s beautiful,” he whispered.

The nurse placed our newborn in my arms. My daughter’s bright eyes gazed at me. Though I doubt she knew what she was looking at, she seemed to be taking in everything.

Our precious daughter filled our lives with joy and awe. Sleeping was her nemesis. She fought us every time we laid her down for a nap. My husband would swaddle her and place his hand over her eyes, and at the same time he would massage her eyebrows. This process sometimes took an hour, and for his effort she would sleep for an hour or less.

We spent hours on the floor playing, rolling around, singing and engaging our daughter. When she began to coo at us, we would talk and read to her. During the early years of her life our schedules and focus seemed to revolve around her.

When the magical day came for her to leave the rug and venture forth, we were ready with camera in hand. Up on her knees she started rocking back and forth. Our world would never be the same again. Then the unthinkable happened. Our cute girl went backwards. For months we heard her scream out her frustration, as once again she had backed herself into a corner.

Spiritually, I too find myself crawling backwards. Sometimes I scream out my frustrations. Instead of listening to what God says about me, I fall into the old trap of caring and believing in what others say about me. This straying from God’s word causes my focus to veer from God’s truth. I begin to rely on other’s opinions of who I am and what I am worth.

At times I allow my focus to stray completely away from God. It is then that I have a sense of being backed into a corner, surrounded by doubt and self-loathing. I cry out for God to rescue me and surrender to Him these false beliefs.

Time and time again, God’s word carries me out of the corner of despair. “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37 NIV).

I rediscover that I am loved. I am a conqueror not a quitter and I matter to God. The chapter goes on to say that nothing can separate me from God’s love.

Like my daughter, I need to practice keeping my eyes trained forward on God and His truth. Inch by inch becoming proficient at crawling forward toward my Heavenly Father and away from the snare of depending on others for my self-worth. God’s word is truth, and He created and called me to be His own. Focused on Him, I can move forward with confidence knowing that I belong to the Creator of the universe, and He loves me. I am one of His precious girls.

Hook Line

By Elaine James –

Tom’s flight landed on time, and before he knew it, he was driving off in his snazzy red sports car rental. He was on his way to a convention where he was slated to speak. Once he arrived in town, he was pumped up but troubled. I’m on time. Everything is going to be okay, except that I still need that “hook line” to open my speech – something funny. I also need a little pick me up. Coffee!

As he made his way into the drive-through lane, he remembered that he still needed to confirm the pronunciation and spelling of the town. He certainly didn’t want to embarrass himself by saying it wrong during his presentation.

He greeted the young boy at the window inquiring, “How do you spell this place, and can you pronounce it for me?”

With a slight hesitation, the boy spelled, “B-U-R-G-E-R-K-I-N-G, Burger King.”

Tom, by this time laughing hysterically, said, “No, son, I mean the name of this town!”

Earlier that morning Tom had prayed, “God, I need a funny hook line for my speech. Help!” Nothing came to his mind. He was on the plane thinking, I must come up with something funny. Still nothing! He prayed again, this time telling God, “I only have about two hours till I give that speech. Can you hurry it up a bit?”

In the past, I’ve found myself praying like Tom, telling God what to do and how much time He had to do it. I have prayed like this, “Lord, I am going right now to meet with someone. Make her think the same way as I do about this situation so there won’t be any conflict.” Then I would reason with God using Scripture, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14 NIV).

Tom got his “hook line” with that funny story. Prayer does not always work fast even when I reason with God. James helped me out when he stated, “Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15 NIV).

I have learned to pray about everything, but now I end my prayer with, “… if it is your will, Father …” I’m hooked! Remember, Father knows best!

PRAYER: Father I pray for _______. Your will be done. I know You know best. Thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Invitation

By Susan Dollyhigh –

I learned so many new things in first grade. Good things like reading and writing. And some not so good things – like what it meant to live on the wrong side of the tracks.

One morning my classmate, Elizabeth*, asked our teacher if she could give out her birthday party invitations. One by one, each girl smiled as Elizabeth placed the invitation in her hand. I waited for mine, and when Elizabeth started to sit back down, I naively asked, “May I have one too?”

I carried the invitation home. And that was part of the problem. Home for me was a mobile home on the outskirts of town. Home for Elizabeth was a fancy brick house downtown.

I was the oldest of four children and money was more than tight. Yet knowing how important this party was to me, my mother bought Elizabeth a Barbie doll. I didn’t even own a Barbie doll.

The next morning, my feet practically floated up the steps and onto the school bus. Elizabeth’s gift was in my book satchel, and I couldn’t wait to get to school. But when I stepped off the school bus, Elizabeth ran over to me, lowered her head, and said, “My mother said you can’t come to my party.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I reached into my book satchel, pulled out the gift, and placed it in Elizabeth’s hand. Throughout the school day, I watched in silence as the other girls jumped up and down, and talked about going home with Elizabeth.

My heart ached as the girls climbed into Elizabeth’s car that afternoon. Hanging my head to hide the tears, I walked to the school bus.

But I soon received another invitation from Someone who didn’t care where I lived. The Holy Spirit spoke to my young heart during a worship service, and issued an invitation from Jesus. When I accepted His invitation, my heart filled with God’s love. Even though I didn’t always understand why God allowed bad things to happen in life, I knew, I could trust Jesus to never, ever take away His love, nor His invitation to be my Savior.

Trust Jesus with your heart, He will never take back His invitation.

Bible Verse: See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1 NIV).

Prayer: Father, thank You that we can trust You with our hearts, and that we never have to worry about You taking back Your invitation. Amen.

*Name changed

Prizefighter

By Elaine James –

My first week of empty nesting. The last two of my four children were going off to college. I kept imagining myself being alone. The adversary kept jabbing me with “You are never going to make it! You are going to fall apart! Those kids are your life. You cannot do anything else!”

I desperately prayed, “God I just can’t fall apart. This is where life is now. Help me!”

It was impressed on my heart to read the book of Philippians. My study Bible recommended that the reader focus on certain verses of that book. There are many good verses that I like, but I was praying and asking God for a personal revelation for me. I actually get excited about praying and reading, because at some point a verse does pop out at me! Then I just read it over and over till I can journal some thoughts to help me carry through the day.

“And do not [for a moment] be frightened or intimidated in anything by your opponents and adversaries, for such [constancy and fearlessness] will be a clear sign (proof and seal) to them of [their impending] destruction, but [a sure token and evidence] of your deliverance and salvation, and that from God” (Philippians 1:28 AMP).

This was the verse! Consider the phases of life as a boxing match. We’re God’s prizefighters! Are we going to throw in the towel and give into fear, intimidation or sadness? Are we wimps or fighters? We have to be careful or we can get hit hard and be KO’d (knocked out), ending up depressed or sick.

This verse put it into perspective for me. It is a daily choice. I am a competitive person by nature. I cannot let Satan win. I cannot let him destroy me. If I draw near to God, He can disable Satan and make it so he won’t have control over my life. God can give me the energy to fight! How about you?

I think that we have no choice about being in the boxing ring of life. There will always be round after round with many bouts of fighting. I know that if we take breaks between those rounds and go to God’s corner where he coaches and delivers us, we can be prizefighters!

Prayer: Dear Lord, help me embrace Your promise to deliver me. I want to draw near to You and be energized by You so I can be a prizefighter. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

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