Devotions

I have been to Harlowton, Montana, twice for Celebrations of Life. Both times were challenging because the deaths were unexpected. Both times required the discomfort of airline travel (although this time was much easier).

Both times a lovely couple, friends of Patty’s who attend the same church, invited me into their home for breakfast on Sunday morning. The breakfast was wonderful, the coffee just right, but more than that, it was a precious time that allowed me to relax and find peace.

Traveling, doing eulogies and messages for people you love, is difficult and often distressing. Not knowing where to find things in unfamiliar towns adds to that.

This couple exemplified a gift spoken of in Romans 12. “When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.” [vs 12:13 NLT]

My need for peace and strength and support was met by their graciousness. They tenderly welcomed me into their home and lives.

Hospitality may not seem to some like the greatest of gifts, but when it is bestowed on you with grace and love in those trying times, it IS the greatest of all.

Thank you Brad and Julie!

I have read, memorized, quoted, and had some Scriptures quoted to me so many times they tend to have become “common place.”

They rest in the back of my mind as “words.” And they stay there as “words” until I really need them. Then those words (those promises) come alive and become exactly what I need in that moment. One such verse dominated last weekend.

“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” [Philippians 4:13 NLT]

You never know how much you need those words to be true, alive, empowering, enabled by the Holy Spirit of God until you find you cannot do something in your own strength.

I was not sure I could do the eulogy and salvation message at Patty’s Celebration of Life. Just writing and reading what I wrote left me emotional. It was not easy, but I have done the “not easy” things all my life.

I knew I could this “not easy” thing … BUT ONLY BECAUSE … I can do everything, even the “not easy” things, knowing that my LORD and Savior will give me the strength to do them.

And He did. Amen

October 4 – October 9

Offline: Traveling to MT for a Celebration of Life for a long-time friend. See you on the 10^th. Appreciate your prayers for traveling – not my favorite thing to do. Thank you!

October 3

Age: Does It Matter?

A lovely friend recently messaged me Scriptures from a Bible Study she is attending. Reading them one theme became apparent … age. Here are parts of each verse. (You might want to read the entire passage.)

Isaiah 46:4: “…until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you.”

Psalm 71:18: “Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God.”

Psalm 92:12-15: “…Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.”

Acts 2:17: “In the last days, God says, ‘your old men will dream dreams.’”

I enjoyed reading those verses, but it was the one from 1 Timothy 4:12 that really had me thinking. “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.”

Aged Paul wrote to young Timothy in a time when the aged were highly regarded, often thought of as wise. In our generation, we would have to revise that verse and replace “young” with “old.” “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are old….”

Our society highly regards the young. We have teenagers speaking to climate change groups, young entrepreneurs developing new technologies, young adventurers reaching into space. On and on it goes.

The elderly are often simply people to be cared for, sometimes shut away. Our voices often go unheard. We are ignored as irrelevant, our opinions and insights as old-fashioned. BUT GOD … He not only cares for those of us exploring old age, He invites us to share our wisdom with those coming after us.

My long-time friend, Patty, died Sunday. I have known Patty for decades. She and another friend, Vaunda, are the sisters I never had and always wanted.

I am the oldest, Patty was the youngest (by about a decade) and Vaunda is in between. I always figured that I would be the first “to go.” Shortly before she died, Patty said, “It’s not fair that the youngest should go first,” and I agreed with her.

I still agree with her days later. But I also know that Patty lived all the days that were “recorded in [God’s] book.”

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” [Psalm 139:16 NLT]

And she lived her days well, touching many lives with her humor, her enthusiasm and her compassion. She loved her Savior, she loved her family, she loved her friends. She loved life.

And now, I will begin the work of mourning. Every time I want to tell her something, or call her to laugh or cry, I will mourn.

Each of us who loved her will mourn our loss, but we will rejoice in her gain – to be present with the LORD she loved so much.

A.A. Milne wrote: “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

I would revise that a bit, “How blessed I am to have someone that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

October is the month where I feel like I have a split personality. It is my favorite month of the year weatherwise. It is my least favorite month of the year atmosphere-wise.

I love the cooler days, the changing colors of the trees. I love the fragrance of fallen leaves. I love wearing sweaters and sweats. I love switching from grilling to soups and stews. Ah, and then there are the apples and other fall fruits and vegetables to enjoy. I love being able to walk just about anytime of the day I want.

At the same time, as I walk, I am confronted with Halloween decorations, which I hate. (I know hate is a strong word, but I have a strong reaction to the decorations of witches and ghosts and ghouls and skeletons and blood and gore and … well, you get my drift!)

I do not want my mind pulled away to the dark things of life. I want to live in Philippians 4:8: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” [NLT]

True. Honorable. Right. Pure. Lovely. Admirable. Excellent. Worthy. I like the sound of those things. I want to spend my time searching for those things. I want my thoughts centered on those things.

I may live in a dark world. But I certainly don’t want the dark world to live in me!

My daily Bible verse last Friday was a very familiar one from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” [Matthew 6:33 NLT]

That verse is SO familiar I read it and then “dismissed” it. As the morning progressed, however, I kept thinking about that verse. I started wondering what it means to “Seek.”

The Greek word is zeteo, a verb, and it means simply to seek, search for, desire, require, demand. As I looked at the meaning, HELP-Word-studies added: to seek by inquiring; to investigate to reach a binding resolution, to search, “getting to the bottom of the matter.”

When I look at words like inquire, investigate, search, and get to the bottom of the matter, I am reminded that seeking the Kingdom of God is not a half-hearted matter. It is not just going to church on Sunday and getting fed a message from someone else who did the heavy inquiring and investigating.

It requires so much more—things like studying and searching the Scriptures, praying and then praying some more. It requires fellowship with others also engaged in “seeking.” It requires living a righteous life in Christ.

Seeking “first” also speaks to me of priority. Too much of my energy and time is often devoted to the “everything else” I need. I must make sure that seeking the Kingdom is my number one priority—all the time.

Help me, O LORD, to have a mindset that “seeks” You, “first” and always. Amen

I’ve dieted most of my life.  I’ve had an ongoing battle with weight since junior high. Sometimes I win; sometimes I lose. More often than not, I lose the battle, not the weight. I’ve also battled a great many other things in my life besides weight. Sometimes I won; sometimes I lost.

If it depended solely on my will power, my strength, or my abilities to keep me standing in Christ year in and year out, sometimes I’d win and sometimes I’d lose. More often than not, I’d lose. I can barely control what I eat, let alone my attitudes, the forces of my own will, the enemy of my soul or the world’s attempts to conform me to its patterns.

But it doesn’t depend solely on me. Paul writes, “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” [2 Corinthians 1:21-22]

It is God who knew me in my mother’s womb and knew every day of my life before it happened. It is God who invited me to know Christ. It is God who forgave my sins and made me whole. It is God who translated me out of the realm of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son.

Now it is God who makes both you and me “stand firm in Christ.” The New King James says it this way: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ . . . is God.” 

It is God who establishes us, who makes us stand. The Greek word means simply to make firm, to establish, to make secure or stable. We can’t establish ourselves in Christ. We can’t make ourselves secure, or firm, or stable. My goodness, I can’t even establish myself on a diet! What makes me think I’m strong enough to establish myself in God.

“Now it is God” who makes us secure in Christ by His promises, by His strength, and for His glory. When the world or the devil or even our own flesh seeks to undermine that stability, it is God’s promises that He has overcome the world, that He has defeated the devil, and that He has made a way for us out of all temptation that keep us going!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Ever feel like everything is out of control?  Ever feel as if no matter how hard you try you just can’t get all the loose ends together?

I remember taking my grandson Carter to a game center once. It had all those fancy video games, small bowling lanes and other interesting things for little ones (and not so little ones) to spend their quarters on.  There was one game that got him squealing. The “Whack a Mole.”

It had a flat surface, and a soft mallet chained to it. There were holes in the surface and little things would pop out of the holes randomly. The way you scored was to whack those little things as they emerged from the holes. The problem: you never knew where the next one would pop out. By the time you got an aim on one, it would tuck away and a different one would emerge, and the pace kept getting faster and faster.

Sounds like life at times. I’ve got my little mallet and I’m keeping watch and every now and then I get a good pop at one when it rears up, but I can never get them all, and when I finally seem to get in a rhythm, the pace quickens. I need a bigger mallet, or fewer problems, or a slower pace. I need to get control, I shout!!! Or do I?  Am I the one that is supposed to have control of my life? Is it even possible?

“Our citizenship is in heaven. We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”  [Philippians 3:20-21]

See that wonderful little phrase shouting from the middle of those verses …“by the power that enables HIM to bring everything under his control.”  Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one with the power, the power that enables Him to control everything, not us.

Where’s the power?  In Him. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  [Galatians 2:20]

The only control we have is to surrender our lives by faith to the Son of God. Everything else about our lives is in His control. We don’t need a bigger mallet; we need to surrender to the Lord.

I am not a crier. Well, let me qualify that. I cry when I pray for others. I cry for the people I love. I cry when I worship. Sometimes I cry just sitting and seeing the glory of God’s creation or thinking about God’s love. So maybe I am a crier. I just don’t cry much about myself or my needs or circumstances or situations.

I spent the first 23 years of my life in self-pity. When my first child was born with birth defects and struggled through her first year, my self-pity began to wane. My child’s needs became the most important thing at that time.

When I surrendered my life to the LORD a few years later, self-pity moved to the rearview mirror. Instead of asking “why me?” I began to try to find what I could learn in each situation and how I could grow in each choice. I’m not saying I am perfect, I’m not. I run to God A LOT! Often in repentance and godly sorrow.

But last Monday, I sat and cried … not over anything life threatening or life altering, but over my insurance company’s refusal to renew my prescription for my diabetic continuous glucose monitor! I depend on that monitor to keep my diabetes in control, but since I’ve been doing such a good job of that, I no longer met the qualifications for one. That didn’t even make sense to me.

So I had my moment of self-pity. I sat in my chair and whined for about an hour. I told God that I don’t ask much (which I’m sure is not true) and cried a bit. Then I just let it go.

An hour later I got a call, and the insurance company decided it would cover my sensors after all. I don’t think it was my self-pity-party that changed its mind. I think it was my LORD, who loved me despite my pitiful reaction. Only He could move an insurance company that fast!

“He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them.” [Psalm 72:13 NLT]