She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:25 NIV
https://proverbs.bible/proverbs-31-25
Category: Devotional
Don’t worry, God gets it, and He can help
I have noticed something about people.
A. Everyone has been hurt
B. Most people expect to be hurt again
Philippians 4:5
When dealing with animals you learn how to read the situation via body language and facial expression; So, people like me who have become adapt to this because of several years of animal training have an automatic sensor that goes off when the body language of another person is negative. You see them acting a little wary and they shift around, or stand a little too firm. Either way, a bell goes off and your mind says, “Careful! She might bite.” Fear and the feeling of being cornered are what cause most animal bites. Slowing your heart rate and reaching out a very gentle, somewhat indirect hand can help calm the nervous animal. Let them come to you, be gentle.
Now you really, really should not place a calming hand on the person’s forehead, or offer the person a treat to settle them down; (trust me. It won’t go well.) But a gentle compliment and a smile can help soothe the standoff-ish animal. I mean person. People expect you want something from them, or you are up to something, because being suspicious keeps you safe; it also keeps you lonely.
Lots of people are like this. It is not a criticism, I am sure I act this way myself.
Jesus talks a lot about community. To have community you have to be willing to not be afraid and to instead be bold. Be bold enough to share a smile, bold enough to compliment a hair cut, maybe bold enough to hold a conversation. Ask Jesus to help you to not be afraid and to not allow your scars to hold you back.
Don’t worry. Some people will hurt you, that’s a given, and that is on them, not you; but some will be kind and you may make a new friend.
Try to smile more and shy away less. If not for your own sake, do it for the sake of the other people who feel exactly the same way as you do.
Even when we grow old
Isiah 46:4
Even when you grow old.
We often think of being cared for as something that happens only for the Young. However if you look close at the scripture you will see that God cares for us even when we grow old. Not just when we are senior citizens but even when we are in our thirties or forties or sixties. Jesus looks after us in all aspects of life, in every age group and no matter how young or how old we are he takes care of us. So when you look around and you feel overwhelmed, you can look up and see that Jesus is reaching out, taking care of you; when you have a cold Jesus is touching your body and healing it from the inside. When you are up all night with the flu or anxiety Jesus is up all night with you. No matter what it is, no matter what your age, Jesus is taking care of you.
-Love: Lauren
Leave the old man behind
You know how we are told to leave the old man we used to be? What if that is a constant thing?
What if we have many many old selves we need to leave behind?
No matter how new we are today there will always be things about us that develop that are sinful and that we need to leave behind.
We are people. We may break one habbit only to develop another. Just because one old self is dead doesn’t mean we don’t have more that need to be abandoned.
Jesus is always there. Helping us and encouraging us to be new in Him.
Walking on the clouds
Your ways are higher than my ways. Your thoughts higher than my thoughts.
Isiah 55: 8-9
People were never meant to stay on the ground. We always have a need in us to climb higher, build taller and touch above the clouds. Why? Well, the Aztecs believed that the taller they built and the higher up they were the closer they were to god. Or at least that is what I have read. Now. I don’t believe we need to fight to get higher in altitude to be closer to our God, but perhaps deep down we all have a similar feeling. Isn’t that why we reach our hands up when we worship. We are reaching to God. Maybe, just maybe that is why we feel a need to go higher. In truth, we all (even non-Christians) want to get closer to God. It is built into us, that’s why so many people claim to be searching for something. That something is Jesus; and He can be found right here where we are right now.
Thank you Jesus for the blessing of who you are. Thank you that we don’t have to climb to you because you are here with us. Amen
Heart jog
Lately over the past year I have taken up jogging. I say lately because we live in Manitoba and I don’t want to die running on ice. In the beginning I was doing it so my dog would lose weight and my vet could stop giving me ‘that’ look. In the beginning we started slow. About 5 mins.
Then we improved till we could go 10. The other day I set me treadmill at jog speed and started to run while watching TV. 25 mins later my show was over and I still had energy. I then realized that my body had adjusted to going on long jogs.
It’s the same in our prayer lives. We start off wanting to please God but we tire out quickly. Aiming for an half an hour prayer can seem a little much in the beginning. What we needed is persistence. A daily routine and time set. Then little by little, without us even realizing it, our souls stretch and our spiritual cardio expands and we find ourselves enjoying more and more time with God. It may seem like a frustration in the beginning, but once you learn to love it you can’t go back.
Rise
Jesus has always showed me what I am made of. When my mom left me with our farm for the first time when I was 19, and was away for almost a month and a half to visit my dad at a work related thing in the NWT I was looking forward to trying to see if I could do it all myself. With so much land to keep up with the grass cutting, my Poppa deciding to redo the back fences and hay season baring down on us my enthusiasm waned. Oh ya, and summer is dust and mud season so the house needed work, often. It felt like as soon as I found my groove, the tornado hit. It took down 30 something trees. So my late 80s Poppa and I got to work. Hauling trees, cutting them into moveable sizes, repairing buildings, tending to my beloved horse who had a minor injury from it. In all of it I looked around and saw how God had protected us. Now I look back and see how it made me grow. No matter what I face, if I have my Jesus I can take it on and do my best. All I have to so is be willing to rise to the challenge. I would prefer a life without tornados, but now whenever I look at a large task at hand and have someone say,
‘Do you think you can handle this?’ I always respond.
‘Of course! It can’t be as bad as the year of the tornado.’
If I could rise to that, God can help me rise to anything. Besides. Sleep is over rated.
Blind, but still alive
Blind, but still alive.
Are we waiting on Jesus for the things we don’t yet see?
As I often quote some of my Stormie Omartan readings in these posts I am sure I have mentioned her book, ‘just enough light for the step I am on.’
Sometimes it feels like I am completely blind to what is in front of me and all I can see is where I am right now. In these moments it’s easy to give up on looking to the future and simply living in a day to day existence. I always loved being a dreamer when I was a kid. People would tell me that my goals were too big or didn’t jive and they were probably right. As I got older I somehow slipped from ‘dreamer’ to ‘realist’ and that sucks. Living in a world of reality. Boring. Because our reality isn’t God’s. He sees far into the future and has thoughts and ideas we can’t even begin to comprehend. Even when you can only see your year as dates on a calendar Jesus sees far beyond that to a glimmering dream world beyond what you can fathom.
That’s what Jesus does. He gives us dreams that are a size too big so we can grow into them- Max Lucado
It may seem pointless to keep on dreaming beyond where you are and onto where you want to be but Jesus makes it feasable. Your impossible dreams have an amazing God who makes the impossible possible. You may be blind to what is coming, but you are still alive, so live and dream without fear.
A heavy heart?
Have any of you ever watched Howl’s Moving Castle? It’s one of my favorite movies. Up there with LOTR, Ben Hur and the King and I. Which are also my favorite novels. One line from the movie is often quoted by fans. ‘A heart is a heavy burden to cary.’
Our hearts are one of our heaviest organs. Don’t ask me to explain because it gets gross. But our hearts also carry the most weight. They are the main necessity of the body, everything works through them. Our hearts also carry the burden of our lives. Our emotions effect our hearts; our wants and desires flow through that one muscle causing it to ache and need. Heartless people have hearts to live on but they don’t use them to their full potential. They shut off tue part of the heart that causes one to care and help and be kind. The mind helps them shut off this ability of the heart. When Howl’s heart is restored to him and he wakes up his first words are.
“Why does it feel like there is a weight on my chest?”
Because being frivolous and heartless takes nothing out of you, but to be compassionate and loving takes a great strain. A heart is a heavy burden.
When did we fall in love?
When did you fall in love with God?
What was the moment that changed it from serving God to loving God for you.?
For me, I think I always loved God in that child love that says ‘God’s so amazing!’
But I don’t think I truly loved God in a mature way until the first time I really suffered. I mean really really suffered. It was in that blackness that I found God’s hand reaching so invaluable. Before that God was always like a Jeanie. A sort of fun bright light that bounced around and made flowers grow and puppies bark. Suddenly that bright light was a burning, piercing flame that tore away the pain and darkness until I was free from my chains. That was the moment I truly fell in love with God.
What was yours?
Carried in the cross 