Shorts.
Mid-week devotional reflections.
PEACE AND LIFE
I’m someone who needs to know how things work. I need all the answers to all the whys. I need reasons and facts.
The problem with this drive to always have an answer is that it can get me into mental messes of becoming so overwhelmed with unsatisfying explanations that I shut down and retreat.
I can try with all my small human strength but in reality there are some problems that don’t have immediate fixes, some questions that only meet silence.
I’m slowly learning to invite God into these kind of moments; letting His all-knowing peace cover my need to know, instead of falling directly into the wave of frustration. Don’t let your need to understand distract you from His goodness.
“For to set your mind on things of the flesh is death, but to set your mind in things of the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6
DEATH TO LIFE
“This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” John 11:4
This verse is found in the story of Lazarus- a man who gets very sick so his sisters send word to Jesus, pleading him to come and heal their brother. But instead Jesus waits and Lazarus dies.
To outsider eyes, this waiting can look cruel and defeating. But what no one else could see is that Jesus had a bigger plan in the works. Though it even hurt him to do so, He waited because he knew that there would be death but beyond that, a miracle was already in place to raise that dead back to the fullest of life.
Are you facing any “dead-ends”? Is there a situation that you set your hopes in but now all that’s left is frustrated waiting or defeat?
Believe the words of Jesus today, that it will not end in “death” but that life can still come from it and it will radiate the glory of God.
He is fighting harder for your future than you are.
DO-ABLE, BEARABLE, MEANINGFUL
Some mornings just start off bad and can quickly digress until you can’t find one good point to hold on to. Hopeful plans take sudden downward turns, your bank account births stress ulcers or you burn that meal that was supposed to be ridiculously delicious... I repeatedly let my emotions get the better of me and snowball until my lurking self pity then takes center stage throwing my “pointlessness” in my face.
But there’s one thought I have to keep whispering to my exasperated soul: The Creator of the universe traded the perfection of heaven to have me. That very fact, that He is with me at ALL times, makes every single moment of my life do-able, bearable and meaningful.
In your face emotions. 👊🏼
PEACE
Peace: (def’n) freedom from disturbance, freedom from fear; calm, quiet, safety, soundness, content, rest, completeness. 🌫
Some days beg for a little extra peace because it’s usually on those days that every where we turn, something is beating us down and holding us too far from reaching for it. But just like the joy OF the Lord, we have full access to the peace OF God; that peace that surpasses all our desperate understanding and reaches far, far past every weight of life that tries to stifle our freedom. Peace, at its core, is choosing to have a restful trust in God, in that He has every single minuscule to massive detail of your story securely held.
Rest in the simplicity of that doubt shattering truth and apply it to whatever places in your heart rage for peace today.
DON'T FORGET TO REMEMBER
Sometimes all of life’s ‘what-ifs’ convince me that I could ruin God’s plans...but then He reminds me of who I am and that I don’t have anything close to that much power or control.
In the Bible it says countless times “don’t worry”, but something that is forgotten too often is that those verses aren’t SUGGESTIONS, they are COMMANDS. We are not to worry because we are loved and living for a God who literally created existence!
So whenever the what-ifs start coming up, put them on hold and actively make note of the life changer moments to the many for-granted, every day things that can slip the mind, of when God has covered you, provided for and surprised you.
Consistent thankfulness and awareness of these things are crucial pieces to moving forward in the peace and joyful trust that God has got you.
If your heart is truly set on what God has, nothing, no deafening worry or lack of understanding can stop His plans from happening.
Don’t forget to remember what He has already done for you; don’t let the doubt win today.
THE JOY OF THE LORD
If you’ve attended church for any length of time you’ve no doubt heard the phrase “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” (It comes from a portion of a verse in Nehemiah 8:10). Now if you’re anything like me, who’s attended church since before I was born, statements like that can sometimes loose their impact as they pass through church tradition-ed ears. But today, whatever your day looks like, take a moment and read those words with the correct emphasis: “The joy OF the LORD, is my strength.” It is God’s joy, His never ending, abundant, always bursting over the brim JOY, that we get strength from. The every day is filled with emotions getting all up in your way and circumstances that are uncontrollable but even the most dreadful of days can’t stop this joy. And the best part is that we don’t have to work up an ounce of it ourselves as long as we have an honest heart that is ready and wide open, to receive it. You ask and He will give it; HIS joy is straight fuel to get you through every moment.