Heavenly Father, we praise You today and every day for your great love and grace and mercy. Please lead us this week as we focus our minds and hearts on you. We desire to do your will, and to fulfill our calling to be salt and light to the world around us. Fill us, Holy Spirit, so that the character of the living God shines through us, allowing you to do a mighty work in and through our lives. We give our lives to you and pray that you use them for your glory. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.
The beauty of a mom is in the way she reflects the glory of the Lord.
She shines with His nurturing heart and gives herself away. She sees when no one else does. Her mind treasures every precious moment. She gives her attention to every call.
She smiles at every growing step, and longs to rush in at every stumble. Wisdom tells her when stand back, and when to step in.
Her love overflows the same when she smiles at an accomplishment as when she disciplines. Thoughts of her children never cease.
Whether you’re a mom of little ones or your children are grown, let us always seek to be filled with the LORD that we might shine with His glory in all we do, and our lives speak of His goodness and grace.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life…
Psalm 23:6
It is the goodness of God that overflows into this world and makes it habitable. It is His goodness we experience that make our lives bearable, even enjoyable.
But sometimes that goodness becomes overshadowed by pain, grief, disappointment, disillusionment.
Like thick billows of never-ending clouds, they can block out the light. And sometimes there’s rain for days, weeks on end. Maybe it’s like living in Seattle.
I’m sure it can get dreary, and even depressing, and yet, there’s a certain beauty to Seattle.
The frequent drizzles allow for some of the most beautiful growth in the world, and also some of the most diverse, life-giving wildlife.
No matter how many weeks the shadows overtake the city, no one wonders if the sun is still there. They know it is, and they trust they’ll see it again.
I have to remember that when my world has been darkened with shadows for too long. The Son is still there. And His goodness will shine whether there are rain clouds that bring new growth, and maturity, and life, or He moves them away.
I have to remember that when everything in me, all my feelings and understanding want to tell me that because I don’t see or feel the Son He isn’t there.
I have to set aside my understanding and believe in what I know to be true – surely His goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life…
Because that’s who He is. What I feel doesn’t change that. What I see doesn’t change that. And I am thankful.
“Lord Jesus, help us hold onto our confidence that you are who you say you are. That you are good, and that you love us, and no matter what’s happening in our lives you’re still there, and you are still pouring out your goodness into our lives, and we are thankful.”
Have a blessed Sunday!
“And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I
believe. Help my unbelief.’”
Mark 9:24
Twenty-seven and a half years ago I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.
Since then I have had countless opportunities to believe in His love for me despite my circumstances, to believe He had a plan in the middle of confusing trials, to believe He heard every prayer, to believe He understood me in my pain, to believe He was not finished with me even when it felt like He was.
For some funny reason, it’s always been easier for me to believe in God for the “big” things rather than the smaller ones.
I knew God would provide us a place to live; I knew God would provide a job for my husband; I knew God would bless my little son at Christmas when we couldn’t.
But, oh, those countless “little” things… When I’ve trusted in my eyes more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my understanding more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my own effort more than I’ve believed.
And I wonder how much I’ve missed out on, how many more blessings I would have had if I’d taken that same belief I had at salvation and applied it every, single time.
“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. “
Genesis 15:6
God puts a lot of stock in belief.
It’s not about what we do, it’s not about who we are, it’s about Whom we believe.
And there is only One worthy of our belief.
If we are going to be followers of Christ, we will daily, consciously, make the decision to take the belief we had at the moment of our salvation, and believe Him for everything else.
Why would I ever believe that Christ died for the sins of a singular, unimportant, obscure little girl who lives 2000 years after His death and resurrection, called her by name, and then somehow think He forgot about her afterward?
He hasn’t, and He never will.
My belief in Him need not ever waiver.
He sees each and every one of us, and He is intimately acquainted with our comings and goings, with our every trial – big and small, with every tear, with every, single, solitary detail.
Nothing gets by Him.
The truth is, it’s a choice. Every day we have the choice to believe in Him – to believe He’s there right by our side, to believe He’s with our loved ones, to believe He wants the best for us, to believe He’s in our futures, to believe He’s bigger, much, much bigger, than our past mistakes.
While we can’t lose our salvations, unbelief is as much a sin after we’re saved than it is before.
The absence of belief in Christ for a particular situation will create a vacuum that’s usually filled with fear, and that can create a whole slew of messes in our wake.
Choosing belief in Christ or to be moved out of fear will determine the decisions we make and the roads we take.
I know it’s hard to keep believing sometimes when the trials seem out of control, when the world around us is a big, complicated mess.
But keep believing anyway.
I know when I’ve stood in belief in my prayers for a situation, God has answered. It’s when I waiver in my belief in prayer that He waits until I stand on faith in who God is – my Loving Savior – to answer me. He desires belief because it is the pathway to our righteousness.
God knows we’re all a work in progress, though, that the sanctification of our souls is not yet fully realized, that it is what we and the Lord are moving toward.
As with every sin, when we repent – when we turn around and do the righteous thing – in this case, choose to believe in Him, and ask God to help us with our unbelief, He will forgive us and set us back on the right path.
We then consciously walk on that path of belief, in full faith and trust in Him – in who He is, in His plans for us, in His love for us, in His grace and mercy that are continually poured out because of His goodness and faithfulness.
“Father, please help us when we are tempted to not believe in you. To not believe in all you say you are. To not believe in your love for us. To not believe in your plans for us. To give way to fear instead of believing in your holy perfection and your promises to us. Please help us choose belief over fear, self, the world, or anything else outside of you. May our constant belief in you be witnesses of your glory and power. In the Name of Yeshua Hamashiach, amen.”