"Rejoice in the LORD always. I will say it again: rejoice!" - Philippians 4:4


I knew this verse from a song I sung in Children's Church growing up, and it's never left me. The obvious question to ask from this verse is "when do we rejoice?"

The answer is just as obvious - "always". Even when we are unemployed, in the midst of a move, struggling with relationship issues, facing exams, or are just finding it tough, we are to rejoice. If life is going swimmingly, friends are loyal and supportive, church is inspiring, family life is peaceful - rejoice!

It's tough sometimes, because we either don't feel like it, or we forget. But nevertheless, we are called to always rejoice.

So, Lord, thank you for my life. For my job, my family, my wonderful friends, and even for the exams. Thanks that I have the chance to study Your word, and please help me to rejoice, even when I don't feel like it. Please help us all.
In Christ's precious name I pray.

God's timing is funny. After writing yesterday about rejoicing always, today was the perfect chance for me to "practice what I preached." You see, I love my job. I work in a department store, in the best department (and I'm not being too biased here, others would agree with me!), but today I was told that I am being moved to a different department. Not because I'd done anything, it was simply a case of someone had to be moved, and I'd been there equal longest.
I'm moving to what would have to be 2nd bottom on my list of preferred departments. And I'll be there during December, the busiest, most stressful time.

I didn't feel like rejoicing; I felt like crying. But God brought to mind what I'd written yesterday. Aren't we meant to always rejoice? Yes. But I couldn't do it in my own strength. So God brought to mind the following verse:

Philippians 4:13 - I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

With His strength, I am now rejoicing at the change of departments...something I never thought possible 8 hours ago.

So trust me, when Paul wrote that he could do everything through God and His strength...he wasn't kidding! So whatever it is that you need strength to do, ask God to give you some of His....beacuse He will.

This was my devotional today and I'm still in awe from it because this is exactly what I've been praying/crying about for a while now....


November 2, 2009
Just Because You're Mine
Sharon Jaynes

Today's Truth
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).

Friend To Friend
Anabel Gillham was a woman who loved God, but had trouble accepting that God could love her. Sure, she knew the Bible verses that talked of God's unconditional love for her, and yet she knew herself, and doubted a God who knew her innermost thoughts would approve or her.

The root of her problem was how she saw God and how she believed God saw her. She knew what kind of God He was. She read, Exodus 34:6, "Then the LORD passed by in front of him [Moses] and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth...", but she believed she had to earn that love. She believed she had to be good enough to deserve it. Then God used a very special person to help Annabel understand the depths of God's love for her - her second child, Mason David Gillham, who was profoundly retarded. Let's let Anabel tell you her story.

Mace could sing one song with great gusto, just one: "Jesus Loves Me." He would throw his head back and hold on to the first "Yes" in the chorus just as long as he could, and then he would get tickled and almost fall out of his chair. I can still hear him giggle when I think back on those days that seem so distant and so far away. How poignant that memory is to me.

I never doubted for a moment that Jesus loved that profoundly retarded little boy. It didn't matter that he would never sit with the kids in the back of the church and on a certain special night walk down the aisle, take the pastor by the hand, and invite Jesus into his heart. It was entirely irrelevant that he could not quote a single verse of Scripture, that he would never go to high school, or that he would never be a dad. I knew that Jesus loved Mason.

What I could not comprehend, what I could not accept, was that Jesus could love Mason's mother, Anabel. You see, I believed that in order for a person to accept me, to love me, I had to perform for him. My standard for getting love was performance-based, so I "performed" constantly, perfectly. In fact, I did not allow anyone to see me when I was not performing perfectly. I never had any close friends because I was convinced that if a person ever really got to know me, she wouldn't like me.

I carried this belief into my relationship with God, and as I began to study the Bible, I found, to my horror, that He knew my every thought, let alone everything I said or did (Psalm 139:1-4). I was standing "bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God" (Hebrews 4:13), TLB. What did that mean to me? That meant that He really knew me, that He saw me when I wasn't performing well. Based on what I perceived as my responsibility to perform in order to receive acceptance, I concluded without a doubt that He could not possibly love me, that He could never like what He saw.

Mace could never have performed for our love, or for anyone's love, but oh, how we loved him. His condition deteriorated to such a degree - and so rapidly - that we had to institutionalize him when he was very young, so we enrolled him in the Enid State School for Mentally Handicapped Children. We drove regularly the 120 miles to see him, but on this particular weekend, he was at home for a visit. He had been with us since Thursday evening, and it was now Saturday afternoon. As soon as the dinner dishes were done, I would gather his things together and take him back to his house. I had done this many times before - and it was never easy - but today God had something in mind that would change my life forever.

As I was washing the dishes, Mason was sitting in his chair watching me, or at least he was looking at me. That's when it began. My emotions were spinning, my stomach started tumbling, and the familiar sickening thoughts of just a little while, I'm going to start packing Mason's toys and his clothes, and take him away again. I can't do that. I simply cannot do it. I stopped washing the dishes and got down on my knees in front of Mace. I took his dirty little hands in mine and tried so desperately to reach him.

"Mason, I love you. I love you. If only you could understand how much I love you."

He just stared. He couldn't understand; he didn't comprehend. I stood up and started on the dishes again, but that didn't last long. This sense of urgency - almost a panic - came over me, and once more I dried my hands and knelt in front of my precious little boy.

"My dear Mason, if only you could say to me, 'I love you, Mother.' I need that, Mace."

Nothing.

I stood up to the sink again. More dishes, more washing, more crying - and thoughts, foreign to my way of thinking, began filtering into my conscious awareness. I believe God spoke to me that day, and this is what He said: "Anabel, you don't look at your son and turn away in disgust because he's sitting there with saliva drooling out of his mouth; you don't shake your head, repulsed because he has dinner all over his shirt or because he's sitting in a dirty, smelly diaper when he ought to be able to take care of himself. Anabel, you don't reject Mason because all of the dreams you had for him have been destroyed. You don't reject him because he doesn't perform for you. You love him, Anabel, just because he is yours. Mason doesn't willfully reject your love, but you willfully reject Mine. I love you, Anabel, not because you're neat or attractive, or because you do things well, not because you perform for Me but just because you're Mine." (Anabel Gillham, The Confident Woman: Knowing Who Your Are in Christ, (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1993), 26-29)

Hearing Anabel's story transformed my thinking about God's love for me. For years, I lived as though I had to be "good enough" for God to love me. I understood that salvation was a gift of grace - a free gift from God that I did not earn - but somewhere I began believing the lie that I had to perform properly to keep the gift. I feared if I was not good enough, He would take it back. But that is a lie.

I am enough...because Jesus lives in me and the Holy Spirit works through me. And friend, so are you.

Let's Pray
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank You for loving me just the way I am. I thank You that I don't have to earn Your love, but receive it as a free gift that You lavish on me! And God, I thank You that nothing can separate me from Your love.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Now It's Your Turn

Look up the following verses and note what you learn about God's love for you.

* Psalm 52:8
* Romans 8:38-39
* Ephesians 2:4-5
* 1 John 4:10
* 1 John 4:16

Did Annabel's story touch your heart today? If so, I'd love to hear about it. You can share your thoughts on today's devotion at www.sharonjaynes.com/blog .

Psalm 22:13
¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
² O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.
³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel


When the hard times come, what do we do?
When it feels like God has deserted us, and we are all alone in this crazy world, do we give up? Or do we praise?

Even when we cry out to God, it can still seem like we are alone. We can't always hear God's response to our cries. The Psalmist (and Jesus, who quoted this Psalm on the cross) felt like God had deserted him, and wasn't coming to save him. Sound familiar?? I know I feel like that at times - more than I'd like.

But the Psalmist didn't stop at his despair - he couldn't hear God's response, but chose to praise anyway. "You are enthroned as the Holy One" he proclaimed, "the praise of Israel!"
It was more than an acknowledgement that God was simply real. It was a proclamation about who God was - Holy, Israel's praise.

Do we do the same? When we cry out to God and get no response, can we honestly praise God? More than just "can we", DO we???

May praise be on your lips today, regardless of your situation. God bless!

A word of comfort and encouragement...

When Genesis 8:1 says "but God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded," it doesn't mean that God had forgotten Noah and the animals. It wasn't as though God had turned on the water taps, turned away and started fiddling with another planet, and suddenly went "Doh! Noah!" and raced back to turn off the taps.


God doesn't create, sit back, and leave us to our own devices. We are not lost to God. The story of the flood didn't end in hopelessness and despair, but with rescue, and a permanent reminder of God's promises - a rainbow.

When the storms of life surround us, God has not forgotten us. We are on His mind. He loves us. He will rescue us.

1 Corithians 13:1-3
¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.


In I Corinthians 13, the Bible reveals love's supreme importance to life. Paul directly compares love's value to faith, hope, prophecy, sacrifice, knowledge, and the gift of tongues and indirectly with all other gifts of God mentioned in chapter 12. He in no way denigrates the others' usefulness to life and God's purpose, but none can compare in importance to love.

The Corinthians took great pleasure in their gifts, just as we would, but a gift's relative importance is shown in its temporal quality. That is, there are times when a gift is of no use. But love will never end; it will always be of use.

Indeed, the receiving of gifts from God—unless accompanied by and used with love—have the potential to corrupt the one receiving them. God's gifts are powers given to enhance a person's ability to serve God in the church. However, we have all heard the cliché, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." If gifts are not received and used with love, they will play a part in corrupting the recipient, just as they were corrupting the Corinthians. Love is the attribute of God that enables us to receive and use His gifts without corruption.


(From Bibletools.org)

There is power in the word of God.

Last night, I woke at 3am feeling rather sick. 90 minutes later, nothing had changed. Nothing I tried made me feel any better, nor could I find any peace. I was soooo restless, until I remembered something.

Our God is a God of peace, hope, and joy.

Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As soon as I remembered this verse, I felt peaceful. As I meditated on it, I was able to drift of to sleep. How wonderful and powerful is this one verse!

The Personal World Changer - Christina Dickson

The New Testament is rich with profound stories of Jesus as He lived among us. Interestingly enough, most of these stories aren't about Jesus' miracles to the masses. The most powerful descriptions of His touch aren't to the entire state of the Jewish people or the Roman guard, or to the thousands that followed Him into the hills.

The greatest stories about Jesus are the personal ones.

Because Jesus is a personal savior.

Jesus sought out Philip. Nathaniel. Matthew.

Jesus healed the lame man. The official's son. The blind man. The leper. The paraplegic. Jesus conversed with Nicodemus. The Samaritan Woman. Mary. Martha. The Roman Officer. The Rich Young Ruler. Jesus redeemed the adulterous woman. The demon possessed man. The thief on the cross. Jesus washed each of His disciples' feet.

Though He had power over all things created, though heaven waited on Him, and angels served Him, Jesus did not perform for the masses. He did not heal the hundreds by a word, or call the disciples by a group.

Jesus reached out to each person--one at a time.

It is a profound, yet obvious revelation because if Jesus is the only one who had the power and authority to perform ground shaking, earth shattering, high scale impact, and yet did not, on what do we base our own belief that we must change the world on only a grand scale?

Where, when, why, and how did we lose sight of what Jesus did?

Why don't we believe that, just like Jesus, we too can change the world by reaching out and impacting one life at a time?

In Christian circles today we like to speak of "good works" of the faith. Things like missions trips to Brazil, Kazakhstan, India, or Tibet. Things like preaching sermons to a congregation of 10,000 or calling 300 people to salvation. We like to talk about a newly published work on faith making the bestsellers list, or the latest Christian movie that made 10 million dollars on opening weekend.

When did we forget Jesus' words, "If you give a cup of cold water to one of the least of these brothers, you will surely be rewarded?"

We forget because giving a cup of cold water garners no praise and impresses neither others nor ourselves. We forget because giving a cup of cold water is something anyone can do. And that is precisely why we do not.

But Jesus gives a cup of water...to individuals. In Jesus' prayer from John 17, he says, "I have finished the work you have given me...I have not lost one." Jesus spoke His words of life before His death on the cross.

Jesus lived, breathed, and walked on this earth to show us true love. He demonstrated that changing the world happens not because we affect thousands. We change the world because we reach out to the individuals around us, show them that we care, and give to them when they need it most.

Go further today. It doesn't take much to change a life. An hour conversing over coffee. A small gift for no particular reason. A phone call. A hug of encouragement. A basket of flowers. A second chance. An old photograph. A post office mailed letter. An extra 10 minutes in a greeting to ask how someone is really doing. Praying for someone the moment they mention a prayer request.

May each one of us remember this: Through impacting one life at a time, we just might change the world for Jesus.

If you think that the world is in a terrible state, and are despairing over it, know this:

You don't have to conform to that standard!!!!!



Romans 12:1-8 says 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[b]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Instead of conforming to the sorry standard of the world, offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God. Be totally devoted to Him, and let HIM shape and transform you, not the world.

Being a Christian changes us. It changes our thoughts and actions. Don't join in the competitiveness of the world, but recognise that each person is created individually, and has an important role in life and Christian service. We are ALL members of God's body.


****************
Based on a devotional by Nick Hawkes

Sometimes all we need is a reminder:

This is from Suzanne Hadley Gosselin at Boundless

With a weekend coming, it suddenly occurred to me today how much I have to do: Housecleaning projects to take care of, post-wedding thank-you notes to write, a garage to clean out, and, of course, that pesky book proposal to finish. I suddenly feel like I have task debt; the feeling is akin to realizing that you have debt on your credit card that you should have paid off months ago. Unfinished tasks upon unfinished tasks.

How did I accumulate this debt? Simple. I went to the movies when I should have been cleaning my house. I watched TV when I should have been writing thank-you notes. I slept in when I should have been getting the garage cleaned out. And I wasted time on Facebook when I should have been writing that book proposal.

And now I'm paying the price. Did I really need all those outings, TV episodes and morning sleep-ins. No. It was a discipline issue.

You've probably heard what the Bible says about those who sleep instead of work:

"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." (Proverbs 6:10-11)

Well, there's more. For months, I've been saying that I'm going to take care of the aforementioned tasks. The Proverbs have a zinger for that one, too:

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." (Proverbs 14:23)

Uh oh. Interesting that both passages talk about poverty -- a financial condition. Debt, anyone? I don't know if I would be financially better off if I completed my work (maybe if I got that book deal), but I do know my soul would feel richer.

***********
What have you got that you could be doing? Remember, we're to do everything for Christ!
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Psalm 91:1-2, 4, 9-10, 14-15 (NLT)

Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

This I declare of the LORD: He alone is my refuge,
my place of safety; he is my God, and I am
trusting Him.

He will shield you with His wings, He will shelter
you with His feathers. His faithful promises are
your armour and protection.

If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the
Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you.

The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me. I
will protect those who trust in my name. When
they call on me, I will answer. I will be with them
in trouble. I will rescue them and honour them.”


When Christians ask "where is God" - the answer is "He's right there beside you." Whatever happens in our lives, whatever tragedies occur, God is right there with us.
I don't really have too much to say, other than this: KNOW that God is with you. BELIEVE it. He loves you, will rescue you, protect you and honour you.

You're welcome! When I read it on Boundless, it was a good reminder for me too. I just wanted to add the verses at the end to show that it truly was a biblical reminder, and because I think a devotional should be Biblical based!

…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”
–Hebrews 12:1b-2a (NLT)

Back in my days as a courier, one piece of advice we were given as drivers was, “You’ll get there faster if you keep moving.” The same is true in our walk with God. We’ll get to our destination of spiritual maturity and an intimate walk with the Father quicker if we keep moving. At times it may feel like we’re moving sideways, or maybe even backwards. But God never promised that the path to Him would be straight or smooth.

The best way to keep moving closer to God is to keep our eyes on Jesus, as the writer of Hebrews points out in chapter 12. Verse 1 of that chapter describes the best way to move more freely is to strip ourselves of everything that slows us down—particularly the sins we’ve committed.

To stop moving closer to God is like stopping and getting distracted by Satan. He likes to keep us from drawing closer to our Father any way he can, which means he’ll use our immoral culture, our thoughts, those around us, and any other tool he can think of to lead us astray.

However, one warning to the call to keep moving. While we want to keep moving, we want to be careful to avoid “driving man syndrome.” Driving man syndrome being the tendency to focus on the destination, and neglect to admire the beauty along the way. As hard as the Christian life can be, it is still a beautiful thing—one that we should take the time to cherish and enjoy.