“The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” (Isaiah 58:11). (Emphasis mine.)

This verse does not tell us that God will keep us from the sun-scorched land. Nope, we will spend some time in a dry, sun-scorched land. But God promises that while we are in that miserable land, He will satisfy our needs. We will find ourselves in a land of pain or hurt or death or uncertainty or confusion or heartache. However, God will satisfy our thirst while we pass through that land. Amen! There is nothing worse to me than being thirsty and not having any water to quench that thirst. I am fighting a cold and my throat is sore and dry much of the time. How refreshing to be able to down a cold glass of water. God provides that water for our souls. It is ours for the asking!

There’s not much left to say about that, friends. The bad news…we will spend time in a sun-scorched land. The good news…God will satisfy the need - just at the right time.

Have a blessed weekend.

Hope

“The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” (Isaiah 58:11).

We read this verse during our HHM prayer time this morning and I like the reference to strengthening our frame. Clay and I built our house in May 2004 and did much of the work ourselves. However, one thing we did not do was frame it. Though Clay could have done that, we chose to hire it done because he was working on an England project with Milliken and was out of the country much of the time. I remember the county inspector making the observation that “The house is very well framed. It is solid.” That’s always good to know. There is much comfort in knowing that it probably won’t cave in on us anytime soon. It’s hard to beat a stick-built house. There are national companies that bring in pre-fabricated materials and throw a house up in a few short weeks, cover the fabricated wood with sheetrock and all seems to be well. But when you stick-build a house, that means that every single piece of lumber, every 2X4 is put in place, strengthened with many nails, and supported by the necessary headers.

That is what God does for us. He strengthens our frame. We weren’t built in bulk, we were individually and wonderfully made by the God of All and He continues to strengthen our frame, thus preventing us from crumbling under the winds and rains of hard times. There is great comfort and encouragement in this truth. He guides us, and He strengthens our frame. We won’t crumble under the weight.

I may stay in this verse for another day or two but that’s it for today. Allow God to guide you today, and know that He strengthens your frame.

Hope

I attended a meeting on Monday night with a group of ladies with the purpose of forming a committee to bring Anne Graham Lotz to the Upstate. We watched a short clip of Anne speaking on “Just Give Me Jesus.” I attended a Just Give Me Jesus crusade several years back and I still cling to some of the truths that I captured during that weekend. The clip from Monday night was Anne reading a passage from the story of the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus appeared to Mary the morning of the resurrection and she did not recognize Him. She thought Him to be a gardner. She looked at Him in desperatation and said, “Where have you taken my Master? What have you done with His body? Just tell me where He is!”, or in other words, “Just give me Jesus!”

How often do we get so wrapped up in our sorrow, our heartache, our burden, the everyday hustle and bustle of life that we do not recognize His presence? We so often say, “Where is He in all of this?”, “None of this makes sense! I thought You had a plan and a purpose for my life, Father, but where are You?” He’s right there! Our vision is just so clouded with all of our “issues” that we do not recognize Him. We need to cry out, “Just give me Jesus!”

Is that where you are today? Are you asking the question, “Where is He in all of this?” He’s right there! Surrender it all to Him and allow Him to do the work.

“‘Woman,’ he said, ‘why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’… Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’” (John 20:15, 16a & 18a).

Hope

I receive a daily devotional from a dear friend and I don’t typically read it until late afternoon so as not to be “influenced” by it, but rather allow the Lord to guide my own thoughts. However, yesterday evening as I read the devotional from Gene I said to myself, “Wow. I like that. I really need to share it with my web friends.” But instead of quoting it, I’ll paraphrase it and use my own illustrations.

As I read the author’s notes on Prone to Wander, I thought of the old Hymn, Come Thou Fount. One of the stanzas says, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” We are prone to wander, aren’t we? The author tells of a time that his son at a very young age went ahead of him to an elevator and was on the elevator, door closed and his son was out of reach before he could do anything about it. I witnessed that exact thing just a few weeks ago here at my office. I am on the 2nd floor of the Mary Black Women’s Pavillion and I share this floor with Pediatric Associates (you guessed it, never a dull moment). A few weeks ago I heard the double doors of PA open (they’re very loud) and a mother said, “Wait, Joey!” (names have been changed to protect the innocent.) But before the mother could get to him the elevator had opened and he was gone. He was probably 3, maybe 4 years old. Just as the doors closed you could hear little Joey crying, “Mommy! Mommy!” Considering the phobia that I have with elevators I was on my feet and out of my office to help this mother anyway I could. I was willing to get on the other elevator and go down and leave her on the 2nd floor in case the elevator opened back. But neither door would open. We kept pushing the button and the mother was saying, “Mommy’s here, Joey. Press the button that has a number 2 on it! Do you see the number 2, Joey? It’s okay, Mommy’s here!” But Joey was so distraught and frightened that he could not understand what she was trying to tell him. The other elevator never would open so I was starting for the stairs. All I could think is this little boy would get off and go out the front doors before we could get to him. Just as I was heading down the hall the elevator door opened and there was Joey holding the hand of another mother, crying his little heart out. The other mother gave Joey’s mother a look of, “You negligent mother!”, huffed and went on into PA and left Joey in the arms of his mother. I have to admit that his mother wasn’t nearly as frantic as I was. But Joey and I shared the same reaction - freaking out! His mother said as they got on the elevator together, “Joey, what have I told you about wandering off from me? You should always stay right with me and don’t push buttons without knowing where it will take you.”

Do we ever push buttons that we know will take us away from our Father, our Protector? We are prone to wander. But our heavenly Father is always right there with open arms waiting for us to return.

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

“I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands” (Psalm 119:10).

Hope

The past couple of weeks my desire for Caleb to know God’s Word and how it applies to every day life has increased greatly. He is at such a vulnerable age. While he loves to attend church, walks around singing Christian songs and can repreach all of the messages, I just don’t catch him spending time in the Bible. I know that is quite common for a 16-year-old but I want him to be armed and ready for the battle. I shared my heart with Caleb yesterday afternoon and used an illustration that may have struck a nerve with him. He loves steaks. I asked him how he knew he liked steaks and he said, “Because they taste good.” I said, “How do you know they taste good?” Then he gave me the look that said, “Okay, Mom, I’ll play along with this” and he responded, “Because I tasted them.” I told him that he would never crave God’s Word unless he spends time in it and see how sweet it is to the taste. He didn’t argue back. I could tell he was listening.

I took down my “Praying the Scriptures for Your Children” book early this morning and was not at all surprised to find what I was looking for. Scriptures to pray for your child to love God’s word. I will share this one passage with you and challenge you to pray this for your children as well. There will be many things in their lives that will whet their whistle, spur cravings. We want them to have spiritual cravings…a hunger for God’s Word; thus preparing them for the battle of life.

Let Caleb’s heart be good soil, that he might hear your word, retain it, and persevere to produce a crop of godly character and effectiveness for your kingdom. Don’t let Satan snatch your word from Caleb’s heart, and don’t let the worries, riches, or pleasures of this life choke your word and make it unfruitful in his life. Let his roots go down deep, so he can stand firm in times of testing. (Luke 8:11-15).

Hope

“Jesus replied: ’”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”‘” (Matthew 22:37-39).

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3 NKJV).

What freedom! So often we think of God’s commandments as a list of dos and don’ts and they weigh us down. We live in a state of guilt because we cannot get it right. We just keep messing up. That is not God’s intent. All He wants for us to do is love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and then love others as ourselves. His heart is that we keep those commandments - and those commandments are not burdensome. If we are burdened down, we have added to and came up with our own list of commandments. God’s yoke is easy and His burden is light.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30 NKJV).

God wants us to walk in freedom, lighthearted and full of joy. The only way we can do that is to allow God to carry our burdens, accept His unconditional love and not try to add to or take away from His commandments. Love the Lord with all your heart and love others as yourself. Those commandments, my friends, are not burdensome. Don’t weigh yourself down with unnecessary cares and worries. Carry a light load today.

Hope

“If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift” (Romans 4:4 & 5 The Message).

If we think we can do enough good things in life to keep our account in good standing with God, we are going to be disappointed. We will find that our account constantly has insufficient funds. There is nothing that we can do to earn God’s goodness to us. He is a righteous, holy God and we can never measure up. The fact that we are forgiven and blessed exponentially is explained only one way, a gift. As The Message puts it, a sheer gift from God. He doesn’t pour out His blessings based on our good deeds. If that was the case, we’d be hurtin’!

Does that mean we should never do good things and strive to live a holy life? No, we should set out each day determined to live like Christ. Will we fail? Absolutely. Will we mess up and beat ourselves up? Absolutely. Will God mark our account NSF and wipe His hands of us? Certainly not. He marked our account Paid in Full with His Son’s blood. So we have to trust Him to do what we cannot do ourselves. That is a gift, a sheer gift. With God, we never have to worry about an overdrawn account.

I will be in Columbia tomorrow and Saturday working an exhibit table for Hannah’s Hope at a Family Connection conference. I do not know if I’ll have internet access. If you do not get a devotional from me tomorrow, you’ll know why. But hopefully I’ll be able to log on. Thank you for your continued faithfulness to the ministry.

Hope

“…Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20 NKJV).

I was reading Streams in the Dessert this morning and want to share some of the thoughts with you. It is paraphrased in my own words (with some of my thoughts mingled in). There is so much available to us as Christians through faith in our Lord. God has so much He wants to give to us! There is so much He wants for us to experience. There are no boundaries to God’s goodness and rich blessings. All we have to do is believe Him and trust Him for the outcome. Here is a direct quote that I just love…

“We are able to have as much of God as we want. Christ puts the key to His treasure chest in our hands and invites us to take all we desire. If someone is allowed into a bank vault, told to help himself to the money, and leaves without one cent, whose fault is it if he remains poor? And whose fault is it that Christians usually have such meager portions of the free riches of God?” Alexander Maclaren

It is possible to survive turbulent times if we put our trust in God. It is possible to daily cast all our cares upon Him and experience deep peace by doing so. It is possible to have the desires of our hearts, as long as they are pure desires. God wants to do exceedingly abundantly more for us than we could ever ask or think. In summation, with God…nothing is impossible. Put Him to the test today!

Hope