Wake up my Heart!

Scripture of the Day: 1 Corinthians 15:10a “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.” Part of me wants to make this a mini-blog and simply state, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” AMEN. The end. But that may not be much to think about, so here is some more food for thought! Reading that verse made me feel a sigh of thankfulness (if there is such a thing) that I really and truly am what I am because the grace of God. Without that grace, I don’t really want to know where I would be. My life was headed down a track that was walking further away from Jesus and then God called me back. So indeed, “his grace to me was not without effect.” The effect of Jesus in my life caused a change in lifestyle (and heart), led to an amazing husband, what I consider my miracle child, and an entirely different life focus than I once planned on. I encourage you to finish the sentence above on your own, “But by the grace of God I am ______,”and...

Scripture of the Day: 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (New Living Translation) 13  If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.   2  If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.   3  If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;   but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4  Love is patient,  love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  5  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,  it is not easily angered,  it keeps no record of wrongs.  6  Love does not delight in evil  but rejoices with the truth.  7  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always pers...

Scripture of the Day: “…And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:11b-12 God, I love how you demonstrate your power through these words! You could come as a windstorm; as an earthquake, or as fire…but you sometimes choose to show up as a gentle whisper. There are some days – I would venture to even go so far as to say there are some weeks, months, or even years – where we don’t feel we hear God. His voice seems gone. But perhaps the fact of the matter is we just aren’t listening! It’s easy to let the world in. To let our culture, our friends, and even our families over take our lives. We cannot hear the whi...

 Scripture of the Day: Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for   and certain of what we do not see. Please note if you would like to feel pumped up and excited about your faith I encourage you to read this entire chapter in Hebrews…it is the Faith Hall of Fame if you will! It is chalk full of people who lived their life by faith – and God commended them for it. I have been thinking of this verse for a couple of days now and it hit me this morning that because faith is indeed, “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” it is freeing. It makes life easier. Rather than asking “why?” in many life situations/struggles, it is amazingly freeing to give those situations up to God because you know your hope is in Him and have glorifying certainty that His plans are better in the scope of things than you could ever plan yourself. When you start reacting to situations in faith instead of asking why you are in them, you accept th...

Scripture of the Day – Psalm 56:8 “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” Doesn’t that read like poetry?! It is so comforting for me to think of God having all my tears collected. I do not often think of God keeping track of my sorrows. I know he KNOWS of them, of course – and my tears are just as much of the plan He has laid out of me as are the happy times. This just concretes for me the knowledge and acceptance that there WILL BE tears. They have been recorded already. The comfort from this verse comes two fold. First of all, God already knows all the tears I have shed and the ones yet to come, and second – he has kept track of them – meaning I do not have to! Is it a stretch to think that just as my sins are accounted for and washed away, my tears are washed away, both literally and spiritually? I hope not! Closing prayer: Heavenly Father – thank you for caring enough about...

Scripture of the Day (a day early in honor of Mother’s Day): Isaiah 66:13a “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…” That verse hits me particularly hard today because I currently have a sick little guy. And if you have children, I think you will understand when I say that I would do just about anything in the world to help him when he is sick. There is no helpless feeling that is somehow quite as helpless as when your child is sick. You would rather be sick yourself, or snap your fingers and make it all better! Think of how you attempt comfort for your sick children – cuddles, extra hugs and kisses, whatever food they want (that won’t make the illness worse), favorite movies, security items, sleeping in bed with you…and the list goes on and on.  In the future, I can only imagine when my child needs other comforts that may come from hurt feelings, misunderstandings, or a broken heart! What I can tell you, is that I will always be there trying to offer comf...

Scripture of  the day from Psalm 18:31-36 31 For who is God besides the Lord?      And who is the Rock except our God? 32 It is God who arms me with strength      And makes my ways perfect. 33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,      He enables me to stand on the heights. 34 He trains my hands for battle;      My arms can bend a bow of bronze. 35 You give me your shield of victory,      And your right hand sustains me;      You stoop down to make me great. 36 You broaden the path beneath me,      So that my ankles do not turn. How wonderful! And how humbling! Who makes me great? God – not myself. Who keeps me standing strong? God. Who is our Rock? God. God does all of these things out of love. He “stoops” to make us great each and every day. The sad thing about this is that I usually do not take him up...

Today’s Scripture is from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “ 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” There are so many things to love about this passage! Verse 5 begins with a command – and then gives steps which hopefully lead to doing it. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart (the Hebrew word here does mean heart and mind) and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The most powerful part of this command is that it involves God wanting a personal relationship with us. Yes, God wants to be feared and respected…but he wants t...

First of all - thank you for your understanding in my random posting of these devotions. A more formal schedule has been requested - so here you go! Beginning next week, I will post devotions on Monday and Thursday mornings at 7 am. Thank you and God Bless! I leave you with this verse, which is stuck in my head today: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see," (Hebrews 11:1).

The last blog was an introduction into the fruits, or gifts, of the Spirit. To quote the actual Scripture: “  22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law,” (Galatians 5: 22-23). I could spend time focused on each one, but the one that is usually most near and dear to my heart is patience. Some days I am blessed with an abundance of it. Others, I find myself impatient with just about everyone and everything. On one of those “impatient” days, I looked up “patience” in my bible’s concordance and found the verses above. The words hit me like a brick: because I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior, I have the gift of the Holy Spirit. Breaking it down further - I was given the gift of patience in abundance; I just had to have a wake-up call to find it. Please remember, as I sometimes forget, that the Holy Spirit is alive in YOU! And that Spirit is never impatien...