Friday's Devotion: Stars and Lemonade

 Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

I had a wonderful conversation with a church member yesterday about trusting God. I told her that I liked the old saying even if trite that says, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  But I changed it.  I said that because God chose to create the world with certain laws of physics and to give humankind free will both good things and bad things happen.  God does not cause the bad things to happen.  God does not cause a child to die.  No; God does not need another little angel.  The child dies because there’s illness in the world and accidents can render the body unable to function. God may not intervene and stop our hard times, but God can and will make lemonade from them.  We either learn a lesson, have another door opened when one shuts, or gain a valuable life experience with which we can help someone else facing a similar problem.  In those dark hours, we need to seek God and see where he is working for our future good.  Noted psychologist Lee Salk told the story of his mother coming to this country in 1901 and living in poverty for many years.  In spite of all her challenges she taught her family to think about what they had, not what they didn’t have. She taught them that in hardship you develop a capacity to appreciate the beauty that exists in the simplest elements of life.  She always told her children: “When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars.”  It’s hard to be optimistic or cheerful when awful things happen but if we trust God’s love for us we will find inner peace and hope just as surely as he hung those stars in the sky.

In both our good times and in our dark times Lord, let us see your light and power in our lives.  Remind us daily that you are always near. We ask in the name of the one who promised he would send a Comforter to dwell with us. Amen.

Thursday's Devotion: Coincidence or God-incident?

John 1:5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 In our Wednesday night program last night we had a discussion about the relationship between our prayer life and our sense of having an engaged relationship with God. I shared that as my prayer life improved I experienced many answers to prayers.  They often came in different ways and still do.  Here are some excerpts from a journal I kept while I was going through the discernment process after I realized God was calling me into the ministry.  I was so anxious to know if God was REALLY asking me to do this! It all started when I came across this quote:

“Writing is like driving a car at night.  You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way.”             -E. L. Doctorow

I realized after reading this quote that this is the way God reveals himself in my life.  I don’t see everything at once.  Instead, God shines just enough light on his nature, his Word, and his will for my life to get me through my present situation.  If I follow this light faithfully, it will show me the way through my entire life’s journey. I wrote in my journal what this quote had revealed to me.  The Daily Bible Verse for that day on the internet was also about light.  “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His son, purifies us from all sin.” I John1:5-7  The daily thought was “To walk in the light is to live in obedience to God’s commandments.”

I spoke with my pastor that evening about my desire to know the future. He said something to the effect that I was trying to shine light too far into the future, in order to control it. There was the light again! The following day as I pondered this at lunch, I decided to read from the book of Psalms.  “Psalm 89” popped into my head.  I read it searching for a message.  Verse 15 says “How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!  O Lord, they walk in the light of Thy countenance.”   I knew that God’s hand was on me, telling me through all this to trust him to reveal (shine light) on his path for me and to follow his leading.  This experience was one of many that have taught me to pray and expect an answer but to also expect that the answer may come in unexpected ways.

Creator God, we are humbled and amazed that you would listen to our prayers in such a personal way and that you answer those prayers. Help us to trust enough in this that we will not hesitate to pray about the things that are on our heart.  We ask in your Son’s holy name.  Amen.