This morning I was still feeling blah, discouraged, not wanting too face to day but crawl back to my warm, comfy bed. Instead I poured a cup of coffee and settled down with my Bible and Devo book. My eyes came to rest on the refrigerator where Ephesians 4:29-32 stared back at me and phrase jumped off the page at me "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs....Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger...Be kind and compassionate to one another..."
Then I glanced down and saw my reading from Sunday School peeking out of the pocket on my Bible cover. We are studying You were made for More by Jim Cymbala; this is what the passage I had said-
What a difference it would make if we simply paused once an hour or so to say, "I praise you Lord. You've been so good to me! I give you thanks." Just think how more more joy and peace would be ours all day long.
This would be valuable not only on sunny days but also in times of testing and loss. Of course, the problems come our ways throughout life. That is inevitable. But instead of worrying, we can face the difficulties in a context of all that God has done for us in the past. When our backs were against the wall, God opened a door of provision. He is the same God today.
I'm also reading a devotional book I bought a couple years ago. I read 2/3's of it at the time I purchased it. It is called The one year book of HOPE. At that time my life was dark, I needed ALL the hope I could get. I'm not sure why I set it down. Probably just got something new and exciting I just HAD to read. I know I have picked it up a few other times when I needed some Hope, like when my Grandpa died, when we lost Jared later that same year... I decided its time to finish it. Hope was one of the things I was supposed to bring home from retreat. Now its alluding me...perhaps I just need to use the tools already in my possession. This would be valuable not only on sunny days but also in times of testing and loss. Of course, the problems come our ways throughout life. That is inevitable. But instead of worrying, we can face the difficulties in a context of all that God has done for us in the past. When our backs were against the wall, God opened a door of provision. He is the same God today.
The verse at the top of my page this morning was "Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing." Philippians 4:2 NLT, this immediately gave me pause as I have found before when I have gotten wrapped up in my own petty troubles there is something bigger I should be doing, something the devil is distracting me from, like praying for a fellow housewife or someone else who needs prayer.
Again I reminded of the simple truths we learned at retreat. How God wants to spend time with us, how He tries to communicate with us, if only we will shut up long enough to listen.
