Daily devotion

God Leads Us Along

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

When God leads us on paths we have never walked we have an opportunity to learn more about what it means to really trust Him. When my wife’s battle with cancer began it turned both of our lives upside down. Our schedule, our plans and our relationship got thrown into the deep end of the pool. We suddenly had to draw on our faith in ways that we had talked about but had rarely put into practice. It was sink or swim time and on some days I was doing more sinking than swimming.

Now looking back two and a half years I can see God’s gracious love patiently snipping away a thousand loose ends of pride and selfishness. Thank God Nancy came through her surgery,six chemo treatments and physical rehab with flying colors. Now that we find ourselves on strange new path we can look back and see that through every misunderstanding, midnight pain and tearful prayer God has been faithful. Today’s verse reminds us that His grace is not because of our stellar behavior or goodness but for His own name’s sake. I recently heard Lindsay sing this hymn and was reminded that no matter the pathway God always leads us along!

Lilies of the Field

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Matthew 6:28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.

If you are like me maybe you been doing more some worrying off and on during this pandemic. We wonder if our family members will get sick or what is going to happen to our nation. We worry about going to the grocery store and wonder when we can go to church again.

The people listening to Jesus were not so much different than us. They had plenty of their own troubles – like corrupt government officials extorting them for money – the threat of getting leprosy that could put you in social isolation for life and a strict religious system that might get you kicked out of the synagogue for even listening to Jesus. So Jesus didn’t just say; “Don’t worry; Be happy!” Instead He talked about lilies. These weren’t the lilies we associate with Easter or the garden lilies we are familiar with but were flowers that grew wild in the fields of Galilee.

That kind of blossom reminds me of the wild flowers in the farm fields. Generally they were unnoticed while the hay was tall since they grew in the shade of the taller grass. But once the fields were mown and the hay made into bales their tiny yellow, purple and red blossoms put on quite a show. My job being to stack the bales I got the delight of a great view of them from my perch high atop the hay wagon as we road we back to the barn.

Since Jesus said to consider flowers as a stress reliever I thought that today it might be fun to just share some flower photos from my morning walks. Have a blessed and unworried day safe on the top of God’s hay wagon as he steers us slowly back to His barn!

For The Sake of Christ

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That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

When we become Christians our first struggles are with past weakness or sin. We think things like, “If only God can keep me from this temptation then I will live the Christian life.”  But as we walk down the road a bit farther we discover that we face other battles. But the difficulties which we face are not road blocks; rather they are opportunities for God to reveal His love in our everyday lives.

When I am weak He holds me!

Quite often it comes as a shock when harsh things are said about us. It is not easy to understand why others choose to be hurtful with their words. We may think that God doesn’t know how we feel. But in those fearful lonely times remember that He was despised and rejected but that we are always accepted by God in His beloved Son.

When others say hurtful things He knows my heart.

The first few laps of the Christian race seem to fly by. We easily face temptations with the wonderful joy of knowing Christ. But as the days stretch into months and years we find that the road has some long uphill stretches. There are times when it seems so hard to continue that we may in our weariness think of quitting. At that time remember that He said to come to Him when we are weary and He will give us rest!

When the weight of life seems heavy He carries me!