Devotionals that encourage and uplift
I am the LORD, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Malachi 3:6 KJV AS I looked through my breakfast table window this morning, my eyes rested on the old Townsend Miller’s House which sits on our property. I thought “If only I could have a time-lapse video of the changes that have taken place since its first room was built in the 1830s.” Perhaps I would see the change from a Cherokee cabin reinforced…
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Yet a desert can be a good place to be. Oh, the possibilities in a desert. What a multitude of ways out. Look around. Sand is everywhere, the breeze stirring a few grains of sand here and there. Which direction do you go?
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I am not like Napoleon who Psychotherapist Alfred Adler said had an intense inferiority complex, but when I heard the gifted speakers and talked to editors and publishers at a Christian writers conference a while back, I felt like a sprout unsuited for the altitude and rugged slopes where Sequoias spread their limbs to the sky. As I was leaving, a line from a song popped into my head: “Here I raise my Ebenezer.” Like the proverbial broken record, the…
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Peace Luscious strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches, and white Silver Queen corn glare at me from the catalogue’s pages and suddenly I am aware of the excess moisture in my mouth. The seeds have not yet been planted in the ground, but they have in the desires of my palate. The desire that cannot be seen on the outward person is what Jesus referred to when he said, “they (the fields) are white already to harvest.” He has sown the seeds…
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I learned that God has a sense of humor when I was eleven months old. My sister brought home a bundle that upon the unwrapping turned out to be a squinch-eyed, red faced, squealer. What a delight she has been through the years as we swung on grapevines, hung on as Dad’s mules, horses, and ponies trotted, bounced, and sailed through the air with us on their backs, as she played the piano like Liberace and I sang like Loretta…
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As we pray for the hurting people in the Caribbean Islands and watch as millions leave worldly possessions behind in Florida, I note that the word Irma of #HurricaneIrma means “world.” How negligible materials seem when faced with the loss of life itself. The biblical Job is the epitome of loss. A wealthy man, He lost not only the products of his life’s work, but his children and his wife. Why is not the question, although God is big enough…
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Since my name is Irma, I have gotten many teasing comments about #HurricaneIrma from friends and family to which I jokingly respond, “Just get out of my path.” I can assure you, though, that Jesus is the Master of the Storm. Irma, the German Goddess of War, may toss you to and fro, send massive waves of trouble through your life, and tear apart every semblance of normality, but, as Jesus came walking on the Sea of Galilee to help…
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Yes, mountains really do get taller because those tectonic plates keep colliding and pushing the ground upward. Do plants grow at the top of the one you’re going around? Is your path leading to the promised land? Though God spoke from the mountain, the direction He is pointing you may be through the valley toward a place where grapes grow large, and milk and honey flow. You may need to ask him to help you move a few Canaanites, but…
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The blanket of God’s love enfolds you and keeps you warm. It is the covering that reflects who you truly are. Like the core of an apple, His breath lives in you, produces the fruit, and covers you. Your inner self, the “real” you, the one that is “hid with Christ in God” is the one you feel tugging at your heart, drawing you to seek the things that are true to your authentic self. Inner conflict comes from craving…
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Those agile people who can bend over and look backward through their legs impress me. Fortunately it is rarely necessary to see that way. Some say that since we don’t have eyes in the backs of our heads, God didn’t intend for us to look that way; however, experience is a great teacher. Building upon the teachings of the past, God is always moving forward in our lives. As a matter of fact, Jesus says no one “having put his…
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