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MOTIVATE Me Oh Lord, To Sow

August 25, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

I know for a fact that sometimes (many times), I do things to receive a smile, a surprised elation, an expression of gratitude from whomever I treat kindly. I watch for a show of appreciation. I know this because when it doesn’t occur, I feel wounded. That, my friends, is not love, nor kindness. It is flat-out selfishness. So, I find that when God gives me the seed of an idea to show kindness and love, then He blesses my action through His Spirit as I obey. Love is not self-seeking, it simply loves because it can do no different. When I don’t plant that seed and sow it where I am, it is sin, because when you know what to do and don’t do it, it is the same thing as knowing what not to do and doing it. Needless to say, I sin a lot in a day. Praise God for His mercy and grace. Like the old hym says, “Without Him I would be nothing; like a ship without a sail.”

It is God…

“who has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,” 2 Timothy 1:9

Grace saves us. And that same grace is our motivating force. Sometimes I am amazed at that little voice within that urges me to reach out and touch another in my day. Sometimes I walk away wondering what possessed me to do a specific thing. Then I realize it was of God. His Spirit reveals to me ways to be light in a dark world. When I act upon what is revealed, I become the salt He wants to use to season and add flavor to a tasteless society empty of nutrients, starving for love.

God is unbelieveably awesome. He intricately lives with us each day and guides us in His righteousness for His sake. He weaves a tapestry of goodness of which Christians are a thread to add color and meaning. He has it all figured out. He knows the plans He has for my life as I pick and choose where I go in any given day. He knows where I plan to walk and where I plan to stop and rest. As I make my schedule, He has inked-in divine appointments for me to play a part. He places various people He wants me and, me alone, to show compassion, empathy and encouragment in circumstances I encounter. I find that exciting.

When you think about today and what comes your way, I pray you have the discernment to see the ways the Spirit reveals His will.  It could be a very exciting day to let go of ourselves and simply be all He has created us to be.  To love others as He loved us…first. Think about it.

When others are mean, we can show kindness. When others are impatient, we can show patience. When others say discouraging things, we can encourage. When others are selfish, we can share what we have. When others ignore someone, we can notice them, smile, and say hello. When others reject us, insult us, betray us, we can accept, love and forgive. We may never know in our lifetime, how some small thing we do today will reap benefits for His kingdom. But we do know that Scripture says,

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” 2 Corinthians 9:6

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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We Are In It Together

June 21, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

When a team plays a game. When a country goes to war. When a crew builds a house. When a church is planted. Each person has a specific contribution to make to another within the whole.  So often in relationships we have expectations of what another will give to us, of what we will receive. We take for granted that we will give to another our best, be as diligent and loyal as necessary. For a team to succeed, a country, a crew or congregation–each person is just as responsible to the relationship as others. As Christians we’re more than ourselves. We are part of the body of Christ.  Peter knew this when he wrote:

“As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:4-5

Christ died and rose again and ascended into heaven to sit at the right-hand side of God the Father. He was the Cornerstone to the Church. We are as precious to the Father as Jesus was. Jesus was rejected by men, but chosen by God. We also are like living stones–being built into the spiritual house of God. We are called to be a holy priesthood, just as Jesus was the chief Priest. God wants our spiritual sacrifices just as He wanted Jesus to be the acceptable physical attoning sacrifice. He asks us to live for Him.

Just live.   Through Him, love.  Through Him, forgive.  Through Him, reconcile.  Through Him, restore.  Through Him, stand.

As Believers we live through Jesus Christ…He in us, we in Him. Spiritually, we positionally sit with Him in heaven just as surely as we sit here on earth.

What joy to know we are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are righteous through Christ. We are set apart and made holy through Christ. The world rejected Jesus; the world rejects us. And that’s okay. We are acceptable to our Heavenly Father. The battles on this earth we face together in His name. The trials, the persecutions, the difficulties. We are in it together–building one living stone upon the other–mortared together by the blood of our Savior and Lord. Rejoice, dear friends. Rejoice.

Who can defeat us? Who can be against us? We are “living stones” in the spiritual house of God. When the earth quakes and the mountains tremble and seas roar and man threatens, we are one, built together and standing strong as a fortress. Thank you for standing with me, my brothers and sisters.

PRAYER: Lord bless my brothers and sisters in Christ today. Give them wisdom and discernment. Let them each grow more in love with You each day. Let each rest in Your grace and be the blessed stone You’ve chosen them to be in the kingdom.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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What Is On My Father’s Mind

June 15, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

When I was a teenager, I had several opportunities to break my father’s rules–to go places he didn’t want me to go, to do things he didn’t want me to do.  I recall a time he made me copy three chapters of the Bible for joining my brother in smoking a cigarette. Today I think back on all the times I failed to live up to his standards.  As an adult, I see the pitfalls of disobedience.  I also see the promise and reward in following principles my dad encouraged and those my heavenly Father wants me to follow. Sometimes I wish I could turn back time and have do-overs with my dad. However, that is not possible.

Yet, as a Christian, all things are possible with my heavenly Father.  He pours out mercy and gives me new opportunities each day.  He gives me His Word to show me what He expects. He sent Jesus as an example. He gave me His Spirit to guide me. And His grace covers all my mistakes, and failures. Though I may falter and stumble, I find peace in His approval for the righteousness I have in His Son’s justification and atonement. 

“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,” 1 Peter 4:1

What did Jesus think about?  Each time He was confronted with questions, obstacles, temptations, or enticements, Jesus had the Father on His mind.

When faced with the heartbreaking death of His friend Lazarus, and the grief of His friends Martha and Mary, Jesus considered the glory the circumstance would bring to the heavenly Father. When Jesus was faced with the impossible situation of feeding thousands of hungry people with a few loaves and fish, He saw the opportunity to show the power and sufficiency of the heavenly Father. When others condemned an adulteress woman, Jesus forgave her. When others ostracized the lepers, Jesus touched them. When His disciples pushed children away, Jesus called them to himself and told others to have the heart and mind of children. When faced with eternal destruction for all mankind, He obeyed the heavenly Father and sacrificed all–His life–to win the freedom and eternal life for all who believed in, relied upon, and received Him.

Since Jesus walked through life this way and suffered in the flesh for us, Paul tells us to “arm” ourselves “with the same way of thinking”–think like Jesus. When we take time to consider how God looks at a situation, we will be better able to walk like Jesus, forgive like Jesus, confront like Jesus, minister like Jesus and sacrifice like Jesus. Whatever we go through is pin-pricks in comparison to Christ’s sufferings. Can we think like Jesus?

PRAYER: LORD, fill our minds with Yours. Increase our wisdom. Open our eyes to Your purpose in each facet of our day. Arm us with the ability to look beyond each situation, each obstacle, and see the opportunity You intend.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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Something To Consider

May 18, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

My priorties are pretty much a mess right now.  It seems the more I try to prioritize, the more interruptions I face.  The more needs I try to meet in my life, the more conflicts I find.  Once again the Spirit reminds me that my life is not about me.  It’s about others.  And others are like me, they  have emotions, energies, reasoning, desires, and needs of their own.  Therein lies my quandry.

If I cannot get my own life in order, how can I give time to others?  

From the whining grandchild to the overworked son-in-law.  From my Type-A daughter, to my laid-back, steadfast husband.  From a distant friend, to one I have lunch with.  From my Iraqi friend who I teach English to, to my chiropractor’s orders to rest.  All these come to mind when I consider a priority list.

One half of most every moment in my life I am thinking about myself….my needs…my comfort.  Yet the more comfortable I get, the less I tend to do for others…the less I consider their feelings, their thoughts, their doubts, their condition, their abilities and even their inabilities.  I must consider their flaws as well as their perfections.  I must consider their wisdom as well as their foolishness.

God has placed me here, in this moment, to be the light and salt in the lives of others.  My mind cannot be so made up, my priorities so set in cement–that I have no wiggle room to meet another’s needs, no tolerance for their weakness, no forbearance for their mistakes.

What about me?  What about my needs, my emotions, my hopes?  I ask God those questions more than you can possibly believe.  I am all about me and my needs and comforts being met.  Seriously.  I’ve made a vocation of indulging my own pleasure and comfort.  But I cannot lock myself in a room somewhere in order to please myself.  If I did, I’d have to become a self-reliant farmer, gardener, technician, plumber, baker, physician, etcetera.  With relationships, rest is usually compromised, time is not always ours to schedule, whims are not often granted (sometimes not even our needs are met).

“have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;” Philippians 5:5-6

No one had more right to His own pleasures, comfort and desires than Jesus.  He, after all, was constantly healing, tending, teaching, listening, and caring for others.  He went so far as to lay down His life for others.  He paid the price for sin so we could live forever in the Kingdom of God.  If Jesus was willing to set Himself aside to meet the needs of others, shouldn’t I?

God allows certain circumstances to occur in my life as I grow in Christ.  He has a plan for me and as I walk through life towards the goal He has laid out before me. That ”goal” is ”to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.”  What is the mindset of Jesus?

Jesus set His mind toward Jerusalem…to save sinners…to obey God all along the way until He willingly lay down upon the cross, and willingly allowed others to nail Him to the wood.  He willingly allowed man to raise His beaten, battered, bloody and naked body up on a pole to be mocked, spat upon and humiliated.  All to pay the price for sin…my sin, your sin, the sin of others.

PRAYER:  Please bless those who struggle with priorities.  Give peace to the weary, clarity to the busy, and guidance to those consumed with earthly things.  Let them see You in every interruption, obstacle and trial.  Let them see Your hand and know the Spririt’s call upon their lives as they walk toward the goal you’ve set before them.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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Whine, Whine, Whine!

May 11, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

Sometimes it gets so annoying you want to poke a stick in your ears to break your eardrums for relief.

Seriously.  Ever been driving in a car on an 8-hour trip to reach a beach-front condo where you know the immeasurable joy it’s going to bring the two children riding in the back seat who have never seen the ocean?  And mile-marker after endless mile-marker, all you hear from them is whine, whine, whine…murmur, grumble, and more whine?  Your brain gets so full of their incessant complaining that you want to stop the car, smack their bottoms a few times and turn around and go back home.

I think this may have been what God felt like when He sent Moses to the children of Israel to lead them out of Egypt into the Promised Land.  Instead of gratitude for the vacation from grueling, daily slavery to Pharoah, they murmurred and complained every step of the way.  Instead of rejoicing that their sippy cups had an endless supply of water and their traveling trays held manna for each mile that they freely walked into the desert, they grumbled that the manna wasn’t chicken nuggets, the water wasn’t lemonade. Then…just as the Lord brings them to the edge of the land flowing with milk and honey, they cannot trust the promises of the Lord.  They want to go back home to the drudgery of slavery.  They’re tired of walking; they don’t trust what God has promised.  They decide they were better off under the hand of Pharoah…than in the palm of God’s.

“The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?” Numbers 14:11

How long will it take our children to believe we will do good things for them…better than they can imagine?  How many good things will we give them for them to trust we have the best possible things in store for them?  How many times must we tell them to do it our way before they learn our wisdom comes from experience and the Lord’s guidance in our lives?  We wonder sometimes.

What about us?  How much does God have to do to get us to believe our best interests are His priority?  How many mini-miracles and major interventions must He perform in our lives to have us trust Him with abandon?

As I think about all I’ve been grumbling and complaining about with my life these days, I am ashamed to say, it seems to be a never-ending lesson with me.  Why do so many little things irritate us, cause us to question God’s love and divine plan for the obstacles and seemingly brick walls to the plans we make?  I am of the mind that I fail to trust He has something better.  Much better than I can imagine in this phase of my life–this temporary desert.

Forgive us Lord when we fail to trust You.  Forgive us for looking at giants and thinking they are bigger than You.  Clear the blindness we have in life’s trials, and let us trust You with the insight of Your watchcare and steadfast love.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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When Life Begins

May 10, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

I was cropping photos on my computer, taken on Mother’s Day at my daughter’s house.  My granddaughters were tickled to view them.  Haylee, 6, was reading all the captions I added to the photos to her 4-year-old sister, Kinsey.  We all sat giggling and laughing as each photo came into view.  I’d written imaginary words for their little 6-month-old niece’s photos as she rolled over and did push-ups, (yes, yes…my granddaughters are Aunts to my great-granddaughter, Jocelyn).

Anyway, out of the blue, Haylee asks, “Grama, how old was Jocelyn when she was born?”  I thought a minute and said, “Well, sweetie, she’d just been born.”  She tried again.

“Well, how old was Mommy when she came out of your tummy?  How old was I when I was born?”  She was quite serious.  This was not a trick question.  I tried to explain when we’re born that’s when we start counting our age.  She wasn’t buying that.  I watched her eyes drift to thoughts inside her mind…I could almost hear the wheels turning.

“Mommy says…” (I knew I was in trouble)  “…that when we grow inside a tummy we have…”.

Ah ha!  Now I get it.  I could see where she was coming from and interrupted.  “Well, I think you were about 8 months and two weeks old when you were born.  Mommy was 9 months when she was born.  And Jocelyn was 9 months, too.”

“For You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13

I find it rather amazing that age has found a rightful place in the mind of my six-year-old granddaughter regarding life within a womb.  I found it endearing that she took it totally for granted that when a person becomes pregnant, life begins and bursts into the world within 3 months of having a one-year birthday.  Perhaps we all ought to start having birthday parties for our babies at 3 months to bring this truth to light for children having brothers, sisters, cousins and nieces.

God knows everything about us as He forms us in our mother’s wombs.  He knows the hour we will come into the world and the second we will leave it.  Life is so precious.  So precious to God.  When a sparrow falls to the earth, He knows.  When a hair falls from our shoulders, He knows.  God is the giver of life and life is His to control as long as we breathe and our hearts beat and beyond. 

Someday, Haylee will be challenged by the world with liberal thoughts and scientific viewpoints of cells and tissue and planned parenthood.  I take comfort in knowing she’s already grounded in the fact that God forms a baby the second He fuses the egg to her womb.

May all those who seek to end the life of God’s precious gift be convicted to turn from that worldly option.  May they know that life within the womb is to be guarded, and cherished until it is born and then nourished, and guided in the ways of God.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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Crossroads

April 30, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21, NIV)

Overwhelmed and in need of some sense of direction, you are standing at a crossroads unsure of where to turn. The sun’s heat is merciless as it beats down on you. The dusty road beneath your feet can take you in a number of directions, but which way should you go? Do you choose the steep and rocky road that climbs toward the horizon, or do you amble down the long and winding road to the valley below? Although the latter may seem the easier road to travel, inevitably you will have to take the high road on the other side of the valley if you are to scale the mountains that beckon you. If only you could see what lies ahead on either path, the choice would be much easier to make.

Many of us are standing at a crossroads. We are overwhelmed by the challenges we face and wonder where in the world God is taking us as we journey through this life. As we face the uncertainty of what lies ahead, we struggle to gain a sense of direction from many sources – the encouragement and experiences of friends, our own failures and successes, and whatever might feel good at the moment. But are we truly seeking God’s direction for our lives?

As I write this, I find myself standing at a crossroads. Do I content myself with devoting my energies to caring for my family and serving others in a part-time job I truly enjoy, or do I press forward into writing and ministry with the hope that I will make a difference for God using the gifts He has given me? The upward path is difficult and uncomfortable for me. It would be much easier to let go of a dream and settle for what is familiar and comfortable, but is that God’s plan for my life?

Man has not invented a GPS that will make our decisions any easier, but God has given us His Word as a roadmap and is willing to navigate us through every treacherous turn if we are inclined to hear His voice. As long as we keep our eyes fixed on the Morning Star, we can travel with certainty that we will reach the destination He has mapped out for us. The journey won’t be easy. We will encounter many obstacles along the way. But God has promised that He will be with us always, “even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20, KJV).

Copyright © 2011 by Dee Dee Wike.  All rights reserved.
www.deedeewike.com

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A Lifetime

April 26, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

“Pray without ceasing.”  I Thessolonians 5:17 

It amazes me that the God of the universe wants me to talk to Him. He draws me near and allows me to rest in His goodness, compassion, and mercy. It is during these intimate encounters that I sense God’s presence in my life the most. I approach my conversations with God trusting that He will answer my prayers…quickly! I love it when the answer is immediate and obvious. He gives me those moments to appreciate his sweet, swift Spirit. Naturally, I conclude that I was faithful to pray, God was faithful to answer, and I can faithfully move to my next request lickety-split.

I’ve heard stories where people petitioned God with the same request for extraordinarily long periods of time. So long, in fact, that they may have appeared foolish to those around them. I have often wondered if their groaning resembled the incessant buzzing of a bumblebee in God’s ears. Even in the Bible, there were individuals who undoubtedly grew weary of bowing and rising, bowing and rising, bowing and rising with the same prayer day after day. In I Samuel 1, Hannah expresses her deep longing for a child. She literally prayed for years with no results. Just when she had met her point of desperation, Hannah paused, pondered on the longing of her heart, and…prayed again. This woman truly cherished the promise “with God nothing is impossible.” Hannah obviously believed that her God could answer her prayer. Otherwise, she would have gone cold on the whole idea of prayer before she had the chance to see His glorious answer revealed.

For nearly a year, one prayer has echoed from my heart. Not a single day passes that I don’t speak to Him at depth about my desire. I consider the petition honorable. If He chose to answer my prayer, I believe I would grow as an individual and believer. Were God to answer the prayer, it would be uncomfortably life-changing for me. Maybe He knows I can’t handle that right now—maybe not ever. It could be that He is building perseverance and patience in me so that I might better recognize the beauty that comes from a “fervent, righteous prayer.” Could it be that God wants to bless me even more than I can imagine at precisely the perfect time in my life?

Recently, I had a conversation with a special friend about prayer. I asked, “How long is too long to pray for something?” His first reply was, “I don’t know.” I insisted that he give me an answer even if it might be wrong. After a brief wave of silence, his answer came as if from the heart of God. “No amount of time is too long…even if it takes a lifetime to be answered.” Luke 11:1-10 stirs me to pray with persistence and confidence. “For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” My friend’s reply may seem overwhelming and disheartening to some people. However, the words reminded me of the hope I have in my God. The hope that He always listens, always protects, and always answers. Even if the answer takes a lifetime…keep praying. 

By Karen Pollock, Kentucky

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