Month: December 2010 (Page 2 of 3)

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythm

The winter season of our souls calls us to some good work – praying, pruning, waiting; and it also gives us good gifts.  It gives us the opportunity in reimaging our lives. That doesn’t mean we indulge in some fantasy of escape but rather we see our lives in their truest light.  We see them for that they really are and know what really matters and what doesn’t. Maybe the best gift of winter is that it makes us heavenly minded. It breaks our addiction to this worldliness and helps us to anticipate the things that are unseen.  We may begin to see that our trials are “light and momentary”. We are not made for this world.  I think we will find that the winter season of our soul is not just something to endure but is a season when we are fully alive and come closest to Him.

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual rhythm

When we are in the winter season of our soul there is work in winter that only winter knows.  Like prayer. Prayer is the ongoing work of winter. But we may pray not because we know and see what God is up to, or because we feel God is good to us at that time. Instead we pray because we are anchored in God’s revelation of Himself in scripture that He is good. We may be going through some very difficult circumstances where we have to walk by faith and not by sight.

 But what better ground is there for growing in our faith? 

Another work of winter is pruning.  Initially pruning makes us unsightly and feeling useless. But it is a time to look closely at all of our tangled branches of our life- like projects, hobbies, obsessions, diversions etc that are not bearing fruit in our lives. It is time to let go of the useless activities and come into simplicity.  It may be a time to lose the weight of unneeded responsibilities so we can bear more fruit.

Another work of winter is waiting as winter forces us to wait. It may be a time when we feel God is indifferent or absent to us. He doesn’t seem to show up or leaves things unchanged….maybe even lets them get worse. But waiting builds faith and we find out that He has been with us all the time in the darkness, in our grief, in our bewilderment.  WE may not see Him until we arrive at the other end but all the while our roots have been going deeper .   Then our faith is based more on who God is, and not our circumstance of the moment.

Devotions from Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythm

The season of winter is bleak, cold, dark and fruitless. It is a time of inactivity, more night than day and never seems to end. We would like to run from it, disavow it, or deny it.  Sometimes it feels like it is our personal failure, something we have caused. But it is a season and there’s no preventing of it.  Most people around us don’t help us and may give us pep talks and that make us feel even more alone. Things we found stimulating or pleasurable no longer have meaning for us, God seems far away or too near- aloof in his heaven and we feel He is hidden.  Our hearts may feel closed up and our dreams buried. It is different than depression as depression is triggered mostly by something internal whereas winter is triggered mostly by circumstances. ( In the author’s case it was the death of his assistant pastor). .” But every heartache and hardship and the loneliness such things bring, has a back door.  They allow us entry into a communion with Christ we don’t usually experience in our days of ease and song. Most of us have had our deepest encounters with Christ not on mountaintops but in the valley floors.” More tomorrow on Winter..

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythm

This book is about the 4 distinct seasons of our soul within us. There are seasonal rhythms like flourishing and fruitful, stark and dismal, cool and windy, etc. The seasons have nothing to do with age and seldom the person.  Our responsibility is to know the season and match our actions and inactions to it.  The author went through a winter season where he had to walk without sight and to believe even in the absence of evidence and emotions. He found that all seasons are necessary for growing, and inactivity has as much to do with growth as activity. He noticed that busyness bruises and  stunts fruit as much as grows it. For everything there is a season (from Ecclesiastes) and eternity hides beneath the guise of each season’s beauty.  What we go through is only a dress rehearsal for what is ahead…eternity.  God walks with us in all seasons and when all is done takes us home.
Let us cooperate with God in the changes He wants to work in us in each season we go through.

Devotions based on an article by Stacey Benson

As we follow God’s call for our lives I’m sure we’ve all had our share of darts thrown at us by friends, family, and church people.  It may be hurtful words, judgments, criticisms, or untrue accusations against our character. We can respond by building  protective walls or we can let the Lord help us develop thick skin to not take everything personally.  It is important to keep our hearts soft and not place so much importance on how others treat us.  Ultimately, it is what He thinks of us that really matters.  We must let our focus be on Him and the criticism and judgments won’t sting so much. Rick Ezell says if we are in leadership we can react to criticism by: 1.Talking to God about it-take it to Him in prayer first. 2.  Learn from it. Maybe there is a little truth in it so we must shake out the kernels of truth and use them to help us grow. 3.  Use it to motivate us to greater action. Let it spur us on to greater accomplishments. 4.  Ignore it. Sometimes we must consider the source and just dismiss it and move on.  

Let us keep our eyes on the Lord who will lift us up and lead the way into the fullness of our calling.

Devotions based on Florence MacKenzie’s article about discouragement

I think we all get discouraged at times and wish we could run away from difficult circumstances. Mac Kenzie gives us 6 ways to try to defeat discouragement.

1. Choose to believe the character of God.  He loves us with an everlasting love and we need to let this knowledge sink deep into us.

2. Choose to respond to God in praise. This is probably what we least want to do when our circumstances may be painful. But we are told to give thanks in all circumstances not for all circumstances. The key is giving thanks to God IN            those times.

3. Choose to wait for the Lord to act. God acts according to His time table but while we wait we can take time out daily to focus on Him rather than our problem. Let’s ask what instead of why  to learn what He is teaching us. We must   keep    handing over the problem to Him and trust the outcome.  Then may we determine that whatever happens we will continue to serve him wholeheartedly.

4. Choose to share our problem with a trusted friend. We don’t have to walk it alone.

5. Choose to build structure into our day. Rather than let things slide, maintain some kind of a daily routine to help us keep on track.

6. Choose to rejoice in the Lord.  (Hab.3:17)  As we focus on His character and believe His promises we are able to rejoice in Him.
Let us go through this Christmas time full of hope and not being overwhelmed.

Devotions based on thoughts from an article by Jill Brisco

We are all getting older but if we have a heart for God we can be ever young.  The best thing we can do for our world is to know God in such a way that others will look at our life and want to know Him too. God can’t use a person who “thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think.”  We are not our own. We are His and to be available to Him…There is no such thing as our time.  “God breaks up the private lives of saints and makes them a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and Himself on the other!”  When we let Him lead our lives we will have incredible adventures!! Our submission to Him must be unconditional.  We can then be content knowing He knows what we are about even when others may know it or not.  How we are perceived by others or received spiritually by others is none of our business. How we are perceived by Him is all that matters.
May we let the Spirit do His renewing, reviving, refreshing work in our hearts.

Devotions from Michael Molinas’ book, Spiritual Guide

Have you dreamed of having great peace that is not affected by trials and adversity that comes your way?  As we are grounded in His love we can experience this peace and welcome whatever comes into our lives. But we must renounce our self nature, any desire to be great, and seek only Him.  When we know that we are nothing then there is nothing to rob us of our joy.  “He who knows he is nothing is incapable of receiving grievance or injury from anyone.  Such a believer does not look on the faults of another, but only on his own; he frees himself from all his countless imperfections.” As long as we see ourselves as nothing, the Lord, can continue to work in us depositing His image and likeness in our inward being.” How wonderful to live in “heavenly indifference” where we are content in everything and do not lose that inward peace!

Devotions from Michael Molinas book, The Spiritual Guide

The wisdom of God is something that is infused within us and leads to an inner knowing of God. Sermons may be given by men of great knowledge and learning but they may lack an experiential knowledge of the internal things of the Spirit.  They may seek their own honor instead of God’s glory. Those who preach the Word of God while at the same time living in the Spirit within their innermost parts will impress the Word upon the hearts of the hearers. To truly know God begets humility, and just acquiring knowledge and information begets pride. Often we see the love of God in those willing to deny self. We will find wisdom far more among the simple than those who know so much about God, but so little of the Lord Himself. Let us also live and speak as one who learns and not as one who knows.