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.

Devotions from Michael Molinas in the book, The Spiritual Guide

In the center of our being is the place God wants to dwell. He manifests himself in ways that are above our understanding and senses.  If we desire to hear His voice to our hearts we need to die to our selfish nature and avoid attachment to things that are not of God. May the prayer of our heart be to come before Him seeking only His divine will! “Come…busy yourself only to His pleasure. Come…interested only in His desire. Come…waiting with perfect submission to receive whatever He has ordained.” As we do this, peace will flood our inward being and we will experience joyful rest.

Thoughts based on an article by Benner and Moon in Conversations Magazine

God is in the present moment but how do we experience His presence in our moment-by-moment daily life?  We can start our day by asking him to help us discern His presence in the events of our day. And at the close of the day, review and reflect on the events, recognizing His divine presence. He may show up in surprising ways like in the brokenness of our lives, in the world around us etc. We may need to ask for forgiveness for the times we move away from Him but also  give thanks for when we were aware of Him. We can also ask for the grace to be even more open to Him tomorrow. God is at home in the world and in the midst of the affairs of our lives.

 ‘Our job is to allow ourselves to be loved and then to hold others in love and to pass on to them what we have received from God. “

Devotions based on an article by Benner and Moon in Conversations Magazine

God is love, so we can know God only in love. As we taste God’s love and allow it to touch us, we come to truly KNOW Him.  This knowing comes from stillness before God and one’s own self. “Only when we love Him enough to prefer His ways to ours, his language to ours, and His will to ours, only then will we discover Him.” Our job is to consent to the action of God in us. Union is God’s responsibility. Our responsibility  is to turn to Him in openness and trust.  As we do, we receive the inflow of grace and let it flow through us. The rest is up to God. Doesn’t that cause us to sigh in relief…it’s not all about keeping rules etc but opening up to His grace in our lives.

Devotions based on an article by Benner and Moon in Conversations Magazine

Prayer is more than praying and asking for things and saying things to God. “Prayer is communion with God, a communion initiated by God, who has already come to us and who is openly attentive to us and communicating to us before we begin to pray.”  So it would be good if we start with stillness and attentiveness to Him and not words. God is already present with us so let us talk less and listen more. So often we think of prayer as a form of communication but it really a way of being. It is begins with God who is in us, and allowing Him to flow into our being. We need to take our hands off the controls of our spiritual life and open ourselves to God and to meet God in the midst of our experience. As this happens our life becomes our prayer.

Devotions based on an article by Benner and Moon in Conversations Magazine

We may say we desire to be open to God but so often our ego wants to be in control or we think we have to DO something. But it is really a matter of our heart when we open it to God’s love and life. As we come to know His love we in turn trust Him and respond in grace.  Prayer is not something we do but it is the natural language of the soul. A deep communion grows from the fact that we and God belong together.  “Once you taste this oneness and experience even for a moment the sense of being sufficiently open to God to allow Him to flow through you, desire, not will power, becomes all that is necessary to lead you forward.” Let us desire Him above all!!