Choose Life!

I have a personal tendency to look on the dark side of things.

I’m not exactly proud of that, but it's just the truth.

Whenever something bad happens, or when something is more difficult than I had anticipated, or I fail at something, I tend to despair and say to myself, "Oh it’s just too hard. I’ll never get it right. It'll never get better.”

Again, I’m not proud of it; it's just the truth. Just trying to be honest with you here.

This is especially frustrating because as a Christian, I know that I should have hope for the future. I should have faith that God will work out all things for my good as Romans 8:28 says. I should remember the promise of Jeremiah 29:11, that the Lord has good plans for me, to give me a hope and a future.

And this is easy to do when the sun is shining, and all is right with the world. Well, it’s easiER.

In more personal terms: It’s easier to do when no one is fighting, and nothing is boiling over on the stove, and a huge mound of dirty laundry isn’t staring me in the face even though I JUST FOLDED AND PUT AWAY LIKE FIVE LOADS!

You’re probably thinking, “WHAT? Is that all your problem is? It THAT what makes you feel despairing? LAUNDRY?! Lady, your life must be easy-peasy!”

And maybe you’re right. But again, I’m being honest. It’s not the big crises that throw me into despair. The big crises are when I can have faith, and pray and know that God always pulls through for me. 

It’s the little annoying things that get me down. Like that Francesca Battistelli song, the one where she loses her keys and can‘t find her phone: “This is the stuff that drives me crazy…In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I’m blessed.”

It’s the millionth time a day I’ve broken up a fight over the “good” spot in front of the TV. It’s the we’re-late-let’s-go-walk-out-the-door-why-can’t-you-find your-SHOES?! It’s the broken back window on my car, just when I already had two other unexpected expenses this month.

So that’s when it gets hard for me. Because for me, it’s easier to trust God in the big things that in the small things.

On Sunday I heard an Easter message. The pastor said, “Every time we choose hope over despair, Easter happens again.” At least I think that‘s what she said. It sounded better when she said it. I probably should have written it down.

That phrase really hit me. The “every time” part. It’s not a one-time choice, like the decision to become a Christian. It’s a daily decision.

I thought of Joshua 24:15, “Choose THIS DAY whom you will serve.”

And of Deuteronomy 30:19, “THIS DAY.. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life!”

So the Bible clearly says you must choose daily. I must make a conscious decision EVERY DAY if I‘m going to serve God or serve myself, if I’m going to hold onto hope or bow down to despair.

And some days I make the right choice…and some days I don’t.

But every day I get a new chance to choose, for His mercies are new every morning.

Every day we all get the chance to say, “THIS DAY I choose life! THIS DAY I choose hope! THIS DAY I choose to serve the Lord!”

Above images from the CD's "This is the Stuff" and "Disarming the Darkness"

God's Plan: He's Got the Whole World...

This is the first thing I wrote when beginning my devotional group last year.

I usually read two Scripture passages; I have a devotional book with a suggested reading accompanying it, and I have a list of the lectionary readings for each day.

This morning I read Jeremiah 29:1-7, which was very interesting; one often hears verses 11-13 quoted from chapter 29 but I don't remember ever hearing the beginning of the chapter before. It is about God's instructions during captivity. Basically he tells the Israelites to keep on keeping on until the captivity is over.

And that's the context that verse 11 comes from: they need to hold on and keep following God because His plans for them are to give them a hope and a future.

Then in the NT I read the story of Anna the prophetess from Luke 2. Anna was 84 years old and waiting her whole life to see the Messiah; God granted her this desire before she died.

These two Bible passages together say this to me:

I don't know God's plan for my life. I can't possibly know it, no matter how much I want to.

I can't know why things happen the way they do, or how my little life fits into God's grand plan for the whole world. All I can do is trust that there IS a bigger plan, and a reason for everything I don't understand, and trust His word that says His plans are for good and not for evil, to give me a hope and a future.

Hope in the Midst of Trouble

 

Rembrandt's "The Prophet Jeremiah" from http://rembrandtmuseum.com/art.shtml

This morning I read from Lamentations, chapter 3.

Yeah, I know. THAT’S the way to start your day, with a reading from Lamentations! Yay.

Or that’s what I was thinking when I saw the assigned reading in my book. Good old prophet Jeremiah, always an upper, right?

But it was actually an encouragement! Here are verses 21 through 26 in the NIV:

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

This is right in the middle of all the terrible stuff that the book of Lamentations is famous for.

To me, this was an incredible source of hope. In the midst of all the bad things Jeremiah was going through, he was still able to hope in God. He was still assured that salvation was coming from the Lord.

In fact, just before this, in verses 17 through 20, the prophet describes his feelings:

17 I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

I don’t know if I could write better portrayal of depression than this, the “everything good is gone and nothing is ever going to get better” feeling he’s just described here.

But in the middle of this black despair, there is still hope. Now that’s encouragement!

Why am I Making a Devotional Blog?

The short answer is: I want to share what I've received in my personal devotionals with others, in the hopes that Christian women will be encouraged.

Oh, did you want the long answer? Read on!

Last year I was involved in a devotional group with some friends online with goodmorninggirls.com. This was a seasonal thing, which I believe they will start again in the winter.

It was really encouraging to read what other Christian women had gleaned from their Bible readings and morning devotions, and it helped me personally collect my thoughts when I wrote them down to share with others in my group.

This morning when I was reading my own devotional, I thought again about sharing what I was hearing from God's Word.

Personally, I have been feeling in great need of encouragement recently, and I know other women are probably feeling the same.

I have thought about this before and wondered what format I could use to share encouragement. Then I realized...DUH! You have a blog!

I decided to make a separate blog for devotions, however, since my regular blog, mommyvsarmyof5.blogspot.com, is meant to be for funny observations about my life, and I feel like devotions are a whole different subject.

So that's the long and short of it. I plan to post here (hopefully!) once a week what God has revealed to me  through my morning Bible readings.

I hope you'll join me!