God Will Lift You Up

“This medicine doesn’t help me, and besides, it makes my mouth so dry that no matter how much water I drink, it’s not enough. I’ve taken it for a couple of weeks now, and it hasn’t made any difference.”

That’s what I thought about the medicine which the doctor at the mental health clinic had prescribed. I continued going to the clinic for counseling but didn’t mention that I had quit taking the meds.

The counseling alone wasn’t enough to take care of the problems I had, and I quit going.

My husband thought a daily walk outside was what I needed. We walked together once a day—I was afraid to walk alone.

That was before I landed in the hospital with depression. Those are all helpful things, just not enough individually.

In the hospital, I didn’t have a choice about taking the medicine. We also received group and individual counseling, and we walked each day, although not outside.

I wonder if I would have gotten well without the hospital stay if I would have seen and heeded 1 Peter 4:6 which says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (NIV).

Even if f I had remembered that verse, would I have recognized the medicine as God’s hand?

Maybe so, but the reality is that I was hospitalized, and that God used that for His purposes.

Is there anything in your life that needs to be submitted to God?

All wise Father, please help me recognize when You are calling me to humble myself under Your mighty hand. Amen.

Choose Love

I felt irritated at my friends because they weren’t doing what I thought they ought to do. Then my frustration mounted when their choices interfered with what I chose to do. God may have been pleased with my choice of activity, but definitely not with my attitude.

The next morning, I read 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable….” (New Living Translation)

Oops! In my mind, I was demanding my own way. Then surely pride prompted my choice of irritability over friendship when their plans interfered with mine.

So I humble myself and ask for God’s forgiveness and help.

Oh, Lord God, please forgive my sins of pride and an unloving attitude. Holy Spirit, I ask you to pour Your love into my heart again so it overflows into my attitudes and out to others! Amen.

Clean Out the Old

Colossians 3:8-10 says, “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ….” (NIV)

Get rid of anger…how? Is that really possible? I think of a recent situation and wonder why I felt so angry at a couple of the women involved.

One reason—My old self wants to be in control and make them do what I think is right and possibly even get back at them in some way. But the “new self” me wants to obey Christ and forgive and remember that vengeance is God’s job, not mine.

Second, maybe I’m not trusting God to make everything work out for good. Perhaps I need to remind myself that Almighty God is still on His throne and that He is accomplishing His plans and purposes in ways I can’t imagine.

I can grow from this situation which is beyond my control if I will humble myself and submit to Christ’s Lordship and allow God to renew my thinking (Romans 12:2).

Help Me Say No

In one joke I read, three priests confess to each other their worst sins. One says, “I get angry and explode over small things,” and he gives an example of a recent failure. The next confesses his struggle with lust and mentions his latest difficulty. The third then says, “Well, my big sin is gossip, and I can’t wait to go talk to some of my friends!”

Seriously, I can’t tell you my most serious struggles lest someone be tempted to gossip. But maybe I can share a couple of things that often help me when I want to take the wrong path.

One possibility: I confess my sinful thoughts to God, receive His forgiveness and thank Him for it. (1 John 1:9)

A second avenue of help: Remember Jesus’ presence. He is here. He will help me say no to temptation.

Thank You for being near me today, Lord! I need You every minute. Without Your help, I would go my own way, which leads to destruction. But I will trust You to help me do what is good—which pleases You.

Psalm 145:17-18 “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” (NIV)

Time After Time

Lord, God, my history, to You is no mystery.
You know every moment, both present and past.
You know the future which I can’t imagine,
And yet You still love me with love that will last.

Like Your people Israel, I’m so prone to stumble
And think that my way is the one that is best.
Yet when I repent and acknowledge Your lordship,
I find I’m forgiven, and my soul finds its rest.

As we enter the New Year, let us do what the apostle Paul did, and that is to let go of past failure or shame and press on to what God has for us in the days ahead. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Nehemiah 9:28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.” NIV

Look What God Has Done!

Can you believe it? God points to us as examples of His grace and kindness! That’s what Ephesians 2:6-7 says: “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.” (NLT) Maybe He says something like this:

“Angels, Principalities, Powers! Look at __. See all I, God, have done for them—forgiving, reshaping, renewing. See what they were and what they are now in Christ Jesus. And look at My light shining through them to others. Notice how I have planted a flower garden in their heart, taking toxic memories and redeeming them to promote spiritual growth.”

When we get discouraged, let’s remember what God has already done and choose gratitude and trust instead of discouragement.

(Image -The Gift of Grace, –-LightForEachDay.com. Found on Pinterest)

Trust Jesus Start to Finish

Jesus, You are the author and finisher of my faith. As You begin Your work in me, You teach me to set my mind on things above and on the Holy Spirit. You empower me to end a mind set on what I want or what might please others.

You start my mind remembering what I need to remember, such as Your mercy, forgiveness, and love which extends all the way to Calvary. You are the author of the sound mind that forgets what You have forgotten like forgiven sin carried away at the cross and the shame of imperfections which are covered by Your love.

(Verse graphic from (Pinterest.)

Lord, You have begun a good work in me and will continue it until the day of Your return when I will see You face to face and will be like You.

I could never thank You or praise You enough for all Your works. Let Your name be glorified forever and ever. Amen!

Hebrews 12:2 “[Looking] unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith….”

Philippians 1:6 “[Being] confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

(Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version.)

Regret Syndrome

“Do you suffer from regret syndrome?” the pastor asked.

“Well, now that you mention it, I probably do,” I thought. I’ve struggled with regret for many years. Am I the only one?

A few weeks ago, I decided I’d fooled around with regret long enough. I imagined coming to a stop sign with “Nailed to the Cross” printed on it in the middle of the road.

I wrote, “Every time I’m tempted to go back to regret, I can think, ‘That one was nailed to the cross too. I don’t have to go down “Regret Road” anymore. I can get back to following Jesus.”

But what about actions I just wish I could go back and change—not necessarily sins? Perhaps I’m forgetting that God works even those things into His plans and purposes for good.

So when some old sin or foolish deed flashes into my mind, the old me might say, “Shame on me!” But the new me, transformed by Christ, would question, “What? Did that one slip out when the rest were nailed to the cross?” and that new-in-Christ me would sing for joy because of the truth of Colossians 2:13-14: “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” New Living Translation

Let Go of the Old

Didn’t they even read my e-mail?” I fumed. “And they used to notify me when they answered my questions.” I hadn’t heard a word from the help desk since I’d submitted the request weeks ago. I looked on the company’s website and found a “status of your request” area. I located a rather unhelpful answer under their “closed” notation.

On the website, I discovered an address and considered firing off a couple of complaints to let them know of my irritation.

Then I remembered that I’m learning to “take off” anger, among other things, as I would take off old clothes, and to “put on” the new me that is created to be like Christ. With the conversation online, I had time to calm down, ask the Holy Spirit’s help, and edit before I asked for further, and I hoped better, instruction.

I may or may not get the help I need for that issue, but I’m learning a little more about obeying Jesus.

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV

“Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself — it tends only to evildoing.” Psalm 37:8 AMP

Dump the Regrets

“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16 NIV).”

One type of arrow, regret, targeted a weak spot in my shield for years. Now I’m learning to protect myself from it.

With the reminders of sin for which I’ve already repented, I can just mark them forgiven and let them go.

But many of those arrows catch fire from coals of ‘I wish’ or ‘if only.’ For example, “I wish I had made wiser relationship choices in college,” or “If only I hadn’t made so many stupid mistakes about a career, then life would be more worthwhile now.”

Wonder what Jesus would say about those regrets? He might say to me, “My child, do you think I have no power to work even your failures and mistakes into My plans and purposes? Can I not do what I said in Romans 8:28 and take these, along with all the rest of ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’ and make something better than what anyone could have imagined?”

I’m so silly!

“Oh, right, Jesus. I must have thought You and the Father and the Holy Spirit were wringing Your hands and moaning, ‘If only she hadn’t done that! Now what will We do?’”

Then we would laugh.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

“But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares the Lord. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.’” (Jeremiah 18:4-6)

(Both verses New International Version)