Recent Devotions
“Whatsoever things are true… whatsoever things are lovely.” (Philippians 4:8) Some of the most formative and imaginative moments of my childhood took place in the prayer room at our church. Before every service, my parents made it a habit to spend time in prayer before entering the sanctuary. As a small child, accompanying my mother into those dimly lit ladies’ prayer rooms was sometimes unsettling. I would peer through the darkness, wondering who else was there and why God seemed to prefer conversations in the dark! My own simple prayers were usually brief, and before long, my mind would drift…
Today, as my daughter Hayden and I worked together in our flower garden, God gently reminded me of a beautiful truth: our gardens often reflect our spiritual lives. As I worked among the flowers, I noticed that many of the plants that looked identical when first planted had grown quite…
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. (Psalm 16:6, KJV) One weekend, I was helping my daughter-in-law decorate the new home she and my son had recently purchased. She had sewn several beautiful table runners, but she wasn’t satisfied with them because…
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“Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God. I can assure you that he prays hard for you and also for the believers in Laodicea and Hierapolis.” (Ephesians 4:12-13). Let’s be honest: we may not measure success like the world, but we still tend to measure our success. If we are at a certain age or place in life, we subconsciously compare ourselves with others at…
“How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You pretenders! You are like tombs that are painted white. They look beautiful on the outside. But on the inside they are full of the bones of the dead. They are also full of other things that are not pure and ‘clean.’ (Matthew 23:27 NIRV) When I was a little girl, I loved tea parties. My mother put them together just for me and my sister. It was always a special time, away from our two brothers and childhood responsibilities. She would pull out her fine china, set the table…
“And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.” (Joshua 4:20–22, KJV.) Joshua’s act of setting up twelve stones was more than a historical marker—it was a spiritual declaration. These stones told the story of God’s power and provision. They were a lasting reminder that Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground only…
We’ve all been overwhelmed with the pressure to do it all. Adding more and more tasks to our already busy schedules will weigh us down and will affect every part of our lives; a lot of times in a negative way. North Americans are, on average, over-spent with their time, resources, and commitments. Trying to do everything by yourself is exhausting. Moses found himself in a similar place after the great Exodus of Egypt. He was trying to lead hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions), by himself. His father-in-law, Jethro, watched Moses judge all of the people of…
