Discouraged

Why Starve when You Have “The Bread of Life?”

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35 NIV

When our bodies are hungry or thirsty we open the refrigerator and eat or drink to our hearts content. When we are spiritually hungry what do we do? Some of us do nothing and we remain starved for nutrients. Some of us don’t go to the correct source for our spiritual food and become vitamin deficient. The only way we can really satisfy our spiritual hunger is by getting to know Jesus Christ and having an ongoing personal relationship with Him. When we feel hungry we just ask. When we feel dehydrated we just ask. Jesus is the only way.

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How to Get Out of the Pit

Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness. Joel 2:13

Let me start this week’s devotional with the words to a chorus God gave me when I was in the pit of self-loathing and condemnation:

I remember, Lord, the joy of serving You;
I remember, Lord, when all I knew was You;
Flowing through me, calling to me,
Lord, please use me once again!

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When You are in a Dark Place

One evening recently a dear friend and I sat talking about the fact that though she was praying and seeking God for clear direction, she seemed to receive no answer and couldn’t “see” the way she was supposed to go. As I listened to her, it became clear to me (isn’t it always easier to see/hear God’s direction for someone else than for ourselves?) that God had her exactly where she was for a specific purpose. She was unable to see where God wanted her to go next because He had called her to hide (and rejoice!) for a season under the shadow of His wings.

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Wilderness Living

On God’s Green Earth I must confess
I much prefer the wilderness.
Cities, structured, hustling-bustling,
Dampen deep devotional rustlings.

Resound of pebble striking stream
Would disappear in cities’ screams,
Subtly shifting shadows cast
Escape the urban blare and blast.

Then there are those, though corporate bound,
Crammed and jammed in crowded aisles,
Who yet are tuned to sweeter sound
That sifts through stunted, stifling styles.

Attention theirs is caught and held,
Tendered to a higher power,
Municipalities do their best
But fail all folk in final hour.

So whether jet or Walden Pond,
When you’re immersed in worried ways,
Poseidon call bids you respond,
Kneeling, join the tide that prays.

Waters soon will lap your feet

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Hope


Slippery hope
Snaking horizon
Passionately pursued
Difficult to hold.

If caught…what joy!
New vision! New life!
Vitality bursts
Quenches all thirsts.

But still, in feast,
A niggling doubt,
Will wriggling hope
Abruptly leave?

Hearts afire
Often doused
When death and loss
Their loved ones cleave.

Hope cocooned
Kept for this time
Released by incisions
Fate’s cuts unkind.

It splits the horizon
That dams Life from death
Floods desert eyes
With visions of bliss.

No longer slippery
Or threatened by loss
This Hope is alive
Though death exhaust.

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Amazing Thorn: How Sweet the Sound

A number of years ago, I was enlightened to the motivating factor, which transformed a tenant of a run down apartment into a successful businessman, with a vast empire of land holdings. He informed me that his first landlord made his life so miserable, that he vowed to himself to never rent another piece of property. Thus, began his prosperous career in the real estate business.

Where the average person would cower at this overbearing thorn in the flesh, this man possessed the fortitude to use the negative arrogance energy of his first and last landlord to propel him to top of the heap.

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Where is God When Things are Going Wrong?

“For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5

Many of us understand that the serpent came to Eve in the Garden and tempted her to question God’s Word: “Has God indeed said…?” (Genesis 3:1). However, that was only half of his line of attack. In addition to casting doubt on God’s Word, the serpent called into question God’s character. In essence, he said, “If you do what God forbids you to do — eating the forbidden fruit — you’ll become equal to God. Why do you think He has forbidden you to do it? Because He doesn’t want what’s best for you. He wants to keep the best for Himself.”

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