Streams in the Desert.....

 Streams in the Desert

Attention! Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who serve in the Lord’s temple during the night. May the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion!  —Ps 134:1, 3

Strange time for adoration, you say, to stand in God’s house by night, to worship in the depth of sorrow —it is indeed an arduous thing. Yes, and therein lies the blessing; it is the test of perfect faith. If I would know the love of my friend I must see what it can do in the winter. So with the Divine love. It is easy for me to worship in the summer sunshine when the melodies of life are in the air and the fruits of life are on the tree. But let the song of the bird cease and the fruit of the tree fall, and will my heart still go on to sing? Will I stand in God’s house by night? Will I love Him in His own night? Will I watch with Him even one hour in His Gethsemane? Will I help to bear His cross up the dolorous way? Will I stand beside Him in His dying moments with Mary and the beloved disciple? Will I be able with Nicodemus to take up the dead Christ? Then is my worship complete and my blessing glorious. My love has come to Him in His humiliation. My faith has found Him in His lowliness. My heart has recognized His majesty through His mean disguise, and I know at last that I desire not the gift but the Giver. When I can stand in His house by night I have accepted Him for Himself alone.
—George Matheson

“My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
’Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His
’At any cost, dear Lord, by any road!’

“So faith bounds forward to its goal in God,
And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;
’Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard
Till God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

“No matter if the way be sometimes dark,
No matter though the cost be ofttimes great,
He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark,
The way that leads to Him must needs be straight.

“One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;
One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;
My God my glory here, from day to day,
And in the glory there my Great Reward.”

Conviction for the Believer..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 Conviction for the Believer

Dr. Charles Stanley

Romans 1:24-25, Psalms 23

Recently I spoke to a heartbroken woman. Her father was dying, and he was cold toward his family and God. He desired no contact and refused to discuss any spiritual matter.

But God is able to reach anyone—even someone hostile to the faith. Consider the apostle Paul’s conversion! Yet Scripture also teaches that the Lord eventually gives people over to the hardness of their own hearts. There may come a point when He no longer draws them by revealing their need for a Savior.

The situation is different for believers, though. When we, in our humanness, continue to sin, the Holy Spirit convicts us so we’ll get back on track. At that point, we can humbly repent and follow Him or ignore His voice and continue to sin. If we persist in error, our Father will keep calling us back. But the danger is that our hearts may become desensitized and eventually we may cease hearing His warning.

Thankfully, we are children of God, and He loves us too much to let us remain in a sinful pattern. Though chastisement and conviction are never pleasant, He knows our travelling down the wrong road results in much greater heartache. The Lord is a shepherd, using His staff and rod to lovingly bring us to green pastures.

On the Christian journey, there will be temptations to stray, falsely promising to satisfy longings. Stay closely connected to Jesus through prayer and Scripture. Be listening so you can obey immediately when He calls you to change course. In the long run, living God’s way brings the greatest joy.

Seeing God’s Goodness in the Midst of Difficult Circumstances..... KIA STEPHENS...🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

 Seeing God’s Goodness in the Midst of Difficult Circumstances

KIA STEPHENS

“The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.” Genesis 32:31 (NIV)

“Take another step,” I told myself, as my body countered with pain.

Everything in me wanted to stop, turn around and quit, but my little family of four had gone too far to turn back. After hiking up a 3,000-foot mountain the day before, we now found ourselves trekking into a 1,000-foot canyon with stunning river and waterfall views.

Despite the fact that I was aching everywhere, we continued to inch down to the bottom in hopes of getting a closer look at the rushing waters. On all sides, we were surrounded by canyon walls, towering trees and audacious wildflowers.

It was breathtaking, but I was distracted by my pain.

Sore muscles, gasps for air and fatigue all competed for my attention, and nearly won. God’s spectacular creation was up close and personal, and all I could think about was when it would be over. The more I thought about my inability to fully enjoy my surroundings, the more I realized I had been in this place before.

Pain had clouded my perspective on more than one occasion and prevented me from seeing obvious glimpses of God.

Exhaustion with raising my kids, disappointment in failure, overwhelm in hardship and sickness of a loved one have all made it difficult to see God’s goodness at times. I think Jacob may have experienced something similar after wrestling all night, as recorded in the book of Genesis.

Scripture tells us that Jacob wrestled a man until daybreak. We do not know if this man was an angel or God Himself, but we do know His strength was superior to Jacob’s. During the course of their battle, the man touched the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they fought.

In the middle of this life-changing battle, Jacob was debilitated in a matter of seconds. Though pain may have shot through his body, Jacob refused to let go of the man until receiving a blessing.

In response, the man gave him a new name: Israel. Jacob went from being known as a deceiver to one who struggled with God. Jacob’s new name would be that of God’s chosen people.

Jacob was blessed, had been given a new name, was heir to Abraham’s promise and yet he also now had a limp. Genesis 32:31 says, “The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.”

The name change was a demonstration of God’s promise-keeping goodness at work, but I am convinced that God’s goodness can also be seen in Jacob’s dislocated hip. Since we do not know if Jacob’s hip ever healed, it is probable that Jacob walked with a limp for the rest of his days.

Every day, Jacob had a vivid reminder of his weakness in comparison to God’s supernatural strength. Daily, he would be encouraged to rely not on his deceptive tendencies but rather on his almighty God. This too was a display of God’s goodness.

Just as the goodness of God can be seen in Jacob’s difficult circumstance, it can also be seen in mine. I saw God’s blessings in the amazement of my children once we finally made it to the bottom of that canyon. I witnessed His sovereignty as I took in His creation. I experienced His grace as we made our way back out of that canyon.

Though difficult to see, God’s goodness is present in our most challenging life experiences.

It may seem as if God is not present at all when we face difficulties, but God is always present. He has a perfect plan for the things we deem good, but also for what we perceive as difficult. When we choose to adjust our perspectives, we can see His goodness, even in life’s difficult circumstances.

Dear God, thank You that Your goodness is evident in my difficult circumstances. Please show me Your goodness where I cannot see it in my life. Help me to trust and believe that Your ways are always good. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
2 Corinthians 12:7b, “… Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” (NIV)

On The Mountainside (Matthew 5:1-2)..... By Jennifer Waddle...🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

 On The Mountainside (Matthew 5:1-2)

By Jennifer Waddle

“Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.” - Matthew 5:1-2

There’s an open space at the top of one of the mountain trails a few minutes from my house. It’s a place where hundreds of sunrise services have taken place and where thousands of people have hiked to view the surrounding beauty.

As I picture it, I can’t help but liken it to the mountainside where Jesus taught the multitudes. Without a microphone or a way of projecting His voice, Jesus spoke words of blessing, warning, and wisdom to His followers. Miraculously, His message was carried through the crowds as they held on to every word He spoke!

When was the last time you or I held fast to the words of Jesus? In our day-to-day lives, how have we recalled His blessings, His warnings, and His promises? I don’t know about you, but I find that I have a few Bible passages I carry with me. They are passages that comfort and guide, and I’m deeply grateful for them. However, I want to place myself on the mountainside and eagerly listen to every word Jesus spoke—not just the feel-good passages that are familiar to me.

Along with the beauty and encouragement of the beatitudes, I want to hear the warnings Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:21-48. For just as He commended the peacemakers, calling them the “sons of God,” He also warned that angry people would be liable to God’s justice. Whether a blessing or a warning, every word Jesus spoke was righteous, holy, and just.

Theologically, it’s important we don’t ignore the side of Jesus that called sin “sin.” It’s beneficial to receive both His words of love and gentleness as well as His words of conviction. This is how we grow in our faith—by submitting to all of Jesus’ teachings.

So what do you say? Will you join me on the mountainside? Are you willing to hear all the words of Jesus spoken throughout the Scriptures? The great thing is, you don’t need an actual mountaintop experience to hear the words of the Savior. They are written and recorded for us throughout the Gospels.

To get started, here are a few study guides to consider:

Jesus: A Study on the Words of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Study Guide
Experiencing the Words of Jesus
In The Words of Jesus

While we can’t go back and join the multitudes during the Sermon on the Mount, we can join Jesus right where we are. We can tune our hearts to receive every word He offers—the messages that are easy on the ears and the commands that are a bit difficult to hear. In the end, we will join Him on a heavenly mountainside, renewed and restored. But until then, let’s purpose to meet with Him and listen intently to His words of blessing, warning, and promise. After all, they are words we can count on!

Thanking God for What Didn’t Happen..... By Debbie McDaniel🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Thanking God for What Didn’t Happen
By Debbie McDaniel

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  Psalms 91:1-2

Sometimes we need to thank God for all the things that didn’t happen, for what He’s stopped that we never even knew about.

We may not always see it, or feel it, we might forget it’s there at times, or even wonder if God’s left us to fend for ourselves in the heat of hard situations in life. But His protection is real. He sees what we can't see. He knows what we may not know. And if we belong to Him, we can trust, He's with us, every step, going before us, and covering our back too.

Yet in a world of dark, He often gets blamed for a lot of stuff that swirls around us. "Why would God let that happen? Why didn't He do something different? Why did God cause that to happen?"

But the truth is we often have no idea how much He has protected us from, how He's continually working on our behalf, even behind the scenes where we can't see. Following after us. Chasing us. To bring great blessing, and to show us the way.

He promises to take us by the hand, He reminds us not to fear, and assures us He will help us.

We’re never left on our own to try to figure everything out, we’re not left to fight our battles in our own strength. That pathway is filled with potholes of worry and burdens. It’ll trip you up, it’ll wear you out.

God’s way is better. Full of security, peace, assurance, and all that this world can never fully offer.

Trust Him, even when it's hard to understand it all, and believe His ways are the best for you.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Dear God, thank you that you go before us, and that you cover us from behind. Thank you for your protection over us, that you surround our lives as a shield. Thank you for your grace and favor, for your blessings and love that you so graciously shine over your people. We trust you even when we cannot see all that you’re doing. We know that you are for us and you fight for us today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Further Reading: Psalms 46:1, Isaiah 54:17, Isaiah 41:13, Psalms 23

A Prayer for When You Grieve the Loss of a Dream..... By Ashleigh Slater

 A Prayer for When You Grieve the Loss of a Dream

By Ashleigh Slater

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” – John 14:1

If you’d asked me at the age of six what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d have answered, “A teacher!”

Once I hit my teens, my answer changed, though. The allure of instructing others wore off, replaced by a desire to work in the entertainment industry. I felt “called” to be a television producer and pursued this goal all the way through grad school.

But something happened as I worked toward a master’s degree that I didn’t anticipate.

I met and married my husband, Ted. Not long after, in the midst of writing my graduate prospectus, two faint pink lines appeared on a pregnancy test. Suddenly, my dream wasn’t so easy.

If my studies and student film set experience had taught me anything, it was this: my career aspirations – if achieved – would require long days and maybe even regular travel. I found myself questioning how I would personally balance that along with caring for my growing family. It was then that I sensed God calling me to lay down my dream. The one I’d worked hard toward for years.

As difficult as it was, I did. But, as I talk about in my book Braving Sorrow Together: The Transformative Power of Faith and Community When Life Is Hard, I went on to grieve that loss for years.

3 Ways to Grieve the Loss of Your Dream

Maybe you’re currently grieving the loss of your own dream. Yet perhaps it isn’t career related, as it was for me.

Instead, maybe marriage or becoming a mother hasn’t happened for you as you’d hoped it would. It’s possible that you’re in a season of prolonged singleness when you long to be married or you’ve recently walked through a divorce. Maybe you face the heartbreaking pain of infertility. As a result you are well acquainted with the words of Proverbs 13:12 about how “hope deferred makes the heart sick.”

What are some ways you and I can grieve the loss of our individual dreams, especially when the pain and disappointment hurt so deeply? Here are three suggestions.

1. Freely Acknowledge Your Loss

When it came to the loss of my dream, I was afraid to openly grieve it. My life was full and I feared that I’d be judged for the sorrow I felt. I worried that others would correct me for mourning it. It’s possible you feel the same.

Mark Twain once wrote, “Nothing that grieves us can be called little.” While undesired singleness, divorce, infertility, and career disappointment are anything but small, there may be people who dismiss your pain and therefore make you feel like they are. Perhaps they offer you uncomforting platitudes such as “Look at how full your life is without that,” “God works everything out for good,” or “Count your blessings.” Your heart can’t bear to hear that one more time, so you keep your loss quiet. You mourn it silently.

I’m here to say, your loss is not little and it is worth mourning. Go ahead and grieve it fully and freely. This may mean journaling, confiding in a trusted friend, joining a support group, or seeking the wisdom of a counselor.

2. Grieve Your Loss with Hope

I believe that God is the Author of my life’s story. Yet it’s much easier to believe that the story He’s writing for me is good when He says “yes” to my dreams. It’s harder when He either asks me to surrender them or decides not to fulfill them in my timing and my way.

It’s in these hard chapters of life that hope can seem non-existent. I can quickly feel like my entire story is one of despair and pointlessness. It could be you’ve felt or even currently feel the same way.

However, if you and I determine to believe that God is attentive and active in our lives, we can be reminded that our stories are always penned with hope. What is this hope? It’s that even in the darkest of moments, God promises to walk through the pain and grief with us. No matter how hard life gets, we are never alone.

We can feed ourselves hope by reading God’s Word, listening to music that speaks of His goodness and faithfulness, and surrounding ourselves with others who point us to Him.

3. See the Beauty in Your Individual Story

Just because God asked me to give up a certain dream, doesn’t mean He’ll ask the same of my girls, or someone else I know. In fact, I deeply respect other women who are able to beautifully balance family and pursuing their dreams. Sometimes, though, I can find myself comparing and feeling jealous that my story isn’t like theirs. Maybe you can relate.

How can you and I see the beauty in our individual stories even when they’re not what we wanted? When the pain is sometimes too much to bear?

One way is to reach out to others around us who are experiencing similar sorrow. I have a friend who knows well the heartache of infertility. In the midst of her pain, she consistently reaches out to other women who also long for babies and says, “Me too. How can I walk through this with you?”

God’s Promise in Loss

Even though I’m sometimes tempted to worry that encouraging my girls’ to pursue their dreams will result in disappointment, I remind myself that God is the Author of their stories too. And, no matter what happens, He’ll be with them through it all.

Pray with Me:

Lord, I confess I am grieving the loss of the dream I held so dear. This is hard Lord- why couldn’t you give me this desire of my heart? Yet Lord, I know You are good. Your ways are perfect. Your plan for me is perfect. Please help me remember that and keep those truths in mind as I mourn the loss of this dream. Please comfort me, Lord. Lord, I pray I would understand—even if it’s only a little bit—why my dream isn’t coming to be. Help me have hope even as I wrestle.

In Your Name I pray, Amen.

Do You Believe in Christmas Miracles?..... By Lynette Kittle🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

 Do You Believe in Christmas Miracles?

By Lynette Kittle

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). — Matthew 1:23

Have you noticed how many Christmas movies focus on receiving a Christmas miracle?

Although many center on Santa Claus making things happen, still Christmas is portrayed as a time for long-awaited hopes and dreams to be fulfilled.

Rightly so, too, because Christmas is all about miracles!

It’s a celebration of the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus, God come to earth in human form, to live among mankind and save people from their sins. What could be more miraculous than that?

So how do you approach Christmas? Are you hoping for God to do the impossible in your life? Do you believe what Jesus said, that all things are possible with God? (Mark 10:27)

If you aren’t expecting God to do the impossible at Christmas or any other time of the year, perhaps it’s because of past disappointments, of times where you had great hope and anticipation but didn’t see your prayers answered?

If so, ask God to renew your expectancy in Him, to revive your faith despite your disappointments. Choose to base what you believe about God on what Scripture says about Him, rather on past discouraging experiences.

If former letdowns are holding you back from having faith in God, James 1:6 encourages you to believe with all your heart and not doubt God because doubt inhibits the impossible.

Scripture explains what happened when Jesus visited His hometown and the residents doubted Him. Their disbelief effected what they were able to receive from Jesus. As Matthew 13:58 explains, “And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”

If you’re lacking faith in believing God is able to do the impossible, ask Him to increase your faith. Hebrews 11:1 explains, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Consider how everything you see created was once impossible without God. As John 1:3 explains, “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”

As Jeremiah 32:17 describes, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You.”

Colossians 1:16 further describes, “For in Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

At Christmas and all year long, choose to believe that nothing is too difficult for God to bring about in your life by stepping out in faith and asking Him to transform your impossibilities into possibilities.