I have spent most of my quiet time lately, meandering through Psalm 119.  As I have read through it, I have written out portions that spoke to me.  Today, I have typed out many of these inspirational passages for your encouragement.  My hope is that you will read them over and over again and will hide them in your heart for further encouragement.  I pray they also bring you peace.

You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey Your words.  I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise.  Psalm 119:57-58

I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set me free.  Psalm 119: 32

I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands.  I have hidden Your word in my heart that I may not sin against You.  Psalm 119:10-11

Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in Your laws.  Psalm 119:43

My comfort in my suffering is this:  Your promise preserves my life.  Psalm 119:50

Teach me knowledge and good judgement, for I believe in Your commands.  Psalm 119:66

You are good and what You do is good; teach me Your decrees.  Psalm 119:68

Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn Your commands.  Psalm 119:73

Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.  Your faithfulness continues through all generations; You established the earth, and it endures.  Psalm 119:89-90

How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!  I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore, I hate every wrong path.  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.  Psalm 119:103-105

You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in Your word.  Psalm 119:114

Your statutes are wonderful; therefore, I obey them.  The unfolding of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.  Psalm 119:129-130

 

Today, I want to leave you with a Psalm.  This is one that I read over and over again.  It reminds me of so much.  I must always look to God, all the time and in any circumstances.  Also, He knows how we (Christians) are ridiculed by the spirit of arrogance and pride.  He sees and He knows, and He alone is going to defend us.

I lift up my eyes to You, to You Whose throne is in heaven.  As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of the maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till He shows us His mercy.  Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.  We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.  Psalm 123

The God of the universe is Who I look to at all times.  He alone is my strength and salvation.

Our God has good things planned for us.  He is our strength and our shield, our God in Whom we trust.  This is a moment, a special moment when we show the world that we truly believe what we “preach”.

If we truly believe God is our strength and our shield, then we will navigate this time with a solid certainty that He will continue to provide and be good to us.

If we truly believe He is our Prince of Peace, then we will walk in that peace and will even share it with others.

Now is the time to show the world what sets us apart.

We have a peace that surpasses understanding.  We have an immovable hope.  We walk by faith and not by sight.  And so much more.

It’s time to return to the basics and remember the foundation upon which our life with God is built.

Prayer Moment:  God, help me to remember Who You are.  Remind my heart every day, where my hope is found.  You are my hope.  Lord, if I find places within my foundation that feel weak, strengthen them.  You alone are my strength and my salvation, my God in Whom I trust.  Never be far from me, Lord.  Keep me as the apple of Your eye.  Hide me in the shadow of Your wings.  Protect my heart and lead me down paths of righteousness. In Jesus name, Amen.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us, that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.  May the peoples praise You, O God; may all the peoples praise You.  May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.  May the peoples praise You, O God; may all the peoples praise You.  Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.  God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.  Psalm 67

The Bible assures us that we will have trials in this world.  This is not a punishment it is the result of living in a fallen world.  This is the state of things.  James assures us of this:

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.  James 1:12

We are blessed when we persevere.  We must never give up.  God has assured us that we will receive a good reward!  The crown of life has been promised to us.

Jesus, Himself, assured us that we can take heart in Him during our troubles.

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

We were built, as believers, to withstand the trials of this life, but not with a spirit of victimhood, rather we are called to walk these troubles out under the strength of Christ.  Remember in our weakness, He is strong.  It’s a beautiful invitation into intimacy.

We should not avoid the troubles that come, rather we should face them head on and seek His face and strength throughout, as we read here.

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow Me cannot be my disciple.  Luke 14:27

Troubles will come, and troubles will go, and we represent the Light to the world when we walk them out faithfully.  We aren’t called to hide out, we are meant to be seen and heard as we represent Him.

We are promised this though.

The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.  Psalm 34:19-20

Prayer Moment: If you are struggling to maintain a peaceful attitude during this time, or if you’re wondering where God is, then rest in these verses and allow Him to strengthen you, day by day.  I want to leave you with this portion of scripture.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.  Romans 5:1-5

 

Today I want to remind you that you, yes you, have a voice that needs to be heard.  God longs to hear the prayers of the saints.  He reminded me of this verse a few days ago.

Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  James 5:16

Some versions use the word “saint” instead of righteous man.

God was reminding me that I am not powerless in the midst of this current struggle that’s roaming across the earth.  In fact, He is awaiting the prayers of the saints.  He is waiting and listening to hear our prayers.  They rise up from the earth and send a fragrant incense into Heaven.

My hope is that you will begin to feel ignited within your spirit to lean into God’s heart and see what and how He wants you to be praying over America, and the whole earth, right now.  He has a strategy, the unfortunate part is that many, if not most, won’t take time to listen and be directed by His strategy.  But you can!!

Today, you can ask Him to lead your prayers and then all you do is pray whatever is placed on your heart and rest in knowing it mattered because it was in line with His heart.  When we learn to listen to God and allow Him to guide our prayers, we see many more prayers answered.

Before I pray for someone, I always quietly pray in the Spirit before I begin to pray out loud over them.  I wait until I begin to hear God’s heart over that person.  It seems then my prayers over the person affect their heart much more than if I just pray of my own accord.  It’s important to always be leaning in.

Always leaning, always listening.  He’s never far away. Always certain, never failing.  My God is this way.

Prayer Moment:  Take some time today and practice listening to God before you take your list of prayers to Him.  Ask Him what He wants you to pray about and how.  This is a great exercise in intimacy.  Learning to listen more and finding prayers of fullness and release.  He resides there.  In the fullness.

Here below, we read of Paul and Timothy calling the believers saints:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Philippians 1:1-2

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.  Galatians 2:20

Recently, I was talking with God and I asked Him, “How do You see me?”  I know you’ve heard me ask Him this in previous writings, but it’s something I really like to ask Him from time to time because it’s good to remember how much He loves us and honestly, every time I’ve asked Him, He’s shown me myself in a different way.

When I asked this time, I immediately saw myself kneeling on the ground with my head bowed and I was covered with what looked like a sheer scarf that was big enough to drape gently over my whole body.  I could still see myself underneath it and it looked as if the scarf kind of hovered lightly and very ethereally over me.

I asked God what the scarf was, and He said, it was my salvation.  He sees me through the covering of my salvation.  How amazingly beautiful was this visualization?!  (And how timely, given this devotional is being written during the week of Easter.)

God sees us, not in the shadow of our faults and our sins, but under the covering of our salvation.  Never ever forget that.  Before you were even born, Jesus had died on the cross to cover the sins of your lifetime.  I know that we all know that already, but it still causes me to pause in awe every single time I remember it.

Today, as you walk out life, remember that covering that you have been blessed with upon the gift of your salvation.  Let the memory of His sacrifice remain ever present in your heart and mind.

Prayer Moment:  When we receive salvation, we receive this covering I spoke of and this affords us a level of confidence as we navigate each day.  Today I encourage you to reflect on this beautiful representation of salvation and take a moment to journal a “Thank You” note to God for all He’s done for you.  I promise, this will make your heart feel so full!

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  1 Peter 2:9-10

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Psalm 51:12

 

God woke me up this morning already talking to me about devotionals I would write.  I heard very clearly this word, earmarked.

Earmarked- verb: designate (something, typically funds or resources) for a particular purpose.  Noun: 1. a characteristic or identifying feature. 2. A congressional directive that funds should be spent on a specific project.  3. A mark on the ear of a domesticated animal indicating ownership or identity.

Friends, I truly believe that we, as God’s chosen people, were earmarked to walk out this season and the seasons to come.  The verse, “for such a time as this” has never been more relevant.  But let’s face it, most generations have had their own specific battles to wage.  We are not unusual in walking out a struggle.  Think of all the generations that lived through major wars, the holocaust, the depression, all the years of segregation, the list could go on and on.

We are naïve, and honestly self-centered, to believe that we somehow have it much harder than those who lived before us.

We were made for such a time as this.  God has woven unique qualities into each of our hearts that make us resilient and capable to walk this out with Him.  Those who’ve gone before us have paved the way for us to walk where we are now.  Roads have been previously cut.  Yes, we will make some new roads, but we’ve learned so much from what we’ve seen go before us.

When I take a minute to allow myself to fully settle into the fact that I was specifically created to be alive right now, then I have an opportunity to partner with whatever it is that God is doing.  If I walk around saying, “I was really borne for another time.” or “This is terrible, nobody has been through things like this.  Why is life always so hard for me?”  then I chose to become a victim of my circumstance.

I am no victim.  I am victorious.

I have very little time or patience for those who choose to walk around proclaiming they are always a victim of this or that.  We all have a choice.  We can act and live as if life has “happened to us”, or we can “happen” to life.  Meaning, we can live life to the fullest and deliberately partner with God during any season of life.

Prayer Moment:  Today, I encourage you to take a personal inventory.  Have you been walking out life as a victim or a victor?  Is your default to blame and pout, or is it to find God?  Every day we have the chance to re-calibrate and change our perspective of things.  Today could be your day!  Don’t let life happen to you.  Make decisions and take heed of the small choices that lead to a heart of steadiness.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? Esther 4:14

I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.  As You sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  John 17:15-18

 

Shard: a piece of broken ceramic, metal glass, or rock typically having sharp edges.  Piece, fragment, bit

As we’ve been living a strange lifestyle in this short season, I have noticed certain shards of brokenness have become inflamed.  Places where I’ve received healing in the past, but apparently there was, at least a small amount of residual effect left behind in that place of pain.

We all have a choice when we realize we are walking out behavior or thought patterns from the past.  We can simply brush it off and say, “I’ve dealt with that already.”, while we smugly and stubbornly continue along our way.  Or we can realize that we must still have a shard of hurt or brokenness in that spot that should be dealt with.

Even if we’ve received healing or breakthrough in a place, it’s possible for it to be once again aggravated from time to time.  The beauty of having received the previous healing is that it shouldn’t take long to get back to the truth again.

Within the last two weeks, my value has been questioned.  The enemy has been whispering to me as I’ve been stepping out in several areas of ministry that God has been leading me into.  We all know this isn’t an uncommon thing for the enemy to do.  That’s why it’s so important to stay humble and be willing to revisit (for the purpose of deeper healing or to be reminded of the truth) anything that he tries to use to obstruct us.

I walked through a multi-year process of establishing a healthy view of my value with God many years ago, but that doesn’t mean I won’t ever need to pause and allow Him to re-establish that within me again.

That’s exactly what I did this last week, and it was beautiful and swiftly dealt with.  I traced my way back to the spot where I began to feel challenged, and within a very brief moment, I was set back on track.

God is so gracious to us, especially in our weakness.  He says that in our weakness He is strong, so I’ve learned to really lean into these broken moments and to fully rely on Him to pull me out.  I no longer try to just push through in my own strength.  Instead, I have learned that evidence of a weakness in me, is an opportunity to be held by the King of kings.  I love those opportunities.

Prayer Moment: God, I thank You for staying so near to us.  Thank You for not wasting any opportunity to hold and protect us.  You are so faithful and loving.  God, help me to remain forever open and willing to bring my brokenness to you.  Let me never be ashamed of it and let me never hold back.  I will intentionally remain open to You. You are my Source and my Defender.  I trust You.  In Jesus name, Amen.

But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever.  I will praise You forever for what You have done; in Your name I will hope, for Your name is good.  I will praise You in the presence of Your saints.  Psalm 52:8-9

Today, I want to let you reflect on another large portion of scripture.  It’s so good to read and re-read the Word.  I hope that today, you will really stop and focus on each word, even if you’ve read it over and over before.  When we read the scripture in partnership with Holy Spirit, there is always something new to learn or re-ignite in your heart.  The portion of scripture has a title above it that read:  Life Through the Spirit.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.  And so, He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.  Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.  You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He Who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, Who lives in you.  Therefore brothers, we have an obligation- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.  For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.  Romans 8:1-17

Prayer Moment: In my opinion, this is one of the most powerful portions of scripture.  We must remember our place.  We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.  It is from this position we come to the Father.  He is our Father.  We have been grafted in.  When you know where you stand with Him, it revolutionizes your prayer life.  Come to Him as your Father.  Talk to Jesus as your Brother.  We have this unique access when we accept Jesus into our hearts, along with Holy Spirit living inside of us to guide and direct our steps.  I often consider Holy Spirit to by my Mama.  So, in Christ, I have a complete family….God the Father, Jesus my Brother and Holy Spirit my Mama.  It’s so much easier to openly speak to God when you see life this way.  Today, I pray you will truly commune with your heavenly Father.  Be honest and open, and then listen, truly listen and believe what He says.  He loves you, in fact, He loved you first.

 

It is so easy to lose sight of the one you gave your heart to in marriage.  When kids are ever-present and all the many demands of life happen, it can be easy to forget to carve out time for the one you committed to love and cherish forever.  During this down time, the challenge has increased because we can’t really go anywhere.  When we leave the house, nothing much is open and there is zero opportunity for a date night out.  When you have four kids at home that makes getting special time together a unique challenge, unless you begin to lean in and listen to God’s rhythm and heartbeat over your marriage.

This is really no different from our walk with God.  It’s so easy to begin to take it all for granted.  It’s too easy to start saying, “God and I are good so I can get away without having a quiet time today.”  But when we start to process that way, one day turns into two and three and then you turn around and it’s been a week without quiet time.  Then you begin to feel that disconnect that is inevitable and wonder why you feel so empty.

Friends, it’s so extremely important to continue to carve out alone time for you and God even now.  Just like it’s so important to carve out alone time with your spouse now too.

After feeling empty and wanting a date, I leaned into God and asked for creativity in that area.  As a result, Chris and I ended up having a wonderful “date” meal last night and even though the kids were home too, it felt like such a special time.  The kids loved the fancy meal and we rented movies for them and movies for us, so after eating, we went and watched ours alone while they watched theirs and everyone felt loved and happy.  My love tank felt so full.  I was so grateful.

With all this family time and homeschool, etc. suddenly thrust into our life, it’s been harder for me to surrender to quiet time, but I fight for those moments alone with God because I know I will not function well, long term, without it.

Life is all about priorities.  God is my Number One.

Prayer Moment:  We must fight to always find our way back to Him.  He is our source.  He knows all that we need.  Only He has every answer.  I encourage you to take an honest look at your schedule, and to commit to carving out non-negotiable time with the Father every single day.  If you’ve never done this before, I promise your life is about to be forever changed!  If you already do this, good for you!  I encourage you to continue to keep this as a number one priority.  Our God is an Awesome God!

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You while You may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.  You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.   Psalm 32:6-7

Therefore, God gave Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:9-11

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless, O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in You.               Psalm 84:11-12

Many times, especially right now, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our best days are behind us, but that is simply not true.  Our best is yet to come!

You may not believe this, but right after I typed the above, I received a phone call about a HUGE breakthrough for our family!  As I listened, my eyes got tears in them and I marveled at God’s faithfulness to work behind the scenes on our behalf.  I also marveled at the way He’s given us favor with the “right” people, who know about these good opportunities and fight for them with/for us.  What a mighty God I serve.  As I spoke with the person, I had already forgotten what I had typed above and after I finished telling my husband the good news, I looked back at my computer, and there is was….Good things are coming!  In a sacred moment of reverence, we sat shocked and amazed at how our Father loves us.  Then I looked at my Bible sitting next to me and these words were facing me and had been previously underlined.

Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.  The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.  Righteousness goes before Him and prepares the way for His steps.  Psalm 85:10-13

If you are feeling defeated or forsaken, don’t.  Our God is working it all out.  He’s on the move. This is a move.  God has His hand on ever single detail and He.Will.Not.Fail.  He can’t fail, it’s not Who He is.

Prayer Moment:  God, You amaze me.  I honor and praise You for Your great faithfulness.  I thank You that during a time when the world says, “We’ve seen the last of our best days.”  You show up with the truth.  The best is yet to come!  Thank You Abba.  I long for You in the deepest places of my soul.  I now see the key to peace and faithfulness is to simply continue walking out life at the pace You set for me, all the while trusting You to work out every detail when I need it to happen.  You have never let me down, and You never will.  My God is faithful.  I adore You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they are ever praising You.  Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.  As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.  They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.  Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.  Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.  Psalm 84:4-9