Recently there was an international day of prayer for the persecuted Church, and at our church we tried to understand a little of what it might be like when the penalty for faith in Jesus can be torture or even death. We pulled down all the window shades and lowered the lights, because in the [...]
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Sometimes living a life for Christ is a dilemma. I want to be a faithful follower of Christ; to live a life which will reflect Him and stay clear of the things that would tempt me towards a worldly point of view. Yet, I also want to live in the liberty of grace, and not [...]
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If I know anything about human nature, I am sure that now that Christmas is over, a lot of us will be feeling post-Christmas blues. We have put so much emotional and physical energy into making Christmas perfect, that now that it is over we are feeling just a little depressed. We are missing loved [...]
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Just look at Him. He doesn’t look very remarkable, lying there in the straw. He seems much as any other newborn – red and wrinkled and making sucking motions with his tiny mouth in His sleep. Just the same, He was special. His mother Mary and her husband Joseph were simple, faithful peasants and they [...]
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Being in a relationship with God is a paradox. In the beginning, I believe that God is always the One Who initially calls us; any effort toward Him on our part is only because He has awakened our consciousness toward Him, and caused us to be sensitive to spiritual matters. In our natural state, we [...]
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Over the many years since I first came to know the Lord, He has led me down some hard paths. Some of them might not have been so hard if I had learned early on to trust Him. Throughout my life, trust has been the thing He has had to teach me over and over [...]
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A revival of sorts has erupted in the blogging world ~ between Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts and Karen O’Connor’s Basket of Blessings: 31 Days to a More Grateful Heart, a community exists to daily thank God for His blessings. Practicing the acknowledgment of God’s gifts is pivotal to cultivating a heart of gratitude.
In my devotions in Common Prayer, one of the daily acknowledgments reads: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. I read over that every day, honestly quite flippantly. The Holy Spirit nudged me one morning to meditate on the Lord and not casually read over that prayer; encouraging me to give thanks to God for who He is, not only for what He gives.
Thank the Father for His love that reconciled us to Him through His Son; Jesus for being the faithful, ultimate sacrifice for sin; the Holy Spirit for His love that draws us near to Jesus; a love that cleanses, fills, and baptizes.
Each day we should rest in God and acknowledge Him for being God; seeking His face, not only His hand.
Giving Thanks,
Heather
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