REFLECT
You have been down many paths. All of them have taken effort and involved choices. Some paths you took with other people; some paths you walked alone. You will never pass that exact same way again. And you have brought something back with you from those places.
You have memories of these paths…some pleasant, some unsettling. You gained experiences from these paths and choices…some precious, some traumatic and some you now wish you had avoided. You brought back beliefs and impressions of how things are and how things work.
Did you know that God wants to redeem the hard things you have been through? Did you know that He can transform the results of the bad choices? Did you know that, despite the limitations and pain you feel, He is still in control and He is love?
Did you know that, in all of this, you are the prize of God, meant for the eternal display of His splendor? There is something much bigger going on here than what you see.
PRAY
Lord, I don’t understand why things have turned out this way. In many ways, I don’t see how you can fix things or make my life have meaning and true value. However, you have told me that you have this all worked out, and that you have my eternal best interest at heart, that you have a purpose and a plan specifically for me. I surrender my right to understand and my desire to control. May I simply believe, trust and follow. Amen.
READ
ISAIAH 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
Northviewreflections's Blog 
April 3, 2010 at 8:29 am |
Dear NV Team,
I want to thank you for allowing the Lord to use you in such powerful ways, thru these amazing devotions!
I have to tell you that the timing of this particular devotion ~ Day 16 ~ was so totally orchestrated by God! I read this yesterday morning, just 30 minutes before receiving a phone call from my husband, telling me that when he arrived @ work yesterday morning, his boss informed him that due to lack of 1st Q sales, he was being let go.
Even before the awful news, he too had read the Reflection for the day & had emailed me with his thoughts on it. You see, b/c of all that we have been thru, the most painful of which is the sudden & unexplained death of our toddler daughter, in 2005, we have adopted Isaiah 61:1-3 as our personal “life verse(s)”.
So you can understand why yesterday’s Reflection was so personal to us! And to have read it just moments before the devastating news of my husband’s job loss ~ it just has God written all over it!
Thank you for being sensitive to the Holy Spirit & for allowing Him to use you to minister to our hearts.
Believing God for His best,
Wen Gutreuter
April 3, 2010 at 8:33 am |
I forgot to include the address for our daughter’s memorial website. Thank you for letting me share this with you. ;•)