January 2012 Devotional
January 30, 2012
I've Seen a Sunset
A Plea for Gratefulness from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Walt and I had driven from Chicago to Seattle to see his aged and frail parents. Since I grew up in the flatlands of Texas, I was fascinated with the mountains on every side of the city, some of them snow-covered even in the summer. One Sunday night, Mother Handford really wanted to go to church, but she didn't want to leave Dad Handford alone. "Oh, I'll stay home with him," I said. "We'll have a good time together."
And we did. He lay in his recliner, and I stayed at the picture window, watching the sun set over the Olympic Mountains. I watched in awe as the clouds and colors shifted from pink and blue to purple and gold. "Oh, Dad, come quick! Look at this beautiful sunset!"
It's not surprising that he answered tiredly from his recliner, "I've seen a sunset, girlie."
But there's no excuse for the way I sometimes take for granted the wonderful gifts God gives day after day, hour by hour. It's easy to be ho-hum about something that we've always enjoyed. Of course, we'd complain loudly if the Lord decided not to give it to us anymore!
Such simple things!
A baby's dimpled smile in the morning.
A co-worker who signals "Good job!"
An automobile that starts the first time you turn the key.
A sweet song on the radio you remember from childhood.
A drug store pharmacy still open at midnight.
A roof that doesn't leak, and a furnace that keeps heating.
A job that doesn't pay extravagant wages, but delivers every paycheck.
A husband that says, "You're tired, aren't you? Let's go out to eat tonight."
A Sunday school class of teen-age girls that sometimes want to talk about boys
but sometimes eagerly talk about Jesus.
A next-door neighbor that shares fresh tomatoes from her garden.
A mother who listens to your complaints, then says, "I'm praying for you."
A jonquil that pushes its tiny crown of yellow through the crusted snow.
A friend that bubbles with enthusiasm, as if she hadn't seen you just yesterday.
A book that you've read a dozen times, that still speaks to your heart.
Simple things, received over and over again from God's gracious hand. Let's never get accustomed to them!
Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it."
January 23, 2012
Four Pennies Glued to an Index Card
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
My husband tells a wonderful story of an answer to prayer he received as a young college student. Be encouraged to pray as you read it:
Four copper pennies, glued to an old and battered index card-who could guess at the eloquent sermon they preach to me every time I need a reminder of God's care?
It was 1946. I was working my way through college as an electrician for the college at 35¢ an hour. As you can imagine, working at that wage, I struggled to meet each tuition payment as it came due. It was time for another payment. It was with some trepidation, then, that I went to my mail box, and sure, enough, there was the bill: $89.50.
Along with the bill there were two envelopes, one from my parents, with a check for $50.00, and another for $10.00 for some work I had done. Great! That was $60.00 toward the $89.50 I needed, and I gratefully thanked God for it. But I'd already received my last paycheck, and I didn't know how I was going to scrape together the rest of the money I needed.
I went to my room, pulled out my bill fold, and took out all the bills. I scrounged in my pockets for all the loose change, all the resources I had. With my heart beating hard, I started counting it all up. And imagine my surprise when it totaled up to $89.54-four cents more than I needed!
I hurried to the finance office and paid my bill. Then I hurried home, and pasted those four pennies on an index card. Beneath it, I wrote the words,
"But my God shall supply all your need
according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19
My God did supply all my needs that day. And to His glory, He has supplied my every need every day since that day so long ago. His resources are still unlimited, and there will be sufficient supply for every need I ever will have.
And that's good news for all of God's children in these difficult days. Times are tough. We do business under all kinds of pressure. But the God who supplied my need long ago is the same God: He eagerly waits to supply His children's needs. So today let's take Him at His promise.
January 16, 2012
Our "Plan B" Was God's "Plan A"
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
As I've mentioned before, Walt and I have the privilege of working with InterimHealthCare in Greenville as chaplains. Last week the caregiver of one of our patients phoned me. I had phoned several times, leaving a message, explaining I was a chaplain with Interim, and needed to set up a visit with her mother. "I'm sorry I haven't answered your messages. What is it you want to do for my mother?"
I answered, "She told her social worker she really needed a visit from me. If I may come, I'll remind her of how much God loves her, and how He wants to be with her in this difficult time in her life."
She thawed immediately. "Oh! How wonderful! Oh, yes, she would love that. Please come!"
It turned out to be a wonderful visit. Her mother was overjoyed to hear the Scriptures about God's love and care, and was comforted to know that God had a purpose in her living, even if she didn't understand it all. And I came away as blessed as she was. I was reminded of the way God had shown Walt and me that our "Plan B" was really God's "Plan A"!
When Walt retired as a pastor 15 years ago, we felt we were giving up what we had loved doing all our lives, getting to tell people about God's love and His wonderful provision for their future in Jesus. Now that he was retiring, it seemed we were doomed to twiddling our fingers through boring, profitless days.
Then the president of interim asked us to help him at Interim, doing the same kind of glad work we'd always done, except with patients and fellow workers all the way from the mountains of Oconee County to the hills of Cherokee County. Would we? Oh, yes! And so for the last 15 years we've seen God at work in His "Plan A" in our lives.
You may sometimes feel you are living a "second-best" kind of life. It may not match the dreams you had as a child. But if you think about it, if you count up the blessings of this life you are living right now, you may find God is working out His wonderful plan for you here, now, in this place.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call unto me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:10-13)
Thank God we can trust His care and guidance in every part of our lives, as we seek Him.
January 9, 2012
Imaginary Friend or Real and Present Friend?
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Our grandson Joey was an only child until his brother Jeffrey was born when Joey was eleven. You'd think he'd have had a lonely childhood, but he didn't. He had an imaginary friend named Gracie who did all sorts of exciting things with him. She went to the Magic Kingdom with him, played Cowboys and Indians, shared exciting stories, climbed trees and rode her bike with him. You couldn't shake his faith in Gracie; she was his dearest friend.
When people tell you that they have found Jesus to be their very dearest, best friend, you may have been skeptical. You may fear it's an illusion like Joey's friend Gracie. You may yearn for a deep relationship with the God who created you and tells you how much He loves you, but nothing much seems to come of it.
May we suggest that perhaps you haven't found that place of deep intimacy and joy with Christ because of one crucial lack? Perhaps you have been so busy talking to God, telling Him your needs, expressing your frustrations, so that you haven't been able to hear Him talking to you. Or perhaps you've been too busy even to talk to Him.
Sarah Young, writer of the best-selling devotional book Jesus Calling, says that was her experience. "I found that my prayers were monologues-I was always talking to God without giving Him a chance to talk to me."
So Libby and I are recommending that you consider giving God the time and opportunity to talk to you. There are several ways you could accomplish this each day.
Jesus Calling has a devotional for every day of the year, short, easy to read and understand, and then gives several Scripture references to confirm the thought from the Bible itself. Another wonderful daily devotional book is My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. (There is even a book of daily readings for children 8-12 based on this, titled God Wants All of Me.) Libby and I have also used with great delight the daily devotional, Streams in the Desert, by Mrs. Charles Cowman. Just Like Jesus is a 30-day devotional book by Max Lucado that would help you begin your journey of having a conversation with God every day.
Another wonderful tool is to read the actual Word of God every day. We recommend The One-Year Bible, which gives you a brief passage of Scripture from the Old Testament, another from the New, a Psalm and a Proverb each day. In just a year's time you will have read completely through the Bible in only 15 or 20 minutes a day. Several different translations are available, some in every-day English easy to understand.
Your life will never be the same as you sense the real, unexplainable presence of God as you hear Him speak to you through His Word. Hebrews 13:5 & 6 says,
God has said,
"Never will I leave you;
Never will I forsake you"
So that we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid."
January 2, 2011
A Fresh Beginning for the New Year
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
How exciting it is to begin a new year, a fresh start, an anticipation of good to come! Sure, we had some disappointments and inadequacies last year. But we can start fresh, knowing that God wants to be with us every step into this new year.
The Apostle Paul told us this was what he planned to do. He said, in Philippians 3:13,14:
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:
but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Regretting the past doesn't change it; it fact, it may paralyze us so we are unable to do today's work well. This Scripture says we should put the past behind us, and lean on Jesus for each day's need in the new year.
How will this change the way you do your work every day? In the story, "Middlemarch," George Eliot has a character say to a young man trying to choose a vocation:
"You must be sure of two things: You must love your work and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin."
I like that idea of "not looking over the edge of your work, wanting your play to begin." It makes me realize I should be as eager for work to begin on Monday morning as I am for Friday afternoon to come. I should enjoy my work as much as I enjoy my leisure!
"And the other is," says Eliot's character, "you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have pride in your own work, learning to do it well."
Whatever your daily task, whether wife or mother, wage earner or caregiver, professional or volunteer, is your work really honorable? Can you have pride in it? Does it challenge you to learn to do it well? You can answer "yes" to this honestly, no matter what your job description is, as you embrace it because God has given it to you. You will honor God as you do each day's work professionally, faithfully, enthusiastically, and thoughtfully.
Together, let's "forget the past" and "look forward to what lies ahead." Let's make God's gift to us of this new year a joy and delight to Him, and to others.