GOD, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR ME? Have you ever known anyone who picks and chooses which parts of the plan to follow? Maybe they like to skip steps or add unnecessary ones? When we don’t keep our eyes on the GPS or skip exits or turns, we tend to end up lost. When we skip steps in the instructions, we end up with wobbly furniture.   Plans are best accomplished when they’re fully followed. This can be tricky to apply to our faith because we can drift into making our faith legal

GOD, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR ME? I’ve had multiple times in my life when plans didn’t go according to what I had in my mind and, even more so, in my heart. The greatest example of this was my path to motherhood. I had made many plans that I hoped would all culminate in the perfect preparation and timing for motherhood. I went to graduate school so I would have a graduate degree before becoming a mother. I made career decisions that would allow me to have a part-time position

GOD, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR ME? In the introduction to this devotional, we discussed seeking to be less informed and more so to be formed by God. This is a heart that seeks to be near to the Lord, always hungry to learn more about the Lord, and that is satisfied simply in His presence. Our flesh wants the what, when, where, why, and how of God’s plans, but scripture consistently teaches us to always begin with the WHO.  We need to first answer the question “Who is God to me?

GOD, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR ME? Over the course of my life, I have made some big decisions that had significant impact on my life: choosing to follow Christ at the young age of six, my major in college, who to marry, and which jobs to take. Our life is made up of our choices and, often, those choices are compounding; they build upon one another. We see this in Ruth’s life. If you have time, read all 4 Chapters of Ruth. If not, read these passages:  Read  Ruth 1:6-19, Ruth 2:

GOD, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR ME? Accomplishing a plan is so satisfying. As a planner, I thrive on both creating and executing plans. I like to follow my own plan from start to finish, but following someone else’s plan is fairly difficult. I find myself preferring a different order, or adding or removing tasks. If I haven’t made the plan, I have a hard time following that plan. This is often true for me when it comes to following the Lord’s plans as well because, if we’re bein

GOD, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR ME? We read last week that God promises to guide us. We look to a guide when we’re going on a trip that requires expertise and experience that we don’t have. We want someone that has taken the trip before, even someone who has navigated much more difficult territory than they’re guiding us through. We want someone who knows the dangers and risks that may lie ahead, how to avoid them, and how to respond if we encounter them. We also want someone wh

GOD, WHAT DO YOU PROMISE ME? This week we have looked at five Promises of God. There are so many more to consider. A few more would be:  Promise of Forgiveness Promise to Provide Promise of Peace Promise to Make All Things New Promise of Strength   Of the five we studied this week, or any other promise of God, what is God speaking to you most about His promises?   What promise of God do you need revealed even more to you? Write a prayer to the Lord and be honest about what ha

GOD, WHAT DO YOU PROMISE ME? | GOD REMINDS US OF HIS PROMISES One of God’s promises has a visible reminder attached to it.    Read Genesis 9:1-17   The rainbow is a reminder of God’s promise to never again flood the earth. This may not seem like the most important promise at first, because, frankly, we’re not that concerned about a worldwide flood; we’ve never lived through one after all. But this promise had great meaning to Noah and his family. Genesis 6:5-8 tells us why Go

GOD, WHAT DO YOU PROMISE ME? | GOD PROMISES TO GUIDE US When we began our devotional last week, we said we were going to ask God to form us more than inform us. We acknowledged that our prayers sometimes become dominated by a list of answers we want God to give us, more than a desire to know more about who He is. But if we pray more to learn about who God is, what do we do when we actually need guidance from Him? Does God want to lead us, or does He just want us to love Him?

GOD, WHAT DO YOU PROMISE ME? | GOD PROMISES THAT WE WILL FIND HIM Few things are more annoying to me than losing something. Of course, I start with the “last place I remember seeing it” mentality.  I don’t even consider it lost until I’ve looked there, but after raising three boys, I’ve learned that this first, and obvious step, doesn’t actually come naturally to everyone. Then I look in all the logical places it could be, and if it’s not in any of those places, I move from a

GOD, WHAT DO YOU PROMISE ME? | GOD PROMISES US ETERNAL LIFE The Promise of Eternal Life may be the first promise we learn of as Christians. This Promise answers one of the questions every person will ask: “What happens to me after I die?”  I became a Christian at six years old, and once I learned that being a Christian means I get to go to heaven, I accepted that truth and didn’t give it much more thought. As life unfolded, I have found myself returning to this promise more.

GOD, WHAT DO YOU PROMISE ME? | GOD PROMISES HE IS UNCHANGING I have an interesting relationship with change. Naturally, I say I don’t like it. I like predictability, consistency, and repetitiveness. I like rhythms and habits and routines; I like order. I like knowing what to expect, and especially don’t like change that I didn’t see coming. I don’t like change I didn’t choose.   However, I have prayed quite a few prayers asking for change. When we needed a breakthrough in our

GOD, WHAT DO YOU PROMISE ME? The Bible is full of God’s Promises. In many ways, they’re declared in the Old Testament, displayed in the New Testament, and celebrated in the Psalms.   David rejoiced in God’s Promises. There’s so much to do with God’s Promises. We should know them, claim them, believe for them, testify to them, but we must also remember to love them as much as we are led by them. If you ever find yourself struggling to worship or desperate for a sense of steadi

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? This week, we have looked at five characteristics of God. There are so many more to consider, such as:  Forgiver Judge Redeemer Savior Healer Shepherd Ruler   Of the five we studied this week, or any other characteristic of God, what is God speaking to you most about who He is? What part of Who God is do you need revealed even more to you?  Write a prayer to the Lord, being honest about what has happened that’s made it hard for you to believe in a specific p

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR SUSTAINER One of the great privileges of pastoring is walking alongside people. We often get invited to their mountaintops and their valleys. We get to hear so many testimonies of how God has provided for people and pray for people while they’re in the waiting. It’s in the waiting that hear the greatest pain and, sometimes...  it’s in the waiting that I hear the greatest healing.  When someone shares with me how God has changed their heart befor

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR RESTORER Mary Magdalene was a devout follower of Jesus. There aren’t many Scriptures devoted to her, but the few that are, are power-packed.   Read  Luke 8:1-3  John 19:23-25  Mark 15:45-47  Matthew 28:5-7  John 20:1-18  Mary had been healed and delivered by Jesus; she had seven demons inside of her. With that amount of terror and evil inside her body, her lucid moments must have been horrible. Her body must have been consumed by debilitating pa

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR COMFORTER I’m always amazed that the God of Creation, the King of Kings, the Holy of Holies, the Lord of Lords cares about our comfort. It’s remarkable to me that He is paying that much attention to us.  He doesn’t just care about what we’re doing, He cares about how we’re doing.   The Bible tells us He is our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6) and His Holy Spirit is our Comforter (John 16:7).   Elijah experienced being comforted by God during an

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR EQUIPPER As often as I have asked the question, “God, who are You?”, I have just as frequently asked “God, who am I?” Especially when it comes to stepping into my calling.   Like you, I’ve been called to many things throughout my life. As a teenager, I remember being called into a few leadership opportunities, and I wondered why God would choose me for those responsibilities. When I was 21 years old, I was hired as a third-grade teacher in the m

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? | GOD IS OUR CREATOR God reveals Himself to us first as a Creator; THE Creator.  Read Genesis 1   This is likely not an unfamiliar passage of scripture to you, nor an unfamiliar characteristic of God. It may seem hard to learn something new about God from a passage and characteristic you are so familiar with. I haven’t spent much time in the 40 years of my relationship with the Lord studying Him as the Creator; this was a part of God that was very settled fo

GOD, WHO ARE YOU? We’re going to begin by asking God to reveal more of Himself to us. Who is He? What is His character? We will not come close to answering this question in seven days; we can’t even fully answer this question with a lifetime of study. He’s far more than what we’ll see in these five passages in scripture. These are a starting point of Who God is.   It is so important to God that we understand Who He is, that He sent Jesus, His Son, from being with Him in heave

Have you ever thought about what you love the MOST about God? Do you have a FAVORITE part of God? I think I do. Or at least I know today’s favorite thing about God.    Like me, you may change your mind about this. Something about being a girl makes us slightly susceptible to changing our minds about a number of things. That’s one of my favorite things about us girls, actually… how flexible we are. How much we embrace learning new things and maturing as we walk through life. H

SCRIPTURE - LUKE 6:46-48 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?   As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.   They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. OBSERVATION Jesus says that those who hear His words and put them into practice are

SCRIPTURE - GENSIS 6:9-22 Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to dest

SCRIPTURE - MATTHEW 14:22-23 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw h