Month: June 2019

New life after fire

Fire is a horrible awful thing that can be scary and devastating at the time.  We hear about homes, and land being destroyed by fires, and it breaks our hearts to see memories and beautiful full-grown trees being wiped out.  When we hear about it our thoughts are that it just doesn’t seem right that it would happen.  But as time passes things you can see that in the places where the fire has been, there is new green that shows through, and new homes are built, and things look fresh and clean and whole again.  In 1 Peter 1:6-7 CSB “ You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith – more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire- may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. 

We each will face trials and times that just seem like we can’t bare them anymore. Sometimes the heart ache may come from close friends or family members, or from our work.  By understanding that if we have committed everything over to God and we are obeying everything He has given us, we can know that this trial is just a time in our lives that is purifying us and what will grow after this fire, will be fresh new and give new life to  us. 

Just like after a forest fire the ground is full of nutrients and new growth can grow, that’s how our lives can be if we press into the trials that we face and we seek God during those hard times.  He can bring new life from the struggle.  Even though the process of the fire is hard, and may devastate us for a time, God can bring healing and new vibrant ideas, and life from it!

Be encouraged friend, if you are facing a trial or a hard place, because through it all you CAN come through it with victory and become stronger.

Thirst has no chance here

As I was writing this devotional, I had struggled with how to start, or what exactly God wanted you, the reader, to get from the scriptures He had given me.  Between talking to my 3-year-old about his fishing skills, and writing, I looked down at my McDonalds cup and on the lid, it said, “Thirst here has no chance”.  This was what I needed to see what exactly God wanted me to get from the scriptures. 

John 2:1-11, tells us about Jesus’s first miracle of his ministry.  Jesus is at the wedding feast and while he was there, he quenched two types of thirst.  The first was the human thirst.  They were out of the wine and Jesus knew that this would embarrass the bride and groom if they had no more wine to serve their guests.  The second thirst that was addressed, was the thirst of the disciples, and their desire to know Jesus more.  The disciples believed in Jesus, but up to this point they had only heard him teach and had fellowshipped with him.  The disciples were just as human as we are and I’m sure in their hearts there was some questions on what exactly the man Jesus was going to do that was different than John the Baptist.  When Jesus turned the water into wine, this miracle was more for the disciples than for anyone else.  From the scriptures we don’t ever see where it was announced that the wine had come from a miracle.  We just read that the disciples, Mary, and the servants were the only ones who knew where it had come from.  Jesus wanted to help strengthen the belief and deepen the commitment of his disciples.

Today, if you thirst for more, know, that thirst has no chance when we go to God and ask for more.  He is willing and waiting to give us more and deepen our commitment and relationship with him.  He tells us in scripture to ask for more wisdom, strength, love, faith and the list goes on and on.  Just as the top of my cup stated thirst here (at Jesus feet) has no chance, if we just will accept and seek God and the Holy Spirit!