by Stacey | Jun 2, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It’s been the kind of week that didn’t allow for writing because it required more praying. What joy is found in praying Scripture and depending on the words of God.
Hear our prayers, O Lord. Give ear to our pleas for mercy. In your faithfulness, answer us. The enemy is pursuing us, distracting us, and trying to crush life to the ground. He is trying to force us to sit in darkness like those long dead. He wants our spirit faint. He wants us to forget Your goodness and be fearful.
But, we remember. We remember what You have done before and know You can do it again. You created us. You have brought us from death to life. We meditate on Your provision and ponder the works of Your hands. We stretch out our hands to You asking, begging for Your mercy on our families, our church, and our lives. Answer us quickly, O Lord. Hide not Your face from us. For Your name’s sake, provide for our needs and teach us to let go of our wants. Go before us. Remain beside us. Be our God in such a powerful way we will know You are with us and, as a result, we will turn toward You in our time of need, trusting in You.
Hear our prayers, O Lord. Let our cry come to You. Do not hide your face from us in the day of distress. Incline Your ear to us and answer us speedily. Nothing is impossible for You. You set the earth on its foundations so it should never be moved. The waters stood above the mountains and at Your rebuke they fled; at the sound of Your thunder they took flight. The mountains rose and the valleys sank down to the place that You appointed for them. You made springs gush forth. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm. O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, You are great in counsel and mighty in deed. Your eyes are open to our deeds. We know we are not worthy to ask anything of You, but because of Christ, we can boldly approach Your throne and plead for grace and mercy. Show Your power and might in marvellous ways.
In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, Amen.
by Stacey | May 26, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Life is going to unfold in unimaginable ways.
Sometimes life unfolds in crushing ways. Trials can challenge everything we’ve ever called good and if our faith is not built on the solid foundation of the absolute goodness and sovereignty of God, these trials will shatter us.
Trials may sever the limb, but a solid foundation knows it cannot sever hope. Trials might fold the car like tinfoil, but a solid foundation knows God remains on His throne. The enemy uses trials to try his bloody best to tear apart what the Lord has joined together, but a solid foundation knows, by the power of the Holy Spirit, love can prevail. Trials may manifest though a diagnosis, through a lack of funds, or through government-sanctioned persecution. However it presents, build your faith on the solid foundation of Jesus and these trials will not destroy your faith.
Every life will experience pain and loss.
The storm is certain. A storm has either just blown over, it rages now, or it is forecasted for tomorrow. I have never lived a year a life that has proven those words truer than this current one. The storm is certain. There is no avoiding the falling rain, the rising floods, or the blowing winds that beat against our house of faith. The storm is certain, but there is one foundation capable of upholding your house of faith—Jesus.
The foundation matters.
Be wise and build your house on the rock.
Hears what words? The previous verses in Matthew are known as the sermon on the Mount and go way back to chapter 5. It is where Jesus tells us what kind of person is blessed. He tell us we are salt and light. He explains He has come to fulfill the law. He speaks on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, revenge, loving our enemies, giving generously to those in need, prayer, fasting, storing our treasures in heaven, anxiety, judging others, approaching God with boldness, how we should treat others, discernment, and how the road that leads to eternal life is narrow.
We’ve heard the words, now we must do them. This is the hard part. It is hard to be salt and light in a tasteless and dark world. Every cell in my body opposes the commands of the Lord but in humility I must pursue the narrow road because I want to build my house on the rock. I want my house of faith to remain after the storm.
When we hear the words of Christ and live the words of Christ our house is built on the rock of Christ. Then, circumstance will not dictate the depth of our love for Him.
“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
Matthew 7:25
by Stacey | May 12, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Parenting challenging children grows my compassion toward others parenting challenging children
If you parent a challenging child, you’ve likely smiled through unrequested advice, bit your tongue when publicly corrected, and pinched back tears against feelings of failure. You know what it means to give endlessly, sacrificially, and entirely to a child and STILL know your best efforts are inadequate.
This grows your compassion. You have less judgment and more patience than your pre-child self. You have less advice and more empathy. You offer less correction and more grace because you know how desperately you need to hear that grace spoken to you. You do not deceive yourself. You know you need the Lord to parent every day, and you shamelessly share this with other moms, praying they will also turn to Him for their strength.
You learn to celebrate the small victories and know they belong to the Lord
I am not up to the task of parenting a challenging child. Perhaps, that is exactly why God gifted me with one. Every milestone is a victory because that milestone once felt impossible. I’ve learned the important lesson that prayer doesn’t always change my circumstances or change my child, but it will always change me. I’ve accepted this struggle is just as much about my sanctification as it is about rearing my child in the ways of the Lord. I know God desires to do a work in me as I pray for His work in my child.
There is a blessing inside the struggle.
There is a great blessing in the stripping off of independence and the putting on of dependence. Parenting a challenging child is a humbling reminder that all my talents and capabilities are nothing without God. Struggles turn my eyes toward Him, recognizing my complete dependence upon Him to do what only He can replace stubborn hearts with obedient ones—in my children and in me.
by Stacey | May 5, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
He propped those screws right up against the tire. Three times, they punctured. Three times, we limped our way to the mechanic for a patch. Three times, he saw the damage, the inconvenience, the interruption to our day, but never connected his action to the events until the mechanic handed over the screw.
The brother encourages him to tell, because “it is always better to tell,” instinctively knowing that confession is good for the soul.
He scrounged up all the courage his little frame could muster and spoke the hard-honest truth. It was his fault.
My heart swelled at his courage, his decision to speak and believe what we have been repeating for years.
Our family…
…says what we’re sorry for…
…never stays angry…
forgives.
With trembling lips, he waited to see if our mantra was true. Fearful eyes understood what we didn’t need to say. This was big—bigger than anything he could fix on his own. Worse still, he had no excuse or reason. Equal measures of boredom and curiosity set the plan into motion. Forgiveness, should he receive it, was undeserved, unmerited, and unearned.
Undeserved. He punctured those tires as much as my sin punctured the hands and feet of my Lord. We are both stained with sin.
Unmerited. Grace is the unmerited favour of God toward me. Grace is the best response to his hard-honest confession. He might not deserve it, but one thing I know for sure is that I certainly don’t, yet here I am, drenched in God’s grace.
Unearned. Even with all the coins in his piggy bank, he couldn’t pay for those three patches. It had to be done for him. And even with all of humanity’s good works stacked from bottom to top, the price of sin is still more. It has to be paid for us, for me.
Together we stand as recipients of undeserved, unmerited and unearned forgiveness. Praise the Lord!
by Stacey | Apr 28, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Lie #1: Right parenting produces God-fearing children.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Ripped out of context, Proverbs 22:6 wields a weighty punch that sucks the life out of many desperate parents. If my child is not walking with the Lord, I failed to train him/her in the ways of the Lord. It is all my fault. Or, equally incorrect, I can manipulate my child into a right relationship with God by ensuring I parent ‘right’.
Proverbs 22:6 is a principle, not a promise. It can be a great encouragement because it is generally true, like many principles in life. But it is not a promise. No one can do anything to guarantee another person will know the Lord as Saviour because the softening of a heart to the gospel, the turning from darkness to light, is a complete work of the Lord.
Lie #2: It is my fault if my children don’t ‘turn out’ right.
We live in a culture that tends to blame mom and dad for EVERYTHING. Granted, there are many times a parent does negatively impact their child. Parental hypocrisy can hinder a child’s acceptance of the gospel. A parent who exasperates a child or belittles a child may find their off-spring is not eager to embrace God because they don’t understand grace, having never experienced it. Parents will give an account for their actions—including how they parented.
Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
But much like lie #1, this lie also fails to account for the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God will ALWAYS reign supreme over my ability to parent. There is nothing that I can do that will derail God’s plans for my children. Just as my children are not guaranteed a right relationship with God because of me, they may also enter into a right relationship with God in spite of me. God is sovereign over all.
Lie #3: The goal of parenting is changed behaviour.
Wrong. The goal of parenting is changed hearts.
Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life.”
Romans 10:10, “with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Wait – didn’t I just write that a parent cannot change their child’s heart? Correct! You cannot change the condition of your child’s heart. That is a supernatural event powered by the Spirit of God. You can, however, create an environment that glorifies the Lord and prioritizes obedience to the Spirit’s prodding.
You can be receptive to the correction of the Word of God in your life and hold it in high esteem. You can model a lifestyle of asking for and offering forgiveness. You can understand that it is unlikely that you will stimulate godly changes in your children if Truth hasn’t transformed you. Become the parent God has called you to be so you are a ready vessel for Him to work through, should He choose to. Stop obsessing about behaviour modification and instead focus on the heart issues that need addressing in your home, including your heart issues.
by Stacey | Apr 21, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It started bright, but soon dimmed. It grew dark enough to blind even the most positive heart, pounding in the message that I’m broken and unable. I’m at the exhausted end of myself where my wisdom is foolishness and my strength will fail. My constant need for the Lord is displayed in this internal, age-old war between the spirit and the flesh, between the light and the dark.
And the enemy’s half-truths sucker-punch my soul.
I am broken. I am unable. I am foolish and weak. But that is only half of the truth statement. When my inability meets God’s ability everything shifts. I am afflicted, but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed because it shows the world that the surpassing power belongs to God, and that I belong to Him. God can rebuild from my mess. God can make a way where I cannot see one. God provides the strength to accomplish His will and the wisdom I need to discern between His voice and mine.
But, I must seek Him. I must desire the Light.
In those desperate moments when I dip my toes into the water I want Him to part, when I look for the manna I think that I need, when I weep for the mercy that I cannot earn, I must turn my face toward the Light. It is only when I come to the place where I am absolutely and undeniably dependent upon the Lord that my soul is refreshed and given the supernatural ability to not lose heart.
This light and momentary affliction is preparing an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
This turns my sorrow into to praise, my weeping into to thanksgiving. What I need even more than parted water, more than manna from heaven, and more than a false sense of earned favor is the mercy of God opening my eyes to His truth.
I need this humbling, stripping-off of pride. I need the daily sanding of rough edges and the constant reminder that I accomplish nothing of value apart from Him. I need this broken, tired, and desperate heart to not focus on the things seen, but on the things unseen, on the things that are eternal.
I need more than a fleeting prayer for mercy that never thinks of Him again. I need to work out my salvation, to actively pursue obedience, submerged in His presence and His wisdom. I need to search for Him where He promises to be found – in His living and powerful Word. I need to believe that God’s light shines brightest in the dark, that it is impossible to miss His brilliant presence when I earnestly seek His face, and that when I turn to Him on those darker days, He can scatter the shadows and turn my desperation into praise.
and believe what we have been repeating for years.
