by Stacey | Mar 17, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
If you look closely, you’ll see it—the evidence of a dried up root, the lack of passionate worship, the absence of devoted prayer. It caters to the appetite of culture. It softens the Word, resulting in worship of the blessing rather than worshiping the Bless-er.
And God departs.
Bounty may remain for a period, fooling many, but inevitably, the fruit shrivels. The plant dies when the Spirit of God leaves. It’s happening all around us. Once a picture of abundance and blessing, now withered nations, withered congregations, withered families, withered hearts struggle to survive.
Why do passionate people drift from their first love of the Lord? What causes us to grow indifferent and callous toward Him? What transforms faith into routine that breeds fickle love? Our attendance slips. Weariness grows. Works become a chore and tongues wag. The atmosphere dips and eventually turns cold. God departs and takes His blessings with Him. It is the consequence of fickle love.
Look close and you’ll see it. In many places, the Lampstand has been removed for the abandonment of first love.
It is not enough to toil with patient endurance. It is not enough to test and expose false teachers. It is not enough to endure patiently, bearing up for Jesus’ sake and not growing weary. It is not enough, because without passionate love for God—God removes His presence (Rev 2:2-3).
The bride is no longer like grapes in the wilderness, like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season. Woe to the bride who becomes a thing of shame.
*Read Hosea 9 , Revelation 2:1-7
by Stacey | Mar 10, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
A young momma, in the fight of her life, inhales God’s strength. Her young man, yanked from dreaming dreams into a living nightmare, stands on the Word, inhaling Truth and exhaling prayers—
—prayers for his love, praying she has more days written in the Book. Prayers for the one so tiny and precious, knit by the Maker, his days pre-determined and purposed for His glory. Day by day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, second-by-second, each breath is a victory. Each breath declares God’s goodness.
The breath of the Almighty gives life. He ushers His own to the place of dependence where faith truly lives. God’s mighty name is praised because nothing is wasted—not even this.
God is good when it is dark and when it is light. God is good when it is hard and when it is easy. God is good when He gives and when He takes away. His Truth is the oxygen a suffocating world needs to breathe, and needs to breathe deeply.
*pictures and story shared with permission in hope you will pray for this family.
by Stacey | Mar 3, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
“Not my will.” Can I be honest? Those are the three scariest words I have ever prayed. Not because they represent me relinquishing control, because I already know I do not control anything, but because they represent my heart’s willingness to forfeit even the illusion of control. After praying those words—and meaning them—there is no space to pretend that I control anything. Everything I love is spread before the Father to do with as He sees fit.
As I kneel at the bedside of my children, hopeful their days with us are many, desirous that their joy abounds, and that their heart delights in the Lord. Yet, as I pray for health and protection, I surrender them. Not my will, Lord, but Yours.
As I poke at this keyboard, praying that God would chose to bless my desire to worship Him this way, I surrender my goals, ambitions, and talent to Him. Not my will, Lord, but Yours.
As my husband travels to Haiti for mission work, I pray everyday for physical protection, powerful impact, and his safe return home. Still, I must surrender even those desires. Not my will, Lord, but Yours.
Just as Christ submitted to the will of the Father, just as Christ uttered the hard prayer—not my will—so must I. In everything I do, in everything I desire, the heart driving my prayers must yield to the will of the Father. And if His will is different than mine, if His will directs me down a path I’d rather not take, even that resistance must be surrendered in recognition that His ways are higher than mine.
Even when it is hard, Lord. Not my will, but Yours. May that be the honest prayer of my heart.
by Stacey | Feb 25, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
You’ve forgiven iniquity, covered sins, turned from your anger, and withdrawn your wrath. Will you do it again?
Restore us, O God, our Savior. Revive us that we may rejoice. Show unfailing love, O Lord, our God. Grant us your salvation.
You give goodness and beauty, bounty and blessing, yielding a harvest of hearts. Deliverance is close to the people who fear you. Salvation is near to those who revere you. Rejoicing will sound in our hearts.
Restore us again, O God our Savior. Revive us again, that we may rejoice. Show us unfailing love, O Lord our God. Grant us your salvation.
by Stacey | Feb 14, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
On February 14th, five years ago, our daughter woke-up at 6:15 am. She went straight to her desk and crafted a Valentine for each member of the family. By the time the rest of us lazy bums arose, she had created a beautiful card to celebrate her love for each one of us.
As I rested in bed, listening to her papers rustle and the scissors snap, the verses from Romans 5:7-9 flashed through my mind.
“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
How fitting that on Valentine’s Day, when the whole world celebrates the feeling of love, God would remind me of His decision to love.
When I was my most unlovable, Jesus died for me. He didn’t do it because I wooed Him with charm or won Him with beauty. He chose to love me. He gave me the best Valentine’s Day gift ever – the invitation to enter into eternal life with Him.
Happy Valentine’s Day. I pray you will all know the great love of our God.
*from the archives
by Stacey | Feb 11, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Only the Lord can open eyes, grant life, give understanding, forgive, save, be our hiding place and shield. Only the Lord uphold us, steadies our steps, and answers prayer.
In Psalm 119, the psalmist asks for these things multiple times over the 176 verses. He asks for the things that only the Lord can do. He refers to the Lord as “LORD” 23 times, all uppercase, meaning our covenant keeping God. He is, perhaps, reminding himself that God keeps His Word and promises.
As the psalmist waits for God to act on his behalf, he does something remarkable. He prepares. He waits, not with thumb-twiddling, yawning, complaining, or reclining in laziness. He waits expectantly. He prepares himself to hear and respond to God by immersing himself in the Word. He prepares his heart for the yes, no, or not right now, by meditating on the Holy Scriptures. He prepares himself by loving the letter penned by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Like a bride readying herself to meet her groom, like the church prepares herself for Christ’s return, the psalmist readies for God’s response. In nearly every verse the Word of God (law, instruction, precepts, statues etc) is mentioned. 167 times he dwells on the power of Scripture and how he will walk in it, meditate on it, keep it, fix his eyes on it, store it in his heart, delight in it, be consumed by it, cling to it, long for it, take comfort in it, dwell on it, believe it, place his hope in it, remember it, consider it, rejoice in it, and love it.
He takes what many of us find frustrating, and makes it beautiful. He prepares his heart.
What are you waiting for? Perhaps, while you wait, God desires to do something beautiful in you. So, do your part. Seek Him like the psalmist, trusting in the Word and all that it reveals about God’s character. Meditate and fix your mind on it; store it in your heart.
Do not waste your waiting.
