THOUGHT FOR THE DAY ….
HE KNOWS WHAT WE NEED - Based on: Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Matthew 6:31-32
Surgery had resulted in the physicians injuring a major nerve that ended up disabling me. I could not walk with a normal gait; only shufflinlg with great pain. I could not return to work. There was no money to pay bills and there was no money to give to someone to purchase my groceries for me. I begged God for money. As soon as I saw the mailman’s truck drive by, I readied myself for the long shuffle up the driveway. I prayed with every labored step that the mailbox would hold an answer. When I opened the mailbox there was only one piece of junk mail and a birthday card for my daughter. I almost fell to the ground with grief, my need was so great.
When I got back to the house I placed my daughter’s birthday card onto a desk, and found, surprisingly, underneath that card a very tiny envelope. I thought it might be another birthday card for my daughter. It wasn’t. It was from friends who lived in Tennessee; and it was addressed to me. I began to cry very hard when I opened that little card and found a $500 check inside. Prayer answered!
I immediately wrote them an email; not only to share the miraculous story, but to profusely thank them for their generosity. Within a few minutes there was an answer back from them.
My eyeballs are sweating!! Let me tell you the rest of the story. I had an appointment over an hour away from the house. The entire time that I was driving to that appointment God kept saying, you need to send $500 to Brenda. I went to my appointment and forgot about it, but then on the long drive home, God continued to press onto me that I needed to send you $500. When I got home, I knew I needed to talk to (his wife) about it. But before I could share the deep impression with her, she said that the whole time that I was gone the Lord had been telling her that we needed to send Brenda $500. Amazed by our identical instruction from God we sat down and immediately made out the check to you. It looks like it arrived in a timely fashion!
HIDING BECAUSE YOU ARE AFRAID? - Based on I Kings 19:11-13
I was living in a tiny apartment when the song Not By Might Nor Power poured in. I had been reading 1 Kings 19:11-13. Elijah thought he was alone; thought he was safe enough hidden in the cave. God saw him. God always sees us. And He told Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain for He was going to come by. And then God gave a display of every imaginable force that could have hurt Elijah; a raging wind, followed by an earthquake, and then a fire. But God was not in any of these. It was not how He was going to reach Elijah’s heart. A soft, sweet whisper, and Elijah’s spirit responded. He wrapped himself with his cloak, covered his head, and came out of the cave. And that was when sweet fellowship took place. God said, What are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah's answer revealed that he was afraid. But God still had work for Elijah to do. Elijah would have to trust God’s ability to keep him safe. He would have to find courage to take the next step, assured in the Grace God was offering him. And he did.
The chorus poured in first; a lilting, yet powerful rhythm
Not in the raging wind, not in the burning fire
not in the mighty powers that shake the earth
not in the raging wind, not in the burning fire
not in the mighty powers that shake the earth
Bridge:
But softly and tenderly Jesus is speaking
In a still and small voice, He is calling to you
Only in Jesus we find a Redeemer
In the strength of His love
We find there is power enough
PRAYER AND ITS BENEFITS - And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Isaiah 65:24 KJV
When you make it a habit of talking to God every day, you get to experience the sweetness of that relationship. God already knows all of your needs, but He wants you to talk to Him about it. Why? Because then you get to see that He is listening; that He cares about you; So, you not only get the tangible answer, but you also get to see how very real He is. And how very close He is.
This was one of those extraordinary moments:
Shivering in the cold house, my faith was pretty tattered. It was a tiny house with only one bedroom. I had set up a bunkbed in that bedroom for my two boys to sleep in. The tiny front room had a couch with a sleeper in it. In the evenings I would open it and that is where my young daughter and I would sleep. At the time the children were at their father’s house but would be coming home that evening to a very dismal place. The tiny house had a corner fireplace, the only source of heat other than the very miniature oven. There was no wood and I had no money to purchase any.
I knelt in the tiny front room and began to cry out to God. He was my only Source and I was leaning into Him for my immediate need. My God shall provide all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
I heard a quiet knock on the door. Drying my tears, I cautiously went to see who was there. I opened the door to a young boy with a very dirty face. I immediately felt a compassion for him. “May I help you?”
Straightening his shoulders, he proudly told me that he had been chopping wood with his father down the street, but that they didn’t have a fireplace. His dad wanted to know if I could use some wood.
Hello? An answer literally minutes from the prayer! And obviously prepared before I had asked.
After my incredulous and excited, YES, I didn’t have to do anything. He ran back to his father and the two of them brought load after load after load of wood. They stacked it neatly against the house, and by my rough calculations there had to have been at least two cords of wood. The father and son had declined my offer of help, so I could only stand there and watch with amazement the tangible answer to my prayer, being fulfilled before my very eyes! With their act of kindness completed, they smiled and left.
Still in a state of astonishment, I gathered up stray pieces for kindling and loaded my arms with the wood. With much joy I built that much-needed fire. Usually, fresh cut wood is hard to get started. Nope. It ignited with a passion!
This miracle of grace had given me renewed joy and strength. With a light-heartedness I prepared two loaves of fresh bread, baking one at a time in the miniature oven. My children arrived home to the delicious aroma of fresh hot bread and the coziness of that incredible crackling fire.
All that I thought was going to be hopelessly wrong, was now abundantly right.
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. I John 5:12-15
ANGELS WATCHING OVER ME -
Hebrews 13:2 - Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Psalms 103:20 - Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Hebrews 1:14 - Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
What would we do without the Grace of God in our lives? He tenderly watches over us, ever there to touch our life with the imprint of His Goodness. One of the many ways in which He does this is to assign heavenly messengers to guard, guide, protect, warn, encourage, and comfort us along this sometimes weary, and most certainly, unknown path.
SPAGHETTI READY? -Based on Matthew 14:13-21
The shack was nestled into a stench of run-down buildings, surrounded by wreckage, rubbish, and the dangerously-dark, lifestyles of those who lived nearby. Planted, by my now absent husband, in that dismal place, I had more than just my own grief to deal with. Somehow, I had to summon a way to distract my two and three-year old sons from the gnawing hunger that was in their stomachs. My own stomach was bulging with my third child. For months we had desperately needed food; sometimes it would show up on the back porch—vegetables from someone’s garden. Sometimes someone would hand me a $20 bill. Those were answered prayers.
God was about to turn my life around, but He first needed to rebuild my hope. On this particular morning nothing had shown up on the back porch. There was no money. The only thing in the refrigerator was a six-inch plate with about two tablespoons of cooked spaghetti on it. I knew this would never fill the tummies of my children.
Defeated, I sighed, “Lord, what am I going to do?”
He said, “Heat the spaghetti.”
I sighed deeply. “Lord, it isn’t enough to fill them.”
Again, the Lord said, “Heat the spaghetti.”
I dumped the contents of the plate into a small pan; you could see the bottom of that pan. I turned the heat on low and stirred it …and I began to cry.
It all seemed so hopeless. It had been hopeless for a very long time.
Once the spaghetti was warm, I took out two six-inch plates, preparing to put a tablespoon of spaghetti on each plate. It all struck me as terribly pitiful. And then I began to cry even harder. I cried and cried and cried and spooned and spooned and spooned. I grabbed a third six-inch plate and continued crying and spooning. And then … I stopped crying.
Notwithstanding all of my “poor, me” sobbing, a miracle was occurring right in front of me. Staring me in the face were three six-inch plates, completely filled with steaming-hot spaghetti.
When I realized that I had just been the recipient of a miracle, I fell to the floor with my arms up in the air, confessing, “You are the same God. You are the same God.” What I was trying to articulate was the fact that the same God, reported in the Bible, to have taken a small boy’s lunch of two fishes and five loaves, and had fed five thousand people with it, had just stepped into my shack and stretched the spaghetti to feed three very hungry people. God had just demonstrated His ability to do the impossible before my very eyes. That incredible act of love and kindness poured a strength into my heart that had been absent for a very long time.
The knowledge that He could see what we were enduring, and that He was stretching out His hand to relieve us, emboldened me to ask Him for a house. I did not want to have my third baby in that shack.
And God heard. More miracles were to follow; and my hope grew because of His faithfulness and compassion. Eventually, the children and I moved to a quiet, little red house in the country. It was surrounded with sweet-smelling wheat fields; and gentle breezes that would blow their scent and peacefulness through the screened windows into the ample rooms. It was there that the Lord poured out His blessing on me; for in that clean, little country abode, I would hear my very first song. Over a thousand songs would follow.
Psalm13 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
THE MIRACLE OF THE IRISES - Object Lesson
Slumped over the steering wheel, I could not get the strength to start the car. In front of me were four hours of tedious driving. The schedule was set; I would leave the house that I was caretaking to cross the mountains to Santa Rosa where I would be housesitting for a friend who was set to catch her plane for Mexico.
But I couldn’t move. The car was fully packed and the home I was leaving had been cleaned and readied for the real estate agents that would be showing it. But something wasn’t right. I got out of the car and walked back to my temporary bedroom. I needed to pray. I began to kneel by a rocking chair and noticed on the dresser that there was a small bouquet of purple Irises that were completely brown, wilted and dead. I made a mental note that I needed to throw them out or they would end up stinking up the room, before I returned.
I began praying. God, I need you so badly. I feel so unwell, please help me to have strength to make this drive.
I stayed on my knees with my head on the cushioned rocking chair. I was thinking about the Irises that needed throwing out. I wanted to cry because even that one simple task seemed like too much. I didn’t want to get up … but I did.
And that is when I experienced a miracle. What? Immediate healing? No. But right in front of me was something that ran shivers down my spine. Those dead Irises … were now in full bloom as if they had never seen a moment of death. My quick intake of breath was followed by a strong thought; God can take an apparently dead thing and bring it back to life.
I sat down in the rocking chair and cried. God was showing me that HE was in control and that there was nothing too hard for Him.
Instead of throwing out the Irises, I wrapped them in paper towels, and placed them in a plastic bag to come with me. I rinsed out the vase and set it back, empty, on the dresser.
With encouragement in my heart, I began the long drive. A little over an hour into the drive, on a back road, a flash of extremely bright light came over my eyes. I was having a stroke. As quick as the flash in my eyes had come, my vision returned, but now as double vision, revealing one car coming at me which now looked like two cars staggered … one above the other. I pulled over and called my daughter. I told her that I was having a stroke and would be getting to a nearby hospital; could she please call our friend to let her know that I would not be able to get to Santa Rosa. I felt terrible both physically and emotionally because I was leaving my poor friend in a very difficult situation.
All of my things were in the car and I didn’t feel safe leaving it on those back roads. So, in a state of prayer, driving at a snail’s pace for five more long minutes I turned into a small town and spotted a big blue H sign, indicating that there was a hospital nearby. I pulled into the almost empty parking lot and stumbled into the Emergency room. Stroke, I said. Immediately I was in the hands of the medical professionals. They took numerous tests and then set me up for a brain CT scan.
I had to lay perfectly still for an hour as the loud clunking of the machine did its work. I was so afraid. No one was with me and I just knew that I was dying. It took everything within me to not weep openly. Oh God please help me! And then I felt His Presence beside me and these words swiftly came to mind, God can take an apparently dead thing and bring it back to life.
My friends drove that hour-long drive to retrieve me and my car from that small hospital. I was taken back to the house where I was temporarily staying. My vision was still damaged and I could not take care of myself; but my daughter came to help for a few days and friends took over from there. Eventually I had full recovery of my sight and strength.
God could have healed me, instantly. Instead, He showed me the miracle of the Irises, a strong object lesson which has encouraged me in numerous other difficulties.
Dead hopes? Dead circumstances? Dead ability to function? Dead ambitions? Dead dreams? God can take an apparently dead thing and bring it back to life.
WHO NEEDS AN ONION? - Based on Philippians 4:19
The cupboards were pretty bare; but I had a bag of lentils and a tomato. I knew that I could turn that into soup, but it would be so much better with an onion for flavoring. There was no money to buy an onion, so, I got on my knees and prayed for an onion. I got up and cleaned those lentils, cut up that tomato, put in some salt and pepper and turned the stove on. They were simmering nicely, but oh, I wanted that onion! I got down on my knees again and began praying … not just for the onion, but many things. I could hear my husband coming in the house. He came into the bedroom and swung a bag of ice at my legs. “Don’t hit me with that ice! It’s cold!” He laughed and said, “It isn’t ice. It’s a bag of onions.” I jumped up, spun around and squealed! Sure enough! He had a BAG of onions in his hand. He told me that he was driving down a country road and a farmer stepped out into that road to stop him. The farmer said, “Take these onions to your wife.” He thought the guy was crazy. But I didn’t.
My God shall supply all of your need according to HIS riches in glory, by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
HE KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE FACING - John 21:1-12 KJV
After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus showed Himself to the disciples; and there was a reason why He did so. This is why I think so ...
Fishermen by trade the disciples headed out to fish. Though they fished all night they had ZERO success. They had tried. All night they had tried. Exhausted. Cold. Surely frustrated. Feeling discouraged. Ugh! Such a hard place to be! BUT when the morning came Jesus was there standing on the shore.
Why? Well, for several reasons.
#1 He revealed that He knew where they were. He always knows where we are. There is nothing that escapes His eye.
#2 He already knew that they were not going to have success. He was prepared for their discouragement. He was prepared to alter the situation. He was there in the moment of their discouragement.
#3 He showed them that He was willing, able, and compassionate to not only give them direction, favor, blessing and success, which he was about to perform … but …
#4 He had already prepared to sup with them WHEN the blessing came. Ahead of time, during their failure, He was preparing for their success.
#5 He revealed that He alone could bring about their success. He alone could alter dismal failure.
God says in John 5:31 Search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me.
So what does this story tell us about Jesus?
He knows. He knows what you are facing. He can see you. He isn’t preparing for your failure; he is preparing for your success. He already has the coals on the fire, fish frying, bread ready for you to come and dine with him, to share that moment of joyous feeling when you have secured the blessing from His favor over you. He loves you. He watches over you. He can guide you, direct you, favor you.
UNDERSTANDING WHO THE SOURCE IS - Based on Job 40: 14 [If you can do all this, Job, proving your divine power], then I [God] will also confess that your own right hand can save you.
You can have no faith, little faith, failing faith, or great faith. And how do you get GREAT faith? By reading the Word of God. By interacting daily with the God of the Universe. By absorbing what He is saying to you. By being obedient to what you hear. And by believing that God IS able to perform everything He promises.
We are obedient because …
- First, we, unreservedly, love Him!
- Secondly, because it grows our faith. Obedience is when we acknowledge His Lordship in our life and we walk in this light. When God reveals to us this incredible relationship with us (which, by the way, he is waiting to do), we find our faith growing, our understanding taking root. We come to a realization of what it is that he has been trying to do the entire time for us, that is, reveal Himself to us and plunge us into an intimate relationship with Himself.
- Thirdly, we are obedient because we want to be like Him. We are not obedient to gain Heaven. We gain Heaven by acknowledging the fact that Jesus, innocent of all sin, went to that stupid cross and died to pay the horrendous debt against us. By grace, you are saved. Our arrogant attitude that we could possibly save ourselves is dashed to the ground in that one miraculous moment when we understand that there is no good within ourselves to ever merit Heaven…to ever merit standing in the Presence of God in all of His purity. We are sinners. But praise be to God who sent His Son to stand in our place, receive our punishment, and to secure our place; that place where we are with Him …. for eternity.
That one, all consuming, astounding understanding, seals us to His heart, recreates our purpose, humbles us to our knees, and fills us with the most delicious desire to be all that we can be in order to shed light on the fact that Jesus saves. Jesus saves….and we all need that saving grace. He changes us. He turns our stony hearts to lumps of softened clay, easily molded by His hand. And in that softening and surrender we find the Power of God displayed. No more do we try to earn our way to heaven...we simply throw ourselves to the ground at His feet, tearful of what we now know to be true. Not I, but Christ. Worthy is the Lamb…the LAMB that was slain…to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And by FAITH, we lay hold of this incredible truth.
God is not the God of maybe...He is the God of Absolute...trust that.