Highlights from this week's devotionals, May 15-23, 2010

Sunday afternoons are a good time to take a nap and catch up on any missing sleep from the previous week...especially on a warm day, or a cold day, or a rainy day, or a normal day. I sat on our front porch for a while, reading the Sunday paper, and just about fell asleep out there, listening to the birds, and feeling the afternoon breezes. I finally moved inside to the recliner.



Sunday afternoons are also a good time for me to go back through my journal and see what insights I have gained from my devotionals this week. Just a reminder of what God might be saying to me. These come from Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life, by Chuck Swindoll, and from a little devotional booklet I get called "The Word for You Today". Both of these are listed at the right in my list of books I am reading, for further reference. So, for this week, here are my reminders:


Strive for excellence by: standing on Godly principles; hearing God's Word, recording it and obeying it; and having an attitude that strives for excellence in ALL things...even the seemingly insignificant things.



Anger is a by-product of resentment you have allowed to invade your soul. Spend time with God and allow Him to forgive your resentments, remove your pain, heal your memories, and enable you to love as He loves. Act in love rather than reacting in anger.



We are least likely to prepare for attack in our area of strength. What seems innocent can destroy us. If we flirt with temptation, we will eventually give into it. Our potential can be destroyed if we yield to temptation, but God's grace will still be available to us.





When God gives us a task, He will also give us the grace to accomplish it. He didn't call us to work FOR Him, but WITH Him.






If we don't take GOD seriously, there's really no reason to take anything else seriously. Without Him as our foundation, nothing else really matters when all is said and done. Whoever clings to this life will lose it, and whoever loses this life will save it. (Luke 17:33)





Obstacles move us above being ordinary. Some of our greatest lessons will be taught in the valleys of life.





Jesus was rejected by those living in the world HE created. As He walked this earth, He must have recalled creation moments with His Father. Those nostalgic memories no doubt helped Him through the times He felt rejection from created beings.

A prayer from my journal this week:

Dear Father, I am often concerned about my heart being cold...indifferent, uninvolved. Lord, I need your directions. More than anything I need your Holy Spirit to fill me and cause my humanness and frailties to evaporate. I live to represent and exalt you. Give me strength and boldness and discernment, and wisdom to do just that. Amen.