Sunny&80The Closer Look (#jammed daily devo #24)
Posted on January 24, 2018
January #jammed : Grace in Life’s Face
Day 24: The Holy Spirit Gives us a Better View.
“My turn!!!!!” Neither can stake a claim on a public piece of property, yet the fight over the
“magnifying thingy” ensues…
“NO IT’S NOT IT’S MMMMYYYYY TURN.”
And it always ends in a simultaneous, “MOM!”
It’s fun to see things up close that are normally far away, and that’s the exact experience we have when we ask the Holy Spirit to magnify God’s Word. He helps us to recall, retain, and remain in God’s Word. He helps us to understand, and spread, the message God has weaved into His living Words.
In another translation of today’s verse, God’s grace is defined as “the Lord’s favor.” (NLT)
Who doesn’t want to be the favorite? Favors are things they send you away from parties with, just for showing up. A year of the Lord’s favor is a reference from Isaiah to the Year of Jubilee. “Every 50 years slaves were freed, debts were cancelled and ancestral property was returned to the original family.” NIV Notes
Jesus grew up on earth to conquer sin on the cross. And when He did that, God’s favor was restored forever. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we walk away with a bag full of grace-poppers and mercy-sparklers and never-ending hope jawbreakers.
The Holy Spirit guides our growth from that day forward, in the holiness Jesus allows us to experience.
Father, Praise Your Son Jesus Christ and the work He has done on the cross. Thank You for forsaking Him so that we can be free from the deserved ramifications of sin. Forgive us for doubting, running, and denying the life of Jesus and all that it means to us. Fill our hearts with endearing love and hope that comes only through Your Son. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
What is your favorite thing to look at “up close?” Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Magnifying,
Megs
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The Lick Attack (#jammed daily devo #15)
Posted on January 15, 2018
January #jammed : Grace in Life’s Face
Day 15 Hug Back.
“It’s a lick attack! It’s a lick attack!” my little girl screeched with glee as her puppy jumped
all over her, licking her face and ears and her sweet little smile. She hugs her puppy back, and I hate to admit this but I know she licks her back, too.
“She’s the kid who’s going to share her ice cream cone with her dog,” my husband said.
Let’s look at today’s verse in a slightly different light:
The apostles paid everything they knew about Christ forward to their followers. But eventually, it was up to their audience to embrace grace and pass it on.
Lauren’s not afraid to hug her puppy back. The licking thing is a little much, but it’s endearing to watch her love on her puppy. I swear that dog smiles. And that’s probably why. She’s loved.
You know that song, “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands?”
If you’re loved and you know it, hug back. Give back. Let’s pull others alongside of us and help those who cannot help themselves. Even the ones who can but just don’t want to. Help them, too. Love the people that are difficult to love, because we are loved undeservedly by God.
Father, Praise You for the faithfulness of the apostles for spreading Christ’s love. Thank you that we, too, have heard the message of Christ. We confess that we don’t always appreciate that there are corners of the world that still have not heard, and we pray that You equip us to come alongside those You place in our paths. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Who will you hug today? Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Hugs,
Megs
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The Awkward Cargo. (#jammed daily devo day 5)
Posted on January 5, 2018
January #jammed : Grace in Life’s Face
Day 5: Where we Fit in.
A small city of lights appeared on the horizon as I pulled into the parking lot. Without wake, the crew guided a bulky cargo ship through the river’s mouth at sunrise, disturbing only the birds.
How can we be called ‘His own holy people ?’ God is holy.
Paul’s simple greeting reached out to people carrying a heavy load. Early Christians faced an uphill battle, but Paul’s sentiments assured them nothing is too heavy for God to carry. Faith grants us an unworldly peace that doesn’t jive well with modern realism, but Jesus navigates the river without stirring up waves.
When we accept Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit begins to increase our holiness from that moment. The cross covers what we can’t carry with grace.
Faiths may look different on everyone, but it’s found by the same wooden waypoint. Take heart in the awkwardness of the journey, knowing that below surface level all of humanity is wired to arrive at the same port. If you feel like you stand out, don’t fit, or have “gone mad” (as Alice suspected of her dreams of wonderland…), look to your Captain, and keep sailing home.
Father, You are not just capable of carrying our heaviness, but desire to lift it off of our shoulders. It’s not easy to feel like we don’t fit in. Help us to look to You in faith for comfort and guidance. Thank you for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to allow us to come to you. Forgive us for running away from Your help, and bless us with the power of the Holy Spirit to recognize Your will for our lives. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Share a moment when you felt like you didn’t fit in. Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace! #greatgrace17
Happy
Megs
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The Cold Coffee (#jammed daily devo, day 365)
Posted on December 31, 2017
December #jammed: Free Grace.
Day 365: Warm it back up.
“How great is God? Beyond our understanding.” Job 36:26
This last entry of the year has me staring at a cold cup of coffee, at 2 pm in the afternoon. Many cups of coffee have gone cold sitting here in pursuit of spreading the encouraging love of Jesus. Throughout the year, I just kept warming it back up. I didn’t give up and dump it out. I never gave up on this devo series. THAT …is a miracle.
I proudly wore Jonah as my favorite Bible character until I grew to understand that he ran from God. From then on I deemed him a “how could he do that” and crossed him off the “favorites” list.
But someone once told me that what we criticize we often struggle with ourselves.
I’m a total runner.
Today’s verse is from Job. Job and I became buddies this year. I watched him suffer at the hand of tragedy and sickness and mistreatment from friends. It was all so unwarranted. Why couldn’t that have happened to Jonah?
But wait …that’s me.
We’re reminded in today’s verse that we can’t outrun God’s love. We can’t even understand where it begins and where it ends, let alone how to scathe it.
I deserve the kind of sufferring that Job endured. We all deserve the suffering that sin negates. When we don’t get what we deserve, we are the first to cry, “no fair!” But when we claim something we didn’t earn, there is a hesitation. When we receive too much change at the restaurant, or find a wad of money on the ground at the amusement park, or see a friend getting teased or hear them getting thrown under the bus. Something in us knows we have a chance, in those moments, to do the right thing.
“Thank you so much!” the man replied to my daughter, as she handed him a hug wad of rolled up cash that had fallen out of his pocket on his way to sit down and eat lunch. She came back to the table with a smile on her face.
“It feels so good to help someone out like that, doesn’t it” I asked her.
“Yep,” she said.
“You know, not everyone would have done the same thing,” I told her, “I’m so proud of you.”
We have the chance to do the right thing, to stick it out, to stop talking, to hug someone that’s hurting, to pick up the money and give it back. And when that happens, we are doing what we’re put on this earth to do. Love people.
It’s never a coincidence that we notice.
Life happens to let Jesus be known. When we’re cold, He will warm us back up. We notice ways to be kind because that is the key to warming our lives. A warm cup of coffee is joy to my soul. A warm act of kindness is Jesus’ love on earth. Coffee can always be warmed up, and so can we. We just need to keep going, keep looking around, keep noticing…
Father, Praise You for giving us more than we deserve. Thank You for Job, who teaches us how to suffer well, even when it’s not deserved. Forgive us for turning a blind eye when we “notice” an opportunity to love in Your name. Bless us to live lives full of noticing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy New Year,
Megs
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The Bucket. (#jammed daily devo, day 364)
Posted on December 30, 2017
December #jammed: Free Grace.
Day 364: Empty Buckets
“The Lord is near.” Philippians 4:5
“What if I never actually surf,” I joked, “It’s a possibility!”
Monday morning Bible study prepares and leads me.
“What if God just wants to teach me something through the process of preparation?”
It’s a possibility. And it wouldn’t be the first time.
I’ve trained for a marathon before, making it through the last training run, but never to the starting line. The pain of injury, embarrassment, and discouragement was miraculously never able to overtake the lessons God laced into those faithful strides and Jesus-partnered miles.
Today’s verse reminds us what our buckets should be full of …Him.
It’s hard to keep our “gentle nature” when things are not going our way. There are things we want to be able to do, and when we can’t it’s frustrating. How do we attempt that seemingly impossible smile in the face of defeat?
“The Lord is ever present with us.”
Somehow we forget that He is there in our failed attempts, too. The discouragement we feel when we fail is hard. But that’s not what it looks like from God’s point of view. We get so caught up in what we think it will look like to achieve the task He’s given us, that we forget to throw our timeline.
“Don’t be anxious about things; instead, pray. Pray about everything.”
How often do we do that? Stop and spin on our heals to pray. That’s not our natural reaction to failure. We limp due to our fractured state, and immediately melt down in self defeat. It can cause us to question everything about our dedication to God.
“Was I just a wimp?”
“Did I just quit …again?”
“Am I a quitter?”
“Maybe …” might be the response. “But I love you anyway, and I’m not worried about it.”
“He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come.”
When we set new resolutions and goals every year, none are goals we don’t intend on achieving. If talk to God about our goals before rushing to fill in our brand new planners and calendars, He’s able to readjust our perception of what the deadline should be. A goal could linger on for a long time without a check mark or a line through it …but that doesn’t mean we’re not getting a little closer to it with each passing year.
The key to joy in this life is know that “the Lord is near.” To our victories and our failures. Through our pain and our celebration. Every time we check something off of our bucket list, He adds something else. The point of life isn’t to check everything off and then just sit around and wait to go to heaven. The creator of time is not in the business of wasting any of it.
WE are to be good stewards of our time, not looking forward to nothing left to do …but finding joy in the pursuit of holiness.
Each day He has something for us to do. If we do the best we can to see Him in it and to bring Him along on our daily journey, we’ll never look back and wonder what the purpose for any of it was. We may not understand it …but Jesus died for us to believe in Him …not to be perfect. He’s got that covered.
Father, Praise You for bucket lists, and thank You for growing us through every goal an aspiration You plant in our hearts to achieve. We love You. Forgive for days when we feel like the cross isn’t enough. Bless us to live lives that reflect Your love, and Your Son. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace!
#greatgrace17
Happy Bucket Listing,
Megs
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