This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
Such a reassuring verse, especially during hard times.
Lord, thank you for your faithfulness to us. Thank you for being an anchor during the stormy times of life. Forgive me for the times I wallow in my fear or sadness instead of calling on you, my savior and my comforter.
Many admire the beauty of colored glass sparkling in the light. The artist skillfully uses it to create stained glass. After choosing a pattern, she breaks the glass. Next, she grinds its edges smooth and arranges the pieces. Eventually, she transforms it into stained glass, matching the image in the artist’s mind.
Just as the artist cuts and grinds the glass, so God forms us into his image. Before God begins crafting us, he sees the finished product—more beautiful than we could imagine.
Sometimes when difficulties beset us, God works to refine us. He takes the broken pieces of our lives, cuts them into proper shapes, and grinds them smooth.
Cutting and grinding may not be pleasant, but God, our designer and artist, will complete the work he has begun. The longer he works in our lives, the more we resemble his image. The more we yield to his touch, the more his light shines through us.
Someday all the jagged edges of our lives will be smoothed by God’s touch; someday he will shape us into his work of art, allowing his love to softly glow through the colors of our lives.
Refining God, thank you for working to create beauty in me. Even though cutting and grinding may be unpleasant, the result is worth it. Thank you for forming me into your image.
Hebrews 13: 21b “May he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
“One of the most wonderful things about knowing God is that there’s always so much more to know, so much more to discover.”
-Joni Eareckson Tada.
Father God, I thank you for providing me with glimpses of how amazing you are. I pray you will reveal more of yourself to me and to others. May we be in awe of your majesty and power.
Question: for those of us (most of us) who aren’t trained to “preach,” what are ways that we can share the gospel to others? Can we do it without words? What do you think?
“The Spirit of God doesn’t work where there is division, and what we want today is the spirit of unity amongst God’s children, so that the Lord may work.”
– D.L. Moody
Oh, Lord, forgive us for all the divisions, mistrust, and fear among your followers. Forgive us and show us how to be unified in bringing others to your kingdom.
Something to ponder: when you give to the needy, is it out of love and concern for them, or does part of you wish to impress others?
Lord, keep my motivation pure. Let me give out of genuine concern for others.
The Old Testament book of Jeremiah uses metaphors to compare Israel to an unfaithful wife. She was unfaithful to God by worshipping idols and forsaking Him. And “…her treacherous sister Judah [had] not turned to [God] with her whole heart, but in pretense” (3:10 NKJ). This book of Jeremiah is surely only Jewish history and has no relevance to me, right? I certainly haven’t seen anyone setting up and worshipping idols, have you? Nor could I find a listing for idol shops in the yellow pages.
But if the Bible can speak to us in metaphors—Israel compared to an unfaithful wife and her sister Judah not loving whole-heartedly—can’t we also think in metaphors?
Are there ways that we, today, like Israel and Judah in Old Testament times, forsake God, merely pretend to love Him, or are unfaithful to Him?
If I spend my time in busyness—work, recreation, sports, hobbies, family and home responsibilities—but take no time to read God’s holy word, to listen to Him or talk to Him (other than a quick “Thank You for the food”), am I guilty of forsaking God?
If I come to church every Sunday but spend my time while there thinking about what I’m going to do after church, or worrying about dinner burning or missing the kickoff, am I loving Him with my whole heart?
If I spend my money fixing up my house, buying a new car, or taking a vacation, but have little left to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, or support God’s work through missionaries or the work of my church, am I being unfaithful to God?
Do all the things that I spend my time, money and thoughts on become idols that I worship instead of worshipping the most-high God?
God of all creation, may I not idolize the things of the world, but instead use my time, talent, and money in Your service and for Your glory.
Jeremiah 3:20 “’But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord.”
Christians should never forget that the highest kind of prayer is never the making of requests. Prayer at its holiest moment is the entering into God to a place of such blessed union as makes miracles seem tame and remarkable answers to prayer appear something very far short of wonderful by comparison. ” ― A.W. Tozer
What wonderful thing has God done for you today?
“But isn’t arrogance, in fact, the other side of rejection? Isn’t arrogance putting yourself on a pedestal to avoid being seen as you see yourself? Isn’t arrogance, in the final analysis, just another way of dealing with the feelings of worthlessness? Both self-rejection and arrogance pull us out of the common reality of existence and make a gentle community of people extremely difficult, if not impossible, to attain.”
~ Henri Nouwen
Isn’t arrogance also worrying? When we worry we are not trusting in God, but rather in ourselves. What other ways do you think we illustrate arrogance toward God?
Lord, please keep me humbly trusting in you.
Growing Our Faith Together 