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.
by Stacey | Feb 4, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
I had planned to post something else today, something proofread and ready. Then, the message came. The message that sent words from the latest sermon looping through my mind:
Do whatever you can to get to Jesus.
So instead of adding that final polish to the prepared text, I spent this day before my Lord in quiet, in worship, in His Word. Soon that feeling of hopelessness snowballed into an awe of His unending mercy toward all who call upon His name.
I camped in Revelation 21, savouring this vision. I dwelt on the new heaven and the new earth, the holy city prepared as a bride, where God dwells with man, and God wipes every tear from our eyes. Death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain—for they have passed away.
A voice from the throne declares, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Here, there is no need for the moon or the sun for the glory of God gives light and its lamp is the Lamb.
All this awaits if your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life.
As the heavy decay of fallen life increases with each rotation of the earth, the blessed truth of Revelation 21 breathes fresh hope in Jesus.
This post is a bit off-script, a hard move for an inside-the-box planner like me. But, perhaps life has knocked the wind out of someone else today. If that’s you, my sweet friend, I say with complete humility and love: Do whatever you can to get to Jesus.
by Stacey | Jan 28, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1
We work hard to keep the tone in our home gentle and encouraging, even in the midst of discipline. God’s Word is truth and it applies to both our children and to us as parents.
But, it’s not easy. It’s not easy to keep a gentle tone when one squirms on the floor refusing to put on his shoes when the others are late for appointments. It’s not easy after the fifth warning to quiet down and go to sleep. It’s not easy in the midst of temper tantrums and tears.
But, who said parenting was easy?
So much is at stake.
Their whole outlook on life, how they grow up and treat others, how they relate to people in authority, and what they believe about God is shaped during these early years at home. There is too much at stake to miss the target.
Strength comes from God. He will give me what I need to parent in wisdom, gentleness and love. I know that. I believe it. What scares me, is that I also know myself – my tendency to move ahead of Him, to try it on my own strength first, to rush into my day full of my own plans, trying to control the outcome of, well, everything.
I cannot control the choices my children make. They are ultimately accountable to God. But, by the power of the Spirit, I can control how I speak to them, what I teach them, and the example I set. For this, I am accountable to God.
“Let your gentleness be evident to all. (Philippians 4:5a)”
*From the archives
by Stacey | Jan 14, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Secrets can eat away at the soul and whisper unworthiness. They can woo the broken into dark places where the fear of discovery, the fear of admitting imperfections and struggles with sin, leave many shuddering in the shadows. So, we cover our sins, our worries, with good works, pretending we have always been so grown-up, so pulled together, so perfect.
So untrue.
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…”
All. You. Me. Everyone.
I struggle with my sin nature. Specific sins have caused me great grief, shame, and regret. But, right when I feel hopeless, right when I feel beyond the redemptive reach of God, I read the beautiful words in verse 24:
“…and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Justified freely by grace through redemption. And fear is overcome by the God who sees me and my sin through the redemptive lens of His Son. He declares me beautiful and clean.
My sordid history, your sordid history, is part of a story about a God who died for us while we continued to sin. Bringing hidden sin into the light, confessing and repenting, does what nothing else can. It illuminates our desperate need for grace and forgiveness. It reveals that anything good in you or me is the result of God’s mercy in our life. It shows us what God has known all along, we need a Saviour.
And His name is Jesus.
*from the archives
by Stacey | Dec 31, 2015 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It happened. Everyone told me it might one day but no one can really prepare you for the day your child growls, “I hate you.”
He was in time out. Again.
Fighting angry. Hands fisted. Jaw clenched. And snarling those dreaded words.
I. Hate. You.
Imagine, just for a minute, the anger that must have been pumping through his heart to prompt the most hurtful words his young mind could imagine.
All directed toward me.
Now imagine his shock at finding me right behind him, absorbing the slam of each syllable. Words he likely thought in the past but never dared to voice until today. His eyes widen. He steps back. His transparent expression screams regret.
Then, shock turns to confusion. Utter and complete confusion as the target of his anger drops to his level, gathers his rigid, shocked form into her arms, presses lips against his ear, and whispers, “I will always love you. Even if you hate me. Even if you continue to disobey. Nothing can ever take my love for you away.”
I kiss his temple and walk away. I blink back tears against the deeper stinging truth.
I am just like my son.
My words drove nails into Jesus’ hands, words spoken aloud and uttered in the sinful folds of my heart. My attitude thrust spikes through his feet, attitudes of pride, self-sufficiency, and a stubborn refusal to yield. My anger put a crown of thorns on His head and there is no hiding any of it from God.
But He gathers me in His arms, presses His lips against my ear, and whispers, “I love you. My love does not depend on you, it depends on me. There is nothing you can do that will ever change my deep and great love for you.”
A heartbeat thunders in my chest. Sorrow washes over me. Regret. Shame.
A small hand tugs at my sleeve. A repentant voice seeks forgiveness. I pull my little man into my arms whispering assurances of love and I understand a little bit more of the joy our Father must feel over repentant, surrendered hearts.
*from the archives
