Devotional

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4) Consider it pure joy? I’ve really struggled with this verse,…

There’s this moment in the wilderness where the Israelites are on the cusp of taking the Promised Land (Numbers 13).  Moses has sent out 12 spies, and they have come back from scouting out the land and confirmed that the land is flowing with milk and honey.  They’ve even brought back a giant cluster…

“I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.” (Jeremiah 5:22 NIV) I was talking to a friend yesterday, she’s getting ready to turn 93. She has been following Jesus since she…

  There are messages in the details of our lives. Now that’s a statement. This is a story that has been marinating on my heart for a couple of months now. A friend read something I had written for church this morning and told me “THIS is within your control” and I knew it…

I identify greatly with King David in this season of my life….how he goes from being a “man after God’s own heart” to being a disobedient wretch and back again. This cycle seems to happen with him over and over again throughout his life. Just read through the Psalms. Most of them start with…

I was struck with this question the other day; “How will you get to the cross this Easter?” For some of us, it’s an event that we plan for: what to eat, what gifts to buy, what will be stuffed in the eggs for the egg hunt, who will be coming and staying, and…

I’ve resisted a bit (ok – a lot – still resisting to certain degrees) with what I’m about to write.  I resisted for a year the word that has become my word for 2025 – that is not to say I’ve fully accepted it, but I’ve acknowledged that it is my word: Surrender.  Last…

The chisel. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a metal tool with a flat, sharp end that is used to cut and shape a solid material (such as stone, wood, or metal)”. The chisel. God defines it as the tool He uses to break the hardened, stone-cold-dead parts off of His people, in order to refine us and make us…

I have been thinking a lot about that poem ‘Footprints in the Sand,’ specifically those last few lines where it says; “When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” Me being me, I couldn’t help but compare it to when the boys and I were at the…