Corona Devotionals

Last year as my husband and I sat in the waiting room at the hospital, and our son lay on the operating table, undergoing a major surgery, a sister-in-Christ of mine texted me a single sentence.  But the application of her short note covered me with God's truth, comfort, and peace for that entire day. " Praying Psalm 91 over you today. " I have been blessed many times since that day to rest in the beautiful, comforting, peaceful words of Psalm 91 , and we don't have to be in a hospital waiting room or on a surgery table for these special and powerful words to apply to our lives and our hearts. Close your eyes. Let's read God's Word with our heart today.  Let's dwell with Him today. Let's rest with Him today. Let's trust Him today.   He will save us and shelter us, and be faithful to us today.  For he will order his angels  to protect you wherever you go (Psalm 91:11).     ~~~ Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High  will find rest ...

It was twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit today when I woke up.  We've had chillier temperatures, but still--it was cold as I squinted into the bathroom mirror, brushing my teeth.  And I was just a few minutes into my day, and yet my feet were freezing as I stood on the bathroom floor.   I got dressed in multiple layers, grumbling in my spirit about the cold winter weather of Ohio.  It's hard to explain if you come from a warmer climate, but freezing temperatures (over repeated days... and months ) can make you a little bit bitter. I was in danger of beginning my day in a negative (thought/attitude) way, and then I heard her. I often hear her chirping and clicking quietly outside my window, but today it was before sunrise.  The sun had not yet given one ray of light to promise a new day, and yet... she knew dawn was coming and she cheerily welcomed it.  She chirped and chattered, and reminded  me how to begin today. This is the day the ...

I ran into a man the other day that our family has known for years...but he ran away from me. I'm friends with his wife and my husband is friends with him, and our kids are all friends too..for years. We've shared meals together, and our family has shared with them about the Lord a number of times.  He knows where we stand on faith in the Lord.  However, I started noticing a couple years ago that he and his wife were rarely in the same place at once.  He would be one place with a child, while she was elsewhere with another child.   Our family sometimes has hectic schedules too, but (time after time), this began to feel different to me somehow...almost purposed  separations, and I began praying for them.   I can't recall the last time that I have seen them attend something together as a couple.   I've kept them in prayer, and a year or so ago the Lord put them on my heart so strongly that I wrote the wife (my friend) a note to encourage h...

I'm not trying to ruin our day...but we've already ruined it for ourselves. ...We've sinned against God. We've lied.  (The little white ones count.) We've lusted (lingering looks in person and online count.  So do the lingering lustful thoughts in our mind. ) We've disobeyed God by not  doing the things that He presses on our hearts to do.  That counts as sin too. We've cheated on God with our affection and adoration and worship of other things.  We've been unfaithful to our Lord who created and loves us so deeply.  Instead, we worship ourselves and our comforts and our wants.   We worship status/money/stuff/titles/popularity/degrees/awards.  Pouring ourselves into these things means that we are not  pouring ourselves into God and His  things.  This counts as spiritual adultery.  Some days are for mountaintops, and birds sweetly singing, and rays of sunshine.  And some days are for owning our sinfulness and short-comi...

There is nothing more that I could want in this life, Lord. We are imperfect, but we are living for You. Please show us how to strive less and thrive more in You today. Amen. I am a "list" person, and maybe you are too. It feels pretty good to "check off" a completed task, and often this is what brings my sense of worth during a day, and in life. Accomplishments (physical or spiritual) are awesome, and a body in motion for the Lord can be a powerful force. We want to do so much to make a difference, and so we often strive to do so much. But there are moments...special moments...un listed moments when the striving falls away, and instead, it becomes undeniable that we are thriving in Christ. I seek to do much in God's name, maybe you do too, but sometimes (often), the striving steals the thriving. We get too caught up in the making-it-happen and the getting-the-preparation-done, that the love/blessing/joy of what we are striving for... is lost. We ...