Category: Faith

Thanksgiving Celebration

Thanksgiving was an especially extra happy day for our family. My husband had been feeling downright awful this week. He wound up going home from work feeling nauseous, weak, and in a lot of pain. It was all he could do to move around. He went to the doctor and they drew blood, checked him over but couldn’t seem to find anything wrong. They gave him a prescription for the nauseousness and sent him home. Later that evening he received a call from the doctor’s office; they wanted him to return to the office the next day to pick up paper work and have a CT scan to check for pancreatitis. Apparently his levels were up and they were concerned. By this time, he had been hurting for several days, and moving around was a struggle for him. I asked him if he wanted me to take him but he said he could manage. So the next day he goes to have the scan. I had asked my sister, who happens to my prayer warrior sister, to pray. I also sent out a prayer request asking our church family to pray for negative results. Our prayers were answered! His test came back clear. This took place on Nov. 24th, the day before our 23rd wedding anniversary, which happened to fall on Thanksgiving day this year. 💕

Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 106:1

We still don’t know what is causing him to feel bad, he still feels weak, and is in pain although it has eased up a little. We’re praying he can get in to see a pain management doctor before the end of the year.

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

Matthew 21:22

God bless!

Devotional ~ His Wonderful Works

I have always had a fascination with clouds. There is something about looking to the sky and seeing the many different types of clouds that God fills the skies with and the array of colors that He splashes across His canvas. The background in the above photo is one of many photos that I’ve taken so that I can learn how to paint a sky. If you are going to learn, might as well learn from the Master. (At least that is how I see it for me. 😉 ) The way He splashes the colors across the sky, the many types of clouds that He paints, oh it is so amazing.

Imagine being on a mountain top watching a sunrise or a sunset, God’s Country that’s what I call it. It’s as though you can reach out and touch the sky. Touch His masterpiece. God’s works, where to begin? His love? His thoughts toward us? There are no words in man’s vocabulary that can begin to describe the depth of His love, of His thoughts toward us.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

His thoughts definitely: More than can be numbered.

Father, I praise You and thank You for Your love toward us. You could have turned away from us. Instead You had planned for mankind’s failure. Thank You for the precious gift of life, that we don’t deserve, and yet You offer to us, through Your Son, Jesus. Thank You Jesus for teaching us obedience, teaching us how to love, by showing us how much You love the Father by honoring and obeying Him. May we follow in Your footsteps. In Jesus name amen.

A New Day

Faith complete trust or confidence in someone.

Growing up as child, I never really quite grasped the meaning of faith. We went to church for awhile, and as a young child, I just accepted that the Bible was God’s word and God didn’t lie. By the time I was a young adult, life happened, and my rocky foundation of faith dwindled. Faith? What was that? Trust? Not likely.

Thank God, He did not give up on me. He put people in my path that would eventually lead me right back into His arms. Some that surprisingly I never would have thought in a hundred years had anything to do with the Lord. But they did in their own rocky way.

We were not present when God created the worlds. But we know that He did. We cannot explain it nor do we have to. It’s okay that we don’t have all the answers. His word tells us that He spoke the worlds into being. Everything in His word is truth. God cannot lie. He spoke the worlds into existence. Can you imagine? Now, I like to paint. When I look at a blank canvas the possibilities of what I can paint are endless. But I cannot speak the painting into existence. No matter how hard I try it just isn’t going to happen. Look around you, everything you see God created. He spoke every little thing into existence right down to those creepy critters that we may not appreciate. 😣 We may not know why they exist but God does. He created them. Anything that I can paint already exists. Flowers, plants, buildings, anything at all can be painted because it is visible. I can plant a garden but I did not create it. It already existed in the seeds that the Father spoke into existence. And you know what? He already knows what each plant will look like.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Psalm 33:6

It’s a new day. What are you going to do with it?

And The Winner Is…

Photo by Ru016bdolfs Klintsons on Pexels.com

Happy Friday everyone! Have you ever said “I’ll be glad when I win the lottery, but first I have to play it before I can win it!” Or something similar? We’ve all probably said something along those lines at one time or another.

I was thinking about that statement the other morning, after reading a devotional, when another thought popped into my head. “God’s storehouse is never ending and I’d rather have from His storehouse that never ends than from the world’s lottery that will end.” I thank God for reminding me where my true provision comes from! Isn’t our God awesome? One of the many names that God is known by is Jehovah – Jireh *The Lord will Provide. He is our source and our provider.

And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Genesis 22:14

And my God shall supply all you need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

I thought about our many blessings of late and how God has made provision for us. Recently we’ve had several large hits to our finances and at least another one that we know of next week. But God in His infinite wisdom has provided for what we needed when we really needed it and not when we thought we needed it. How amazing and wonderful is our God!

And He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Romans 8:32

How can we doubt the magnitude and love of this amazing God we serve? Do you believe He can do more than what you could ever hope or imagine for? He can and He will if you open the door to Him. God bless!

Joyful Friday ~Practice, Patience, Practice

Last year, I started painting again. Only this time I’m working with watercolor as opposed to oils. It started with sketches and drawings and then one day I noticed a watercolor painting and thought I’d give it a shot. After all it couldn’t be that hard right? Not as easy as I first thought. I started sketching what I wanted to paint to help me get a better feel for the painting. I tend to be harder on myself than I should be. (Some days I think I prefer my drawings over the paintings but that’s because I need to practice.) I’ll draw or paint something and I’ll ask my husband what he thinks of it. He can tell me it looks good and I’ll say something critical about it. He’s always reminding me not to be so hard on myself. He has encouraged me to take art lessons but I’ve declined ~ call me chicken~ no, truth is I’ve found some people on ~ yep, YouTube ~ that I follow and I have learned quite a bit. I find myself noticing things more often and I’ll say “God, teach me how to paint that”. I mean, He is after all the Master and His masterpieces are breathtakingly amazing. Take you for instance, you are His masterpiece and you were uniquely designed by Him for Him.

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.

Psalm 139:13,14

One thing that is a given, practice. You have to practice if you want to improve. Patience. That’s something else you have to remember. Patience. It takes time to develop your talent. It takes time to improve your skills. I’ve had this particular post sitting on the shelf since mid March. At first I put it down to blogger’s block. Then recently while reading a devotional from Intouch Ministries, I had one of those “aha” moments.

Just as it takes practice and patience to learn a craft, if we really want to discover who God is through His Word, it takes practice and patience on our part. There are three things we need to do. Meditate. As we meditate on His word, we learn about who He is. Study. Studying His word gives us a better understanding of our Lord. Pray. Through meditation and study, our prayers are our response to what we learn about God. As we learn more about God our prayers will overflow into praise, gratitude, and petitions that align with His will. (Intouch Ministries paraphrased)

I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your Word.

Psalm 119:15,16
Practice and late nights. 🙂

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

2 Peter 3:18

God bless!