Ponder the Path of Thy Feet

“Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.”—Proverbs 4:26

“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.”—Proverbs 4:25

“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.”—Proverbs 5:15

In a most tender and loving way, God encourages me in these verses to look to my own path before Him - to rejoice in my own walk with Him.

Simply, He is telling me to concentrate on my relationship with Him.

Too often, my walk gets distorted by my judging others, either in a loving or a critical way, and how they are or are not walking with the Lord, and I get side-tracked from my own walk.

It’s like this. I am walking down the road God has for me. I am walking with joy in the closeness I feel toward Jesus, I am feeding on the Word, and I am rejoicing in the knowledge it gives me about Him. And then, all of a sudden, I see someone struggling in life because I perceive they are not walking with the Lord. I see them perhaps making a foolish decision and then I allow it to affect my walk in Christ. I think, if they would only [fill in the blank], they would be right with God.

Unfortunately, because of that direction of my thoughts, I soon lose focus on my own walk. And it is a struggle to find my way back to basking in the sunshine of His love on my own path!

So Lord, when my vision gets a little distorted, please teach me to pray for those who are struggling in You, and help me leave them in Your perfect care. If You decide to use me to help assist them in their struggles, then, please grant me the grace and love to speak Your truth into their hearts, giving You all the praise and glory for the insight. Or should You decided to use my actions to help and serve them while they are in this phase of their lives, please help me surrender my will to Yours that they may see my good works and glorify Our Father in Heaven.

Then, Lord, help me me go on to perfection – a maturity in You – because that is what You are encouraging me to do in these verses above and in other passages of Your Word.

In Your precious Name I pray, Amen.

Onesti, Romania (June 2005)

I Will Never Leave You

“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”—Hebrews 13:5c

My grace is sufficient for you, dear child. And though you have fallen, you are not cut off. And though you have caught a glimpse of your circumstances, do not fear. For My hand is so far reaching that in whatever pit you have fallen, I am there to pick you up and set you along your way again. This path has been trodden down by many in front of you, and this path will be trodden down by many behind you. My Spirit will forever lift you and be the breeze by which you will find every circumstance lighter. Let Me have your burdens dear child, so that you may continue along your way until I decide it's time for you to come home. Rest easy and continue your journey. I will always be with you.”

And that poor, pitiful creature may walk timidly at first. Her faith wavering a bit. But as each burden is given to her Lord, her walk becomes more confident. Her steps more sure. She glimpses more of heaven each day, each step she walks closer to her Lord. She learns to sense His hand gently guiding her, and she learns that while she was cast down, the Lord, in His tender mercy, condescended to her. He loves her so much that He died for her. Because of that, she knows she is important to Him, and she begins to trust that He will never leave her.

Onesti, Romania (April 2006)

Guide Thine Heart in the Way

“...Guide thine heart in the way.”—Proverbs 23:19b

Dear Savior,

You gave me this verse yesterday and it prompted me to consider writing a devotion about it. I prayed to You and asked how can I tie the hearts of my readers to this truth about guiding our hearts?

Then, like a fog lifting, my understanding came into view that I ought to share a prayer of my heart to You with others on this theme. So, here it is.

Lord, You know me perfectly. You know my joys, my sins, and my desire to know You better and to walk closer to You. I ask, Jesus, that you heal my vision. Provide eye salve so that I may see the rudiments of this world better. Help me to acknowledge their deceitfulness and guide me into the truth. Help me look past my stresses and my worries and instead grasp the eternal perspective. Your perspective.

Lord, lately, I have been feeling a bit hum-drum about my life. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter, a great work situation, a family that loves me, good friends, etc., but I feel like there is something missing. So, what I see and appreciate before me is not satisfying my heart's need for a touch of closeness with You. I want to seek Your face and behold it like a child does her father. I want You to draw me closer to You in such a way that Your presence and guidance are very real and visible to my spirit. I want the Holy Spirit to brush up against me like a gentle breeze on a hot day, giving me the sweet relief of knowing that You are near me.

I ask that You guide my heart in the way You have for me. I know I can compare my way with others' ways and doubt the very road you paved for me. Let me not compare though. Let me have the sweet confidence of knowing that the life I have is the One You intended. Help me to be content in my days and to trust my future to Your Hands. Help my cares diminish and my hope flourish.

Help me to know You and to serve You in the hum-drum and the excitement of my days, as well as everything in between. Help my flesh be surrendered to Your will and encourage my lips to praise You for all that You have done, are doing and will do in my life.

Help me love you and draw near to You. Grant me the sweet fellowship of Your Spirit as I minister to my husband and daughter, as I assist my co-workers in their needs and as I love my friends and family as You guide me.

You know I am but flesh and that I am anything but perfect. But because of the sweet salvation I received many years ago, I have access to Your throne, and I have You praying for me. Most importantly, I have the knowledge that You love me, completely, and because of that love, You want to guide me in the way.

As you guide me, Lord, help me to also guide my heart in the way to stay fixed on You.

Love,

Your Child

“I designed you to enjoy Me above all else. 

You find the deepest fulfillment of your heart in Me alone.”

—Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (From the June 24 Devotion)

Luang Prabang, Laos (Spring 2000)

Something to Eat

“... and [He] commanded that something should be given her to eat.”—Mark 5:43b

God's word never ceases to surprise and amaze me especially when a small little passage in the midst of glorious miracles stands out and feeds my soul.

This passage of Scripture follows two tremendous miracles—the raising of Jarius’ daughter from the dead and the healing of a woman’s blood disease by just the touching of Jesus’ garment. After these miracles, Jesus commands those around Him, to meet Jarius’ daughter’s physical need of nourishment.

I think this has many applications today, but only a couple of which I will explore here.

First, God is the only One Who has the power to heal miraculously. It is His work alone that has the power to raise up and make whole, not only our physical bodies but, more importantly, our spiritual conditions. Despite that truth, though, we also play a role in His healing of others. We can help provide for physical, earthly needs, such as clothing, housing, and in this case food. It is interesting to note in this portion of Scripture, He had to command others to feed her. One reason could have been the people around the young girl were so astonished at the miracle(s) before them, they forgot the very present physical need of the young girl—her nourishment.

The second application I see is that God is not only in the details of our miraculous healings—whether they are spiritual, emotional and/or physical in nature—He is also concerned with our bodies' very real and basic human needs while we are here on earth. But while He could have given her miraculous nourishment, He chose in this instance to use the rudiments of this world to nourish her and, as mentioned above, to invite those around her to have a part in that.

Let us continue to trust God to do the miraculous in others’ lives today, and let us obey Him and compliment His work on earth by providing for their physical needs, as we are called to do.

Perhaps you glean another spiritual truth here that I didn't touch on. If you feel led, I invite you to share it in the comments section of my blog.

Taken in the Gypsy Village of Conti
Near Onesti, Romania (2005)

Early in the Morning

“And Abraham rose up early in the morning …”—Genesis 22:3

“And Jacob rose up early in the morning …”—Genesis 28:18

“And Moses … rose up early in the morning …”—Exodus 24:4

And Cassy rose up early in the morning. Yes, she did rise up early in the morning, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to stay under the covers, coddling her flesh in the warmth of the sheets and the cushy comfort of her pillow. But baby called. She was not in her usual playful mood in the morning, either, full of the sounds of finding her voice.

No, this morning was different. There was an insistence to her mommy, a "please-feed-me" whimper. So, she got up, reluctantly, with a demand to her husband under her breath, yet loud enough for him to hear, that she gets a “sleep-in” morning soon. That’s how her day started.

Not the prettiest of morning pictures, she knows. But then, as she opens the pages of Scripture, eating her breakfast and drinking her coffee, while her little girl resigns herself to yet one more tummy time, she begins reading verses on the Devotional Life. She loves devotions, she thinks to her Lord. This topic sings to her this morning. And the first verse she reads is, “And Abraham rose up early in the morning.” The next verse, and the verses after that, also dealt with waking up early in the morning. Okay. Point taken, Lord, she thinks. Much like her daughter resigns herself to tummy time, she resigns herself to the fact many spiritual people rose up early in the morning. She doesn’t like it, but she knows God is telling her to also rise up in the morning and spend time with Him.

These mornings of early wake ups are to be spent with Him in prayer and meditation before the day begins. These mornings when she “puts on the Lord”* equip her to be emptied of self and full of the Holy Ghost for all the tasks ahead of her … the most important being to care and love her husband and her daughter. The other circumstances of the day are in God’s hands to be dealt with one at a time, leaning upon His grace and wisdom to guide her.

She loves these mornings. She wishes they came later, but she’s thankful they come at all and that she can spend some time with Him. As coffee is to her flesh, she knows these Scriptural meditations in the morning are necessary for her soul.

So her day begins, at first, with the resignation of her flesh, and then with renewed devotion and thankfulness that she rose up early in the morning to spend time with Jesus.

*Melinda Doolittle, an American Idol contestant from several years ago, said in one of her interviews that she “put on Jesus” in the morning, in the same spirit of getting ready for her day. That thought has been with me ever since, and I wanted to give credit to where it was due. 

 Prague, Czech Republic (2005)

 

Five Minute Friday: Song

See the birds in the sky. Flying above all the cares, all the tragedies and all our sadness.

They soar on the songs of the wind. Higher and higher they go, until at some point, they are out of our vision.

But with them, they carry a vision of our own making. Taking with them the lost moments of the day. The frustrations. The ill will we carry in our hearts.

So, that when they are removed from our sight, we can see clearer than before. We see the present and tomorrow with hope and joyful anticipation that something better will settle into our hearts.

Once the past is removed, the ugly past. The past that we don’t like reflecting on in our soul’s mirror. That past. Once it is removed. We begin to soar, like those birds who carried away our longings.

We start to sing the songs of flight coasting in the air with our wings. But for perfect peace. For perfect soaring, we need to recognize that our wings need to rest under God’s wings.

All because in order for our song to have that perfect pitch, it needs to be yielded, humbled, and settled under the loving wings of our Heavenly Father.

Spokane, WA (2013)

In Me is Thine Help

“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.”—Hosea 13:9

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: 
for mine anger is turned away from him.”—Hosea 14:4

I love the book of Hosea. It is so rich with God’s love for His people, as these two verses above illustrate. God not only forgives our backsliding, but while we are in that state, He loves us freely, He calls us unto Himself, and He continues to counsel us to buy and/or pursue His wisdom, which is all-encompassing and free. He tends to our fickle souls just as if we were infants, gently nudging us in this direction or another, while we just go along not really noticing or acknowledging His tender care of us. 

Sometimes, He even lets us reap the consequences of our poor choices but with the promise that in Him and in His ways rest our help, healing, and restoration, if we only turn around and look to Him.

O how He loves us!

May we rest in this truth today and forever more.

Hanoi, Vietnam. (2000)

Five Minute Friday: Brave

Brave is the sitting back and watching God as He mends the broken pieces of your life back together.

Brave is the letting go and letting Him. We all face these kinds of moments in our every day, but many of us still have pieces of ourselves lost and broken in the wilderness of our past. Brave.

Sit back. Read Scripture and let the verses on the pages of His word mend you, heal you and set you free. That’s what it was like for me. Some forgiveness. Some clarity. Some peace of mind. All to set me on the straight and narrow of the path He had for me since before I was born.

Brave. In the letting go. And letting Him.

Brave is also in the minute details of our lives. Brave was when despite my daughter’s tears and yells of frustration, I kept her in the tub to try and remove the cradle cap from her scalp. Yes, my daughter, I know you don’t like this. Brave was the calmness of my voice, and the whispers of my love through her tears and the continuation of the task we had to get done.

Isn’t that what God’s healing is like? He takes us into places that are uncomfortable. That get us frightened. That make some of us cry inwardly, while some of us yell out uncontrollably. But brave is in the walking down that road with Him anyway. But perhaps, He is the One Who is brave. He walks us through our dark valleys because He knows we must get to the other side.

He is our Brave.

Forgetting the One Who Made Us Beautiful

“Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? 
Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.” 
Jeremiah 2:32

When God looks at us in relationship with Him, He sees Himself as the adorning of women. The beauty we lack, the added garments that enhance, and the jewelry that decorates. I hope I continue to see my God in this way. I hope my heart will not become like the heart of Israel in Jeremiah’s time, whose back was to her God. Who forgot God’s wonders when He parted the Red Sea, fed her Manna in the wilderness, and led her through the valley of the shadow of death. Instead, she said to a tree, “Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth.” 

I know I often think that those things my flesh finds attractive are more beautiful than my God. I think my successes are clothed in my own righteousness-my own “beauty.” When this happens, I need to remember to turn around and look at Him. And when I do, He will clothe me with Himself, and I will be as lovely as a bride on her wedding day.

Stehekin, WA (October 2010)

Wisdom and the Foolish Woman

“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.” 

Proverbs 9:1-2

For the sake of simplicity, let’s say there are two women who cry out to the simple ones, the individuals who are seeking to understand their way in the world. One woman takes great care to prepare for her guests. As the opening verses of this chapter, interestingly, the shortest one in Proverbs, suggests, she builds her house, taking great care in the details. She kills her beasts, she mixes her wine, and she sets her own table. She prepares her servants and then she goes out into the street and calls unto the people who desire understanding. She says to them, “Come eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.” (v. 5) She says to these who are searching to come to her table where she has placed no substitutes, where she has cut no corners, and live of her. Her name is Wisdom and she prepares and serves that which she offers seekers.

Then, there is another woman. She is simple and knows nothing. She sits at her door. Let’s say she’s sitting on her porch, which happens to be conveniently located at a place of high traffic in the city. Because of its location, she just calls out to those who are going along their way. She doesn’t actively pursue those who want understanding. She just picks from the “low-hanging” fruit, only from those who are walking near her door. She calls out to those who want understanding and says, “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” She prepares no table for her guests, but offers what some may call the counterfeit of Wisdom’s nutrients. She is lazy and has no integrity. And the guests at her table are dead and “in the depths of hell.” (v. 18) Her name is the Foolish Woman and the Bible describes her as clamorous—noisy, demanding attention, loud, and insolent.

We are, all of us, sought by these two individuals in every aspect of our lives. One, Wisdom, has the real thing, and she actively seeks out her guests. What she offers them is worked for and earned. At her table are truths that are rich, pleasant, and free.

The other, the Foolish Woman, represents the world. She’s loud and demanding, but lazy and slack, as she just picks from those of us who are near her door. There isn’t a lot of work she has to do to draw us to her table, which is filled with stolen waters and bread eaten in secret. Mere shadows of the real thing. She’s dishonest and only mimics what Wisdom offers and not even very well.

I think of God and all He has to offer those of us seeking understanding. He desires us to eat at His table, from the foods He’s prepared. He’s done all the work and all we have to do is accept His gift.

Then, there is Satan and the world. He cares not for you, only that you eat at his table instead of God’s. He’s lazy and unwilling to even make it attractive, but only through his persistent clamoring some of us cannot and do not refuse his offer of hell.

What a vivid picture of the difference between God’s way of offering us understanding and Satan’s way. 

Lord, help me to choose to sit at Your table and eat what only You can and have prepared for me.

 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”—James 1:17

Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA (2007)

An Excellent Spirit

“A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”

Proverbs 17:27b

Excellent. What a great word. I love how it ties into understanding. My first favorite verse of the Bible was “Man’s goings are of the Lord, how can a man then understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24) It reminded me that my understanding, my clarity of purpose and design, were in the hands of God, and it was my duty, my pleasure, to seek answers from Him to understand my place in this world.

When I gave my life to the Lord in my early twenties, it was like I had access to this fountain of understanding that never went dry. I had so much to learn. I had so much time to make up in my relationship with Him. It was then I first experienced the blessings of clarity of mind. And excellent is a great word to describe this feeling.

Oh, how I loved Jesus in those early days. This is not to diminish my love for Him today, but just like a new marriage or relationship, those first days are full of feelings of wonder and love and awe for that person and how they make us feel. It is only in time, that our love grows and matures into something more precious and deeper than we thought we could feel, that is, if we stay constant through the many ups and downs, as well as in the plateaus.

Reflecting on this verse today, could it be the excellent spirit is the result of understanding, rather than the goal? What I mean to say is we could easily get prideful if we walk around thinking we are excellent because we have understanding. With puffed up heads of knowledge, pointing to ourselves, we say, “Look at me. I have an excellent spirit because God has given me so much understanding.”

Why not look at it like because God has graciously given us understanding, our being exudes this “excellent spirit,” that directs praise to God, rather than ourselves. This excellent spirit may be what a non-believer sees when they look at us and wants what we have.

The Peace of God. The Love of God. The Acceptance of God. Not because we’re perfect but because we understand our place in His Kingdom.

Lord, may this river of understanding never run dry. Oh, it may be a trickle at times, and like a waterfall at other times, but help me to gain the understanding you have for me, so that I may be “of an excellent spirit” always and for Your glory.

Pike Place Market. Seattle, Washington. (2007)

Near Unto Him

"A people near unto him."

Psalm 148:14

"A people near unto him," that is, near unto our blessed Savior. In these five words, there is so much dew from heaven. Is there not salve in this portion of God's word for those who think they're alone? For those needing someone to talk to? For those needing to know what it feels like to have someone love them perfectly?

He loves His people, and because I am saved, I know that I am one of His and, therefore, can also lay hold to the truth that I am included as one of those near unto Him.

However, I know that if I willingly sin against Him, my spirit will not be near unto Him. I know His nearness to me will always be the same, but my own fellowship, my own closeness to Him, will suffer if there is sin between me and my Lord.

So, Lord Jesus, You know my sins, and You know those things that need confession. I ask You, then, to help me in humbling my flesh to receive any correction and exposure to sin I need so that I may lay those sins down at Your feet and receive all the benefits of being a person near unto You.

(Originally written September 15, 2004)

Tescan, Romania (May 2005)

Tears unto God

“Mine eye poureth out tears unto God.”
Job 16:20b

O Lord, thank You for letting us do this to You. Thank You for the joy You bring as You carry us through. Thank You for the times of sadness, where we press, as it were, our faces toward You, letting our sorrows fill Your throne room. O Lord, let Your throne be a repository of all our tears and all our joys. Let Your throne be a place where we can lay bare our most secret thoughts, our inner most desires, and our sins. Only there Lord is a place of the most profound peace. Take my face, Lord. Cup it into Your hands, and let me, I pray thee, cherish every moment, every tear, and every smile that is placed within Your palm. Let me rest a while. Let me love a while. Let my sinful flesh be put aside for the briefest moment in which I can cast away all my pretenses, all my fears, and let You wipe away every single tear. O, my God of Heaven. O lover of my soul. How deep is Your love, my water brook.

Tescan, Romania (May 2005)