Friendship Is Fresh Water
These God-chosen lives all around—what splendid friends they make! — Psalm 16:3 MSG
Looking for reasons to celebrate, I uncover gratitude. I realize how much I have to be thankful for. Spending time with my friends allows me to stay in that place of gratitude a little while longer. Celebrating birthdays, victories, answered prayers, and accomplishments lets me savor them before I move on to something else. Throwing a party, even if it’s just a cup of coffee shared, is good for the soul.
I am a better wife when I celebrate my friendships. In addition, I am a more contented person when I celebrate my friendships. I become a better friend. It puts a spring in my step, a smile on my lips, and gives me a much lighter heart. I can be by myself, five hundred miles from any of my friends, and something one of them has said will cause me to laugh out loud.
I have exponentially more joy in my life because of them. I bring more joy to my marriage and to my family because of them. Friendship fills a deep well within me with fresh water. When I celebrate my friendships, it’s like dropping a huge rock into the well. It splashes that water everywhere, on everyone else in my life.
~Nicole Johnson
Go Tell Peter
Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” — Matthew 28:10
God’s Word is full of stories of those who messed up and were forgiven by God and restored to a place of far greater joy and purpose. I think especially of the apostle Peter. This rough and tough fisherman who was devoted to Christ took quite a fall when he heard the words, “I don’t know this man!” tumble from his own lips. I am sure he beat himself up over the next few brutal hours and days as Jesus was crucified and placed in a tomb.
On that glorious Easter morning, the women encountered an angel guarding an empty tomb. The angel told them to go tell Jesus’ disciples—and Peter—that they would see him in Galilee. There was to be no doubt that Peter should know that he was welcomed. Have you messed up? Perhaps you are ashamed to even face what you have done. It may have been something that caused harm not just to you but to others. If so, have the faith to remember that with God all things can be made new. Your past is just that. But your future in him is limitless. All God looks for is a desire to begin moving in the right direction, and he will be there to embrace you.
— Sheila Walsh (Get Off Your Knees and Pray)
Satisfying the Mind
This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. — Philippians 1:9–10 NIV
Faith is not a mindless leap into the unknown that’s too hard for us to fathom. Faith enables reason to go beyond its human limitations. But faith is not a simple result of reason; it is reason submitting to the truth of Scripture, which is saturated with and enlivened by the Holy Spirit of God. There are mysteries of faith that lie beyond my human understanding, but I believe them because they are rooted in the strength of God’s Word. I don’t pretend to understand the mystery of his ways, but Scripture describes God in ways that satisfy my mind. Reason is a gift of God. It speaks to that God-placed center within us all that recognizes truth. We choose to believe that truth. We choose to embrace that truth. And we choose to live by faith, which is trustworthy. I am not advocating an academic or sterile approach to our faith, but I am thrilled that it can stand up to scrutiny. Faith produces in us responses that go far beyond our scrutiny once our scrutiny is satisfied. — Marilyn Meberg
All Good Things Take Time
Water wears away stones. — Job 14:19 NIV
Where would you like to be in six months or a year? And how will you get there? Just as the ant picks up one grain of sand and moves it, then the next one, then the next one—and because of its long obedience in the same direction builds a city—one year from now, we will all be different. We don’t get to stay the same, but we do get a choice in how we will have changed, whether it’s for the better or not.
In your spiritual lives, too, as you “play the movie forward,” where do you want to be in a year’s time? If you want to be growing in your faith, closer to God and bold in your prayers, then day by day follow the example of the little ant and set your face in that direction by spending time in God’s Word and in worship and prayer every day.
Everything that has value is worth intentional, daily commitment and obedience. I know that it’s not easy, but just take the first step, then the next and the next, and before you know it you’ll be much further down the road. Understand it can take time. All good things do. But that’s okay, because the journey is worth it.
— Sheila Walsh
A Hanging Tag
God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way. — Genesis 1:31 TLB
They say that the average size woman in America is a size 14. The funny side of me wants to ask, “So who wants to be below average?” and the more reasonable side of me asks, “If you are healthy and active, what difference does the number on the tag of your pants make?” But let’s face it: When it comes to our bodies, circumnavigating all the messages we receive in our culture is not for the faint of heart.
I will never forget a comment I heard from a fashion designer several years ago. He said that the fashion industry is all about the clothes, not the people wearing the clothes, and the best way to highlight the clothes is to drape them over a “human hanger” rather than an actual person whose curves would interrupt the lines of the design.
I bought a blouse the other day. It was hand beaded, striking, beautiful (and on sale!) But I was as taken by the message on the hanging tag as I was with the blouse. It reads: “I am your special garment. I am unique and often hand-woven, hand-beaded, hand-printed, and hand-painted. My defects are part of my beauty!” If only we came with such a tag!
— Anita Renfroe
The Seeds of Possibility
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” — Matthew 17:20 NIV
It has been said that sixty-five thousand thoughts float through our minds each day. Every one of those thoughts has the seed of possibility in it. We choose with our will what we’ll do with that thought. Will we stay stuck in “If only . . .” or “Why me?”—or will we open our minds to “What if?” and “Why not?”
Asking the right questions keeps us open-minded and openhearted to what was and is and might be in the years to come. They send us on our way into all sorts of journeys in search of adventure.
Being a spiritual sojourner, now seems like a good time to pause and look back. I want to assess where I’ve come from and where I’m going—I want to ask myself what things I’d do the same, might do differently, or regret I never did at all.
Want to come with me? I invite you to make your own list as we go along. We’ll both see how the possibilities never end. We can do all things through Christ. His is the hand that launches us; his Spirit propels us. The voyage doesn’t get any better than that.
— Luci Swindoll
