He Loves Me

Romans 5:3-5

We can rejoice, too, when we into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Lord, I gotta be honest here. My first response to problems and trials is usually not rejoicing. In fact, I'm not sure that has ever been my first response. I think I'm slowly getting there.

Thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit to fill my heart with your love. He assures me that you allow these trials because you love me and everything you allow is always for my good, not my harm.

MEMORY VERSES

2 Chronicles 16:9a

The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

2 Chronicles 16:9a

Philippians 4:6-7

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Teach Me Through My Trials

Romans 2:29

No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

Lord, I want to be this kind of person. I think I'm becoming this kind of person. You certainly are changing my heart and I like it! It's not always a fun process, but you are always here to help me through all of it.

In your perfect love, you see the big picture while I can only see a tiny part of it. 

You know that I need to go through specific trials to get to the end result which you can already see.

I'm so glad that yours is not a weak, oh-poor-baby, let-me-comfort-you-and-take-away-the-pain kind of love. No, yours is a this-is-for-your-best-good and you-need-to-experience-this-pain-to-learn-from-it kind of love. Please help my heart to always be soft so I can learn what you are teaching me. I love you, Daddy! In Jesus' name, amen.

MEMORY VERSE

Isaiah 26:3-4

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the LORD always, for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock.

Isaiah 26:3-4

You Test My Faith

Romans 12:1

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

Romans 12:1

Romans 1:16 (NIV)

I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Romans 1:16 (NIV)

Exodus 17:7

Moses named the place Massah (which means "test") and Meribah (which means "arguing") because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD here with us or not?"

Lord, in extremely difficult times it's easy to wonder if you are still with us or not. But you are always there, you never leave us. You allow us to go through these times to test us. You want to show us what's in our hearts. You already know what's there but you want us to know too.

James 1:2-4

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

1 Peter 1:6-7

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold - though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

Deuteronomy 8:2

Remember how the LORD your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.

Why the Trials?

Genesis 4:17

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.

Genesis 4:17

Psalm 51:6 (NASB)

Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. 

Psalm 51:6 (NASB)

Micah 6:8

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

2 Corinthians 4:17

For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

Back in February I was wondering what the point of all these trials here on earth is since I can never be perfect this side of heaven.

Romans 5:3-4

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

These trials help me to be fruitful for God. They give me the boldness to speak up and share with others. They give me depth of character. They give me the desire to invest in kingdom work which builds interest in my heavenly bank account. Matt. 6:19-21

We have trials because we live in a fallen world. In God's economy nothing is ever wasted. For the Christian, He uses these trials in mighty ways for our best good. "This thing is from Me" He tells us. And we rejoice! Amen

Don't Copy the Behavior and Customs of this World

This week's memory verses:
Psalm 27:8
My heart has heard You say, "Come and talk with Me," and my heart responds, "Lord, I am coming."
Psalm 27:8

Psalm 77:1
I cry out to God without holding back.
Psalm 77:1

Romans 12

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romand 12:1-2

Since the dog bite, it seems that everyone has an opinion about what I should do. People are telling me that I should ask the dog's owners to help with my medical bills and that their homeowners insurance should cover this. Christian friends who I love and respect are encouraging me to "lawyer up". I just haven't felt right about any of this. It might be mostly because I feel responsible for what happened. But I also think that you put this check in my spirit, Lord. These verses seem to confirm that.

I have given myself to you as a living sacrifice. I'm thinking that you have taken me up on that quite literally.

To "lawyer up" and insist that the owners help pay my medical bills would be following the behavior and customs of this world. I worry about what that would speak to these people. I want to speak Christ's love and forgiveness to them. Besides, you have already provided the money to pay for this and you will provide for all the rest of our needs.

I see this as a potential opportunity to share the gospel with a family who seems to need the good news. Lord, please continue to use me as you see fit to share the your love and forgiveness to a lost and dying world. Lord, I would love to get to share the gospel with the people who own the dog that bit me. Please show me how to proceed from here.
Amen

Oh, yes! By way of update:
I had to go back to the ER yesterday for another IV antibiotic. But the good news is that the swelling is going down and the nurse said that it looks like it is doing better. Praise God! I'm getting to leave the dressings off so that it can start to scab up. Yay! I just have to keep my dog from trying to "clean" it for me. Hehe! 

Got Bitten by a Dog

WARNING: If you are squeamish, don't look at these pictures.

I was bitten by a neighbor's dog this past Saturday while walking home from my run. This particular dog is quite aggressive and I usually give her a wide berth even though she is in a fenced yard. The fence is not adequate for her and she has gotten out of it before.

The kids who live there had made her go into their house when they saw me walking by. But they didn't close the door. I stooped down and moved one of the fence slats back into place and was about to fix another when the dog attacked me. I didn't even see her coming.

I believe that I was in shock at first. The kids helped me get back up and then walked me home which wasn't far. By the time I got home I was sobbing and bleeding a lot and said, "I need to go to the hospital." Praise God that my husband was home. He dropped what he was doing, grabbed a paper towel and an old bath towel for me and then hustled me off to the closest ER.

They got me in pretty quickly and got me cleaned up. They took X-rays to make sure there were no breaks or fractures in my bones. All clear there. We were having trouble getting in touch with the dog's owner. So the hospital filed a report with Animal Services.

As you can see in the pictures, they only put one stitch in each of the deepest wounds. They didn't want to put more because of the risk of infection. I got a tetanus shot and was sent home with a script for antibiotics.

Last night the dog's owner dropped off these lovely flowers. She keeps on apologizing even though I keep telling her that it wasn't her fault.

She had told me on the phone yesterday that the dog had puppies inside the house that she was protecting. I didn't blame the dog at all and even less so after hearing that. I had suspected that she had pups. The owner also told me that they are building a privacy fence for the back yard and will keep that dog in the back from now on. The dog is going to have to be in isolation for 10 days, I'm guessing her pups which are still nursing will have to go with her.

When I got up this morning, my arm hurt just to move my fingers. My hand was/is swollen and red which hadn't been the case before. So when I called to set up an appointment to get the stitches removed with my regular doctor, I talked to a nurse who told me to go back to the ER.

My sweet, long suffering husband got permission to leave work and take me back to the ER. When we were ushered back the same male nurse who had cleaned me up on Saturday said, "Oh, you're BACK?" Then the same doctor, who incidentally looked like Ariana Grande, treated me. 

She confirmed that my arm is infected and took the stitches back out. She said that at this point they were just a bacteria magnet. Then she squeezed as much of the infection out of the wounds as she could. I told her that if I were a person who cussed, I would have been cussing at that moment. She had the nurse give me a pain pill when she was done. Next they took blood work and then after getting the results from that, got me set up with IV antibiotics. 

They told me that I need to come back again tomorrow to have more IV antibiotics. Each time I have to go back to the ER it's another $250. Uuuugh! We have the money, praise God, thanks to our tax return. But my husband had planned to use it for other purposes.

Now, my struggle is that I'm angry at myself for being so foolish and messing with that fence when I should have just kept on walking. I'm trying to tell myself things like, "Maybe I saved a child from getting attacked." But I'm still quite frustrated with myself even though I know:

Can anything happen without the Lord's permission?
Lamentations 3:37

Yesterday I was thinking that maybe God allowed me to get bitten by that dog so that I can develop a friendship with the owner and maybe even share the gospel with her. That would certainly help me to feel less aggravated with myself over this. In fact that would make it all worth it! I am praying that the Lord would open those doors as he sees fit. I would love for any of you who feel led to join me in prayer for this!

Why the trials, Lord?

This week's memory verse:
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!
Luke 1:45

Exodus 3

The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering."
Exodus 3:7

God is not blind to the suffering of his people. He sees and is concerned. He wants to bring us into a land of plenty, but doesn't promise that the journey there will be free of trials and hardship. The trials and hardship will forge us into holy vessels that he can use to bring others to himself.

Lord, it suddenly occurred to me that even though we go through all these trials on earth, we humans can never be perfect this side of heaven. So why make us go through them? Why not just let us coast through till we get to heaven?

I'm thinking that there are a few reasons. First, and foremost, you will not let us remain in our sin. Yes, we are covered by the blood once we accept your gift of repentance. But we still slip and fall. The trials help to clear the gunk that is still in our hearts and causes us to fall.

Second, once we truly understand what you did for us, we want to be more like you. The only way to do that is by going through the trials.

Third, we can't be used to lead others to you unless we have some resemblance to you.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but these are the ones that you have shown me at this time.

Lord, I praise you for the trials that I go through here on earth. I don't enjoy or look forward to them. But please help me to embrace them knowing that you are concerned and want to use it all for my best good and to draw others to yourself.
Amen

Fruitful in the Land of Suffering

Genesis 41

The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." Genesis 41:52

Lord, I praise you for making me fruitful in the land of my suffering. Indeed, it often seems that is when I am most fruitful. That is as long as I cling to you, my vine.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Still in the Dungeon

Genesis 40

The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph, he forgot him. 
Genesis 40:23

Who can command things to happen without the Lord's permission? 
Lamentations 3:37 NLT

Joseph was eager to get out of a difficult situation. Who can blame him? He'd done nothing to deserve prison. I can imagine his excitement thinking, "Soon the cupbearer will mention me to Pharaoh and I'll be taken out of this dungeon." But then his disappointment when day after day no word came for his release.

Little did he know that God was working behind the scenes, not just for his release, but for the release of many others. The time was not yet right for Joseph's release. If the cupbearer had mentioned him right away, then he perhaps would never have gotten the opportunity to interpret Pharaoh's dreams, ultimately saving his whole family.

How often do I beg and plead with God to take me out of a painful situation when he just might be working behind the scenes to bring about not just my release, but also a release of others who are in bondage to sin? As Christians we are God's servants to use as he sees fit. He wants to use us to bring as many as possible to a redemptive relationship with him.

Thank you, Lord, that the painful times in my life are not wasted. Unbelievers are watching me and how I respond to these times. I pray that with your help, Lord, I would respond in ways that bring glory to you! amen

I wrote this before heading to church this morning. During worship we sang this song and it went so well with this that I had to add it in.