Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Devotional

Russell and I had the humbling experience of being asked to write a devotional for our church's use. Our church is entering into a time of commitment for the payment for one of our facilities. This devotional guide is a 21 day guide written by different members of our congregation to help guide us in thoughts of prayer, God's will and giving.

We agreed to write the devotional and then we began to seek out God's guidance for what we should write. We were given the verse on which we should base our devotional.

Our devotional guide started Monday, January 21, and will run for the next 21 days. Russell and my devotional is featured on day 3, today.

"And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." 1 John 2:17

Russell and I mulled over many potential topics to write about concerning this verse from our many trips to Nicaragua to share about Jesus, the urgency of the gospel to coaching a basketball team. God directed our hearts through the process of each of these and how this verse can apply. We specifically chose to focus on prayer but even more importantly God's will for our lives.

This is what God placed on our hearts to share. May it be a blessing to many......

Having grown up in the church, we heard much about the will of God. And honestly, it seemd like a pretty simple idea to follow: you go to church, you pray, you read your Bible, and by doing so you are living in God's will. Our little world had not faced many trials until we had our second child. A little over six years ago, our second daughter was born. What joy and blessing we felt had been bestowed upon us again. A short while later our very core and beliefs would be put to the test. We would begin to question, "What was God's will? What was eternal?" Our daughter was born with a condition that has left her where she cannot walk or talk; she is basically still an infant. If we were to "survive" this, we would need to seek out God's will for us. We would need to spend time asking for a conscious awareness of what is eternal.

After much prayer and contemplation, soul-searching and tears, we feel we have begun to grasp the concept of God's perfer will and his eternal blessings. You see, if we only look at our daughtert through earthly or wordly eyes, we see her as imperfect and flawed. We could easily think that this could not be God's will for anyone. However, if we let our Holy Spirit comfort and guide us, we can see that through her life, she is bringing God glory. Her very existence is evidence of God's abiding love and His will that we be in constant and perfect union with Him.

Jesus, help us to focus on things eternal.

1 comment:

Nancy C. said...

Made me cry, of course. Our God is an awesome God; plus you and Russell are our superheroes!