Cant Hold On Hang On

My significant other has the quote Cant hold on hang on, tattooed on the back of his right hand. I never quite understood the meaning of it until it finally hit me when doing one of my many self evaluations. Every now and then, as we Christians often do, I loose focus and my mind wonders from its rightful place with the Lord. I get wrapped up in keeping house, staying on schedule with my kids, and fitting new appointments into my already short days. I know I have gotten off of track when my temper becomes shorter with my rambunctious 7 year old, or when I want to turn in early because of built up frustration and anxiety from a busy day. It was on one of these days that the meaning of that quote, Cant hold on hang on, made perfect sense. When I loose my focus and feel these moments of frustration and overwhelming anxiety begin to fill my veins, I simply need to hang on to the promises of better days. Hang on to the memories of those days when my mind was fixed on the Lord, allowing him to guide my every step from sun up to sun down. Those days where filed with absolute joy with thoughts of the Lord being my guiding light. Training me, and molding me to fit hit master plan.
We all need these days. We all loose sight and its because of these days that we are able to recognize our blessings. Recognize the mercy that we have been given over and over again that has pulled us through these days. I'm holding tight to my faith and hanging on His every word, and with that, I'm looking forward to these days that are sure to come.

Daily Devotion

We are not saved of our own good works, it is the Gift of God accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross and assured and secured by His Resurrection.

Daily Devotion

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:40-48 NLT.

Daily Devotion

The practices of goodness- noticing, savoring, thinking, enjoying, and being thankful- are not hard disciplines to learn. But they are disciplines, and they take practice.....The habits that allows wrong to become entrenched- mindlessness or tuning out, inattentiveness, the busyness of doing to distraction, and an ungrateful heart- can take hold so easily....Doing feeds the distraction that makes us inattentive. When we carve out time to really rest and be restored, we also restore our ability to be attentive.
- Desmond Tutu

Daily Devotion: Faithful With Your Own

"My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house." Numbers 12:7

Moses was faithful with what God had given him to do. Moses wasn't required to be faithful with Aaron's calling, or even Joshua's, just his own. God requires individual faithfulness of us all. He requires us to be faithful with what He has given us to do... individually. God doesn't require you to be faithful with someone else's assignment or gifts or talents or calling; only faithful in the "house" He has given you.

As you look at the parable of the talents (Matthew 25) you will notice that the Lord of the house did not require the servant with five talents to be faithful with the talent that He had given the servant with only one, or the servant with two talents to be faithful with the five He had given another servant. Each servant was required to be faithful with what he was given (with his own talent)... not with what another servant was given. This should be a great comfort to you. Too often we feel like we have to be doing what someone else is doing or we aren't doing enough, or we are missing it somewhere. This is a trick of the enemy to burden you down with a lot of busyness in your flesh and cause you to take on more than God has called you to do.

Each of us must be faithful with what God has given us to do and not feel that we have to do what someone else is doing. God will not require anything more of you than what He has given you. If He didn't give you "five talents" He won't require you to give an account of five talents. So don't worry about what someone else is doing... just be faithful with what God has called you to do. Be faithful with the "one" if that is all He has given you.... and do it in such a way that God will be glorified.

Reference "About the Master's Business Ministry"

Daily Devotion

'There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee : I will not fail thee , nor forsake thee."

"Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, The Lord your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land."

Joshua 1:5-13

Giving Him Praises Anyhow

“So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever. that I may daily perform my vows.”Psalm 61:8

Everyday along with a new sunrise and sunset, we live through new experiences of hurt & happiness. Each emotion and experience brings us to a new thought of needs and wants. I need to feel the happiness of my children and loved ones that are around me on a daily basis in order to enjoy my day. If my mate is not in a happy state, neither am I. But that was putting to much pressure on my mate to be happy for me when he wasn't happy for himself. When my daughter came home with a bad report I would allow her attitude to transform my own attitude to fit her's, thus each of us rubbing our bad attitudes off on the rest of the house. It wasn't fair for me to put so much on my child. I am suppose to turn her frown upside down, give her assurance that tomorrow will better for that is a mothers job. I allowed my mood shifts to control what I did or did not do through out the day and eventually nothing was getting done.

One cannot expect another flaw filled human being like ourselves to determine our state of happiness. We all have those mornings of waking up on the wrong side of the bed and most of the time not even knowing why. We treat our co-workers and friends with nonchalant attitudes of disrespect and expect them to understand.

I come from a musically talented family and growing up, giving our voices to the Lord in praise was like breathing. I got tired of feeling this emotional low because of everyone else's unhappiness so I had to learn how to redirect all of that bad energy around to work for me and not against me.

It states in Proverbs 22:6 " Train a child up in the way they should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it", and therefor I followed myself back to my real self and remembered how good it felt to be in church singing, at rehearsals practicing, and in my room crying his praises. Even then, being so young, I felt the spirit all over me assuring me that he is here and will never leave me. No matter what I may or may not have been going through, nothing in this world has ever made me feel so good. Nothing to this day has ever made me feel as good as it does when the Lord is involved. So, I came to the conclusion that if it feels good to include him in my thoughts when I am happy, why not include him when I am sad, tired, stressed, busy, and when I have nothing to do. I've consumed every aspect of my life with the faith that no matter what, He'll make it OK. Just right, just for me. Its a great thing to know that I may not be happy now but give Him a minute to hear my praises and I'll be back like new. Ready to do His work!

"He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat." Proverbs 28:25

Daily Devotion

Your life is not a boring stretch of highway. It's a straight line to heaven. And just look at the fields ripening along the way. Look at the tenacity and endurance. Look at the grains of righteousness. You'll have quite a crop at harvest.....so don't give up!

-Joni Eareckson Tada

Brokenness

By Robbin Crawford

We live in a broken world with broken people. Inside us, we all have areas of brokenness: Broken Dreams, Broken Spirits, Broken Hearts, Broken Relationships, even a Broken Sense of Self Esteem. A Broken Heart can hold us back from taking part in an authentic and loving relationship, Broken Self Esteem can stop us from exemplifying a positive and productive personality, and a Broken Spirit finds it virtually impossible to experience real joy.

The question is, how are we going to deal with the brokenness in our lives? Will we put on our polished Sunday Faces and pretend all is well with us, or will we deal with it? Realize that in dealing with the reality of brokenness, it requires truth. We must admit that we have messed-up-broken-down-heaps-of-lives. We scurry from one relationship to the next without allowing ourselves time to breathe. In our search for Mr. Perfect, we compromise our integrity, yet compounding additional brokenness.

Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Through the brokenness of our lives we can become the vessels that God intended us to me. God gave us Wisdom which is in His Word. Through His Word brokenness can be repaired. Maybe that Broken Dream was your dream that did not fit His plan for your life. That Broken Relationship was never ordained by God and never destined to be, because it was never part of His plan for your life.

As long as we rely on our own foolish pride and selfishness, lusting after the flesh, we will continue to live a broken life, filled with frustration and loneliness. Brokenness stops at the point where our spirit yields to His Will. God uses our brokenness to reveal to us our need for Him and to prepare us for future service. Let Him perfect your brokenness. God’s ultimate goal is spiritual victory.

Let us look at a glass that has fallen to the floor and broken into many pieces. We can easily sweep the pieces together and discard them in the trash. But God takes those broken pieces and fits them tightly together in such a manner that they will never be broken again. We just have to surrender it all to Him. God Bless!

Daily Devotion

We look at our burdens and heavy loads, and we shrink from them. But, if we lift them and bind them about our hearts, they become wings, and on them we can rise and soar toward God.

-Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Daily Devotion

"She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry: her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come." Proverbs 31:21-25

Daily Devotion

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." Titus2:3-5

Daily Devotion

Prosperous Wherever You Are
About The Master's Business Ministry

"And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:" 1 Kings 2:3

When I read this verse, it sounded very familiar... I had heard it in Joshua 1:7- "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest." The verse in 1 Kings is King David's charge to his son Solomon. David was dying and Solomon was getting ready to take the throne as king of Israel. The verse in Joshua was given to Joshua by God just before he was to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. God wanted both of these men to be prosperous in what they were about to do and where His will for their lives was taking them.

God wants you to be prosperous as well. He wants you to succeed in that which He calls you to do. So he tells us how that this will happen. In both verses God gives us the key... and condition... to being prosperous wherever we go. "Walk in His ways, keep His statues, commandments, judgments, and testimonies. In other words... be obedient to His commands and you will prosper wherever you are. Do you want to be prosperous wherever you go? Then obey His commands.

http://www.thechristianwoman.com/

Daily Devotion

A virtuous woman teaches her children the ways of her Father in heaven. She nurtures her children with the love of Christ, disciplines them with care and wisdom and trains them in the way they should go.(Proverbs 31:28, Proverbs 31:26, Proverbs 22:6, Deuteronomy 6, Luke 18:16)

www.avirtuouswoman.org

Daily Devotion

The Christian life is one of faith, where we find ourselves routinely overdriving our headlights but knowing it's okay because God is in control and has a purpose behind it.- Bill Hybels

Daily Devotion

God wants to make something beautiful of our lives; our task-as God's children and as our children's parents-is to let Him.
Jim Gallery

"Purpose For Everyday Living For Mothers" by Thomas Nelson Publishers

Perseverance

Perseverance is commitment, hard work, patience and endurance. Often, we wait until we are in the mist of the storm to only hear this word spoken. At which point we begin to reflect on the specific aspects of our life that are in need of this action the most. To persevere takes more than bringing attention to our situation, but that through faith in faith all things through Christ are possible. Worry leads to depression, loss of sleep, rifts with family and friends, and in the worst cases sickness. Finding strength in hardship is why the Lord sent His son Jesus to bear the cross for our sins. He wanted us to know that no matter what stage of our lives or circumstances, that he is always here, watching and waiting for us to repent and accept him into our lives whole-heartidly. Lay your burdens down for him to bear and leave the worry behind. If you wait on the Lord, he will see you through.

"Only the person who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unrestingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burdens easy, and under its gentle pressure recieves the power to persevere in the right way"- Dietrich Bonhoeffer