precious, precious Father...

my Father, my Dad, my Daddy...

how many times have i felt utterly alone in the struggles i face day to day?

how many times have i called on Your name and You have saved me?

how can i ever thank You completely for all You have done in my heart and life?

You are literally my Everything.

my All in All.

"Surely this is our God;

we trusted in him, and he saved us.

This is the Lord, we trusted in him;

let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

~Isaiah 25:9~

"O Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you and praise your name,

for in perfect faithfulness

you have done marvelous things,

things planned long ago."

~Isaiah 25:1~

these words seem so inadequate but they are all i have:

thank You, thank You, thank You...

for all of time, my Father,

i will thank You...

when we cannot see...

The View from a Troubled Heart,
by Bill Sherrill

"O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!"
(Deuteronomy 32:29 KJV).
"And he said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter: for thou hast shewed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich."
(Ruth 3:10).
"So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses"
(Job 42:12).

Have you ever had the feeling that no matter what you tried to do nothing ever seemed to turn out alright?
Most of us have felt that at one time or another.
Some continually feel this way because life has been so difficult for them...

Jeremiah was distressed because the righteous seemed to suffer and the wicked prospered (Jeremiah 12:1).
Job, in his terrible trials, forgot all the good he had enjoyed and became so focused on his tragedies that he wished to have never been born.
The prophet Elijah cried out that he would be better off dead since he was hunted by his enemies and "I,only I am left."
To which the LORD replied, "I have 7,000 left who have not bowed their knees to Baal" (1 Kings 19:18).
The truth is, that until these "considered their latter end" of God's work, they could not make any sense of the affairs of their lives.
It is not possible to see, from our limited viewpoint, just what God has in store for us or how He will use us in His service.
Through God's providence they found joy!

One of the best told and most beautiful stories found in the Bible is about just such a situation...

An Israelite wife and mother, Naomi left her homeland with her husband and two sons because there was a great famine in their land.
After arriving in a foreign land, her husband died and left her with the two sons. After a time, the sons married and then they also died without children.
Naomi had heard that her homeland was once again reaping harvests so she determined to return to a place where she had kin. After her two daughters-in-law had traveled with her for a distance, she implored them to return to their own houses in the hope that they, being young, might find other husbands and raise families.
When they pleaded with her to let them continue with her, in the accumulation of misery that had befallen her,
Naomi said "My life is much too sad for you to share, because the LORD has been against me!" (Ruth 1:13).
"The LORD has been against me!"
How bitter Naomi must have felt! After all, nothing of value in her entire life remained; she was old and alone. But that for which she could never have dreamed was in the making. One of the young women who were her daughters-in-law refused to leave her and under her direction married the wealthy and kind Boaz.
And beyond any one's wildest dreams, Naomi's faithful daughter-in-law became one of three foreign women in the line which produced the Lord Jesus the Christ!
Through God's providence, Naomi and Ruth found joy in the present world and have gone down in history as two of the most famous women of all time!

Perhaps we -- like King David, Job, Elijah, and Naomi -- need to wait to see the "latter end"
before we assume that the LORD is unfair.

When we look back at our lives from the Eternal Kingdom, I suspect we might just find a few things of real glory in the life which seemed so empty.I guess "hind sight" will always be clearer than our present view.
Perhaps that is one of the most important reasons to trust in God's providence.
God didn't make anyone who is not important in His eyes
--no matter how it may look at the moment from our own point of view!---------

(c) 2008 Bill Sherrill
this article is originally from www.heartlight.org

forgiveness...

Forgiveness?,

by Ron Rose

{this devotion can be found at http://www.heartlight.org}

She came in complaining about my sermons always being about forgiveness and grace ...

I needed to come down harder on the sinners and in her words, "nail them."

After her rant, I asked, "So, you've got forgiveness and grace all worked out in your own life?"

"Well, Ron, there are some things you can't turn loose of, things that don't deserve grace, or forgiveness.

That's just the way it is. I know it's that way in my family."

She leaned over my desk and revealed a heart hardened by resentment and bitterness,

"No, forgiveness is not an option. I've been hurt too much."

The grudge was too embedded.

And her spiritual life was powerless and trapped in the wilderness.

Lack of forgiveness had turned in a critical, spirit of judgment.

She wanted me to make everyone else as miserable as she was ...

as long as she was in charge, of course.

A year later she left the church ... looking for harder preaching.

On the other side of her story is Reginald Denny.

Remember him?

Forgiveness doesn't make sense!

Years ago, Reginald Denny drove his truck into the riots of South Central Los Angeles

and the video cameras captured every detail of two men smashing his truck window with a brick,

hauling him from the cab and beating him with a broken bottle and kicking him until the side of his face was caved in.

Then at the trial, in spite of protests from his own lawyers, Denny walked over to the

mothers of the two defendants, hugged them and told them he forgave them.

The mothers responded with hugs and tears.

How could he do that?

One commentator stated, "Well you know, Denny did suffer some brain damage."

Forgiveness doesn't make sense:

sometimes it just seems like nothing is more important than hanging on to the grudge ...

sometimes "turning loose" is nothing but a slogan.

But, then God steps in and a miracle happens ... Turning loose becomes an experience.

Don't forget three basics:

1. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you condone what was done.

2. Forgiveness doesn't depend on the other person's apology ... it's the experience of finding inner peace.

3. Forgiveness is a gift for you ... by offering it, your life is no longer controlled by what someone else has done.

The weight of hurt and resentment and bitterness are released and you are finally free.

God has forgiven ... so what are you going to do?

His promises...and waiting on Him

MORNING:
"Tell me I pray thee wherein thy great strength lies."
-- Judges 16:6

Where lies the secret strength of faith?
It lies in the food it feeds on; for faith studies what the promise is-
an emanation of divine grace,an overflowing of the great heart of God;
and faith says, "My God could not have given this promise, except from love and grace;
therefore it is quite certain his Word will be fulfilled."
Then faith thinks, "Who gave this promise?"
It considers not so much its greatness, as, "Who is the author of it?"
She remembers that it is God who cannot lie-God omnipotent, God immutable; and
therefore concludes that the promise must be fulfilled; and forward she advances in this firm conviction.
She remembers, why the promise was given,-namely, for God's glory,
and she feels perfectly sure that God's glory is safe, that he will never stain his own escutcheon,
nor mar the lustre of his own crown;
and therefore the promise must and will stand.
Then faith also considers the amazing work of Christ as being a clear proof of the Father's intention
to fulfil his word.
"He that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
Moreover faith looks back upon the past,for her battles have strengthened her, and her victories have given her courage.
She remembers that God never has failed her;
nay, that whenever did once fail any of his children.
She recollected times of great peril, when deliverance came; hours of awful need,
when as her day her strength was found, and she cries,
"No, I never will be led to think that he can change and leave his servant now.
Hitherto the Lord hath helped me, and he will help me still."
Thus faith views each promise in its connection with the promise-giver, and,
because she does so, can with assurance say,
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!"

EVENING:

"Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation;
on thee do I wait all the day."
-- Psalms 25:5

When the believer has begun with trembling feet to walk in the way of the Lord,
he asks to be still led onward like a little child upheld by its parent's helping hand,
and he craves to be further instructed in the alphabet of truth.
Experimental teaching is the burden of this prayer.
David knew much, but he felt his ignorance, and desired to be still in the Lord's school:
four times over in two verses he applies for a scholarship in the college of grace.
It were well for many professors if instead of following their own devices, and
cutting out new paths of thought for themselves, they would enquire for the good old ways
of God's own truth, and beseech the Holy Ghost to give them sanctified understandings
and teachable spirits.
"For thou art the God of my salvation."
The Three-One Jehovah is the Author and Perfecter of salvation to his people.
Reader, is he the God of your salvation? Do you find in the Father's election, in the Son's atonement,
and in the Spirit's quickening, all the grounds of your eternal hopes?
If so, you may use this as an argument for obtaining further blessings;
if the Lord has ordained to save you, surely he will not refuse to instruct you in his ways.
It is a happy thing when we can address the Lord with the confidence which David here manifests,
it gives us great power in prayer, and comfort in trial.
"On thee do I wait all the day."
Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that
we shall not wait in vain.
It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy,
in trust all the days of our life.
Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding.
We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously
he once waited for us...

"God~joined"

"God has joined those two people together. So no person should separate them."
~Mark 10:9

KEY THOUGHT:

God has the power to make two people one.
Marriage is not about a wedding, but about a man and a woman entering into a covenant relationship
with God.
God is the greater party in the covenant.
The man and the woman give their highest allegiance and commitment to God when they marry.
There will be times when their spouse will unfortunately disappoint them or let them down.
But, God wants them to remember that their highest priority is not treating their spouse as he
or she deserves, but as God would have them be treated.
Honoring God in the way they treat each other is the key to marriage as God sees it.
God wants husbands and wives to understand that breaking a marriage apart is an offense
against God --
he is the one who makes couples one and the one with whom they enter into covenant relationship.
God hates covenants made with him to be broken.

TODAY'S PRAYER:

O God, please give your people a deeper appreciation of what it means to enter into covenant with you when they marry.
Help me, O God, to be a covenant-keeper and a person who encourages others to be loyal to you and the covenants they make with you.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.