Provision | Kristi's Morning Devotional

January 26, 2018January 26, 2018

No GPS or Voicemail

Have you ever gotten stuck in one of those phone trees – you know the ones, press 1 for billing, press 2 to change your address, press 3 for something else, press 5 for none of the above. They never give you the number to press to get a live person to talk too and then when you’ve been holding for 20-30 minutes you errantly get disconnected and have to call back and start the process over. Has to be one of the most frustrating things ever!

Or what about the GPS that you are depending on to help you navigate an unknown city. Turn here, turn there, recalculating, recalculating, recalculating!

The two verses that we are looking at this morning come from the book of Jeremiah. This book is a history of the Israelites being carried off as prisoners of the king of Babylon, their repentance while in captivity and their return to their Promised Land of Israel.

So what’s that got to with us? All Scripture is truly a letter to us from God. We can learn from what others did wrong to avoid the same pitfalls and failures that they experienced. As we look at these two verses this morning we will see that no matter how far the people of Israel went in their rebellion to God he was always reaching out to them in love.

“0 After Babylonia has been the strongest nation for seventy years, I will be kind and bring you back to Jerusalem, just as I have promised. 11 I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering. 12 You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers. 13 You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you” Jeremiah 29:10-13 CEV

We can learn from the Israelites. God always had a plan for them to be a great nation, His people. He had promised to protect, provide and give them victory but they became distracted and disobedient when they began to worship the false gods of the nations around them. They forgot and then ignored the plan that God had set for them.

Do you remember the very first of the 10 commandments?

“Do not worship any god except me. 4 Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. 5 Don’t bow down and worship idols. I am the Lord your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. 6 But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.” Exodus 20:3-4 CEV

God’s command to worship only Him was a command for their own good and protection. He knew that if they followed other gods if would be detrimental and He didn’t want to see His people destroyed or depraved as other nations were. But God didn’t want puppets serving Him; He wanted them to serve Him out of love and not because they had no choice. God gave them a free will – the right to choose. Theirs was a bad choice and it led to their captivity.

We have a choice too. It’s important that we make the right ones, when we do we live this life that Lord reminded the people about. It is a life with a future filled with hope and blessing, a future of success and not suffering. God was reminding the Israelites and us that His plan for us is good and if we ask for help He is there to answer.

We don’t need a GPS to follow the plan God has for us we just need to call out to Him and he will direct our path.

“‘Call to Me, and I will answer you. And I will show you great and wonderful things which you do not know.’” Jeremiah 33:3 NLV

When we call out to God we don’t have to go through press 1 for this, press 5 for that and we never get stuck on hold or go to voicemail. We are instantly connected to our loving, heavenly Father. He is always there and will provide the help we need. (Remember yesterday’s verse)

Rest assured God is always there and waiting for us to call.

July 30, 2017February 27, 2018

How Generous are You?

How generous are you? Think about it for a minute, this morning’s devotional will possibly challenge and stretch you a bit. Generosity and trust go hand in hand.

Some people are stingy and miserly because they are afraid they won’t have enough for themselves. Others react that way because they feel everything they have is a result of “their” own hard work and sweat and so they have no desire to share.

But a truly generous person realizes that everything they have is a blessing from the Lord and that they can trust God to provide ALL their needs. When the Lord instructs us to give He provides!

I was really challenged by the story of Elijah and the widow woman of Zarepath this morning. Oh, I’ve read it many times – many times but this morning I was challenged.

“There was no rain, so after a while the stream became dry. 8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 “Go to Zarephath in Sidon and stay there. There is a widow there that I commanded to take care of you.”

10 So Elijah went to Zarephath. He went to the town gate and saw a woman there gathering wood for a fire. She was a widow. Elijah said to her, “Would you bring me a small cup of water to drink?” 11 As she was going to get the water, Elijah said, “Bring me a piece of bread too, please.”

12 The woman answered, “I promise you, before the Lord your God, that I have nothing but a handful of flour in a jar and a little bit of olive oil in a jug. I came here to gather a few pieces of wood for a fire to cook our last meal. My son and I will eat it and then die from hunger.”

13 Elijah said to the woman, “Don’t worry. Go home and cook your food as you said. But first make a small piece of bread from the flour that you have and bring it to me. Then cook some for yourself and your son. 14 The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘That jar of flour will never be empty and the jug will always have oil in it. This will continue until the day the Lord sends rain to the land.’”

15 So the woman went home and did what Elijah told her to do. And Elijah, the woman, and her son had enough food for a long time. 16 The jar of flour and the jug of oil were never empty. This happened just as the Lord said through Elijah.”
I Kings 17:7-16 ERV

There had been a drought in the land. Food was scarce and people were starving. Elijah was a servant of God and He was used to listening for the Lord’s voice and obeying it. However, we have a widowed woman in a town who is down to her very last morsel of food and she probably isn’t accustomed to the Lord speaking to her too often. And she is presented with a life and death challenge.

This preacher walks into town and requests her last bit of food. “Don’t worry. Go home and cook your food as you said. But first make a small piece of bread from the flour that you have and bring it to me.” Really? That’s pretty bold!!

Don’t forget verse 9. God had already commanded the woman to take care of Elijah. Now she has a choice – obey God and feed the prophet or make her bread, feed her son and starve. I’m sure she struggled a bit in making her decision. Maybe her struggle came when the Lord first spoke to her or maybe it was when she was confronted by the prophet. A mother who has already seen her husband die and now she knows the life of her son is in danger – her instinct is to protect her child.

She chooses to obey God! Struggle over – victory comes.

What are you struggling with today? Has the Lord asked you to be a blessing to someone – maybe even a stranger? Be obedient, follow the Lord’s instruction, His provision is always enough!

July 17, 2017February 27, 2018

Welcoming Rains

Yesterday morning I was emailing a friend and telling her about the rains we had the night before. Telling her how the whole area was greening up and everything seemed to be refreshed and welcoming to the rains.

As I was keyboarding the message I looked out my front window and saw a beautiful bird sitting on the top of the gate with a big, fat worm hanging from his beak. What a great image! Starting the day refreshed and full.

How do birds know they like worms? How do some know that they only like seeds? And then there are the little hummingbirds who come by the dozens to drink from my feeders…how do they know?

“So I tell you, don’t worry about the things you need to live—what you will eat, drink, or wear. Life is more important than food, and the body is more important than what you put on it. 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant, harvest, or save food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. Don’t you know you are worth much more than they are? 27 You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? Look at the wildflowers in the field. See how they grow. They don’t work or make clothes for themselves. 29 But I tell you that even Solomon, the great and rich king, was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers. 30 If God makes what grows in the field so beautiful, what do you think he will do for you? It’s just grass—one day it’s alive, and the next day someone throws it into a fire. But God cares enough to make it beautiful. Surely he will do much more for you. Your faith is so small!

31 “Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 That’s what those people who don’t know God are always thinking about. Don’t worry, because your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. 33 What you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what he wants you to do. Then he will give you all these other things you need.” Matthew 6:25-33 ERV

The sun isn’t even up yet but the birds are singing. They are anticipating the goodness of the day! Shouldn’t we start our day the same – with a song?

Thank you Father for providing ALL I need. I want Your plan to be my plan today. I trust You!