Psalm 145:15-20 (NLT)
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it.
¹⁶ When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.
¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness.
¹⁸ The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them.
²⁰ The Lord protects all those who love him,……

Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV)
²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

Psalm 84:11-12 (NKJV)
¹¹ For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold  From those who walk uprightly.
¹² O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

On yesterday afternoon I was out running some errands. I had been working all day and here it was 3p.m. and I had not had lunch.  I knew that I still had to go to the bank and to pick up a few items from the grocery store, so I decided to run through a fast food restaurant here in town and just get a chicken sandwich. It would be something quick that I could eat in the car, as I drove to my next stop.  

I was having a rough day and I think mostly because I had experienced two nights back to back with my sleep being interrupted around 4 am on both nights.

ARE YOU TELLING YOUR STORY?

July 30, 2017

Luke 21:12-13 (NLT)
¹² “But before all this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons, and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers. ¹³ But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me.^[a]

Mark 5:19 (NLT)
¹⁹ But Jesus said, “No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.”

Philippians 1:12-18 (NLT)
¹² And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters,^[a] that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. ¹³ For everyone here, including the whole palace guard,^[b] knows that I am in chains because of Christ.¹⁴ And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers^[c] here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message^[d] without fear.
¹⁵ It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. ¹⁶ They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. ¹⁷ Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. ¹⁸ But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.

Psalm 107:2 (NLT)
² Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!  Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.

One Sunday twenty-seven years ago while sitting in a Women’s Bible Class I felt compelled to share a portion of my personal story.  I can’t remember the exact topic of the lesson that day, but whatever it was, some kind of way I felt that sharing my story could be a worthy contribution to the discussion.

I had gone through a very stressful and violent divorce and only those very close to me, such as my family and one or two friends really knew what my journey had been.