August 2024 – She Believes 3

Faith August 28, 2024

Are Your Words Seasoned With Love?

Are Your Words Seasoned With Love?

Have you ever said something and instantly wished that you could take it back? Unfortunately, once our words escape our tongues, they hurl into the universe, never to be recaptured again. I must confess that there have been many times that I have said things without thinking, that I later regretted.

As we all know words are powerful. We have the power to bless or curse with our tongues. Our words can build others up or tear them down. They can encourage or discourage others. Hurtful words can literally stick with a person their entire lifetime and words of encouragement can do the same.

We have all been on the receiving end of both the positive and the negative use of words. Do you remember how both felt? When someone uses their words to encourage you, you feel energized, I am sure. But, when they use words that discourage you, it deflates you and sucks the energy from you. It can also make you feel inferior as well as angry.

Let’s make a commitment to think before we speak. Even when we know that we may have to have a tough conversation, let’s pray before we speak. We can ask God to give us the perfect words for that particular situation. We should try to think of the most loving way that we can communicate what we are feeling, Let’s season our words with love.
Let’s speak life!

²⁹Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Proverbs 15:4
⁴A gentle[a] tongue is a tree of life,  but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Proverbs 25:11
¹¹A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.
Proverbs 18:21
²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue,  and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Proverbs 15:1
15 A soft answer turns away wrath,  but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Luke 6:45
⁴⁵The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Colossians 4:6
⁶Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Faith August 15, 2024

Are You Running Your Best Race?

For the last two weeks my family and I have been watching the Olympics. Both my husband and my daughter were athletes at one time. So, they really have a healthy respect for what the athletes are going through as they compete to bring gold medals back to their country. Most of them have worked their entire lives for this big win.

The track and field events are especially captivating to me. To see the athlete’s strain and push themselves beyond what they could have even imagined in some cases, is really something to witness. Talking about leaving it all on the field, nothing could be truer for these athletes. At the end of the races that we have been watching, most of these elite athletes collapse from sheer exhaustion. They truly exert everything within themselves to win.

My question for you today is are you giving it your all? Are you using every bit of your strength and energy to achieve what God has called you to do? Are you taking your assignment as seriously as these athletes are taking their assignments? When God calls you home, will you cross the finish line all used up from faithfully pursuing the work that He has placed you on this earth to do, or will you cross over rested because you chose to be a spectator instead of a participant?

Today I want to challenge you to run the race that God has placed before you purposefully with passion and fervor. Choose to honor God by using up every drop of all that He has poured into you. There will be no gold medal when you cross the finish line, but there will be a jeweled crown and the words well done my good and faithful servant, and that my friend is worth more than the gold of a million medals.

²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ²⁷No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Hebrews 12:1
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,2 Timothy 4:7
⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

She Believes 3 Devotion August 7, 2024

How To Respond When Life Seems Unfair

Have you ever found yourself in a situation that seemed very unfair? If so, you know that it can be extremely frustrating to say the least. It is easy to give advice when it’s someone else that is going through a difficult season. But when it’s our turn to face difficult circumstances, all of a sudden, our words of encouragement seem to go straight out the window.

I have gone through some pretty tough seasons in my life, and I will be the first to tell you that waiting on God can be extremely hard. I will also tell you that when I look back on every one of those difficult seasons, I can see how God was drawing me closer and closer to Him. He was using the circumstance that I was in as a catalyst to change my heart and to open my eyes to see past the circumstance and to see Him.

You see He knows just how long to leave us in the fire as He is transforming us to look more and more like Him. The more we resist and fight the process the longer we will stay in the fire of change. Don’t complain and don’t resist. God is transforming you and preparing you so that you will be strong enough and wise enough to handle the next assignment that He has for you.

So today I want to encourage you to trust God and to trust His unquestionable love for you. Remember, what He is allowing you to go through, is happening for you and not to you.

Things That Will Encourage You While You Are Waiting

Pray daily and ask God for direction, strength and clarity.
Read God’s Word daily. It will calm your anxieties and give you peace in the midst of your storm.
Journal, write your feelings down. This will help you to process your thoughts and emotions.
Have a Christian friend that you can be accountable to, and that will pray for you.
Try to be still for 15-30 minutes each day and listen for God’s voice.

²When you pass through the waters,  I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
Psalm 55:22
²²Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let  the righteous be shaken.
Isaiah 41:10
¹⁰So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Psalm 9:9-10
⁹The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
¹⁰Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
Philippians 4:6-7
⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
James 1:2-4
²Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Matthew 11:28
²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.