Marico Early – She Believes 3

She Believes 3 Devotion November 22, 2023

Being Thankful is Biblical

Psalm 107
¹Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: his love endures forever.
1 Chronicles 29:13
¹³Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
Psalm 95:2-3
²Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
³For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
Psalm 107:8-9
⁸Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
⁹for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Psalm 100:4
⁴Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
1 Corinthians 15:57
⁵⁷But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 106 1-2
¹Praise the Lord.^[a] Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.²Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise?
Psalm 69:30
³⁰I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
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.
Psalm 9:1
¹I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
1 Chronicles 16:34
³⁴Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
2 Corinthians 4:15-16
¹⁵All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
Jeremiah 30:19
¹⁹From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing.
I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased;
I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained.
1 Corinthians 9:11
¹¹If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?
Psalm 28:7
⁷The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.
Jonah 2:9⁹But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Colossians 3:15
¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Ephesians 5:19-20¹⁹speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 7:17¹⁷I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.
Colossians 4:2
²Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Revelation 11:17
¹⁷saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
Psalm 92^[a]¹It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High,
1 Thessalonians 5:18
¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

She Believes 3 Devotion November 18, 2023

Light Brings Clarity

Light Brings Clarity
John 8:12
¹²When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 3:19-21
¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John 1:5
⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.
1 John 1:7
⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all^[a] sin.
Psalm 18:28
²⁸You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
Micah 7:8
⁸Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

A few days ago my husband and I were visiting our daughter. She had asked her dad to come by and help her with a few handyman things that she needed to have done. So I decided to ride with him.

I figured after they finished working we could all visit or watch a movie or something. I grabbed my iPad and some paperwork that I needed to work on as I was walking out of the door. When we got there I decided to park at her dining room table to set up a little mini workstation for myself. It was perfect!

I remember commenting to my husband just how comfortable her dining room chairs were. I could sit there and work for hours.

I was in my happy spot. I was doing my thing with no interruptions and they were doing what they needed to do. At one point after I had been sitting there working for quite some time, my daughter walked in and flipped on the light switch to the light fixture hanging over her dining room table.

It was an eye-opener for me because when we arrived it must have been some time after 4:00 PM. It was still very light outside. However, after sitting there for quite some time working it had started to get dark outside. I was so busy working that it never dawned on me that I could be seeing much better or that it was time for more lighting. When she flipped on the light switch I could not believe how much difference it made, and it was because I had not realized that it was darker than I thought. I also think that it was because it was not pitch black outside. Because of the time of day that it was, it had been such a gradual process that it was not noticeable until light was shed on it.

I immediately thought of how many people are living in darkness, and they are not aware of how different their lives could actually be. Many don’t even know that they are living in darkness. When we surrender our lives to God and His plan for our lives, the light switch comes on immediately, because He is our Light.

The same thing happened in our lives that happened to me at my daughter’s dining room table. We start to see things clearer. We get clarity. God sheds His light on areas that we need to clean up and on habits, and people that we need to drop who have possibly been a bad influence in our lives.

His light then starts to give us direction and guidance. So much happens when we make this change that would have never been revealed if we chose to keep living and working in darkness. My recommendation to you today is to run to the Light and not to darkness.

If you are already living a life in the light, my recommendation to you is to try and bring as many to the Light as possible. Help them to see what they are missing and how different their lives could be if they chose to live in the light. I also recommend that you share your story of how God’s redeeming love brought you from darkness to light.

Remember when you choose the Light you choose life, eternal life. It will not get any better than that, so let’s help others do the same.

Faith November 13, 2023

Baseball

¹How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
Colossians 3:14
¹⁴and over, all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Romans 12:16
¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.^[a] Do not be conceited.
John 17:23
²³I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
1 Corinthians 1:10
¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,^[a] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
Ephesian 4:3
³Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

This week as the world watched, the Texas Rangers won their very first World Series. I don’t know about you, but I grew up loving baseball. As a child on those rare days that our farm chores were completed before nightfall, the kids from our community would converge in our front yard for a game of baseball.

Then as a teenager, I played on a community girl’s softball team. It was the highlight of my week to go and play ball with my friends. Basically, the entire community of this very small town that I grew up in, would show up to watch the girls as well as the boys play ball.

The girls would always play first. Afterward, we enjoyed drinking ice-cold sodas and eating the best hot dogs ever, as we watched the boys play their game.

Then in 1974 I left home and moved to Arlington Texas to attend college. That’s when I became acquainted with the Texas Rangers. They only arrived two years ahead of me, so I feel like we grew up together. We were the new kids on the block. So needless to say, even though I moved away from Texas years ago my heart is still there cheering the Rangers on.

As I tuned in to watch the celebration parade honoring the great victory, I saw thousands upon thousands of happy fans, some of whom had walked as far as two miles to get to the parade route.

There were people there from every walk of life. Every demographic and ethnicity that you can imagine was represented, all smiling and joyful over the win.

I saw unity. How amazing that for a few short hours thousands of people were in agreement over something as simple as baseball.

I saw not only a celebration for baseball champions, but I saw the power of commonality. For once everyone was on the same page and actually agreeing on something. Their common love and support for this outstanding team and the sport of baseball was what drew them together.

I long for the day that those of us on God’s team will live in perfect unity. I truly believe that it will ignite an even greater joy, than I witnessed while watching the celebration parade. . As we walk in the victory that God has provided for us, we should remember that we too are blessed to be on a winning team, and oh what a victory celebration we will have one day too!

Prayers October 29, 2023

Have you ever been overwhelmed with gratitude

³²When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. ³³He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. ³⁴Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! ³⁵Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
³⁶Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. “Call the child’s mother!” he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!”

Have you ever been overwhelmed with gratitude? In 2nd Kings 4:32-36 the woman from Shunem experienced a blessing so great that she became overwhelmed with gratitude. You see. her young son had died, and she went to Elisha for help. With God’s power working through Elisha, he was able to bring her son back to life. Witnessing something like that firsthand, I am sure would not only be amazing, but it would cause the gratitude meter to go way up.

We certainly don’t have to experience anything that profound to become overwhelmed with gratitude. You may be able to recall on more than one occasion, how God’s goodness to you, brought tears to your eyes because you were so grateful.

When my daughter was twelve years old, she was selected to travel abroad to Europe with several other students from our part of the state. This was a huge honor for her. My husband and I were so excited for her to have this opportunity to travel and see and experience parts of the world that she had never seen before. We knew that it would be an education in itself.

This experience, however, would come with a huge price tag of $7000. At that time my husband and we were struggling financially. We didn’t know how we would pay for our daughter to go on this once in a lifetime trip. We just knew that we wanted this dream to come true for her. We started to move in faith, believing that it would happen. She was so excited and determined to go, that we could not stand to see her get disappointed.

During those years my daughter loved making jewelry from beads. She had also learned how to make colorful bracelets from small rubber bands. Teenagers absolutely loved them, and a lot of the kids at her school were wearing these bracelets during that time. We stocked her up on beads and rubber bands of every color. We went to a local dress shop here in our town, and the owner loved her jewelry so much, that she let her put her pieces in her shop. In no time her items sold out and she was able to bring more items in. The owner of the shop knew that her goal was to get to Europe, so she continued to order from her. Her sales however were only a drop in the bucket compared to how much she needed within a limited amount of time.

My husband and I decided that we needed to do some type of fundraising to help her with this goal, so we sent letters out to all of our friends and relatives, asking them to please support her goal. We could not believe the response. Everyone that knew her was so excited to help support this goal.

I remember us being so close to wrapping things up, but we still needed a lot more money than my husband and I had personally that we could give. We were stuck not knowing where the funds would come from, but still believing someway, somehow it would all come together.

One Sunday after church my daughter and I were about to leave the church parking lot, when one of our church members came up to my car door. When I let my window down to see what she needed, she said that she and her husband wanted to give towards my daughter’s trip. She then handed me a check for $500.

I instantly burst into tears. It was more than I could have ever imagined. I was literally overwhelmed with gratitude at that very moment, and uncontrollably so. And it didn’t stop there. Out of nowhere a friend gave me a check for $250. and said, if you don’t reach the goal by your deadline, let me know and I will give more. And if that wasn’t enough, my husband got a call from a gentleman that had already given a sizable amount, who told him the same thing. We did not have to call either person back, because the goal had been reached. God had provided, and boy were we ever thankful for His goodness towards us!

I have three thoughts on why we become overwhelmed with gratitude.

Sometimes we pray for things not knowing whether or not God will give us what we are asking Him for. When He says yes to our request, in some cases we are so surprised that we become overwhelmed with gratitude. Remember we should ask, believing that what we are asking for is already done.
There are times that we have a need so great, that when God meets that need for us we are overwhelmed with gratitude.
When God blesses us, just because we are His children. This can also come as a surprise and cause us to be overcome with gratitude.
During our quiet time, or time of worship when we sincerely praise God for who He is, we can become overwhelmed with gratitude.
Gratitude is simply an expression of our hearts, saying thank you God for your unwavering kindness towards us.

1 Samuel 12:24

²⁴But be sure to fear the Lord and faithfully serve him. Think of all the wonderful things he has done for you.

Faith October 22, 2023

Too Much Noise

⁵Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.
Psalm 46:10
¹⁰“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”
Job 6:24
²⁴Teach me, and I will keep quiet. Show me what I have done wrong.
1 Kings 19:11-12
¹¹“Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹²And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.

When was the last time you just sat quiet before the Lord? Was it so long ago that you have to really think hard to remember when it was. If so, you may agree that it has been too long. There are some of you who may have to admit, that you have never sat quiet before the Lord and that’s ok, because starting today you can change that.

The reason you may want to consider making this a new practice, is because God can reveal so much to us when we turn the noise down in our lives. We can’t hear Him when we are constantly bombarded with the noise from TV’s, phones, social media and Drama that comes our way.

God wants our full attention, and the only way that we can clearly hear His instructions for our day, is to be silent. When we are constantly racing from place to place and thing to thing, we miss so much that God is eager to share with us. We pray and we ask God to give us answers and directions, but we don’t turn down the volume in our lives, so that we can really hear His response.

When we do this, it is like asking for directions from the GPS in your car, and not making any adjustments to the sound of your car’s radio.

If the sound of the music is constantly blurring, you will miss the directions that your GPS is providing. It’s not that God is not providing answers, it’s that we have not stopped the flow of noise that is constantly moving in our direction.

So may I suggest to you today, that the next time you grab your Bible, or you kneel to pray, that you end your quiet time, with a few minutes of total silence before the Lord.

If it is hard for your brain to quiet down for a few minutes, I suggest that you bring a notebook to your chair and write down your thoughts as they come to you, until your brain quiets down. It will take time to develop this new habit, but it will be your most treasured time with God once you master it. This is a discipline that will reward you over and over again. You will start to clearly hear the guiding words and instructions from the one who loves you most, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Blessings to each of you, as you start a deeper journey with your Heavenly Father!

Faith October 8, 2023

Have You Prepared A Place ?

⁹She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. ¹⁰Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

¹¹One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. ¹²He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. ¹³Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”

¹⁴“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.

Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶“About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”

“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”

¹⁷But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

I was intrigued a few days ago as I was reading my Bible, and came to a passage of scripture in 2nd Kings 4:8-17. In this passage a wealthy woman from Shunem invited Elijah to come to her home for a meal. After his first visit he continued to stop there whenever he came to town.

This woman even told her husband that she was sure that this man was a man of God. She even suggested to her husband that they build a small room for him, and furnish it with a bed and a chair and lamp, so that he would have a place to stay whenever he came to town.

I saw God’s favor all over this. Elisha, was blessed because he was a man that honored God. He was treated with kindness by this wealthy woman, and she was also hospitable to him. The relationship that was developing between Elisha, the woman and her husband, would end up being a blessing to all three of them.

Little did the wealthy woman know, that her kindness and generosity would play a huge part in her future. Elisha sent his servant Gehazi to ask what he could do for her? It turns out that this lady did not have a son. Elisha promised her that at that same time the next year, that she would be holding a baby son.

She honestly thought that he was deceiving her, but a year later true to his word she was holding her baby son.

A great lesson from this really beautiful story is that, we never know what our being kind to someone will lead to. God has so many wonderful ways of blessing us, and when we bless others, He blesses us.

Another great lesson is that Elisha desired to bless her in a way that was possible for him. He didn’t assume that because she was wealthy that she didn’t have a need. Sometimes a person’s greatest need is the one that you cannot see, so be willing to ask. Although someone else shared her need with him, he was still the one that inquired.

Here’s another lesson, God has an abundance of blessings to fit any and every need imaginable. Just keep your eyes fixed on Him and treat others with kindness and He will bless you whether directly or indirectly through someone else. Remember just as we love blessing our children, He loves blessing His children!

She Believes 3 Devotion October 1, 2023

Nothing Except A Jar Of Olive Oil

²Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
³Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. ⁴Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
⁵She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. ⁶When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
⁷She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
Just this week I was reading in 2nd Kings chapter 4, about Elisha and a poor widow. The widow had come to the end of her resources. She and her sons were left alone after her husband’s death. When creditors came knocking at her door to collect the money for the debt that her husband had made, I am sure that she was afraid that her sons would have to become slaves to work off the debt.

You see, her sons could be taken as slaves in order to work off her husband’s debt, if she could not pay back the money that he had borrowed. Typically, if slaves were taken for the purpose of working off a debt, they would have to work for six years and they would be released in the seventh year. I am sure the thought of this was very frightening to her, because if this happened, she would then be left totally alone.

In her moment of distress, she went to Elisha and explained to him her plight. He immediately asked her what do you have in your house? Her response to his question was nothing except olive oil. What I love about this story are the two words “nothing except”.

You see God can do miraculous things with our “nothing except”. He can do for us what He did for the widow. He can multiply our “nothing except”.

Elisha told her to go to her friends and neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as she could. When she returned, He told her to close the door, and pour the oil into the containers until all of them were full. Then he told her to take the jars of oil and sell them.

Look at God! What I love about God is that He does impossible math. He performs the supernatural on our behalf. He doesn’t just bless us with what we need, He supersedes our expectations and blesses us bountifully. He also blesses us so creatively that only He can get the glory for the blessing.

Because of the widow’s obedience, she was able to pay off her husband’s debt and she still had money for her and her sons to live on. Suppose she had doubted what Elisha was asking her to do, because it didn’t seem possible that this would generate enough income to pay off the debt, much less to live on afterwards. She clearly would have missed seeing the power of God at work on her behalf. In God’s hands “our nothing except” is more than enough.

Always remember that our job is simply to trust and obey His directions and He will do the miraculous, the supernatural, the impossible and the incredible on our behalf. Our disaster is always God’s opportunity, so if you are in a hard place right now be encouraged, you are about to see things that you didn’t think were possible.
Exodus 22:22-23
²²“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. ²³If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.Deuteronomy 10:18
¹⁸He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.
Psalm 146:9
⁹The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
1 Timothy 5:5
⁵The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
Psalm 68:5
⁵A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
James 1:27
²⁷Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

She Believes 3 Devotion September 27, 2023

My Birthday

My Birthday

⁶Yes, you have been with me from birth; from my mother’s womb you have cared for me.
    No wonder I am always praising you!
⁷My life is an example to many,  because you have been my strength and protection.
⁸That is why I can never stop praising you; I declare your glory all day long.
Isaiah 46:4
⁴I will be your God throughout your lifetime—  until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.  I will carry you along and save you.
Lamentations 3:22-23
²²The faithful love of the Lord never ends![a] His mercies never cease.
²³Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Wow! Another trip around the sun. Yes, this is my Birthday month, and boy has it been a fun one so far! Though the gifts are fun to receive, and I enjoy the celebrations, it really does go a bit deeper than that for me these days.

As I have gotten older, I have seen more and more relatives and friends start to pass away. This has made me realize that my real Birthday gift was that I live to see another year and that God has been there for me another 365 days without fail. He has protected me, provided for me, guided me, comforted me, encouraged me, and loved me faithfully day after day. Not once when I called on Him in those 365 days has He said to me, I am busy right now let me get back to you on that. He has been available every single time that I have reached out to Him.

Even on the days that I may have forgotten Him, He never forgot about me, and my friends are the real Birthday gift! When I think of my birthday in this way, I am absolutely humbled that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords would even consider little old me. I am blessed beyond measure and so are you. Every single year is a gift, and please don’t ever forget that.

Never ever take the Lord’s goodness to you for granted. I know that as some women get older they are reluctant to share their age with anyone. Not me, if anyone ask I am happy to share how long the good Lord has been blessing me, and I hope that you will do the same.

It is not about your age, it’s about His goodness! And He is good all of the time! I hope that your next birthday will be as wonderful as mine and that you stop and give God some praise for allowing you to live to see it because it truly is a blessing to do so. Some won’t live to see their next birthday. If you are blessed to see it, then get your shouting and praise shoes on and give Him the glory that’s due Him for your fabulous trip around the sun.

¹²Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.

She Believes 3 Devotion September 17, 2023

Summer Months On The Farm

If you were not raised on a farm, you may not be able to fully grasp what that life is really all about. As a child growing up on a farm, it never occurred to me that there were children who actually got to relax and do exactly what they wanted to do with their summer vacations.

While our friends in the city were going to the city swimming pool or visiting friends and watching TV all day, my siblings and I were working from sunup to sun down on the farm.

It seemed that there was always something that needed to be done on the farm. There was one thing that my siblings and I were always in total agreement about and that was how much we hated going to the cotton fields. Yes, we hated chopping cotton, and we hated picking cotton and I do mean hated it! But it didn’t matter how much we hated it, we still had to do it.

So, as I look back on those early years of my life, I realize that during those very long hot days, my character was being shaped, I was also developing a work ethic. I was learning the importance of teamwork and how to be a team player. I was learning how to persevere even when the circumstances were uncomfortable. I was learning how to work until the job was done and sometimes that meant pushing past tired. I also learned the value of resting when it was resting time. I learned to value all of God’s creation, whether it be animals or nature. And wow!!! I can’t even begin to tell you about all of the life skills that I was blessed to learn from living on the farm. So, so many wonderful lessons came from those long hot summers on the farm. Don’t get me wrong there was work to do year round, but Summer was definitely the hardest as far as I am concerned.

Looking back I can see that God used this experience to prepare me for my life’s work. Isn’t it amazing that the very things that we hate going through or doing, are the things that God uses to prepare us for His perfect plan for our lives.

The hours that we spent working together no doubt created a special bond between my siblings and I, that we have until this day. This has been another great perk from living on the farm. So when you think life is too hard just know that this is part of God’s perfect plan for your life, and it will be used for your ultimate good and His ultimate glory!

Years down the road you too will look back and see how He was right there in the middle of the plan preparing you for the next level that He plans to take you to. So trust His timing and His ways because His ways are certainly higher than our ways!

¹¹For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Proverbs 16:3
³Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
Colossians 3:23
²³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

She Believes 3 Devotion September 3, 2023

God Will Not Be Denied

Every Tuesday morning, I am in a Virtual Bible Study with over four hundred women who are excited to study God’s Word. Last Tuesday morning I was running later than usual getting ready for my class.

In keeping with my morning routine, I had taken some medication that I had to take one hour before eating. If I fail to eat within an hour of taking my medicine, I will start to feel lightheaded and nauseous. Not a good feeling at all!
I knew that it was getting close to time for me to get on the Zoom, so I decided to try to quickly prepare my breakfast, and just keep my camera off until I finished eating. I had my Zoom where I could hear when things got started.

Within a few minutes, the leader announced who would be opening the study with prayer. When this happened, I was just about to start my blender to make my favorite morning smoothie. Initially, I thought that I would bow my head and pray with the other ladies. Then I thought, since my camera and sound are off, I will hurry and make my smoothie, and by the time class actually starts I will be sitting at my dining room table eating.

Well, things didn’t quite go as I had planned. When I went to pour my smoothie out of the blender, I accidentally overfilled my glass, and the smoothie had to be cleaned off my counter. As if that wasn’t enough when I started to scramble my eggs, one of my eggs slipped out of my hands and raw egg was wasted on the counter and flowed down my kitchen cabinets to the floor. I was beyond frustrated at this point. Suddenly I realized what was going on.

I had denied God the time, honor, and respect that was due Him during the prayer time. Whether it was in person or virtually, I should have paused and bowed my head to pray with the other ladies in the Bible Study. My disrespect and disobedience cost me. It cost me even more time than I initially thought that I would be saving because now I had to stop and clean up a mess. It also cost my peace, because now I was tuning into the Bible Study frustrated and distracted.

This whole scene reminded me of the children of Israel, and how their disobedience turned an eleven-day trip into a forty-year journey.

What I learned from this experience, is that God will not be denied His time, His glory, or His respect. So let me encourage you to never compromise on what you know is due Him because it will cost you. Be blessed and be faithfully committed to honoring our God, no matter the situation that you find yourself in.

Deuteronomy 1:2-3
²(It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.)³In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them.
Isaiah 42:8
⁸“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.
1 Samuel 2:30
³⁰“Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that members of your family would minister before me forever.’ But now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.
Psalm 29:2
²Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his^[a] holiness.