Marico Early

She Believes 3 Devotion December 23, 2023

What Do Our Christmas Traditions Symbolize?

Are you prepared for Christmas? Most of us are decorating, purchasing gifts, and baking our favorite holiday cookies by now. We are all getting ready for the big day.

I thought that I would take a break for a minute or two and share what our Christmas traditions symbolize. I hope that you will gain insight and joy, as you read why and how some of these very familiar traditions were started.
The Traditional Christmas Colors
The two traditional Christmas colors are red and green. The color red represents the blood that Christ shed as he hung and died on the cross.
Green represents the everlasting life that we have access to because of Jesus’s death.
1 Peter 1:3
³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Colossians 1:19-22
¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
²¹Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of^[^a^] your evil behavior. ²²But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
The Christmas Tree
Most Christmas Trees are evergreen. These trees can remain green in the most brutal of winters. This represents hope. No matter what life throws at you when you know Christ there is hope. Hope for the now and hope for the future. There is a story that says: when Christ was born the trees started to shake and snow fell from every tree and they all remained green, symbolizing that you can survive the most difficult of seasons. The tree also represents the cross that Christ hung on.
Hebrews 9:12
¹²he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
The Wreaths
The wreaths represent eternal love and rebirth which gives us eternal life.
Romans 8:35
³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Romans 8:37-39
³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[^a^] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 5:11
¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Romans 6:23
²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[^a^] Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Star
The star represents the bright star that appeared when Christ was born.
Matthew 2:1-2
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[^a^] from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
The Bells
The bells ring during Christmas to announce the birth of Christ.
The Red And White Candy Canes
Candy Canes represents the shepherd’s crook. Jesus was the Good Shepherd. With his birth lost lambs could be bought back into the fold.
The color red in the candy cane represents the blood Christ shed on the cross. The white represents purity. Christ was holy and without blemish.
1 John 3:3-5
³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
⁴Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
Poinsettias
The poinsettia lives through the winter months and is actually known as the Christmas flower. Their beautiful bright red color represents the blood of Christ and the shape of each flower is shaped like a star representing the star of Bethlehem.
The Holly Berries
Holly berries have leaves that are very prickly representing the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus’s head. The red color of the berries represents the blood he shed on the cross.
The Gifts
The gifts that we give at Christmas, represents the gifts that the Wise Men brought to baby Jesus when they went to visit him. Gifts also represents, the gift that God gave to the world when he sent his one and only Son to die a cruel death, so that we may have eternal life.
Matthew 2:11
¹¹And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Ephesians 2:8-9
⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Romans 6:23
²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 3:16
¹⁶“For God so loved the world,^[^a^] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The Ornaments
Ornaments were originally apples that were hung on the tree symbolizing the forbidden fruit. This was started in Germany around the 16th century. Later ornaments became representative of a family’s interest, such as hobbies etc.. Today they are mainly for decoration.
The Mistletoe
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant. Parasitic plants live on what they become attached to. Mistletoes are attached to trees, and without the tree the mistletoe would die. Just as the mistletoe is dead apart from the tree, we are dead apart from Christ. For this reason, the mistletoe has become the symbol of love.
Ephesians 2:1-10
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[^a^] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The Lights And Candles
Lights and candles are symbolic of Jesus being the Light of the world. Apart from Jesus there would only be darkness.
May your Christmas be merry and bright, and may you hold close to your heart the reason for this season, which is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ!
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 9:5
⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
1 John 1:5
⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
Revelation 21:23
²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

She Believes 3 Devotion December 10, 2023

What Well Are You Drinking From?

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])
¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
¹¹“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Today I would like to start by asking you a question. What well are you drinking from? This question came to mind as I thought about the Samaritan women in the 4th chapter of John.
In this chapter Jesus explains to the Samaritan woman that everyone who drinks water that God provides will never thirst again, because they will be drinking Living Water. This water that He spoke of was an eternal water. Of course she did not understand initially.

She did not understand that all that God gives, provides nourishment and life to our very souls. This water that He spoke of quenches our thirst physically and spiritually. In other words it satisfies. There is no need to look to other places for fulfillment or satisfaction..

Daily we hear of the different addictions that people are dealing with. These struggles can be constant and they are absolutely real. Whether you know someone personally or you have experienced it first hand or simply seen it on a T.V. show, it is heartbreaking to watch.

Maybe your struggle is not an addiction. Maybe it’s just discontentment, sadness or even disappointment. Maybe it’s a struggle with unforgiveness or other unresolved issues in your life. Whatever the case, how are you choosing to cope with your problem or resolve your issue? If it’s anything other than what God provides through a relationship with Him and spending time in His Word, it will be a temporary fix.

If you have not already done it, I want to encourage you to drink deeply from the well of Living Water that God provides. Only God can fully satisfy our every need. Why not surrender your burden to His care? You can actually start living a life of freedom today. My prayer for you today; is that you will drink deeply of the Living Water that comes straight from the well that our Heavenly Father provides.

She Believes 3 Devotion December 5, 2023

30 Years Of Marriage

Genesis 2:23-24
²³The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
²⁴That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Matthew 19:4-6
⁴“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’^[a] ⁵and said, ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’^[b]? ⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
⁹Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: ¹⁰If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
Ephesians 5:22-27
²²Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing^[a] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
1 Peter 3:7
⁷Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
Colossians 3:18
¹⁸Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

On November 27th of this year, my husband and I celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Yes, thirty years! As we approached our special date, I kept thinking where in the world has the time gone? How could thirty years have possibly flown by so quickly?

We have been so blessed to have shared thirty years of life. As most couples we have had our ups and downs, we have had good days and days that were not so good. We have laughed and we have cried. But through it all, I can still say that without question we have absolutely had more good days than bad days.

I know that our love for God has been the glue that has held us together when times were difficult. I truly believe that God has honored our commitment to Him and each other by blessing us with a good marriage.

My husband is truly my best friend and I know that I am his. God knew exactly who we both needed to spend life with, and I am so grateful that He brought us together. My prayer is that He will bless us with at least thirty more wonderful years together.

Here’s My 13 Tips For A Healthy Marriage

Marriage is a gift from God. Cherish and love the mate He has blessed you with.
Marriage is hard work. It is not for the faint-hearted. When things get tough, go to God in prayer together and seek His guidance to bring healing.
The couple that prays together stays together.
Marriage is not a 50/50 relationship. Sometimes it will be 70/30 or 40/60, maybe even 80/20, but with God’s help, you will get through it by taking one day at a time.
A good marriage is one of the best gifts that you can give to your children.
A loving marriage gets sweeter as the days, months, and years go by.
When God is truly the head of your marriage you can work through any difficulty.
When the marriage relationship is suffering, there is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking good sound Christian counseling.
Abuse of any sort is never okay in a marriage or any relationship.
Make your marriage a priority. Keep dating, this says to your spouse that the relationship is important. It also brings joy to the relationship.
At some point in the marriage, you will have to forgive an offense by your mate, or you will be seeking forgiveness. Be willing to forgive.
Never go to bed angry, try to resolve the issue if at all possible before bedtime. Every moment with your spouse is precious, so don’t spend those precious moments fighting.
Never withhold sexual intimacy from your spouse, it will create resentment and frustration in the marriage.

In conclusion, I would like to say, that simply practice the Golden Rule in your marriage. Treat your spouse the way you would like to be treated.

Love them the way Christ loves, faithfully and unconditionally.
1 Corinthians 7:2-5
²But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. ³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. ⁵Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

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.