Day #3: A Picture of Forgiveness

Take time to be in a quiet place. Settle your mind and silently READ His word.

Genesis 50:15-21

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” ¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ¹⁷ ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

After reading this silently, read it again aloud. Listen for a sentence that God uses to speak to you by touching using it to touch your heart. Close your eyes, and THINKabout that sentence or word that stood out to you. Focus on it, and write it down, but only that one sentence/word that you fell in love with.

When I did this, there were two sentences that stood out to me. The first was, “Will you do it? Will you forgive the sins of the servants of your father’s God?” which made me think of what I talked about in the last post I did. I found myself struggling and judging others, and God told me that I needed to stop, and that He would help. I need to look past the wicked of others, and start to forgive and think more about their feelings than their actions. God wants us to forgive and to be understanding towards His children of the world. He is our Father, and we should do what He says. Forgiveness is a hard thing to do, but we must try, and with God’s help, everything is possible. No matter how much that person has hurt us in the past, as long as God is with us, no bad will come out of it, all we need to do, is to listen to His will. Our willingness to do what He says and wants.

The second part that stood out to me was, “Don’t be afraid. Do I act for God? Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same pans for my good, as you see all around you right now — life for many people.” This just amazes me. After reading this over and over, it just still hits me hard. God is a gracious giver. I have said it in the past, but this verse right here, is proof.

So many times we are afraid of pretty much everything, but why must we be afraid if we are the children of God? God is our Father, and if we believe and honour Him like we should, He will never let anything bad happen to us. The pain that we feel, will change into love later on. Right once we start thinking that things can’t get worse, God reminds us that it can, by bringing more struggles into our lives. Do you know why He does this? He does this to show us to always be grateful for what He has given to us so far, and that He is always there to give us a helping hand. He loves us, and wants the best for us, but until we start listening to His word, we will never be happy. There are others suffering way more than you, and God wants you to help them, but before you do that, you need to ask God to use you, and to start by fixing you. He is the One that we can ALWAYS count on. No matter what struggles you are going through, He is always there helping you get through. All that you need to do, is believe in Him, that He is capable of everything and that He will handle it all because of the love that He has for you. Start looking up, instead of always thinking of the pain, think about all the amazing times you have had in your life. I know that it’s a lot easier said than done, believe me. I have struggled, and I know. We all know. We are all human and understand the suffering that we can go through, but until you turn everything to God, nothing will heal.
Read the passage again, and think about all the ways that forgiveness is illustrated throughout the text. Think about all the feelings that are in the text, all the emotions. Imagine what it feels like to be the forgiver, then imagine what it feels like to be the forgiven. Forgiving someone who has hurt you, gives them hope to be better, as well as how you feel. It’s a good feeling to be able to forgive, and even though that the person whom you have forgiven may not acknowledge how lucky they are right away, they will eventually realise, and it will give them hope. If you look around you, in the world today, the society does not allow us to have much hope. With all the hate, and wars, we need to show now, more than ever that we Christians are here to change that. We are here for God, and we are willing to do everything in His will to make this planet a better place to live for everyone. Emotions are very hard to deal with, and for those who feel unloved, hurt, frightened, and whatever else, it is our job to be there for them to give them hope through our Lord Jesus. If we don’t start forgiving, this will never happen. Show them love through forgiveness. Don’t be afraid to get hurt, because in the end, God makes everything better than what it was like before the pain. How is the expression of love meaningful to you? I encourage you to note your thoughts.

Read the passage one final time. After you do this, think about how God is speaking to you through it, and what He is telling you to do. Listen to what He wants from you this week. Maybe what He is telling you will bring a whole new look and perspective of you in His eyes. He continues to amaze us, so why not try and amaze Him? He is a proud father, and I encourage you to continue to make Him even more proud of you this week, along with every other day of your life. He may even guide you on a new adventure, a new road to the rest of your life. He has blessed me by showing me what He wants me to do with my life next year, and I cannot even express my happiness or excitement! He told me to go be apart of YWAM. (if you don’t known what YWAM is, it stands for Youth With A Mission, and I encourage you too look them up! The experience is truly amazing! & it’s all for God, so what could possibly be better than that?) You never know what He has in store for you, unless you listen to Him, you will never understand the incredible plans He has for you. I encourage you to talk and express yourself to Him each day. He listens, and will show you His love and plans for you. He will continue to give you signs, in numerous ways, just pay attention and you will have no doubt that they are from God. I am a living witness of that example!:) Trust in Him, and PRAY to Him about all this, and then write down that you feel like He has invited you to do.

For the LIVE part of this, I want you to meditate on this quote that is from the Book Of Common Prayer, and let yourself receive it on your own. “Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; nor the hope of the poor be taken away.”

Tonight, I will be praying that God shows you a new path for your life, and sends encouragement your way!

Peace & love.

SaraKath.

Day #2: Wrestling in the Night.

Lately I have been having trouble taking time to write in my blog, which I apologize for. I apologize to God, for not taking enough time for Him, while He has been patiently waiting for me to call on His name. So, here it goes God, this is for You! J

I struggled a lot with this devotion. At first it made no sense to me, but God has made things a lot more clear for me this time around.

So let’s start off by READing Genesis 32:22-32, and if you don’t really understand what’s going on in the passage, and if its your first time reading this, it would be a good idea to look up at a few verses before this.

The first thing I want you to do, is to picture yourself in this passage. THINK, about if you think that you are Jacob or do you feel like you’re an invisible bystander just sitting there, watching it all?

When I think of me being in this passage, I think that I’m a little bit of both. A lot of the times, I sit back, and watch others struggle, because I end up giving up the hope that I once had in them. I always feel guilty about it, and I should. I am glad that I feel this guilt, because it makes me realize that I need to be better. I’m judging, just like every other human being on the earth, but just because everyone else does it, doesn’t make it okay. Did Jesus do it? No, He did not. He’s the only being on this earth that matters, so why should the congregation out rule Him in our eyes? We need to be more like Jesus, more like God. We are put on this earth to set good examples, to be good people and to do His work. A lot of us say that we know this already, but if we know it, and believe that it is true, why do we sit around and wish that we would/could, but cannot find the strength to do it. We cannot find the strength to do it because we always feel like we need to do in ourselves, as if we cannot ask for help. God wants us to ask for His help, and unless we believe that He can actually help, we will never become who He wants us to be. We cannot do it on our own. Stop being an onlooker, and start being the one who stands up for God by representing Him through all of our actions, words, and thoughts. Strive to be like Him, fight for what you believe is right. Don’t be taken over by society.

A lot of the times people will make fun of my beliefs, and when I think about this story about Jacob, I picture me as Jacob, wrestling the world. I will get hurt, but my relationship with God overrules my pain everyday. He is the reason why I am on this planet, and it’s time for all of us to fight through the pain, and to look at the righteousness of our King! He uses the pain that we go through each and every day to grow closer to Him, and by growing closer to Him, our lives will finally make more sense. I believe that more than ever lately. I had a really rough year last year, and God has been pulling me through the tears, pain and struggles and encouraging me to have more faith in Him. He told me not to worry about what is happening now, but to do the best that I can and He would take care of the rest. God is a wonderful provider, and is the best gift giver ever! Listen to what He tells you, and look for the signs that He gives you. He has been giving me so many signs lately and I have never felt so blessed! I was a total reck last semester, and now with God’s gracious being, He refreshed everything in my mind, heart and soul. I feel like nothing could take me down now, and I am so excited to live my life for Him! Have courage, and faith to walk beside Him each and every day. It’s the only way to live a full free life!

I encourage you to pray and to tell God exactly what you want, in details because He loves to hear from His children. If you believe that He is able to give you want you need and want in life, He will provide. Don’t be greedy, and I say this because a lot of us PRAY for things that we do not need. Focus on your inner being, and not about worldly things. Pray for Him to work through you, and to encourage you do focus on Him every day.

Praying is not always easy for everyone, a lot of us have a hard time focusing on what we want to say. If you are like me, and have a hard time focusing on your thoughts and words that you want to express to God, try writing how you feel down. Express your frustration, your joy, sadness, and whatever other emotion that you are feeling. Make a list of things that you want or feel that you need. If you believe, and really are in need, God will provide without hesitation. Just be patient and wait on Him, because the longer the wait, the greater the gift!

Now for the last and final part of this devotion. The LIVE part. Picture yourself in a quiet place, where all you hear is the waves, and the sounds of creatures that our Lord made for us. Do you trust God in this imaginary situation? Within the chaos of creatures and wilderness around you, do you hear God’s settling voice comforting you? Listen for His voice, feel His arms around you. If you feel uncomfortable, feel honest about it. How do you wish to feel like? Express your feelings and rest in the thoughts that God gives you.

Until next time…
Praying for you all!

SaraKath.

Day #1: Desire for Reconciliation.

Alright, so since this is my first post of the actual day to day devotionals, I shall explain how it works. It has an order of four specific things to do. I will not share the exact things it says in the book, because I want all of you to go out and buy it yourself! :)

So first, READ Genesis 3:1-10. In case you need the verses, here they are!

The Fall of Man

¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

⁴ “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

This made me THINK about how so many of us disobey God. We all do it, it’s a factor of life sadly. We need to work hard, to do His work, instead of doing work that distracts us from Him. He should and needs to be our full on focus. Which leads me to taking time for Him. Have you took time for Him today? I know I haven’t taken enough time. I have barely taken any time for Him today.

A lot of us are too busy with worldly things to acknowledge God’s beauty. Try going for a walk today, and looking at every detail of every part of the trees, the sky, dirt, and anything else that is around. He made all of it. Every single detail. He knows every single freckle on your skin, exactly how many hairs are on your body, He knows all! Why would we have want to try and hide something from someone who is that amazing? He created us, and gave us life, free will, the beauties of everything that surrounds us, but instead of praising Him like we should, a lot of the times we’re judging the way He works. God is magical, He’s based on wonder, which makes it so amazing! You can picture this beautiful glorious God up in the heavens who took the time to make every single piece of your skin, your bones, body part, and everything. He placed all of them together and made a master piece; which is you. No matter what anyone ever says to you, believe that you are a masterpiece; and not only a masterpiece, but God’s finest work of art that He has ever made. He wants you to know that, and to call on Him to be your Father, and your best friend.

Do you ever feel alone? Sometimes I just feel like all my friends are gone, and as if my best friends are becoming a blur. Who is your best friend? Are they someone who you can count on for absolutely anything? Who you can trust with your life? Who always gives the greatest advice and encouragement, while you feel like the rest of the world is constantly judging you, and having these expectations of you that you just don’t see happening? There is only One best friend who can promise you all of this, no matter what time of day or night. His name is Jesus. Everyone hears about Him, and a lot believe in Him, but do they have faith that He will hold up to all of His promises? Stop asking yourself questions, and start asking God to show you the answers Himself. Don’t just ask and then not expect God to answer, because if you do that, you will never get answers. Have faith in God to show you the answers, make sure to look for them, and to really want to know them.

Doesn’t it hurt when your best friends disappoint you? Don’t you ever feel like the ones you love the most, are sometimes running away from you and your problems, and start focusing on someone or something else? It feels like crap. It really does. So how do you think God feels when we disobey and run away from Him? He loves us more than we could ever imagine. We might think we understand what love is, but God has a whole different meaning of love for us. Don’t you want to know about it and learn more about the love that He has to share with you? Have you disobeyed your best friend? Are you willing to work at it, and get that relationship back where it should be? God should be your best friend. He’s right behind you, waiting to catch you each time you fall. He’s there with open arms waiting. Are you ready to turn your life around, and open up your arms to Him? Turn around and give Him a hug. He’ll embrace you, and you will feel love and comfort pour on to you like you have never felt before. Continue to grow closer to Him. He’s never far. He’s always right there waiting. How long are you going to make Him wait?

I got a little bit off topic, but God let’s it happen for a reason!

We all rebel against God. It’s something we all struggle with, that’s why it is so important to have people encouraging you to lead a Godly life. So here I am folks, I’m here, posting all of this for you, to encourage you to lean to God, let Him catch you when you fall. Do what He wants for you, because His plans are way better than ours. Listen carefully for what He’s trying to tell you. He’s there, waiting for you to call on Him. If you are having trouble with a certain situation or addiction, pray about it! One of the many great things about God is that he is the definition of Forgiveness. He never judges you, He just wants to help. Don’t give up on doing good! We all know it’s so much easier to just drift, and fall into evil things but thanks to Jesus, we don’t need to! No one said the Christian life would be easy. Even though a lot of people seem to have it in their head that it is, it’s definitely not easy. Stand up for what you believe in, be strong! I encourage you to follow the path God has for you, because you will get the best reward in the end. The greatest gift of all. :)

Take time to PRAY about everything you’ve thought about. Tell God your flaws, just so He can hear it from you. He may know all, but hearing the truth from the person you care about, means a lot more than just knowing and never hearing it. Talk to Him, He’s your best friend! It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Speak to Him as if He were your best friend, because that’s what He should be. Confess the truth to Him, He’s a great listener! Don’t let His listening skills go to waste!:)

Now, for the last part of this blog. How do you feel about everything? Do you want toLIVE more righteously for God? Remember that we are not put on this earth for our own will, we are here for God’s will. In verse 9, God asks Adam where he went. If God knows all, why do you think He asked Adam? He wanted Adam to confess. Adam’s confession was “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” When are you most tempted to hide from God? When are you so ashamed, that you want to turn away from God? If you are truly that ashamed, that you want to turn away from the Greatest Forgiver of all times. If you really want to run away from something/someone as great as God, than should you really be doing those certain things?

Praying for you all.

Much love.

SaraKath.

ps: I stumbled across this song tonight, someone danced to it on So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and I just fell in love. It’s called Your Hands by JJ Heller. Here are the lyrics. It really is an amazingly beautiful song. Hope you all enjoy!

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn’t there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away
That You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

Your hands
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave You when…

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave…
I never leave Your hands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrZKb5cTyN0

Lectio Divina: What is it?

First off, I think that I will give you all a little introduction on as to why I’m starting this blog, and share a little bit about my faith. My faith is strong, and I have no problem standing up for my beliefs. Although, I do have a very hard time concentrating on what God wants for me, and what I should be doing for Him. A lot of Christians struggle with this, and have a hard time conquering their toughest times. I really felt led to get a devotional book, and start a blog. I’m a bit worried that I won’t be able to get through with all of this because I tend to have a hard time continuing things like this. My mind goes elsewhere, and doesn’t focus enough of God. So, if anyone ever reads this, encouragement will help a great deal to me to carry on in this wonderful journey that God has planned for me, as well as for you.

Tonight, I started a devotional book with my friend, called Solo. As we open it up, and read the first few pages of the introduction to this study guide, it stated that it was based on a classical method called Lection Divina. Neither of us heard of this method before, and both became intrigued once we kept reading. Lection Divina is reading, thinking, praying and living the Scripture that our Lord God has made for us. There are so many things that we never even think of. All the little details in the Bible are there for no one else, but us. Every book, every chapter, every verse and every word is deliberately there for us to acknowledge what God has in store for us each and every day of our lives. I for one, don’t search for what He wants for me enough. Lately, I have been feeling like He’s going to make something great in my life happen. Which, I must say, I am extremely excited about! My patience is drawing thin, and I think the reason why it is, is beccause I do not look towards God enough through scripture and prayer, like I should.

Reading : Something I most certainly lack. Reading scripture is so important in our Christian life. It’s a must, that I see a lot of Christians leave out. We never take the time for God, to read His word. We can never pry ourselves away from the unGodly things, like computers, TV’s or whatever else that we spend our time doing. We need to remember that without God, none of those things would even exist. Scripture is something that God uses to speak to us, we just need to open our ears, listen, and take the time for Him. It’s not about some random book, it’s about the Author, God. He took the time to make every little detail in the Bible to happen, for us to look back and reflect it all on Him. Does God really mean that little to us, that we cannot seem to take 15 minutes out of our 24 hour day for Him? I am challenging myself, to do this devotion every day, not only for my spiritual needs, but for God. I want to make him more proud of me, more happy to call me His child. I know He will never ever be ashamed of me, and therefore, I shall never be ashamed of Him. I will do what He asks of me, as long as He can help give me the strength and courage that I hope He gives you.

Take time out of your day to read His word. If you are struggling, look up a verse. If you aren’t sure what verse, try praying to God to send you a specific message meant for you. If you believe that He can, He will. Another way that I look verses up based on how and what it is that I’m feeling, is typing in a google search. You’d be surprised how God works through every thing we use, and do. He’s a magnificent maker, and He is always up for what we think is a challenge. Challenges don’t exist with God. Everything is possible for Him. Trust and obey His ways, and you will be greatly rewarded.

Thinking: Spend time thinking of what you had read. Ponder on what you think God is telling you through His scriptures, and through everyday life. A lot of times we hear God, but refuse to believe that it’s actually Him. We do this, because we want to make our own decisions, which turn out to be bad ones. Processing thoughts of things like, What Would Jesus Do? actually help. Sounds pretty corny at times, but I guess corniness can be a part of life. God always has the best intentions for us, so why not listen to him? Start thinking about the past, and how you can make yourself better for God; or better yet, how you can let Him transform you into the person that He wants you to be.

Praying: How often do you speak with your best friend? More often than you speak with God? God is suppose to be our number One Fan, our Counselor, Healer, Father, and our Best Friend. We should replace Him with nothing, because nothing can ever be as great as having Him as our number One. He is all things, always working to make us change for the better. He gives us free will to challenge us to make the right choices, which is to follow His ways. There are many times that we, as human beings, get lost. It happens to everyone, Christians and non-Christians. We’re all human, and experience each others pain, heart ache, and other bad situations that can occur. The best way of dealing with pain, is to talk about your feelings to someone you love and trust. Out of my personal experiences, prayer helps, A LOT. I will never be able to express just how much it really does help. God helps, and we need to spend more time talking to Him, instead of criticizing His decisions. It’s so much easier to put the blame on Him than to turn the blame on ourselves. If we spend more time talking to Him, we will understand His choices at least a little bit more than we did before. He is an amazing God, so why not get to know Him?

Living the Scripture: Now, this is the most challenging part of them all. Even when we know the choices that we should make, we decide to do the opposite. We have a hard time living the way God wants us to, for a bunch of different reasons. Some have a hard time because they worry about what others will think of them, and don’t want to spend their life defending their ways, and trying to explain to people why they live the way they live. God doesn’t need explanation, reasoning, or anyone questioning Him, so why should we spend our lives trying to explain to others something that we don’t understand ourselves? The only thing that we understand is that, it’s the way that God wants us to live, it’s the right thing to do. A lot of people chose to think that that is not a reasonable answer. Jesus did something so magnificent for us, so incredible, that lets us never have to be alone ever again. So why not just accept the fact that that is good enough. No explanation is needed. If you have to fight with your friends because you’re Christian, and they don’t understand why you do the things you do, they aren’t worth your time. Real friends will love you no matter what. Why can’t that be good enough? The only one that we need to try and please is God. Everything else on this planet will eventually vanish. Do what YOU think is right. Live for HIM, not THEM. Life means more than some crappy friendship, we were placed on this planet to do God’s work, and personally, I think a lot of us are failing miserably at that. Start standing up for what you believe by living the way that you should. God will appreciate it, big time. He’s the only one that matters, and He would and will do anything for you to eventually believe that. You are His child, His love. You mean everything to Him, now start showing the respect that you have for Him, by doing what He wants for you.

Until next time… God Bless!

Sara M.