Category Archives: Random Devotional Thoughts

Random Devotional Thoughts

The Glass Blower.

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       We had some visitors from another area, and were taking them around the local sights. One of these was a glass blower at  work behind the gallery that was selling a lot of his work. There were some beautiful pieces on display, all brightly coloured and different shapes. The man was in his workshop at the back of the gallery which was open for people to watch him at work.

    We went in and up the stairs where we could look down on him plying his art. The furnace was heated up and the tongs he was using were red hot. As he pulled the shaped vase out of the heat, he pulled and twisted at the neck of it to form a shapely edge. But time and time again, he had to put it back into the heat because he wasn’t satisfied with how it looked.                                                                                                 It reminded me of the Master Glass Blower at work in our lives, as He moulds and perfects His people to make them become what He wants them to be. We may not like the heat of the fire we have to go through, or the pulling and twisting that we are subject to, but when it is all over, we are more like the finished article that He wants us to be….a thing of beauty and fit for His use.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Little Folk

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I have just met a little man. I mean, a really little man. But with a big heart. I’ve seen him around at church before, but never spoken to him until today. I felt big and clumsy in his presence, and even more so after talking with him.
“How do you feel with people looking over the top of you all the time?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, “It’s like this, I have to look up to them while they look down on me! I figure it’s better for me to look up than for them to have to look down!”
What an amazing attitude to have! He went on, “It doesn’t bother me. It’s how God made me and it’s how He wants me to be. I can do most things that other people can do, and I’m happy with that.”
Suddenly, all my grumps and complaints seemed pointless in the face of this handicap.

I suddenly thought of another man we knew years ago who was born with no arms or hands. Yet he had a successful legal business, doing it all sitting on the floor and flicking papers over with his feet as well as writing that way too. Not only that, but he built himself a sizeable yacht too, to go sailing in. How did he expect to manage sails with no hands or arms? But he did somehow. I met him again a couple of years ago in what he called his “boatavan”. This was a boat patterned on the long boats of the canals in Britain. He took it around the countryside on its trailer and was able to sleep in it as the “van” part of it, and when he came to a harbour or bay, he could launch it off the boat ramp and chug off along the on the water, the “boat” part of it!
I went over to investigate it when I saw it parked in a bay one day. He was sitting in the cockpit having his lunch with his wife . After chatting for a bit about his craft, I noticed his empty shirt sleeves, and said, “You’ve got no arms….did you have an accident?”
He said, “No, I was born this way”
“Oh,” I said, “I knew a man years ago like that….he built a boat”.
“Was he a lawyer?” he asked.
“I believe he was”, I replied.
“Well, that was me,” he said.
So we were able to catch up on the intervening years. He had had an extremely interesting and successful life, becoming a judge in the end. Now he was retired and still enjoying himself.
What a lesson we who are “whole” can learn from these people! It’s not a question of being whole on the outside that counts, it is a question of whether we are whole on the inside that counts for the most. The only One Who we can count on for that is Jesus Christ who looks at the inside of the man and not the outside!

Random Devotional Thoughts

The Priceless Pearl

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We were visiting a tourist place where the pearling industry was the  big local thing. The pearling boats went out with their divers each day when the weather was right and the oysters in their wire grids were lifted so the pearls could be harvested.
A pearl is the only gem that comes from a living organism. It is the irritation of the grit in the oyster, that forms the pearl. The oyster forms a blanket around the grit over time which becomes a beautiful jewel, a pearl above price.
The pearl farmer purposely puts a piece of grit (called the “seed”) into the oyster, thus beginning the process that forms the pearl.
Without the grit and problems in our lives, we will never form pearls that will be a help to others. This is why God allows the grit in our lives, so that He can use them to turn into something of value to other people and to Himself. We read in the Bible that a person with a meek and quiet spirit in spite of their problems, is of great price in the sight of God….just like the beautiful pearls formed in the oysters!

Random Devotional Thoughts

A Bend in the Road.

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     “All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy it, they will not last forever. If going wrong, don’t worry, they can’t last long either. Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, GOD smiles from above and says, “Relax My friend, it’s just a bend…. not the end!” 
I came across the above saying the other day, and thought how true it all is. We aren’t thankful enough when things are going smoothly for us, in fact we take it as our right! I thought of our family babies when they were all born, and thankfully they were all born perfect as far as their limbs and minds are concerned.
Then I thought of one acquaintance who has a son in his thirties who is definitely not quite right. What a burden for that mother who has to keep an eye on him constantly! She can never leave him without wondering what he is getting up to while she is away. She must have wondered “Why me?” many times, and yet she still carries on cheerfully.
Another family member has two in his family with the dread disease of cancer. Both of them seem to have passed the point of no return, although we can never discount the possibility of a miracle. Again, what a burden to carry! But they both have the hope ahead of being with the Lord….it is just the thought of leaving loved ones behind to cope on their own.
For all of us, it is a bend in the road of life, a road where there is no turning around. We cannot go back, we have to go ahead. When we have our hope and trust in the Lord, we know that He is with us regardless. We are not to pray for deliverance, but for strength to carry on, and He will give it.
So for whatever you may be going through at this moment, just remember we can call upon God, not necessarily for deliverance, but for the strength to bear what lies ahead, until we come out the other side.
A couple of years ago, I wrote about a young girl of twenty-two who lost her husband to a brain tumor. As you can imagine, she was devastated, but she pushed on with the plans she and her husband had shared when everything seemed to be going on smoothly. Then he was taken and all their plans came crashing down around her.
Now she is studying at a Bible College and has met another young man who shares her plans and thoughts. At last, there is coming light at the end of the tunnel for her. There is life still ahead. Just where and what will eventuate, is still in the future.
But what a fulfilment of the saying at the beginning of this post!
Let us each one take heart and go forward around the bend in the road that is facing us

Random Devotional Thoughts

Foggy Morning.

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When I went for my morning walk this morning, as I turned the corner the road ahead was swathed in fog and nothing was clear. I couldn’t help remembering times in the past when we had been boating and were caught in the fog. Nothing could be seen, and we had to edge very carefully along to make sure we were away from the shoreline. More than once, we found that we had been going in a huge circle and were back at where we had started from!
We are often like this in life and when things are dim and unclear, we find ourselves groping around and very often end up where we started from. We’ve made no progress at all!
But all is not lost! There is no need for us to grope around at these times, if we wait patiently, the fog will lift eventually and we will see our way clearly once more.
Another thing about the fog, is that as it begins to lift, it swathes itself around the highest points leaving the lower areas still in its mantle. This often makes for very interesting photos. So it is in life. As we come out of these foggy experiences, the things we have learned are to our benefit, and we can see what God was trying to teach us as we groped our way through these tough times. Let’s make sure that we don’t stay in the fog, but keep looking up until it lifts and we are once more in the clear sunlight of seeing all God’s blessings that He has given us!

Random Devotional Thoughts

Peace of Mind

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As a wise man was once walking from one town to another with a friend, they passed a small lake.. They stopped there and the wise man said, “I’m thirsty, please  get me some water from that lake there”.

The friend walked to the lake, but  noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, then a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy and dirty. The friend thought, “How can I give this muddy water to my friend to drink!” So he came back and told him that the water  was too muddy and not fit to drink. A little later,  the wise man asked his friend to go back to the lake again and get him some water to drink. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above was fit to drink, so he collected some and brought it to the wise man.

The wise man looked at the water, and said, “See what you did to make the water clean? You let it be … and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water!”

Our minds are like this too. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.

What did the wise man say? He said that it was effortless. Having ‘peace of mind’ is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. To have the peace OF God, we must have peace WITH God. This makes all the difference. Then the peace OF God will spread around you and in this environment, other people around will start feeling that peace and grace.

     I was visiting a friend in a rest home recently, and she said that different ones had asked her how she could bear to be cooped up in her bedroom day by day. She said it was all in her attitude. For her, she had no choice. But she DID have a choice whether she was going to accept it gracefully and gratefully with a smile , or resentfully with a bad attitude. Her prayer is that her room will be noticed by the staff as a room of peace and joy, and already some have mentioned that they notice this. She regards these confining conditions as another mission field for her…one which able-bodied older people do not have in the same way.

    What a lesson to us all! If we take all our situations to the Lord and thank Him for the answer BEFORE we get it, His peace will envelop us and will be seen by those around us!   (Philippians 4:6-7)

 

Random Devotional Thoughts

Cutting Out the Deadwood.

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I’ve been trimming our hedge today, and it reminded me how we have to be trimmed by the Heavenly Gardener also. It’s hard work to do this and to get the hedge back to looking good again….no doubt it also hurts the hedge trees! Certainly trimming us of our bad habits and thoughts takes time and effort on our part and often hurts us in the process. Nor is this a one-off process…the hedge  needs to be done continually, and so it is with us.

Just as the trimming neatens and tidies up the hedge, and makes it good to look at and enhances the general garden appearance, so the trimming that God gives us does the same in our lives….in fact we are told in the Bible that  “No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it. So therefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed (Hebrews 12:11-13 KJV).

Not only does this pruning tidy things up, but in fruit trees, it also helps to the trees to bear fruit. In exactly the same way, we cannot bear fruit for God until we are trimmed up with all the rough branches and dead twigs in our lives cut off. This is truly just dead wood. So much that we get involved in seems good at the time, but in the end it is only dead wood, and has no fruit for the Master Gardener. This is where we have to be alert and cut out spending our time fruitlessly (in every sense of the word!)

John tells us that the only way we can bear fruit for the Lord is to abide in Him; that is, to do His will and ask Him what we should do (John 15:1-6). Unless we do this we cannot abide in Him…..there is no room for Him when our will is taking over. We must bow to His will in all that we do, so we can bear fruit for Him..

Let’s take these thoughts to heart, clean our act up and get going again!

Random Devotional Thoughts

Story of Queen Esther, Part Thirteen

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                                                 Challenges from Esther (13).

Esther    10:1-3 

    From being a despised and endangered people, the Jews were now protected and provided for, as well as being assured of their future. Mordecai was promoted next to the king, as his own people the Jews respected and looked up to him in this position…..

The hinge of it all was an obedient and godly woman, Esther. As Mordecai reminded her when the trouble first began,  “Don’t think that you will escape! If you keep quiet at this time, then deliverance will arise from some other source and you will be killed yourself. Who knows whether this isn’t why you have come to the throne for such a time as this?”   (chapter 4:13-14)

None of us can see into the future, and we will never know why some things have happened in our lives. But rest assured, there is One Who knows the end from the beginning. We just have to rest in Him Who holds us in His hand. What safer place could we be in?

Lessons to Learn…..

  1. Take opportunities when they present themselves. Esther took the opportunity to be one of the king’s women, and she did her very best even if she was taken against her will. We are told that whatever we do, we are to do it heartily as to the Lord.
  2. Be obedient to God’s Word…. Esther was obedient to what Mordecai told her to do.
  3. Be prepared to risk everything to do what is right. Esther was prepared to risk her life to save her people.
  4. If you have to go into desperate situations, make sure you go surrounded by prayer….yours and others with you.
  5. Do things correctly and don’t bend the rules. Esther made the best of herself by approaching the king in the correct way and he was won by her manner and appearance. (Colossians 3:23)

Esther did the best she could, To follow this is what we should,

Do what’s right and leave the rest, To Him Who knows what is the best!

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