Devotion Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Tabetha’s Devotions

January 15, 2018

Don’t Be A Small Actor on the Stage of Life

Mark 12:41-44
The Widow’s Offering

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.

“Man we are scraping the bottom of the barrel!” Meaning we have no more! This is all we have to work with and this is it!

I have been in situations where I didn’t even have the barrel! I mean peanut butter and jelly was a luxury. I have stood in this widow’s shoes!

I can almost hear her thoughts right now…

Lord, the rent is do tomorrow.

My cupboards are bare and I really need to go to the market.

The oil is low, I won’t be able to heat my home or light the lamps.

But Lord, I have you. These two coins aren’t mine. They belong to you. You will provide all my needs.

Her actions were about so much more than money. They were about how large her faith, hope, and dedication to Christ was compared to the others. It is about how important the “little” things are when done for Christ.

These rich men gave what was needed. They showed up did what was expected of them and went on their merry little way. Their week ahead was not changed in any way. They were the “Sunday Morning” Christian.

God, I will give you what is expected. No more! No Less! I will put forth enough faith and hope to say I believe in you, but the rest of my life is my own.

The widow, on the other hand, puts all her faith and hope in God that day. She had no idea what laid ahead of her that week. She knew there were bills to pay, obligations to be met. She knew she would have no other way of surviving other than put all she had in Him.

Which spiritual coin purse are you working from? Do you give just wanted is expected of you to make it all look good? Or do you, like the widow, go all in? Do you bring to the table everything you have and put all of it in the hands of God?

There are no large or small jobs in the sight of God. There is only large or small faith in everything you do.

January 12, 2018

Today I Want to Pray for You!

Lord, today I lift up my family and friends before you in prayer, and in agreement with your word, I ask:

That they will love You will all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Mark 12:30

That they will be patient thus gain greater understanding, and that they will be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Proverbs 14:29, James 1:19

Thay You protect them spiritually, mentally, and physically. Psalsm 28 & 41

That they will submit themselves to you, resist the temptations of the evil one, and acknowledge You in all that they do so that You will direct their steps. James 4:7

That you will give them the desire, strength, and courage to run the race with boldness, so that they may press on toward the goal that You have called them to in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

That they will be a wise steward of all the things You have given them, remembering that all things are Yours, given to us by You for Your purpose and glory.
Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 16:10-13

That they would meditate on your word, pray without ceasing, and stay faithful to you Lord Jesus to the end. Psalms 1:1-3, 1 Thesselonians 5:17

In Jesus Name, Amen!

January 5, 2018

No Strength to Carry On

Psalms 18:28
You Lord, keep my lamp;
my God turns my darkness into light.

Have you ever cried so hard and so long you literally had none left? No more tears. No more energy. You were totally exhausted. You may have even collapsed. You have no idea where you will get the strength to move on from that moment. You don’t have one more step in you.

Yet, somehow you do.

Where does that strength come from?

Why does your heart continue to beat? Your lungs continue to breathe in and out. The next day the sun still comes up and so do you. How?

I have been there. When my first husband came to tell me he no longer loved me and wanted a divorce. When my mother called to tell me my brother had been murdered. Saying goodbye to loved ones for the last time.

How did I take my next step? The same way you will. Hope! Hope that the next breath will be a little easier. The next day will find a smile somewhere.

I will tell you it will not be easy. It may even seem impossible at times, but it will happen. Life will continue on and you will find smiles and laughter again.

God will keep your lamp burning and turn your darkness into light.

December 29, 2017

Flu Season, Yuck!

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

I am so sorry I have been absent this week. My family, like so many others around us, has been battling the flu🤢

I am feeling better today and wanted to do something I haven’t done in a while.

Yep, it is BRIGHT SIDE FRIDAY!

Give me your five! Here are mine…

1. A husband, who was also very sick, still tried taking care of me when he could.

2. Being on Christmas break + being sick = no writing sub plans!

3. Having the sweetest service dog in the whole world, who wouldn’t leave my side and tried to cuddle real tight when my fever was causing me to shiver.

4. The beautiful dusting of snow we got today. Enough to make everything pretty, but not too much that makes it a pain.

5. This one is probably obvious, but thank you Lord for your healing touch.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! May God bless you this New Year! I can tell you I already feel blessed just being able to stand up without the world spinning out from under me.

November 8, 2017

Learn to Fly!

2 Timothy 4:18
The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I am reading Anxious For Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World, by Max Lucado. In his book, he talks about an acrobatic team. The flyer explains how the key to their success is remembering he is a flyer and his partner is the catcher. His job is just to jump and let his partner do all the catching. It is dangerous for him to try and catch his catcher when he jumps. It simply is not his job!

Max goes on to compare that to our relationship with God. We have to put our full trust in him. Let God do his job! “Your Father has never dropped anyone. He will not drop you. His grip is sturdy and his hands are open.” It is not our job to control things. we must let go and Let God! As Max puts it, a wonderful thing happens when we let go and let God, we FLY!

Paul went through some pretty horrific moments in his lifetime. If anyone deserved to have fear and trepidation in their walk with God, I am saying Paul had reasons. However, Paul never questioned any of the positions he was left in. Not when he was stoned, ran out of town, or thrown in prison several times. Instead, he went out of his way to encourage Timothy and the church by saying,

The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothey 4:18)

Wow! Can you sit back and let that sink in for just a moment? I mean really let that sink in! No matter what we are facing in our lives, God is there. No job, God is there. Cancer, God is there. Divorce, God is there. He will rescue you from every evil attack and will bring you safely to his heavenly kingdom.

What does that rescue look like? I don’t know.

How long will it take? I don’t know.

What I do know is he has promised to catch me. All I have to do is Fly!

November 1, 2017

Hang on! Call on! Move on!

First I would like to apologize for not blogging the past couple of days. I have been battling the stomach flu.

It is amazing just how horrible you can feel from a little itty bitty microscopic thing! This dude can bring you to your knees in a matter of minutes! I am not ashamed to say I found myself in the fetal position praying God heal me or take me now, don’t leave me like this!

I was physically in pain, but have you ever been in so much emotional pain that you felt this way. Well, I know a couple of guys in the bible that did!

Jonah was:

Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
–Jonah 4:5-11

Elijah also had his issues:

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the Gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

“I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

1 Kings 19:1-4

If these two great prophets can have issues that make them feel overwhelmed and distressed why don’t we think it is OK for us to feel that way sometimes too?

We are all going to go through periods of our lives that seem like too much to carry. The important thing is to hang on, call on and move on.

Hang on…James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Call on…Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Move on…Philippians 3:14 I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God’s heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus.

Don’t give up! Never Surrender! Simply Hang on, Call on and Move on!

October 23, 2017

My Very Cold Cup of Coffee

Luke 10:38-42 (TLB)

38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem[a] they came to a village where a woman named Martha welcomed them into her home. 39 Her sister Mary sat on the floor, listening to Jesus as he talked.

40 But Martha was the jittery type and was worrying over the big dinner she was preparing.

She came to Jesus and said, “Sir, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

41 But the Lord said to her, “Martha, dear friend, you are so upset over all these details! 42 There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it—and I won’t take it away from her!”

First, I want to apologize for not blogging on Friday. I had a jam-packed day and honestly did not even remember until I was falling into bed at 1:30 Saturday morning.

That brings me to today…I have felt like I have been chasing myself all day long and I am a quick little sucker! I have been at least 10 steps behind the entire time. I would just feel like I was making ground and BOOM! There I go taking off again into twenty different directions.

My day started at 6:00 am. It is 2:50 in the afternoon and I just sat down to take a breath and enjoy my now very cold cup of coffee. However, I can finally see my desk. My emails have been answered. Copies are made and lesson plans are done. Whew!

I think I know how Martha felt. I have been that jittery type all day long fretting over all the details of my day. I unfortunatly also know how Martha felt. I did not take time this morning to just spend time with God. I rushed through my morning and didn’t even say good morning God.

I wonder if I had been a little more like Mary at the beginning of my day, I wouldn’t have ended up like Martha the rest of it. I am pretty sure my to-do list would not have gotten any smaller or magically disappeared. But maybe, just maybe, I would have caught up with myself and wouldn’t have felt so jittery. Maybe I wouldn’t be “enjoying” my very cold cup of coffee right now.

October 12, 2017

A World Without Hope

Psalm‬ ‭94‬:‭18‬
18 When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD, supported me. 19 When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.

I cannot imagine a world with no hope. I live with times in my life of severe depression and anxiety. The only thing that pulls me through is hope. Hope that tomorrow will be better. This too shall pass. Light comes in the morning. These are the concepts I hang onto to keep me grounded.

However, I know there are people out there who do not have any hope. All they see around them is hate, evil and darkness. For them, there is no hope that anything will change. This too shall not pass for them. The light never comes. How awful to walk that path. To always feel alone.

To some, Christians look like fools because we stand on this hope. We seem to always find the silver lining. We see the glass half-full. People believe we are naïve and gullible.

However, even if any of that is accurate, so what? What is wrong with being hopeful? What is so wrong with being happy?

It takes hope to be creative. It took hope to convince everyone the world is round. It took hope to put some ragtag militia together to fight elite British troops to create a new country. It took hope to invent a phone without wires that fits in your pocket or on your wrist. It took hope to sit down and write a blog.

Face it, a world without hope is nothing. I think I will stick with being a Christian and hanging on to my hope

October 5, 2017

You Can Feel…

Matthew 14:13a
As soon as Jesus heard the news, he went off by himself in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

When Jesus heard John the Baptist had been killed, he was sad. Yes, Jesus was sad. He needed to be alone, so he went away to a place of solitude. He needed a moment to feel his feelings and work through them before continuing on with his ministry.

So why do we think we are not allowed to do the same?

Why do we think we must be these superhuman Christians who must carry on no matter what?

I know people mean well when they are trying to cheer me up. I have tried very hard to make people feel better too. However, sometimes I really just want to be left alone. I want to, no I NEED to just feel my pain.

I have tried to be little Miss Pollyanna with the ever-present smile. Trying to please all of the people all of the time. It doesn’t work. It is not healthy and contrary to what some would have you believe it is NOT what Jesus would do.

It is OK to tell people no. It is OK to go find a place of solitude. And it is ok to be sad. Jesus did and isn’t it our goal to be just like him?

October 4, 2017

See Me

Hebrews 12:2
We must focus our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

God sees me. He knows all about my struggles. He sees the drama and pain. God has a plan for me. He has a path for me. he knows the bumpss and hills and even the valleys and mountains that I will climb.

God will be there for every step. His love is unfailing and his grace abounds. His promises never change and he is faithful always and forever.

So, do you want to hear the good news? He is there to do the same for you!

Whatever you’re
Facing today…
Whatever helpless or
Hopeless situations
Are around you…
Turn your heart to God
(~Leah Dipacal)

Tag: Devotion

Don’t Be A Small Actor on the Stage of Life

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Today I Want to Pray for You!

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No Strength to Carry On

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Flu Season, Yuck!

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Learn to Fly!

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Hang on! Call on! Move on!

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My Very Cold Cup of Coffee

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A World Without Hope

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You Can Feel…

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See Me

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