Second chances

06 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: ,

This is why I tell you that her many sins have been forgiven; so she has shown great love. The one who is forgiven little loves little.” ~Luke 7:44 (CEB)

When I read this story of the woman who sits at Jesus’ feet washing them with her tears and drying them with her hair I often find myself asking, “Is it true? Does it take devastating moments in our lives to feel much love for Christ?”

While the woman is washing Jesus’ feet He begins to tell a story about a certain lender who had two debtors that owed him money. One owed enough money to pay five hundred people for a day’s work. The other owed enough money for fifty. When they couldn’t pay, the lender forgave the debts of them both. Then Jesus asked, “Which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the largest debt canceled.” “You are right,” Jesus says. (Luke 7:44-43)

Hmm, when you put it in terms of money it seems to make it clearer. It is obvious in Jesus’ illustration that the one whose debt was larger would be more thankful. So often it takes us hitting bottom (sinning much/getting into great debt) before we can realize how great our God is. God is a God of second chances. When we have much to be forgiven we are more grateful for those second chances.

Heavenly Father, please help me to grab hold of my second chances and make them stick. Amen.

Temptations

05 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Uncategorized Tags:

No temptation has seized you that isn’t common for people. But God is faithful. He won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your abilities. Instead, with the temptation, God will also supply a way out so that you will be able to endure it. ~1 Cor. 10:13 (CEB)

It is important to realize that I will be tempted. It’s an unavoidable part of life. It’s not a question of if but when. I can beat temptations but not by my own might or strength. Relying on myself is a sure way to succumb. But when I put God’s Word in my heart, when I rely on His strength and trust in His promises, there’s no temptation I can’t overcome.

Even though God wants me to take issues as they come, wisdom looks ahead. I need to be prepared with an answer or avoid situations that I know would not be good for me. I told a teen group that was doing a Bible study with me that they needed to think ahead to what their answer would be to drugs and alcohol before they were asked. If an answer wasn’t ready they could be caught off guard and end up doing something that they really didn’t want to do.

Temptations are just a part of everyday life. Some things we learn to get past quickly. Other things seem to take greater effort. I just need to look for the “out” that God has promised to supply, tackling each temptation as it comes. God has instilled within me the ability to conquer and with endurance victory will come.

Help me hide your word deep in my heart Lord, so that I may draw strength and confidence from your truths. Give me your wisdom to think ahead to situations so that I may be prepared for battle. Amen.

 

Self-centeredness

04 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions

I say be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires. ~Gal 5:16 (CEB)

I have a very independent spirit. I elude myself with the thought that I just don’t want to bother other people when in reality I just don’t want to reach out to others. This is not what God intended for me. He made us for relationships. Being part of a community is not just helping others but also allowing them to reach out to me in my times of need.

It is very easy to carry this independent spirit over into my Christian walk as well. I refuse at times to depend on God. “I’ve got this covered God you can go help someone else who has a bigger need than me”. Relying on myself is self-centeredness. Self-centeredness is selfishness. Selfishness is self-worship. Hmm, I think I remember somewhere reading that I was to have no other gods before God. (Exodus 20:3)

Relying on myself quickly leads to frustration which is a red flag that God has been removed from the situation. Gal 5:16 tells me “be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires”. Allowing myself to be guided by the Holy Spirit helps me to keep God in the picture and me out of the center of my focus. God didn’t save us from ourselves in the first place to then just turn around and leave us alone. No, He has eternally saved us, which means if we depend on Him, He will guide us and help us. In allowing Him to guide me, my selfishness begins to subside and frustration becomes less and less of an issue in my daily life.

 Heavenly Father, guide my steps in all I do this day. Thank you for saving me and allowing me to depend on You for guidance in every situation. Please continue to save me from myself. Amen.

God’s Armor

03 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags:

Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. ~Eph 6:10-11 (CEB)

Verses 14-17 continue to tell us to fasten truth around our waist, put on the breastplate of righteousness, to put on shoes of proclamation so that we can spread the good news wherever we may go, to take up the shield of faith in defense of Satan, to place the helmet of salvation on our head and to carry with us the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Finally verse 18 says to pray in the Spirit at all times, to keep alert and to always persevere.

How does this translate into some everyday actions that I can do? The armor of God is what we do to act healthy and to stay in touch with God. So that when life attacks we have something to battle back with. Armor is music, scriptures, prayer Christian fellowship, worship. All these things help us stand firm in our faith so that we can withstand the “evil of the day” as verse 13 says.

If I want to have strength I need to look to the Source that is above all other sources. I need to look outside myself for that Source of strength. I need to fasten tight the truth of who I am in Christ. Not hold onto what others might think of me. I need to carry in my heart God’s love for me and be willing to share His love with others.

May I not leave my house today O Lord, without being fully dressed so that I will not be destroyed as I go out into the world doing your service. Help me to hold onto truth and give me strength to do Your will in everything I do.

Run over

02 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: ,

 

I am hunched over, completely down; I wander around all day long, sad. My insides are burning up; there’s nothing in my body that isn’t broken. I’m worn out, completely crushed; I groan because of my miserable heart. Everything I long for is laid out before you, my Lord; my sighs aren’t hidden from you. My heart pounds; my strength abandons me. Even the light of my eyes is gone. My loved ones and friends keep their distance from me in my sickness; those who were near me now stay far away. ~Psalm 38:6-11 (CEB)

Have you ever felt like you have been run over by a semi-truck and then dragged behind it for a few miles? These words from Psalms reach out to me in those times that I feel like I have been beaten up by life. You know the kind of beat up where even your friends avoid you because they just don’t know what to do or say to you.

In those times I see these words in Psalms and I say, Yes Lord! This is how I feel! Completely broken, my spirit is crushed and my heart is in pieces. But you know my heart Lord, so you know all that is within me, my sighing, and my groaning you know it all. Strength has abandoned me Lord and my eyes can’t find the light. Then as I continue to read through Psalm 38 I see in Verse 15, “But I wait for you, LORD! You will answer, my Lord, my God!” Here is assurance that God will be there for me and He will answer the cries of my heart.

It is in our troubled times that we learn to lean on God and not on ourselves. Each trouble we go through we gain more and more knowledge of God and these moments add up to build trust in Him. 2 Cor 1:10 says “God rescued us from a terrible death, and He will rescue us. We have set our hope on Him that He will rescue us again.” No matter how beat up I feel. No matter how near death I am sure my heart has come, I have knowledge from God’s word that He well be there and that I can set my hope on Him.

Mender of hearts, I put my heart in Your hands. I trust you to help me keep it whole no matter what life may throw at me. In You I know that my eyes will find the light that they seek and that I can have hope for this day. I thank You that I can trust in You. Amen

Digging deep

02 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and don’t do what I say? I’ll show what it’s like when someone comes to me, hears my words, and puts them into practice. It’s like a person building a house by digging deep and laying the foundation on bedrock. When the flood came, the rising water smashed against that house, but the water couldn’t shake the house because it was well built. But those who don’t put into practice what they hear are like a person who built a house without a foundation. The floodwater smashed against it and it collapsed instantly. It was completely destroyed.” ~Luke 6:46-49 (CEB)

It is so easy to get distracted by day to day responsibilities. Sometimes I get so focused on just doing the next thing that I forget where my focus should come from. Even in my every day chores I work without thinking. But without setting a firm foundation for why I do all that I do, I sometimes find the walls crashing down around me. It doesn’t matter how pretty the structure seems if a foundation is not built on a firm bedrock. The least little storm can cause it all to wash away.

Help me this day O Lord to not just build sandcastles. Help me to dig down to your bedrock so that I may lay a firm foundation of Your Truth for this day. I do not want to be destroyed by life’s storms. Open the eyes of my heart so that I may feel Your presence in all I do. Open the ears of my soul so that I may hear Your whispered words all day long. Amen.

Truth

01 May 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.~ John 16:12-15

“Those words are fraught with power, with expectation, with anticipation and possibility. ‘I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.’ Perhaps we can bear it now- in fact, perhaps we are in desperate need of what the Spirit of Truth wishes to share with us and declare to us now, in this new millennium. The nature of the Spirit is constant transformation, ever the same and ever new- so new that it could not be imagined before, and there was no vocabulary or words to express it. But the Spirit of Truth takes from Jesus and all that the Father has given to Jesus and passes it on- to whomever the Spirit wisher- blowing the breath of truth where the Spirit wills. The Spirit is speaking. Are we listening?” ~This Will be Remembers of Her, by Megan McKenna

Heavenly Father, breathe Your Spirit on Truth on me. Give me the strength to bear Your Truth out into the world. Help me ever to listen. Amen.

 

For the lost and the least

30 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

“Now when the Human One comes in his majesty and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his majestic throne. All the nations will be gathered in front of him. He will separate them from each other, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right side. But the goats he will put on his left.

“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father. Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began. I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’

“Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Get away from me, you who will receive terrible things. Go into the unending fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels. I was hungry and you didn’t give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink. I was a stranger and you didn’t welcome me. I was naked and you didn’t give me clothes to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

“Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’ Then he will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous ones will go into eternal life.” ~Matthew 25:31-46 (CEB)

I have never felt ashamed to look at the cross until one day when a young woman came with her child in her hands. She said to me she had gone to two or three different convents asking for a little bit of milk for her child.

She was answered, ‘You are lazy. Go and work!’ And so on.

By the time she came to our house, when I took the child it died in my hands. I felt ashamed to look at the cross because Jesus has given us so much and we could not give even a glass of milk to this little child.” ~From My Life for the Poor by Mother Teresa

Almighty God, in every age you have called out men and women to be Your faithful servants. We believe You have now called us to join that great company who seek to follow You. Grant unto us today and always a clear vision of Your call and strength to fulfill the ministry assigned to us. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.

Play we must

29 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , , ,

“Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

“Happy are people who grieve, because they will be made glad.

“Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth.

“Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full.

“Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy.

“Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.

“Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children.

“Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

“Happy are you when people insult you and harass you and speak all kinds of bad and false things about you, all because of me. Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven. In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before you. ~Matthe5 5:3-12 (CEB)

“Nothing surpasses the holiness of those who have learned perfect acceptance of everything that is.

In the game of cards called life one plays the hand one is dealt to the best of one’s ability.

Those who insist on playing, not the hand they were give, but the one they insist they should have been dealt- these are life’s failures.

We are not asked if we will play. That is not an option. Play we must. The option is how.” ~From Taking Flight by Anthony de Mello

Lord God, Creator and Redeemer, claim my life and ministry for Your high and holy purpose. Help me to remain faithful and steadfast all day long, and when evening comes grant a peaceful rest in Your presence. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

To follow

28 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

“I assure you that when you were younger you tied your own belt and walked around wherever you wanted. When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and another will tie your belt and lead you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to show the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After saying this, Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me.” ~John 21:18-19 (CEB)

“To follow Jesus Christ, who was betrayed, wept, bled, and died before he rose again, is to be at high risk of being taken where we had not intended to go. Eugene Peterson pinpoints the trouble with praying: We are often asked to respond in ways that we never intended when we first began to pray.

It matters little where or in what century we are called to live out our Christian life. The witness of those who have gone before informs my own experience, telling me that we are often taken to places where we receive unwarranted accolades and to other places where we receive unwarranted suffering and pain. A disciple, one who chooses to be student and follower of Jesus, is not a ‘self-made person’ and is not on a personally designed journey.

The key word in this theme is taken. Just as Jesus was taken into the wilderness after his baptism, so we are taken into the experiences  of discipleship that we do not necessarily choose for ourselves. We choose to follow Jesus and then Jesus chooses where we will go. It is that simple.

The saving truth here is not that we are taken where we do not want to go; rather the saving truth is that we are not alone. There is One who leads us and foes with us. Jesus arose from baptism and ;the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness’ (Mark 1:12). But even there the angels (messengers of God) were with him and tended to his needs. While we may not choose the place to go, we can choose to remain with the One who sends us and there find comfort, companionship, grace, peace, and joy.” ~Ruben P. Job

Almighty God, help me this day to present my body as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to you. By the power of Your holy spirit make us strong to fulfill my ministry this day. In the name of Christ. Amen.

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