My God My Everything

This weekend there is a farewell party for my nephew Brendan who will be departing for an LDS mission to Madagascar. Most of my family will be traveling to Utah to celebrate and send him off. I will not be attending. In the past I attended several church meetings commemorating different events in the lives of my nieces and nephews. My heart was that they would know that I loved them no matter what choices they made. It back fired on me because my presence was seen as approval of their decisions and lead to heartache when my son, because of the familiarity, decided to participate in the activities, join…

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my study of David and what made him a man after God’s own heart. There are several things that were highlighted during the study and I would like to list a few of them that really spoke to me: Inquire of the Lord Wait for the Lord’s leading Obedience to God’s leading and word Faithfulness to vows and promises Confession & repentance Gratitude Wholehearted devotion Willing spirit Worship without abandon As we review the many stories and lessons that were taught through David’s life, I’m sure that we can relate to many of his circumstance. We can know the awe at the revelation that God chose us…

As I continued my study of King David I found another quality that made him a man after God’s own heart; devotion. The definition of devotion is love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause, prayers or religious observances. King David was giving words of advice to Solomon as he was turning the kingdom over to him. In 1 Chronicles 28:9 it reads, “acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.” That’s advice…

Yesterday was one of those days that my bible study message matched up perfectly with other events of the day and sent a powerful message. I was reading in 2 Samuel 24 about when King David chose to take a census of the fighting men in Israel and trust in numbers rather than in the Lord. The beginning of the chapter starts with, “Again, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel.” That is a terrifying statement. The end result was up to David. The Lord gave him a choice of which punishment that would be given. The choices were: Three years of famine in the land Three months of…

Do you have your own song of praise? A song that reflects your relationship with God. A song that tells of the struggles, the heartaches, the victories and the finishes with a Hallelujah! David had a song of praise and it was recorded in 1 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18. Psalm 18 begins, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” What a testimony to start a song with. Throughout his song he shared the many different ways that the Lord was helpful and faithful. The bible is full of even more. How many of them can you relate to in your relationship with Christ? He is my strength when I…

Last weekend I was able to get my fall cleaning done. It felt so good to deep clean and catch up on the dust that had been slowing building. As I washed the windows I thought of all the beautiful views that I can see from them. I only washed half of them because the other half were being replaced in a few days as one of the final remodeling steps on our home. I was on my lunch break at home when my husband was replacing the kitchen window. The whole kitchen opened up when the old window was removed. Light flooded in and there was nothing blocking the…

I was reading a passage yesterday in 2 Samuel 21: 1-9 that expressed how sincerely the Lord holds us to our commitments and vows. This passage is linked with a story in Joshua 9 about a promise made to the Gibeonites. The promise was that Israel would not destroy them as they continued their conquest of the promise land. This promise was made without seeking the Lord. The Gibeonites had disguised themselves and deceived the leaders of Israel, but regardless, God expected them to honor their vow. Years later King Saul had tried to destroy the Gibeonites and now the land was experiencing a famine. After inquiring of the Lord,…

I appreciate the many ways that God uses to get my attention when I need a course correction. Lately I have felt a distance from Him and this morning He used the story in my daily devotional to show me where I needed to change. The amazing part is that the message is a continuation in my studies, but it fits perfectly with where I am in my daily walk with Him. That is Godly orchestration. The message today was about the death of Absalom and the last verse was in 2 Samuel 18:18 which reads, “During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and erected it in the King’s…

I was reading about a time in David’s life this week that I think we can all relate too. The story is found in 2 Samuel 16-17 and it’s about a very discouraging season in his life where he experienced betrayal, humiliation and discouragement. His son Absalom was attempting to take over the kingdom and some of David’s advisers had betrayed him and joined forces with Absalom. As he and his family left Jerusalem a man named Shimei threw rocks at him and hurled insults; kicking him while he was down. David refused to retaliate because he believed that he deserved what was happening to him because of the choices…