Devotions to Warm Your Heart and Encourage Your Soul

www.Mor2Lif.nazarene.org

By Matthew Beck, Student Ministries Pastor at College Church (Reproduced by permission from SHIFT magazine. www.collegewes.com)

Ladies How Are We Doing? By Loretta Mansfield
2 Timothy 1:5 states “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
Ladies what are you doing to pass on faith to your children/grandchildren?
Things to consider:
1) How are you spending your time?
2) What is your involvement in the church? Are you using your gifts?
3) Do you have scheduled family time?
4) How are you spending your money (tithes)?
5) How are you doing with spiritual disciplines such as prayer & Bible Study?
What is your attitude about these things?
Are you cheerful in what you choose to do? God loves a cheerful giver.
How important are these five things?
Do you demonstrate a commitment to each of these areas?
If you answered no to any of these questions begin today seeking God’s guidance.
Ask God to help you to increase your faith and pass it on to others.
Ask another lady to hold you accountable. Disciple each other to become women of sincere faith, then pass it on to the next generation. Like Lois and Eunice seek God to ensure your words and actions reflect Christ.
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Finish the Race by Rosie Stirratt
It was one of those beautiful spring days. The trees were filled with baby leaves enough to fill the void of winter with bright green evidence of new life. Flowers were blooming. The air was warm, not hot or cold, just perfect sweater weather. And we were going for a walk. The entire student body and faculty of Grant Elementary School in Macomb, Illinois were walking the 6 or so blocks to the football stadium of Western Illinois University to watch the Special Olympics!

There was excitement in the air as the children and teachers settled in their seats and participants milled around on the track and field below. I looked across the field and saw some of the participants warming up for shot put and javelin throwing. Others were stretching in preparation for high jumping or running. They were of every size and description. Some looked strong and healthy. Many were Downs Syndrome children, some were in wheelchairs, others were in leg braces. I watched as one child in a wheelchair, both legs gone, was lifted onto the hard surface of the track just to be free from the chair for a short time.

Directly below our seats a group of young people were preparing to run the 100 yard dash. They lined up across the track in perfect starting position, the gun sounded, and off they ran as fast as they could go. All accept for one little Downs Syndrome girl. She barely got started before she tripped and fell in a heap to the hard surface of the track. It seemed the entire audience gasped in unison as she fell to the ground. All eyes were on the girl. No one even paid attention to who was winning the race. The attention was on her.

She cried over and over again, "I can't do it! I can't run the race!" Suddenly her coach, a young college girl, came running from the side lines shouting, "Get up and run! You can do it! Don't give up! Run the race!"
"I can't!" the little girl cried again. Then something happened that I shall never forget. The little girl's coach took her by the hand, helped her to her feet, brushed her off, and said, "Come on. We'll run the race together."
The crowd went wild, cheering her on as she headed for the finish line! The runners who had already finished the race cheered her on from the finish line! At that moment it didn't matter who had run the fastest and finished first. It only mattered that this little girl finish the race she had begun.

Philippians 3:13b-14 says, "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." There is so much in life to trip us up, make us fall, cause us to think we are of little use to anyone anymore, make us believe we can't finish the race. Then our precious Coach, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, comes running to us, takes us by the hand, and says, "Come on. We'll run the race together. I will never leave you or forsake you. You will make it to the finish line where there is a prize awaiting you."

You don't have to be the strongest runner, or the fastest. You don't have to finish first. You just have to run the race with your little hand in His big hand until you reach the finish line. There He will declare, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!"
Joyfully His!
Rosie
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No Parking Zone by Rosie Stirratt
Several years ago now I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing a lovely lady named Martha Blackburn. At the time, she was Women's Ministry Director for the Wesleyan Church headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Martha had been married to a Wesleyan pastor. She and her husband and one son lived and ministered in Indianapolis for many years. Her husband had been afflicted with some type of kidney disease that ultimately took his life while in his early forties, and Martha's life changed completely overnight.

Not only did she lose her husband, but she lost her identity as a pastor's wife. She had worked as a secretary in the church office and felt she must give up that position in order to eliminate any awkwardness for the new pastor coming to replace her husband. So, she lost her job. Her son had just graduated high school. All the arrangements for him to go off to college had been made. Now, instead of three in the house there was one, Martha, alone and broken hearted.

Martha felt she needed to keep her life as normal as possible. That included church attendance. There was no other church she would rather attend than the one she had been involved in for so long, but some Sundays she could not get herself to get up and go. Other Sundays she would go to church only to be reminded of all her losses. On those Sundays she found herself leaving before the service was over, usually in tears.

As time went on, Martha began to realize that she was going down a path of self pity. It was easier to remember all she had lost rather than focus on what God might have in store for her in the future. She began praying, "God, I don't want to park beside my grief." Martha was ready and willing to allow God to heal her broken heart and give her a future filled with blessings she could not yet imagine.

There is an invalid man mentioned in scripture (John 5:1-15) who had parked beside his grief for a very long time, thirty-eight years, to be exact. His parking place was by a pool called Bethesda. It was said that at certain times the water in the pool would be stirred, and the first to enter the water would be healed. Many disabled people came here for healing. After thirty-eight years this man's parking place had become his comfort zone. As long as he stayed by the pool, he appeared to be trying to get better, at the very least. He never was able to get into the water in time to be healed. Of course, it wasn't his fault, so he said, because there was no one to help him get in. So, he parked beside his disability for all those years. Then one day Jesus came along and asked him very pointedly if he wanted to get well. He never really said yes to the question, but Jesus healed him anyway and made that place a no parking zone.

I think sometimes we are much like the man at the pool. We say we want to be healed, but we just lay by the pool nursing our wounds and blaming our circumstances on others. Our afflictions are many; heartbreak, hurt feelings, diseases, disabilities, losses. We have become comfortable with our parking place. It has become our comfort zone. Others have low expectations for us because of where we're parked. We have low expectations for ourselves, as well. We thrive on the pity we receive from others and from ourselves. We hear Jesus asking if we want to get well. We know He is the great healer. But we've become comfortable by the pool. Maybe it's best to just stay there.

Martha found that allowing God to make her grief a no parking zone opened up a whole new world for possibilities for her. She got a new job with a new identity, Director of Women's Ministry for the Wesleyan denomination. God sent a wonderful, godly man into her life whom she fell in love with and married. Her life was exciting and full and blessed!

Jesus may be asking you if you really want to be well. Tell Him you don't want to park where you are. Allow Him to begin the healing process by posting a no parking zone sign in that area of your life. Has someone hurt you? Forgive them and go on! NO PARKING! Have you been rejected and devalued? Your value and worth come from God! NO PARKING! Are you in poor health or disabled and feeling useless? He will teach you how to feel better. He has something you can do in service to Him despite physical circumstances. NO PARKING! Have you backed up on your commitment to God? Repent and go forward with Him. NO PARKING!

God, do not allow us to park in what should be NO PARKING ZONES! 
 
Joyfully His!
Rosie Stirratt

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It's A Life of Joy - "The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).

Thoughts Tina quit her job as a CPA believing God wanted her to devote herself to His service. Temporarily, she was doing volunteer bookkeeping for her church. One day she walked into her church office and was asked to go to the courthouse to register the van. Unaccustomed to being handed such a menial job, she was tempted to feel resentment, but she said, "As soon as I yielded that immediate human response, I was filled with joy. My heart was as light as a feather as I drove away." Too little is made of the joy of full surrender.

The surrendered life is a life of rest, joy, and peace. But it comes only after an inward relinquishment to God's perfect will. Our selfish ambitions and desires to please ourselves must be offered to God as a sacrifice. Following the Spirit demands a continual denial of selfish desires. But once we experience the life and peace of having our eyes on doing what the Spirit desires, we find real joy knowing that He who delights in every detail of our lives is directing every step. Prayer

Prayer Dear Lord, my highest joy is in pleasing You. If You are pleased with me and my attitude, that is enough. In Jesus' Name, Amen. 
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Count It All Joy- "I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds" (2 Corinthians 7:4).

Thoughts Joy is one of the distinctive marks of those who are "in Christ"-even when in difficulties. "In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds" (2 Corinthians 7:4), exclaimed Paul. "Happiness" comes from the same word as "happenings." When happenings change, so does happiness. The joy of the Lord, however, is a "joy that no man can take" from us (John 16:22 KJV). Christ's joy remains despite burned casseroles, loss of job, and even poor health; it abounds under all conditions. In fact, the joy of the Lord is often the most evident when we're in trying times. "Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity" (2 Corinthians 8:2). Only in Christ would these three be combined.

The three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego, could not have anticipated the joy their severest trial would bring them - the joy of being in the presence of the Son of God! Their furnace experience must have been a treasured memory - the time when their fellowship with God had been the closest. (Daniel 3) "In thy presence is fullness of joy" --even in difficult times.

Prayer Dear Jesus, thank You for making Your joy available to me in my most demanding moments. Give me grace to accept the strength Your joy provides. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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Real Food - "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life...for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink" (John 6:54).

Thoughts When I was a girl, mother would occasionally take me to the huge stores in St. Louis for a day of shopping the sales racks. I recall one return trip in which I thought of the packages heaped on the back seat and felt a strange emptiness seeping into my spirit. Shopping had been exciting, and opening the packages would be fun, but I sensed that life must consist of more than just experiences and a collection of objects to satisfy me. God has "set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecc. 3:11). We were created with a longing for the spiritual world, so we can never be satisfied with the material world alone. Solomon declared, "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure....Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless" (2:10,11). Solomon experienced everything life could offer and found it all to be without meaning. In the end, we will realize that apart from feasting on Jesus there is no real joy.

Prayer Dear Jesus, let my hunger be for You and You alone. Give me eyes to see the meaningless of all else. In Your holy name, Amen.
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 Exuberant Inner Joy - "When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:4).

Meditation One Christmas season I was meditating on a phrase from Colossians 3:4, "Christ, who is your life." Perhaps because it was party time and I was remembering that we speak of people who are the life of the party, I said with reverent, exuberant joy, "Christ, You are the life of my party." The inner joy I have through communion with Him is life - abundant life! Lifeto the Hebrews meant joy, vitality, all that made life worth living. They used it much as we do when we say, "Get a life" or "That's really living!" To the Old Testament writers, a man was living when God the Father approved everything he did. "In thy favour is life" (Psalm 30:5 KJV), wrote the Psalmist.

Our communion with God fills us with His life when we joyfully surrender to Him. It's not grudgingly obeying the commands of God. Real "life" is in doing what God says because we love Him and because our joy is in pleasing Him.

What joy, what contentment we have when all we do has this underlying message to our loving Lord: "I'm doing this because I love you!" All of life becomes holy and lived in the Holy Place.

Prayer  Dear Jesus, my one desire is to please You. Thank You for the life I have because of the joy of Your presence. In Your Name, Amen.
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Delights and Desires - "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).

Thoughts  God promises that if we learn to find our joys in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4). For years, I have taken this verse as a promise that if I delight myself in Him, He will place within me the desires He wants me to have. I have found that concept to be true. The more I find my joy in obeying His Word, the more frequently the longings I find in my heart are those He has placed there. Another concept has come to me more recently as I have thought on the phrase, "the desires of your heart." Perhaps God is also saying that if we delight in Him, He will give us the desires that satisfy our hearts. Some desires yield only temporary pleasure but not lasting joy. The desires that He promises, though, are those desires that when fulfilled leave our hearts entirely satisfied. Our knowledge of what would fill us with joy is so superficial. But when we delight ourselves in pleasing Him, He helps us to desire those things that will satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.

Prayer  Dear Lord, I delight in You and am trusting that the desires I find in my heart are from You. Grant me the ability to recognize when You are placing Your thoughts and plans within me. In Jesus' Name, Amen. ____________________________________________________________________________

 Rejoice in the Lord -  "I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God" (Isaiah 61:10). "In thy presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11).|

Thoughts To discover the joy of the Lord is to discover that God alone satisfies. Nothing else is even a close second. The psalmist exclaimed, "All my fountains are in you!" A friend told me that when she was on her way to a ministry in another country, these thoughts were going through her mind: What am I most eagerly anticipating? Is it the children I will be caring for in the orphanage? No, although I loved the children I knew that would not be my greatest joy. Is it the joy of seeing my dear friend? No, it was not that either. As she was thinking on this, the Spirit whispered, "It's the joy of My presence that you are most excited to experience." She knew it was true. With eager anticipation, she looked forward to enjoying the sweet fellowship of Jesus. She was doing exactly what Paul meant when he said "Rejoice in the Lord"- not in merely what He gives or does - but in His own dear presence. "Oh what blessed sweet communion, Jesus is a friend of mine."

Prayer Thank You, dear Jesus, for being Immanuel - God with Me. Your presence is all I need. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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 Enjoy His Best -  "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them" (John 17:13).

Thoughts We experience Jesus' joy when we allow Him and His desires to live in us. Sometimes what we desire might appear to be a very good thing, but God seeks to know if we are willing for Him to choose for us. Ruth said, "I was brought up on the mission field in Africa and my deep desire was to return to Africa, but the Lord didn't ask me. My parents were still there and God called my brother, but I was a pastor's wife with no missionary call. "One day during a special service at church, I wanted to be alone so climbed into the choir loft during the singing. I heard the young people singing a song that was a parody on going to the mission field. "Lord, don't send me to Africa!" "I said, 'Lord, You see they don't even want to go and I do. I know the language and would love to be a missionary, but You don't call me.' "The Lord so gently said, 'Yes, you are willing to go to Africa, but do you love Me enough to stay here?'" By releasing our desires, we may discover joys we never anticipated. I have a plaque in my living room that says "God gives His best to those who leave the choice to Him." Joy, outside of God's best, provides, at most, temporary pleasure. God's best yields eternal pleasures.

Prayer Dear Lord, I don't care what You choose for me today, only let me have the joy of Your presence. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Enjoy the Word - "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14). "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you" (Colossians 3:16).

Thoughts Oswald Chambers said, "The joy of Jesus is a miracle; it is not the outcome of my doing things or of my being good but of my receiving the very nature of God." One of the ways we do that is to take His Words into our lives so that we become living expressions of His truth. Years ago I began to take very literally the command "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes12:13).  If fearing Him enough to keep His commands was my only duty, then I wanted all I did to be done in response to His Word. My Bible reading was no longer just a routine. I read eager to know what God wanted of me, seeking to apply the passages to my daily life. The amazing result was that I began to experience overflowing joy. Jesus had said that if I abided in Him and His Word abided in me, He would give me His joy (John 15:10-11). I understood-and experienced-the phrase "fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). To have Christ's joy is to have His Word within. Jesus was God's Word expressed in a human body. As we take in His Word and become the living expression of that Word through obedience, His joy becomes our joy. On the mornings when we awaken with a lack of joy, the cure may be to begin memorizing verses and filling our minds with Scripture. We can have verses on cards available to glance at while getting dressed or driving to work. "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight" (Jeremiah 15:16).

Prayer Dear Father, feed me on Your Word. I want the Word to live in me so that Your Word becomes flesh within me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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Enjoy Sweet Communion - "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel--which means, '"God with us'" (Matthew 1:23).

Thoughts How do we maintain an awareness that God is with us? It's one thing to meet with Him in the morning during prayer and while reading the Word and quite another to enjoy Him throughout the day. God gave us routine, not to draw us away from Him, but to give us a way to love Him. "May all my work be praise," the hymnist wrote. God could have arranged for us to have no responsibilities other than prayer and Bible meditation, but He gives us other duties that can be done with as much love for Him as our morning devotions. We cannot say words all the time as we carry on with the rest of life, but the devotion of our hearts can continually rise to God. A. B. Simpson, speaking of this concept, said that when he worked in his garden he could continually enjoy smelling the roses, yet they did not keep him from his gardening. We, too, can be busy all the time and yet be sending a sweet fragrance to God and enjoying His presence. Simpson said "It is like working in a perfumed room, every sense exhilarated." Acknowledge the Holy Spirit within you as you go through your day. "Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you" (James 4:8 NLT). Delight in His presence. He is Emmanuel-God with us.

Prayer Dear Father, Increase my desire for communion with You. And when I don't sense desire give me grace to do what I would do if I had a deep desire for Your presence. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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 Enjoy God's Amazing Love - "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).

Thoughts The price we are willing to pay for something tells how much we value it. One of the major networks announced with great fanfare that they had purchased the rights to air next year's football games for $500,000,000. I noticed that the announced appeared excited when speaking of this purchase that would bring new programming and the possibility of 50 percent of the homes in Kansas City watching their channel. He wasn't saying he was happy they got a bargain, but that they were happythey would have the great result of paying the high price.

God knew the price He must pay to secure the fellowship of sinful man, but His heart so longed for us to be able to draw near Him at any time that, amazingly, He willingly paid the price. Surely that must be the meaning of Isaiah 53:10 that speaks of God's giving His Son: "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him" (KJV). These are remarkable words! God freely gave up His Son for our redemption. "It pleased God the Father to bruise His Son." These words make sense only when we understand that they express God's intense longing for our fellowship. It is so precious to Him, that He willingly paid the ultimate price for it. How could we ever doubt His tender mercies, His willingness to give us "all things"?

Prayer Dear Father, I cannot fathom the love You have shown by sending Your Son to die for me. Give me grace to live with the assurance of Your amazing love. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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It Is His Birthday - His Word "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Thoughts  It is possible to go through the entire Christmas season without really taking time to thank God for His gift. Some years ago I began a tradition that helps me prepare my heart to celebrate Christ's birth. One Christmas my husband and I were to host our Sunday School class Christmas party. We decided that since we would be giving gifts to each other, why not try to present a gift to Jesus. We began looking up Scriptures to see what kind of gift He would be pleased to receive. Some of the Scriptures we found included these: "The prayer of the upright pleases him" (Proverbs 15:8). "The Lord delights In those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love" (Psalm 147:11). "Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise . . . And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased" (Hebrews 13:15-16). We decided to select one of the verses to do as a group as our gift to God at the Christmas party. About twenty from our class gathered in the family room after dinner. Before the exchange of gifts to one another we read several of these verses and my husband suggested that we select Psalm 69:30-31 to do together to offer as a gift to God: "I will praise God's name in song, and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs." We were hoping for some spontaneous praises for God's gifts of answered prayer. What occurred was even better. Someone asked, "Would it be all right if I read a poem I just happen to have with me?" Of course it was. He began to read: "Digger of oceans, polisher of stars, Hanger of planets and Healer of scars. . . ." Every word of the poem exalted Christ. His voice broke during the reading and our eyes filled with tears. We knew our gift had been accepted. Since then I have enjoyed taking time during the holiday season to offer my gift to the Lord--a gift of my time in which I gratefully and humbly worship.

Prayer Dear Father, I want You to be at the top of my Christmas list. I intend to prepare Your gift carefully and give it with all my love. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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 Jesus Satisfies! -  "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him" (Romans 15:13).

Thoughts   Nothing is more revealing about us than what brings us joy. Paul and Barnabas had just been chased out of a city by an angry mob, and they were "filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 13:52). "The martyrs were more happy in the flames than their persecutors could be on their beds of down," stated Adam Clarke, Bible commentator. Even when there is heartache, those who look to Christ find joy. A mother concerned about her child wrote, "On April 4th the Lord spoke to me about putting on the joy of the Holy Spirit instead of heaviness. As I continue to pray, I have a rest in my spirit." Later that day, I spoke with a younger lady who is longing to find such a rest in God in an unpleasant circumstance. "The struggle is wearing me out," she sighed. "I tend to think that if the situation would change, I would have great joy, but I need to be able to say, 'If I have done God's will, then I have great joy.'" She's right. When we realize our joy is in pleasing Him, we find rest. When joy in our lives can be defined as "doing what pleases God," we discover that our joy overflows. We can even say with Paul, "In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds" (2 Corinthians 7:4).

Another lady felt called by God to go to seminary. To do this she had to sell her furniture, and she now lives in a two-room apartment. Her one piece of furniture is a bed. She admitted, "God made me to love pretty things, so I know that He understands how hard it is for me. At first, I hated to go into that apartment, but God's love is drawing me to Himself. He is so satisfying!

"He tells me, 'Surrender everything to Me and I will care for you.' We want him to care for us while we still have the controls, but we lose our ability to trust Him completely unless we totally obey Him in everything." Peter wrote about being "redeemed from the empty way of life" (1 Peter 1:18). These ladies have been redeemed!

Prayer Dear Father, give me grace to see how fruitless and empty natural pleasures are that You do not choose for me to have. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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Choose the Highest Joy  -  "I have told you this so that my joy may in you" (John 15:11).  

Thoughts Jesus mentioned repeatedly a great longing: He wants us to have His joy. He stressed that He wanted us to have "the full measure of [his] joy within [us]" (John 17:13). This differs from simply having joy. He offers us His very own joyful Spirit!
There is just one catch to this. To have His joy we must be joyful about what makes Him happy. That, too, He lets us know. He frequently shared exactly what pleased Him. "I seek not to please myself but him who sent me" (John 5:30); "My food is to do the will of him who sent me" (John 4:34). What made Jesus happy was simple: knowing that His Father was pleased with Him, knowing that He was doing the Father's will.

A few years ago my husband and I had opportunity to see if doing God's will was enough to make us happy. We lived in the same house for over 26 years. One week we decided that we would need more space and perhaps it was time to move. Within five days we had signed a contract for a house. We were so excited to find this home that appeared to match our needs perfectly.

One evening we had just returned home from spending an hour riding around our new neighborhood, when the phone rang. "We have decided we do not want to move. Will you let us out of the contract?" the owner asked. My husband mouthed the words to me that he was hearing. Daniel didn't know what to say. Then, finally, he told the gentleman, "Well, we will need to think and pray about this."

I sat at the kitchen table listening and saw the dream of moving into that house slip away. Would I feel disappointed? I wondered. Deep down, I knew God was in this. Then, I realized, with some amazement that if He were saying, "No," I was not disappointed. Finding and doing His will were far more important to me than having a new home. When Daniel hung up the phone, we began to talk and discovered we were both of the same mind. "Well, I guess God wants us here. If that is what He wants, that is what we want." In fact, we found it easy to feel that way. "Nice to have this house fixed up," we laughed remembering that he had spent the day before painting. We knelt to pray. The words came easily. "Dear Lord, we thank You for whatever You are doing. We don't understand this, but whatever Your purposes are is fine with us. Thank You for doing what is good." Jesus' evidently felt quite at home in that attitude because immediately we were filled with joy-His joy. We arose from prayer, and the phone rang again. "We've decided that it is not treating you right to break the contract. We will go ahead and sell. In fact, we would like for you to come over tomorrow night, and we will introduce you to the neighbors."

The joy of pleasing God is indeed the purest pleasure. Once we begin to experience the satisfaction of this ultimate contentment, it is not that we no longer enjoy what others enjoy, but we have tasted a more satisfying delight.

Prayer Dear Lord, I love You with all my heart. Delighting You is my highest joy. Thank You for giving me the grace to live with Your desires as my own. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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 The Cheerfulness Habit - "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength" (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

Thoughts Many situations can be a source of either joy or sorrow. Two people can be victims of the same accident. For one, it will be a source of resentment; for another, a source of gratitude. A lady told about her very sick neighbor who lives alone. During the night, she had fallen out of bed and was unable to get up. The telephone cord caught on the bedspread though, so she was able to pull the telephone to her by moving the bedspread. Her neighbor gratefully reported, "The Lord orchestrated it all!"

At every moment of our lives, we have an opportunity to choose joy. Some become bitter as they grow older; others whose life is harder choose to be joyful. Different choices were made, inner choices, choices of the heart. Ruby said, "As I grow older, it's easy to begin thinking Well, I only have a few more years left, and to begin to feel sorry for myself, but each morning when I awaken I think, This is the day the Lord hath made; I will be glad and rejoice in it." True life in Jesus is not gloomy and depressing. Its atmosphere of trust is an atmosphere of joy. We can trust Him for both today and the future because we are the "people close to his heart" (Psalm 148:14).

Prayer Dear Father, I choose to delight in You. You have good planned for me, so I will rejoice in Your promises. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Choose Eternal Joys - "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them" (John 17:13).

Thoughts  God wanted to create a happy people. Ultimate happiness rests in Him so He made this incredible offer: I will come inside you and give you my joy-fullness of joy! When Jesus comes in we have a union with Him that is closer than any other union. My husband might have joy and tell me why he is happy. I then might have joy, but I won't have his joy. For his joy to be in me, his spirit would have to enter mine-which, of course, would never be possible. We can't give our spouses or our children our joy and our peace. We may give them knowledge of how to have joy or peace, but in order to actually give them the joy we have, we would have to enter them and be a part of them. That is what Jesus promised. We wouldn't just have knowledge of Him; He would reside in us. Jesus' final prayer before He went back to the Father was "...that I myself may be in them" (John 17:26). Jesus said He had to go away so He could come again-not as a man to walk beside us-but as a Spirit to live within us. The Christ life is Christ re-living His life in us and enabling us to be and to do what in our own strength we never could accomplish. We can only have His presence as we delight in what He delights in. If His Spirit is one with ours, then we find our joys in what gives God joy.

Prayer Dear Father, What an incredible offer You extend-Your joy in me! Teach me to accept Your joy each moment. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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Choose Eternal Joys - His Word "The mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment" (Job 20:5).

Thoughts Donald Trump amassed a billion-dollar real estate empire in the 1980s. He lost it, but regained his wealth in the 1990s and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for making the greatest comeback in financial history. In the December 3, 2001 issue of Forbes, he wrote, "I'm never satisfied. I don't know if I'm capable of being satisfied....I don't know what makes me happy," but then adds, "Pursuit makes me happy. Success makes me happy. Deals make me happy." How different are we? What makes us happy? We can say we are a follower of Christ and still not have the desires Jesus had. One night I overheard a man say, "Life is the pits. I don't have a life." The lady beside him agreed that she didn't either. I thought, That's true. They don't have Christ. He is our life. A few days later I heard two Christians making a similar statement. I was wondering about this later. Lord, why is it that Christians would say such a thing? These words came to me and I felt there was sorrow in them: "My people are looking for joy in the same places nonchristians look for joy." An old song titled Fellowship With Thee says: Earthly things are paltry show, Phantom charms, they come and go: Give me constantly to know Fellowship with Thee. The secret of the deepest joy is living only for Christ, letting Him be all to us. Only then are we truly "in Christ" and His joy in us.

Prayer Dear Father, give me wisdom to recognize when I am substituting earthly pleasures for the joy of fellowship with You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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God's Passionate Joy - "You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever" (Psalm 16:11).

Thoughts   Every time we get a glimpse of Heaven, we see a scene of great joy. Job 38:4, 7 describes the mood of Heaven at the moment of creation: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?-while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" While millions of angels shouted for joy, we can be sure they were taking their cue from the Creator's exuberance. The Psalmist declared, "In thy presence is fullness of joy" (Ps. 16:11). In Matthew, we're invited to enter into the joy of the Lord (25:21). Luke tells us "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repented" (Luke 15:10). "You will fill me with joy in your presence" (Acts 2:28). Timothy writes about "the glorious gospel of the blessed God" (1:11) He could have said it like this: "The good news of the glory of the happy God." The Gospel is good news because it calls us into fellowship with a God who is happy beyond our wildest imagination. So to live with His presence within us is to have access to great joy. God wants a joyful people. Before the Israelites sat out on a journey, Moses would pray, "Arise, O Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests be clothed with righteousness, may your saints sing for joy" (Ps. 132:8, 9. Also in 2 Chron. 6:41). The fulfillment of this inspired prayer is still God's desire for His people. If He is at rest within us, we are filled with joy because God is a happy God!

Prayer  Dear Father, I delight in You and in Your desire to be at rest in me. I ask You to be at home in Me and fill me with Your very own joy. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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God's Passionate Joy - "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son" (Matthew 22:2).

Thoughts To come to Jesus is to come to a joyful celebration! Jesus said the invitation to come into His kingdom is like being invited to a wedding banquet. He's calling us into fellowship with a God who is exceedingly joyful. I told a Vietnamese woman that our God is a happy God. She stopped what she was doing and looked at me. "What religion did you say that is?" Christianity is the only religion that has a happy God continually desiring to do us good. Other religions envision their gods as angry and always in need of appeasing. But think of this! We have a God who is singing over His people with joy. Zephaniah wrote, "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (3:17). The word "rejoice" in the original language means to spin around with joy under the influence of violent emotion and God is doing this while singing. Using Strong's concordance, we could translate that verse like this: "The Lord your God is powerful; he will save and deliver you, he will shine forth over you with great glee, he will be silent in his great love for you, he will spin around in violent emotion over you with triumphant shouts of great joy!" God loves us continually with great emotion. Armed with the confidence of a mighty God who loves us enough to sing over us and who is with us, we can go forward into the future with joy.

Prayer   Dear Father, thank You for singing over me. I am strengthened knowing that You express Your love for me with great exuberance. Help me to respond to such love with joyful abandonment. In Jesus' name. Amen.

We offer our special thank you to Aletha Hinthorn who took time in her busy schedule to contribute devotions, and who allowed us to use then on our web site. Aletha's insights and reflections on the Gospel are an inspiration for all. 
Aletha Hinthorn is founder and director of "Come to the Fire", a women's holiness ministry.
For more information or to contact her personally go to www.ComeToTheFire.org.