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Astounding…. (devo reflection)

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousness is as filthy rags…

And yet He loves us fiercely anyway. He lavishes us with grace upon grace anyway. Isn’t it astounding the love He has for His children? It takes my breath away.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way….

And yet He sends us sunshine, blue skies, showers and rainbows, people who love and encourage us, God-moments to draw us closer. He even allows us to wrestle with doubt so that we can come to the end of ourselves and find Him.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Lord, I am not worthy, can never be worthy, and yet You tell me again and again and again that my life is of eternal worth. You invite me to know You intimately, to trust You fully. I want that, Lord, so much. Help me. Amen.

Lamentations 3:22-23 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Have a blessed day.

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Trusting God unequivocally…. (devo reflection)

Lamentations 3:1-3 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.

Lord, Sometimes life is difficult, painful, and senseless. Sometimes it feels like You are making us walk alone, in darkness rather than light. Those are the times that You are calling us to trust You unequivocally, to not question, to not try to understand, just to trust You. Help me, Jesus.

Lamentations 3:21-23 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lord, I don’t like those times, don’t like being afraid or anxious, don’t like not understanding the why of life. Help me remember that this life is not about me. It’s about You. Help me to trust You. Always.

Lamentations 3:24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Lord, Thank You for being with me even when my feelings try to tell me You aren’t there. My heart knows You will never leave me, especially when I need You most. That’s trust, Lord. It’s there. I do trust You. Help me to trust You more each day. Amen.

Lamentations 3:25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him….

Have a blessed day.

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Promise and hope…. (devo reflection)

Lamentations 5:15 Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
Psalm 30:11 shows that when God is our center, when we humble ourselves before Him, He turns our mourning into dancing, loosens our sackcloth and clothes us with gladness. Lamentations 5:15 shows that when God is no longer our center, when we turn from Him to our own desires, the opposite occurs.
Lamentations 5:16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Joy and gladness are not rights, they are blessings. We don’t deserve them. We shouldn’t expect them. But when we live a life aligned to God, when we keep Him at our center, when we humble ourselves before Him, He lavishes His blessings upon us.
Lamentations 5:19 You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.
Lord, You do not promise to keep us from mourning and sadness. We can’t avoid these conditions in this fallen world. But You lavish us with blessings that turn for us our mourning into dancing; You loose our sackcloth and clothe us with gladness in the midst of sorrow and mourning. Thank You for the promise and hope that can only come from You. Help me, always, to humble myself before You, to keep You at my center, to recognize Your blessings in this life. Amen.
Lamentations 5:21 Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old….
Have a blessed day.
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The most precious thing I possess…. (devo reflection)

Lamentations 4:1 How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at every street corner.
My tendency toward pride, toward feeling like something is my due, is addressed in this verse. God’s blessings are gold, precious and valuable, but when I treat them as rights due to me, the value of those blessings is diminished in my eyes—they aren’t precious gifts, they are expectations. Jesus, Forgive me.
Lamentations 4:12 The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the peoples of the world, that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
Pride also leads to neglect. If I expect something is mine and that no one will take it away from me, I don’t tend it like I should. I don’t care for, value, or protect it like the precious thing it is. I’ve never thought about pride affecting my relationship with my Savior, but that’s exactly what happened in Jerusalem and Judah. They quit acting like God’s chosen people and started doing whatever they pleased, figuring that their chosen status was secured. I’ve acted in the same ignorance. Jesus, Forgive me.
Lamentations 4:13 But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous.
Lord, I have seen the dangers of pride in my own life, the bitterness when something I thought was mine by rights was taken away or withheld. Forgive me. Today’s scripture has help solidify that my relationship with You is THE most precious, most valuable thing I possess. Help me to never be prideful about Your love. Help me to tend my relationship with You as the precious gift it is. Help me to always be thankful and grateful for Your blessings in my life, to never take them for granted. Amen.
Lamentations 4:16 The Lord himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. The priests are shown no honor, the elders no favor.
Have a blessed day.
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Humility leads to hope…. (devo reflection)

Lamentations 3:21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
I have been aware of this section of Lamentations 3 for a long time. I gravitate toward the hope it provides. But commentary on these verses makes an interesting point that really resonates with me this morning: “he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, and then his hope revives.”
Lamentations 3:22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
This idea of humility leading to hope is one I’d not pondered before, but it makes perfect sense. When I approach life with a prideful attitude and things don’t go my way, I feel offended. But when I approach life from a humbled heart, with the attitude that God is sovereign and can work all things for my good and His glory, hope flares—even when I don’t understand, don’t like what is happening, and can’t see any way for positive resolution.
Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lord, Thank You for the reminder that You ARE in control and You ARE working all things for our good and Your glory, regardless of my circumstances or emotions. Period. Full stop. Thank You for helping me see how my pride leads to bitterness and my humility leads to hope. Fill my life with Your hope, Lord. Help me to share Your light with all I encounter. Amen.
Lamentations 3:24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Have a blessed day.
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Privilege and responsibility…. (devo reflection)

Lamentations 2:13 What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, Daughter Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, Virgin Daughter Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
Commentary made a point in this chapter that really struck me: “For many generations God’s people thought only in terms of the privilege and not of the responsibility” of the titles and positions of Daughter of Zion and Daughter of Judah.
Lamentations 2:14 The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The prophecies they gave you were false and misleading.
I love the privilege of my title of fiercely loved child of God. There are many promises tied up in that title. But I don’t often think of the responsibilities asked of me because of that position, though I think that as I get older I am naturally gravitating to some of the habits—daily time with God, daily communication with God, studying God’s word, shining God’s light, living as an example to God’s people (that one is disconcerting, for sure), loving extravagantly and without reason.
Lamentations 2:15 All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at Daughter Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?”
Lord, Thank You for the privilege of being Your fiercely loved child. Help me to be mindful of enthusiastically fulfilling the things You have called me to do as Your daughter, all of which draw me closer to You. Keep drawing me closer, Lord. Always. Amen.
Lamentations 2:17 The Lord has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes.
Have a blessed day.
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The process of being humbled…. (devo reflection)

Lamentations 1:5 Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe.
It is hard to be humbled. Even as I type these words, they feel like a colossal understatement. Being humbled involves realizing you were arrogant in the first place. It usually involves losing something important or valuable to the one humbled. It involves acknowledging that you are at fault, that your actions led to this miserable end.
Lamentations 1:7a In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old….
The process of being humbled is incredibly painful. It involves mourning, grief, and loss. But it can also lead to a humble and contrite heart, which can lead us back to God….if we allow, if we humble ourselves fully.
Lamentations 1:7b …When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction.
Lord, I know You are at work in my heart. I know You are still working with me on humility, on laying aside my pride, on emptying myself of me so that I can be filled with You. I want this, too, but my fleshly humanity keeps getting in the way, keeps trying to wrestle back control. Help me, Lord. Amen.
Lamentations 1:8 Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away.
Have a blessed day.
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Tomorrow is a new day…. (devo reflection)

Leviticus 22:6 The one who touches any such thing will be unclean until evening….
Commentary states that “With this description [in Leviticus 22:7], God indicates that one can start the new day clean and pure to the LORD. No matter how we might have failed the day before, we can begin each new day pure and close to the LORD.”
Leviticus 22:7 When the sun goes down, he will be clean….
That commentary reminds me strongly of a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Leviticus 22:9 The priests are to perform my service in such a way that they do not become guilty and die for treating it with contempt….
Lord, Thank You for this day, for this scripture, for this reminder that Your mercies are new every morning (Lam 3:23). Thank You for the opportunity to start fresh in You each day, no matter what nonsense crept in the day before. Help us to begin again each morning, steeped in Your love, mercy, and grace. Draw us closer. Amen.
Leviticus 22:31 Keep my commandments and follow them. I am the LORD.
Have a blessed day.

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The space to choose You…. (devo reflection)

Exodus 25:2 “…You are to receive the offering for Me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.”
I am reminded in this passage of the fact that God loves us deeply. He wants a relationship with each one of us, and He has the ability to command such a relationship, to force us into a relationship, but He gives us the right to choose Him or not, knowing how rich a relationship with Him will be, allowing us to recognize our need for Him in our own lives.
Exodus 25:8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them.”
As a fallible lump of humanity, it boggles my mind why He would even care about me, about any of us. He is the Creator of all the universe after all. But as a mother, a teacher, a compassionate human being, I get it. We are His creation, and He loves us simply because we are His. He wants to spend time with us. He wants a relationship with us. But He leaves it our choice.
Exodus 25:22 “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you….”
Lord, Thank You for this day, for this scripture, for this reminder that You love us and want a relationship with us. Thank You for giving us the space to choose You so that we understand our need before we even approach the foot of Your throne. Help us to shine Your light for all to see. Draw us closer. Amen.
Lamentations 3:22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.
Have a blessed day.

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The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases…. (devo reflection)

Gen 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
I am only four chapters into Genesis, and I marvel at the things I am learning—about our amazing God and about the tenets I seem to hold about my faith. I have always equated Cain with evil. After all, he killed his brother in what appears to be cold-blooded murder. Yet Eve saw him as the potential Savior God promises them after their disobedience and exile from the Garden, and God showed him mercy, even in his disobedience.
Gen 4:7 “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
And I have always thought of the Old Testament, pre-Jesus God as hard and unyielding. “Walk this line. Do not depart from it or I will smite you.” Yet in just the first four chapters of Genesis, God has shown repeated mercy and love in the face of blatant disobedience—Adam, Eve, and the apple, Cain and his offering, Cain’s murder of his brother. 
Gen 4:15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
Lord, Thank You for this day, for this scripture, for this new understanding that Your mercies, which are new every morning, have existed for Your people since the world began. Thank You for the time I am spending in Genesis, for the ability to examine my beliefs and my faith through new eyes, and for this new understanding of Your character, Your mercy, and Your love. Draw me closer to You as I shine Your light. Amen.
Lam 3:21-23 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
Have a blessed day.