Wednesdays in the Word

Some encouragement from Psalms 77 today:

"In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord."

"Has His mercy ceased forever?" 

"I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed." 

"Has God forgotten to be gracious?" 

Ever feel this way?
I love that the Psalms express the wide range of emotions that we go through.

The following verses remind us that all the comfort we need on our blue days, is found in His story and ours!

1. "I will remember Your wonders of old."

Look around you at all that He's created.
Remember that there was once a day when He made the sun stand still.
One time He had a whole bunch of people shout and a brick wall fell down.
Another day, the Red Sea stood up in a heap on both sides and His people walked across it on dry land.
And on more than one day, He made people who were dead, come back to life!

2. I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High 

His 'right hand' refers to the powerful acts of the Most High.
Some of my favorite power acts of His have to be conquering sin, death, hell and the grave for us through His death and resurrection.

3. "I call to remembrance my song in the night."

I think these are the desperate times in our lives maybe or maybe not at night, where we saw Him intervene in some amazing way. I've got lots of these!
On the floor of a hospital room for one. Another time when I was so ill I should have been in a hospital room, for another..

"I will meditate on all Your work and talk of Your deeds." 
"Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders." 

So remember your story and His.


~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

My Bible reading plan recently had me reading in the book of Numbers.
In chapter twelve, God said that Moses was "faithful in all my house, I speak to him face to face. And he sees the form of the Lord."

And then God asks Miriam and Aaron (Moses' siblings) why they weren't afraid to speak against His servant. Yikes!

And it made me wonder why we aren't afraid to speak against God's servant today, who we know have His presence dwelling on the inside of them! Ouch! 
(mic drop)  ; )

Have a great day! 
~Becky

That moment you live for

The other day held one of THOSE moments!
One of those moments you look forward to from the minute your kids are born, and certainly all through the terrible twos, and the ornery elevens (I'm sure that's a thing) and the tumultuous teens!

One of my kids relayed a conversation they had with someone else,  in which they said "the greatest thing my parents ever taught me was how to love Jesus for myself." 😭 I grabbed that kiddo in a huge hug before they could finish. LOL
Then they said  "Instead of saying how to do it, you guys modeled your love for Him."
 💗 Oh my stars! That was a banner day.

If you are in one of the seasons mentioned above, just know that you will blink and they will be adults, who appreciate you and what God helped you instill in them.


~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Be a Caleb! 

Speak out your faith in spite of the circumstances!

We all know that when the spies came back from surveying the promised land, Caleb is remembered for saying "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." 

He saw the same giants everyone else saw but he declared his faith and the power of God. 

The others gave "the children of Israel a bad report of the land they spied out." 

Isn't it impressive that even though their words resulted in a 40 year delay in the wilderness, we never hear of Caleb hitting the road on his own. Or saying 'I told you so.' He walked in unity and patience in the process, as he awaited his promise. 

"Surely not one of those men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give... except Caleb, he shall see it and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord." Deut. 1:3  I love that phrase. In Numbers 14, it says, "My servant Caleb has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully and I will bring him into the land where he went." 

And in Josh.14:8 Caleb said "My brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God." 

Pray to wholly follow! 

Be brave enough to have a different spirit than everyone else! 

Guess what didn't happen? At year 40, a deed wasn't signed and dropped into his mailbox and that land did not suddenly become Caleb's. Wouldn't that be nice if our promises all dropped into our laps without any work on our part? 

Caleb had to fight for his promise! We often have to fight for ours. 

But he literally had to fight. LOL 

Because those giants he saw, still lived on his promised mountain. 

Apparently, there was a 5 year delay! But Caleb doesn't sound bitter. 

Here's what the guy with the "different spirit" had to say:

"The Lord has kept me alive and well as He promised for all those 45 years since Moses made this promise...Today, I am 85 years old and I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me!"

I used to think that verse was figurative for some reason and that Caleb wasn't actually the strongest 85 year old guy ever. But according to Deut. 29:5, God kept the people's shoes and clothing from wearing out for those 40 years and apparently He kept Caleb from wearing out too! ; ) 

Caleb was 'given' his mountain, but that wasn't the same thing as possessing it. 

He had to go with God's help and actually drive out the giants that stood between him and his promise and he did! 

I hope you fight for what God has promised you! I hope you have His help taking down spiritual giants and taking back territory! 

And may we all be patient during the delays because a different spirit is in us!  

Blessings,

Becky

January inched by

One of my goals for this year is to read 12 books. I’m feeling incredibly accomplished because I finished the first four in the month of January, so that’s a great start! I hope to read a mixture of spiritual, historical and fictional books. This was the first one and I loved it.

I usually run from books or movies that involve a cancer theme but this one was a fun, sweet read. And a bit therapeutic as I was reminded of our days in the Infusion Center and what it was like to cook for a chemo patient, who felt like everything tasted like metal. I love how the characters in the story dealt with that. Gotta love a book with lots of Jane Austen and C.S. Lewis quotes! 💕And it wasn’t even too sad!

The beach is my absolute favorite happy place but not so conducive for winter. And it has actually been quite a cold one here in Florida! So Joy and I decided to get annual zoo passes! It was the cost of one visit, so you can't beat that! Great place to exercise on my days off! I walked 3.5 miles the other day, in between laughing at some of the sights! 

For 21 days in January, our church did a time of prayer and fasting. What you fasted was optional, of course. Some of us fasted food and others fasted social media, TV, video games etc. I was basically a sugar-free vegan who didn't watch much TV, which is the reason I could finish four books. LOL 

It was a great time of drawing closer to the Lord and getting refocused on His plan for my life.

The other night, I babysat my friend's 9 month old and her 3 year old. It was so much fun! I got my baby fix with so many cuddles! -And seriously wondered how I ever cared for my 4 kiddos when they were all 6 years old and under. Obviously, I was once Wonder Woman! 😂 Who knew!? 

This is the first year that I can think of that I'm not hosting a Super Bowl party. But I'm OK with that. I haven't ever really cared about who won it, just what I was serving and that people had a good time. 

Instead, I have been asked to go dog sit the 'grand dog' during it and I'm happy to do it. Here's hoping that maybe in the next 5 years or so, it will be a grandCHILD and not a dog! LOL 

Well, it is finally February! I don't why but January felt 3 months long!  Maybe it was the fasting! 

~Happy February! 

Becky