Let God's word be the lamp beneath our feet

Devotion: Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" During my morning bus ride to work, almost every day I see a woman who is visually impaired walking along the sidewalk to her job. She has her cane in her hand, tapping it out in front of her, letting it be her guide along the sidewalk. I've watched and admired her or many months now. That cane is her lifeline and s

afety net alone a route that is filled with cars, buses, people, and immobile obstructions and every morning she navigates around it. I've watched as she's tapped far out in front of her to be guided around power grids and poles, traffic control posts, watched as she has listened to and stopped for traffic and then proceeded forward just at the right time, all with the reliance on that cane and her other senses. What if we relied upon the word of God with such unfailing trust, such blind faith to lead us on our path in life every single day. What if we allowed God's word to be the light at our feet guiding our path, that cane that we tap out in front of us to guide us around the many obstacles every single day. Just as I've watched that woman have blind faith in her cane and her senses every single morning to get her safely to her destination, our blind faith and trust in God will get us safely to where he desires us to go. Sometimes our intellect gets us in trouble, we like to think to much, unlike this woman who cannot see the path in front of her, we unfortunately see to many alternate paths and like to argue with God about which one to take. I know that I for one should and can take a lesson from her daily trek every single morning and start having blind faith in God to lead my path every day.

God, I pray that your word will be the light and guide at my feet every single day. May times our intellect gets in the way, we see other options and think that they are better than the one that you have chosen for us. Teach us to have blind faith in you God, teach us to rely solely upon your word and promises that you will always guide us in the way that we should go, if we would just let go and allow you to work in our lives. Amen.

" For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth, From birth I have relied on you; from birth you have brought me from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you." Psalm 71:5-6. Today is

 a day of firsts in many ways for me and while it fills me with pride on one hand, I have to be honest that I am also quite unsettled on the other hand. My daughter took her official Senior class photo's today. (below is one of the pictures she took in the cap and gown with her phone and sent to me), the reality that in less than a year she will be off to college is starting to sink in. I have been extremely blessed with her as a daughter and despite all the ups and downs of the teenage years, God saw us through relatively unscathed :). I will admit to having mother's anxiety at the thought of her being out there in the world, but I know God's hand is on her, and I have to and will trust in him to guide her and in him to make decisions that are based on God plan for her life. (As I am sitting here writing this she is writing out her guest list for graduation and explaining to me that the yellow cord is for her being in the top 10% of her class and the White collar is for being in the National Honor Society:). Letting go is a hard thing to do, I mean really, really hard!, its been me and her since 2002 since her dad and I divorced, but he has been a constant presence in her life and we are very, very good friends to this day and made it a priority to raise her together despite our no longer being married. Today as I settle into accepting that I am having to let go, I am also grateful to God for allowing me and her dad the opportunity to raise such a wonderful child.

“Help me, O’ Lord my God, save me in accordance with your love.” We try to do things under our own power forgetting that God is there to help us. We can and should ask for courage, strength, and assistance to overcome things 

in our lives. However, when God provides the means that we need in order to be saved, we MUST NOT IGNORE them. We can’t ask for help then sit back and do absolutely nothing. Many times we feel that we must suffer in silence because of fear, shame or maybe it’s because of the way we were raised. However, the more we call out and then ignore the resources/ answer that God provides, the more out of control we begin to feel.
a. In your journal, write down what you have been and are asking God for help with today.
b. Are those struggles causing you to feel out control or out of touch with God?
c. What trusted person/resource is available that you can discuss your struggles with. (friend, pastor, counselor) 

d. Write down whether or not you are willing to make the commitment today to accept God’s help. 

Do you want that boarding pass?
Yesterday as I took my daughter to the airport for her trip to Oregon, I could see the excitement on her face when she received her boarding pass. On the way back home the word boarding pass kept going through my mind; if Jesus appeared in front of us right now and said ‘it’s time” would I receive a boarding pass to heaven? Would you? Those are the kind o

f thoughts that I don’t like to think about but it’s exactly the kind of thoughts that I/we need to think about because it keeps us honest about the state of our hearts, our minds, our relationship with God and with others. We can say that we are living for God BUT are we practicing it; we can say that we love others but are we practicing it; we can say that we love ourselves in the way God loves us, but are we believing it and living it!. Saying and doing are two completely separate things and God will let us know that. Matthew 7:21: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” I don’t want to be one of the ones that God says, "you called out to me but you did nothing, you were given all the opportunities to do the right thing and live the life I planned for you, but you did not chose my path." I don’t want to be one of the ones denied a boarding pass for entry into the kingdom of heaven and eternal life with God. Rather, I want to be one that when the time comes, God can look at my life and say "welcome, you’ve done well, made quite a few mistakes along the way but you kept on trying and trying and today you can have a pass into the kingdom of heaven". Matthew 25:21 “Well done, good and trustworthy servant! Since you have been trustworthy with a small amount, I will put you in charge of a large amount. Come and share your master's joy!'

God, I give you all the glory, honor and praise. Thank you for your patience with me, thank you for loving me despite my many mistakes, thank you for welcoming me back to you despite the many times I run from you. I want that boarding pass to heaven, to live in eternity with you God and I pray that you will continue searching my heart everyday and removing any and all barriers that will keep me from you. I pray for your discipline in my heart and life Lord, that will keep transforming me, refining me, remaking me into who you want me to be and not what the world expects me to be, so that my ultimate reward will be life with you, not life in the world. Amen.

  

 Today let's make a conscious effort to watch our speech

 " show proper respect to everyone." 1 Peter 2:17. Sometimes we have no problem showing outward respect to people while on the inside we are very disrespectful towards them. They may not know it but God does. I know I have been and am guilty of that many times. We must always remember that everyone is due our respect even if they don't return it. God expects us to love, honor and respects others just as he loves us. It will be hard, (boy will it ever be hard some days) but if we are going to be true followers of Christ, we must try each day to be respectful to others inside and out. Perhaps from that tiny start, the love we are to feel towards them will become a natural outflow. As always, stay strong, have courage and stay blessed.

Consider this “Faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life and he will get us through it.” 

Max Lucado. Some days our conviction/faith may be stronger than other days. However, we must always remember that nothing we do or say is unknown to God. Before we say it, do it, act on it, or think it, God already knows about it. So relying upon God should become second nature to us, God knows all, is all, and will always see us through, all we have to do is trust in him.
a. How is your faith today?
b. What do you need to turn over to God?
c. How will believing that God knows more about this life than we do and will get us through, help prevent us from going astray? (Read Psalm 91: 4-6)

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children." Deuteronomy 6:6-7. What is the one thing that you do without thinking every single day? You breathe! Now think of something that is as important to you that you write it down in multiple places so that you don't forget. When things are important to us we make lists, we put them on 

our phones, we put them on strings on our fingers, we ask people to remind us, we put reminder notes on our refrigerators etc. The harder question is, do we place as much importance on our prayer life, our communication with God every single day? Do we place that much importance on reading the bible every single day? In order for the word of God to become ingrained into the very psyche of who we are, we need to immerse ourselves into it daily, we need to communicate with God daily and we need to remind ourselves daily of how important it is to take that time to connect with God. We must also take the time to introduce our children to the word of God and teach them how to develop relationships with God. We can't subscribe to the 'do as I say not as I do adage', our children copy what we do, if they see us praying, they will want to learn from us; if they see us reading the bible, they will want to learn more about what it is we are reading and why. Talking to God and reading the Word daily should become as natural to us as breathing and when we become at ease with our relationship with God and his Word, we will find it more natural to talk to our children and others about God. Today, let's examine ourselves and see where we are in our 'naturalness' with God. Do we consider it a chore to talk to God in prayer and read his word, or are we on our way to it being as natural as breathing. My prayer for all of us is that throughout our walk in faith and our journey here on earth, our communication with God because as second nature to us as breathing, that waking with praise on our lips and going to bed honoring God will be as natural to us and anything else in our lives.

 Today, it's all about being thankful. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" It's hard to think that we can give thanks even when we are going through hard times, but that is EXACTLY the times when we should be giving thanks to G

od the loudest for his faithfulness and his mercy and grace for we know that he will always deliver us through whatever season we are going through. So lets give thanks to God and say thank you to those around you who have lent a helping hand, a kind word, a shoulder to cry on, or even tripped you up in order that you may fall back onto the right path :) God works all things for good.

 This was my morning run, as much as I wanted to sleep in, I decided to get up early and head out for my morning run. Lots of hills involved, (looooots of hills), took my time and got it done in one hour 6 minutes (5.4 miles) with 958 total calories burned

Lunch/Snacks
2 cups baby spinach,
 1/2 avocado,
 4 oz red Thai chili tilapia, 
1 babybel cheese, 
1/2 cucumber,
 1 mango, 
1 larabar, 
1 small pack kettle popcorn 

l

 Lunch:
 3/4 plantain,
 5.6 oz salmon with curry salsa, 
onions and mushroom, 
2 cups prince Edward blend vegetables 
( green beans, carrots, etc) 23 oz water.

Lunch:
 1/2 cucumber ,
 1/2 avocado,
 2 cups baby spinach,
 4 oz Thai red chili baked tilapia,
 with onion and mushrooms. +
 loots of water.









8/18/12: We are the clay, God is the potter.

1. Complete 2 sets of 15 flutter kicks, 10 burpees, 15 squats, 

2. Invite a family member or a friend to workout with your today. 

3. Isaiah 64:8 "But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand" We are the clay, formed, reformed, re-created into who God wants us to be. But if in the pu

rsuit of the perfect body, money, job, marriage, relationship etc we burn our bridges with friends and family or even turn away from God, where does that leave us when we get what we thought we wanted?

In your journal or with a trusted friend, consider the following:
a. What if you achieved suddenly everything you wanted today – now what?
b. What ways to you need to reconcile with God and others in your life?
What steps can you start taking today to reconcile with God and those relationships that need fixing?