This devotional from In Touch is too good not to share! Waiting on God after praying and praying and getting an answer of “yes, but not yet.” is so tough! Waiting on God’s blessings in His time are always worth the wait.
Responding to Closed Doors
Genesis 16:1-16
God answers prayer in one of three ways: “yes,” “no,” or “yes, but not yet.” This last reply seems to be the most dreaded— sometimes even more than an outright “no.” However, patience is an important trait for the Christian, as Scripture stresses repeatedly in stories, psalms, and epistles.
Waiting on the Lord to unlock a door is always wiser than attempting to pry it open ourselves, even when the delay has been long. After God promised him descendants (Gen. 12:2), Abraham lived for 25 years with an answer of “not yet.” After that quarter-century, the answer finally became “yes.” But meanwhile, Abraham and Sarah came up with their own plan to get an heir—Sarah’s servant Hagar bore Ishmael. The couple may have convinced themselves they were “helping” God live up to His prophecy, but really they were disobeying. The consequences were disastrous. Bitterness and blame affected every member of the family (Gen. 16:4-6; Gen. 21:9-10). What’s more, Ishmael’s people lived in enmity with their neighbors, and that hostility persists in the Middle East today (Gen. 21:9-14; Gen. 25:18).
Our patience gives God time to prepare the opportunity on the other side of a closed door. Even if we could force our way by manipulating circumstances, we would not be happy with what we find there. No one in Abraham’s camp was satisfied with the situation they created! We can have contentment and joy only when we access the Lord’s will at the very moment He ordained. The blessings we find on the other side of an open door are always worth the wait.
My Mom, sisters and I have been reading through this book Ponder The Path by Francie Taylor. It’s been great so far and I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a daily devotional.
I wanted to share one of the devotionals with you that I have found to be convicting yet also applicable to this series of “Ditch The Diet”.
Happy is a man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding Proverbs 3:13
We’ve been tricked!
Women today are being duped into believing that their physical appearance is the key to happiness. Add in the myth of “anti-aging” and we’re caught in a trap, and we’re passing the Baton of insecurity to young women running the next leg of the race. Now they are also striving to have the image that supposedly makes life complete.
But does it?
I met an 80 something-year-old former beauty queen and tap dancer. “I was really famous in my day,” she told me with great pride. It was almost as if she felt the need to validate her presence by describing her past. Did you know that there are a lot of former beauties in nursing homes?
God doesn’t value the currency of good looks. In fact, it must make him shake his Heavenly head as he watches all these organized piles of dust wearing “powder and paint to make a woman what she ain’t.” Sigh.
Happiness doesn’t come from having flawless skin, stylish hair, and a size 2 figure wrapped up in fashionable clothing. All those things are temporary. You will wake up one day at 80, when it will seem to you that it was just yesterday that you were 20, like the former beauty queen, if God grants you that many days.
Happiness is a benefit of wisdom. When we find wisdom from God’s word, we are able to see life through clear lenses, understanding and comprehending that there are far more important issues in this life than whether or not people are impressed with our appearance. Cutting a fine figure is no substitute for being a wonderful human being.
To be happy is to be blessed. Find wisdom. Get understanding. It’s far more valuable than being able to wear a size 2 at age 82.
Happy is a man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding Proverbs 3:13 Read Proverbs 3.
Sunday morning one of my favorite singers at our church sang this song with the choir, and it has been running through my head ever since. My favorite line in the song is…
I know you, I love you
I gave My life just to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict not guilty
I stand accused
There’s a list a mile long
Of all my sins
Of everything that I’ve done wrong I’m so ashamed
There’s nowhere left for me to hide
This is the day
I must answer for my life
My fate is in the Judge’s hands
But then He turns to me and says
I know you, I love you I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict not guilty
How can it be?
I can’t begin to comprehend What kind of grace Would take the place for all my sin?
I stand in awe
Now that I have been set free
And the tears well up
As I look at that cross
‘Cause it should have been me
My fate was in the nail scarred hands
He stretched them out for me
And said
I know you, I love you
I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy My verdict not guilty
I’m falling on my knees to thank You
With everything I am, I’ll praise you
So grateful for the words I heard
You say
I know you, I love you
I gave My life
I know you, I love you
I gave My life just to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict not guilty
Love paid the price for mercy My verdict not guilty, not guilty
No need for a lengthy introduction, I know why you are here, let’s get right into it…
1) Make the decision to change!
If you always do what you have always done, you will always be what you have always been. Make a decision to change and then do it!
2) Get honest with yourself!
Figure out your body fat percentage. Take your body measurements. Weigh yourself. Take “before” photos. You will be glad you did once you start seeing results so that you can compare how far you have come.
3) Set a goal, write it down, and put a date on it!
If you are serious about your goals, write them down and keep yourself accountable!
4) Find a role model and follow their example!
Choose someone that you know has a good health and wellness lifestyle and ask for them to mentor you! A little bit of encouragement, accountability, and guidance can be the difference between giving up and going on to succeed! This brings me to the next point…
5) Ignore the negativity.
Let’s be honest, haters gonna hate! It is human nature to try to bring other’s down to our level. Don’t let someone else’s negativity prevent you from becoming a better version of yourself!
6) Don’t give up!
Things are going to get hard! If it were easy everyone would already be eating right, exercising, and living a healthy life. When things get hard work harder. The end result of a healthier you is totally worth working through the hard times.
In an interview with fashion magazine WWD in 2009, Kate Moss said her famous motto “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
Both fans and critics have been quoting her ever since…
While, yes, as women, we love to feel “skinny”, and the culture around us puts so much importance on our outer appearance. It is very easy to get caught up in the “Thin Is In” mindset.
But at what cost?
Is it more important to be thin than to be healthy? Is being skinny more important than being able to enjoy your life? Is being skinny worth the price of your joints and kidneys? Is being skinny so important that it is worth starving for?
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20** That your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and that we are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
God tells us that we need to take care of our bodies because not only do they belong to Him, but they are also the house that the Holy Spirit lives in.
Don’t buy into the lie that being thin at any cost is more important than taking care of the body that God gave you to live in.
So while Kate Moss may have her motto, here is my motto “Skinny Never Looks As Good As Healthy Feels!”
**1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
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If you know me well, you know that I love animal facts!
My favorite of all the animals (besides my precious BT Tessie) is elephants. I love how they have such big personalities and memories and stick together and even cry for each other.
Jen Hatmaker also has a big personality and is one of my favorites. Here is a post from her that I wanted to share with all of you.
#Repost @jenhatmaker
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A few months ago, my girl @nicholenordeman sent me a picture and a story.
It’s about female elephants. See, in the wild, when a mama elephant is giving birth, all the other female elephants in the herd back around her in formation. They close ranks so that the delivering mama cannot even be seen in the middle. They stomp and kick up dirt and soil to throw attackers off the scent and basically act like a pack of badasses.
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They surround the mama and baby in protection, sending a clear signal to predators that if they want to attack their friend while she is vulnerable, they’ll have to get through 40 tons of female aggression first.
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When the baby is delivered, the sister elephants do two things: they kick sand or dirt over the newborn to protect its fragile skin from the sun, and then they all start trumpeting, a female celebration of new life, of sisterhood, of something beautiful being born in a harsh, wild world despite enemies and attackers and predators and odds.
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Scientists tell us this formation normally occurs in only two cases – under attack by predators like lions, or during the birth of a new elephant.
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This is what we do, girls. When our sisters are vulnerable, when they are giving birth to new life, new ideas, new ministries, new spaces, when they are under attack, when they need their people to surround them so they can create, deliver, heal, recover…we get in formation. We close ranks and literally have each others’ backs. You want to mess with our sis? Come through us first. Good luck.
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And when delivery comes, when new life makes its entrance, when healing finally begins, when the night has passed and our sister is ready to rise back up, we sound our trumpets because we saw it through together. We celebrate! We cheer! We raise our glasses and give thanks.
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I have this picture saved in 3 different places & in a frame. (I also have an elephant ring given to me and my girlfriends from @taralivesay – it tells me: never alone.) Maybe you need this too. If you are closing ranks around a vulnerable sister, or if your girls have you surrounded while you are tender, this is how we do it.
Every once in a while I stop and ask myself “Laura, why are you doing what you are doing?” I made a decision about 6 months ago to stop doing things for the wrong reasons. I decided that if something is not bringing joy in my life I need to stop doing it. I can’t say that in the last 6 months I have always followed that decision, but I have tried to keep a check on my motives.
Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the LORD weighs the motives.
Psalm 139:1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
Jeremiah 12:3 But You know me, O LORD; You see me; And You examine my heart’s attitude toward You.
Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.
“Why are you doing what you are doing?”
After making some changes, I have had more peace in the last few months than I have had in a long time. I will continue to ask myself “Why are you doing what you are doing?” and I will also continue to answer myself honestly. Sometimes being honest with ourselves about our motives is one of the hardest parts.
There have been times that social media has been more of a drain on me than an enjoyment, so I have chosen to distance myself from it. There have been people in my life that have been more of a drain on me emotionally than an enjoyment, so I distanced myself from them. The choice isn’t always permanent, but sometimes a bit of separation gives a chance to get things back into proper perspective.
Instead of letting others determine what we do, what we wear, how we decorate our houses, where we choose to go, we need to make choices for ourselves. We should only be trying to make right choices for ourselves and the people and things that are truly important to us.
Saying yes all the time won’t make me Wonder Woman. It will make me a worn-out woman.
I am not talking about becoming self-centered, I am talking about becoming secure in yourself and making choices for yourself, not because of what other people want or what “they” will think.**
I heard this song the other day and the message of it really made me think. It is so similar to what I have been pondering the last few months. What really matters is that when I am alone with myself, do I like the person that I am on the inside?!
Try by Colbie Caillat
Put your make-up on
Get your nails done
Curl your hair
Run the extra mile
Keep it slim so they like you, do they like you?
Get your sexy on
Don’t be shy, girl
Take it off
This is what you want, to belong, so they like you
Do you like you?
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try
Mm, mm
Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your credit cards
You don’t have to choose, buy it all, so they like you
Do they like you?
Wait a second, Why, should you care, what they think of you When you’re all alone, by yourself, do you like you? Do you like you?
When you’re all alone, by yourself, do you like you?
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try
Mm, mm
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try
Take your make-up off
Let your hair down
Take a breath
Look into the mirror, at yourself
Don’t you like you?
‘Cause I like you
**A great book with a lot of great information about a similar topic is The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst. She is the president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and the New York Times bestselling author of Uninvited. (Totally not sponsored at all, I just really enjoyed the information in this book.)
Looking Joli Good 