Small Seed Devotion: Journal

Journal Your Words.

 

"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!” Job 19:23

Do you journal?

I remember, as a girl, the diary I had. It had a tiny lock and key (as if that kept would keep the contents completely confidential). I didn't want anyone to see my doodles, or how I wrote in cursive what my married name would be (according to which boy I was “in love” with that month), or the names I picked out for my future children (like Elizabeth or Rebecca), or the fantasy stories I wrote. My diary was filled with the things of dreams and days to come.

Today, though, I live and write in the present and I “journal” (that’s more sophisticated, right?). My journal is filled with God Sightings, Scripture that jumped out at me, quotes from Christian books, prayers, thoughts, etc....all things I want to think about or be able to go back too; things that keep me focused on God.

So, like Job, my words are written in a book. I can look back in my journal to specific times and see struggles and how God got me through. It strengthens me and hopefully you too. I use my journal entries to write these devos. My life is an open book, I guess. If something helped me, I want to pass it on. Maybe it will help someone else too.

Do you journal? What do you put in it?

Small Seed Devotion: Knocking

Jesus is Knocking.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)

A few weeks ago, here in my town, a man heard knocking at his front door one night. He opened the door and three men attacked him. One of them shot him in the arm before the three fled.

The world is full of evil, but there is one who knocks on the door of our heart and soul who brings healing, goodness, and life. Evil things will still happen in this fallen world, but when you let Jesus in, you let THE light in.

Jesus is knocking. Have you let him in to dine with you or is the door only cracked a bit?   

Small Seed Devotion: Steady

Slow and Steady is Best.

^“Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty.” Proverbs 21:5 (TLB)
Driving home early from work today (due to snow), I took it slow and steady. Most of the back roads had not been treated and I didn’t want to slide off the road. Last Sunday, as I drove home in the snow from a youth retreat, we passed all sorts of emergency vehicles and then saw an overturned car in the ditch. Was that car's driver driving too fast for conditions? Maybe.

Driving in the snow makes me think of how fast-paced we all are. Rush to work. Rush home. Rush, rush, rush. But, if we slow down…and take it easy, think things through, adjust to our circumstances – how much better we’d be off. Proverbs reminds us that God wants us slow and steady, pressing on, not rushing ahead or hastily making decisions, but that advice is contrary to the world’s “Be the first, get rich quick, one day sale” philosophy.

This afternoon's snow (my backyard).

Do you have an example from your life of “steady plodding” or “hasty speculation”?