Tag: Inspirational

Waiting for the "Foundation"

Published on by Amanda Tero2 Comments
There are many “buts” in our life. The “buts” are generally . . . excuses. “I would do this, but . . .”
The other day, I found a very interesting “but” in God’s Word. “From the first day of the seventh month began they (Israel) to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.” (Ezra 3:6)
Israel was coming from the pagan enemy’s land to rebuild the temple by decree of King Cyrus (see Ezra 1:1-3). Almost immediately when they returned to Jerusalem, the city of the temple, they began sacrificing to God. Nothing hindered their service to the one true God. Not even the fact that the temple was not prepared or ready!
As I read this captivating story of Israel’s return to God, I began to realize that there are many “foundations” I am placing as prerequisites for my service to God. Things that in my eyes make sense, but in reality are a just an excuse for my disobedience to God’s gentle prodding. It can be as easy as, “Lord, if you answer this prayer, then I will . . .” or, “Yes, Lord, I see that I should do this, but I must wait until tomorrow.” or as far-sighted as, “Lord, I’ll do this, but it makes sense to be married first.” When we feel God’s leading, we do not need the “foundation of the temple” to be set in order before we begin. We can begin as soon as He tells us.
What “foundation” are you waiting for before giving your life, your possessions, and your time to God?

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Today, stop and reconsider how you treasure God’s Word. Is it special to you? If it is special to you, how often do you read it? Memorize it? Talk of it?

It is Written . . . for ME!!!

Published on by Amanda TeroLeave a comment
Stop for a moment and think about how great our God is. He created all that eye can see (Genesis 1:1), there is none greater than He (Psalm 77:13), and He is all powerful (Exodus 15:6).
Our Great, Powerful, Almighty, Holy, Perfect, Righteous, Creator God created something for each of His children to have: something that we can hold in our hands, something that we can understand, and something that will greatly help us. It is just another one of God’s wonderful gifts to us – and yet, how often do we throw it aside? How often do we view it as “boring?” How often do we view something else as more important?
This gift is God’s Word – the Holy Bible.
{following emphasis added}
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
“According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”(2 Peter 1:3-4)
 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)
God knew that we needed this gift, or else He would not have given it. But do we see that we need it?

Today, stop and reconsider how you treasure God’s Word. Is it special to you? If it is special to you, how often do you read it? Memorize it? Talk of it?

Just reading, or learning?

Published on by Amanda Tero4 Comments
The other day, as I read through my morning Psalm, I was lifted and encouraged. It is so beautiful to bask in the truths of God’s Word, to rely on those truths, and to claim them as promises for us!!!
However, I do not always enjoy my time reading God’s Word. Sometimes I read “just to check it off my list” or skim through the page, not trying to glean anything from it. Often, I shut my Bible, continue my daily life, and forget all that I just read.
The Lord continually convicts me of this problem, and I have learned that I need to ask Him to bless my reading time and help me to learn from Him. Psalm 119:18 is a verse that I often pray: “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”
How is your Bible-reading going? Has the Lord used a verse, two verses, passage, or chapter in your life recently?
And since I mentioned it, here is the Psalm that God used in my life the other day:
Psalm 103
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7 He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9 He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.
14 For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s children;
18 To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.
19 The LORD hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all.
20 Bless the LORD, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word.
21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure.

22 Bless the LORD, all His works in all places of His dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

Prayer— Battle in “The Secret Place”

Published on by Amanda TeroLeave a comment
Again, I am sharing the devotional that I read this morning that really encouraged me.

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My Utmost for His Highest (by Oswald Chambers)
August 23

When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly —Matthew 6:6

Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.

About Friendships and Disillusionments

Published on by Amanda TeroLeave a comment

Yesterday, I read a devotional that, while it took me reading through twice to understand, struck me as an amazing reminder of how I view my friendships.

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From My Utmost for His Highest
By Oswald Chambers 
(July 30)
“Jesus did not commit Himself unto them . . . for He knew what was in man.” (John 2:24-25)

“Disillusionment means that there are no more false judgments in life. To be undeceived by disillusionment may leave us cynical and unkindly sever in our judgment of others, but the disillusionment which comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as they really are, and yet there is no cynicism, we have no stinging bitter things to say. Many of the cruel things in life spring from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts; we are true only to our ideas of one another. Everything is either delightful and fine, or mean and dastardly, according to our idea.

“The refusal to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. It works in this way – if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot give. There is only on Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why our Lord is apparently so sever regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man, was so perfect that He despaired of no one. If our trust is placed in human beings, we shall end in despairing of everyone.“

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Where is our trust concerning our friendships? The more we cling to friendships, the less we will care about God’s thoughts concerning the friendship. I am reminded once again to hold first my relationship with God and second, my relationship with those around me.

What Do We Push?

Published on by Amanda TeroLeave a comment

Yesterday’s devotion really spoke to me and I wanted to share it with y’all.

“Liberty and the Standards of Jesus”
From My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand—”Believe this and that”; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty— the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.

Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty— the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.

Don’t get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you— with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go . . . and make disciples. . .” (Matthew 28:19), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.”

Sowing and Reaping

Published on by Amanda Tero2 Comments

In memorizing Galatians 6, the Lord has impressed upon me several things which I thought I would share with y’all.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:7-10)
As with all passages in God’s Word, there is SO much that we can glean from Galatians 6:7-10! One thing that stood out to me was the “well-doing.” Quite honestly, the easiest path to take is the path of sowing to the flesh. We do not have to try hard to live/sow in the flesh. Actually, it comes quite naturally.
But what about the other side of this passage?
Both sowing/living in the Spirit and doing “good unto all men” are not the easiest, most pleasant paths to tread. I believe that is why God sandwiches between these two actions, “let us not be weary in well doing.” Since living in the Spirit and doing good to others do not come naturally, it is a tough battle that rages every minute of our lives. Whether or not we are aware of it, we are constantly making choices to sow in the flesh or the Spirit. And, as God’s Word is true, we will reap the results even in those instances when we were not fullyaware that we were making the wrong choice.
As we live our daily lives, are we taking the “path of least resistance” or following God’s Holy Spirit?