Honest Reflections

One-minute read.

God created you with love, fashioned for His purposes. When you look in the mirror today, ask the Lord for His perspective on you. The things you may not like about yourself, God loves. With care and provision, He made you, and the Creator doesn’t make junk.

In a world striving to identify itself, find your identity in Christ. Learn what God thinks of you and base your self-worth on His description. Jesus knowingly had His hands and feet pierced on the cross, dying a torturous death for you and me. The amount we pay for something determines its value, and the Savior gave it all for us. We have value and worth because of the Son.

Live your life for Christ, blessing Him with obedience. Ask the Lord to understand His laws as you strive to do them. The more you practice God’s ways, the brighter your light will shine, and the more people will notice. Like moths to a flame, they will want to know about the light they see in you.

Share God’s love with others by practicing His laws and having a ready answer on your lips when people notice. Shine bright in a dark world with the Lord as your Leader.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for creating us with love and precision to fulfill our purpose for You. Please help us follow You closely, applying Your laws to our lives, and shining brightly for the world to see.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

Learning things the hard way makes you remember the lesson. Overcoming adversity empowers us; we never forget the challenges and the strength it took to deal with them. As much as we want to protect people from pain, we learn our biggest lessons in suffering.

If we never had bad days, we wouldn’t appreciate good ones. In the same way, if we never experienced affliction, we wouldn’t turn to the Lord and experience the wisdom we find in His commandments. A steam engine can’t work without steam, and abundant life can’t happen without divine intervention.

Behind every success lies numerous failures. Only when we try and fail can we learn and grow. Instead of beating yourself up for past mistakes, learn from them and improve. The more you fail, the greater the success you will enjoy. And the more affliction you face, the greater reward that awaits you.

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
Romans 5:3-5

Let your afflictions lead you to Christ and His statutes. Perseverance builds endurance, produces character, and leads to hope.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for giving us the strength to persevere when afflicted, leading us to the hope of the Cross. Please help us turn to You, not the world, when life gets hard, experiencing victory in Christ.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

Full confession: I’ve made fun of rule followers. The incident that most comes to mind happened in college. Riding with a friend, we stopped at a convenience store for snacks. Four cute boys asked us for a ride to their frat house, but my friend said no. Her dad said she could only have two people in the car and wouldn’t break his rule.

At the time, I couldn’t believe she would pass up the opportunity to meet guys. I felt embarrassed because I thought her actions seemed silly. But thirty years later, as I look back on the incident, I admire her for keeping her father’s rules.

We can’t delight in God’s laws if we don’t follow them. My friend delighted in her earthly father’s laws and received his adoration; how much more our heavenly Father smiles when we follow His. Understanding the Lord gives us precepts that help us avoid pain and misery, making them easier to follow.

God wants us to experience life fully, so He directs us on how to accomplish it. Obeying the Lord not only transforms our lives but does so with fervor. In His law, we will delight.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for giving us directions to help us experience life to the fullest. Please help us obey Your commands and delight in Your laws.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

“The discipline of the Lord has changed his life.”¹ My favorite commentary sums this verse up well: when we practice God’s laws, our lives change for the better.

I strive to listen to opposite perspectives to help me understand people. Last week, I listened to a podcast between non-believing comedians talking about life, and one line stood out.

“People who follow Jesus, I mean really follow His teachings, seem to be the happiest people on the planet.”

When the show’s host made this observation, it struck me. Living for Christ changes our lives and gives us a peace that non-believers don’t understand but can see. His statement encouraged my heart. Sometimes, I wonder if the effort makes a difference, and he affirmed that it does.

Before God, I went astray. Now I cling to the Lord’s commands because I know they keep me on the straight and narrow. When I falter, God catches me and brings me back.

Experience the joy of the Lord by practicing His word and receiving the blessings that come from following Him. Let God change your life one act of obedience at a time. In Him, you will thrive!

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for guiding and directing our paths, taking us from afflicted lives to abundant ones. Please help us follow closely today, applying Your word to our challenges and finding victory in You.
IJNIP. Amen

1. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20119%3A67-68&version=ESV ↩︎

One-minute read.

“Good” in Hebrew “can refer to quality as well as to moral goodness.” While “ta’am,” the original word for judgment in this verse, means “discernment, ‘to turn from discernment’ means ‘to pretend to be insane.’’ Through His commandments, God teaches us to make wise decisions. When we turn from His ways, insanity ensues.

Listening to a podcast, a retired undercover FBI agent shared stories from his 25-year career. Infiltrating a biker gang who had no respect for life, one of the members had a sign on his wall, “WWSD.” The letters stood for “What would Satan do?” Stunned, the agent had never seen anything like the plaque before, but he knew the biker lived by the motto. Burning Bibles, causing harm to others, utter chaos reigned in the now defunct gang’s life as they turned from God and followed evil.

People choose who they follow and what commands they practice in their lives. When they choose Jesus, they find righteous living that brings joy to the heart. But when they make different choices, their actions reflect their beliefs.

The Lord’s commands lead to discernment and good judgment, giving us abundant life. Turning from His way brings misery. Choose wisely who you will follow.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for giving us commandments we can trust and follow. Please help us make wise decisions as we practice Your ways, following You with all we have.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

If we pay attention and remain open to the Lord, God teaches us something every day. Lessons come in many ways, through scripture, people, circumstances, and experiences; we never stop learning. We become unteachable when we harden our hearts and think we know it all.

“Ask God to keep your heart soft,” my therapist said to me in one of our sessions. Until that moment, I had never considered that I had hardened my heart, but thanks to her guidance, I saw the error of my ways. Since that lesson, asking the Lord to keep my heart pliable has become a common prayer for me.

Hardened hearts can’t learn and give the devil a foothold. Pride typically provides the mortar that creates concrete in our soul. Only a jackhammer can remove the brick once it sets. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit has the tools to remove hardening and create fertile soil for the Lord’s teachings.

Give God free rein over Your heart. Ask Him to soften the hard places, and teach you His statutes. Remain open to the Creator’s lessons and learn something new every day. Abundant life happens when we learn and grow with the Lord. Like a flower in the garden, your petals will blossom, and beauty will prevail.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for teaching us lessons every day. Please keep our hearts soft and open to Your teachings. Let us become more like Christ one day at a time.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

“Don’t let water in the boat,” my husband says when people let culture influence them more than scripture. Getting tangled in the wicked cords happens slowly. First, a few drops of water enter the boat; before you know it, the vessel sinks.

Scripture helps us stay afloat, plugging holes that let in water. Allowing the Lord to search our hearts for impurities helps keep the boat dry. When we feel the nudge from the Holy Spirit, correcting us in our thinking and actions, we can’t ignore it; when we do, that’s when we let water into the boat.

Shopping, I encountered a rude lady. After cutting in front of me in line and not moving when I politely asked so I could get around her, my anger began to flare. When I passed her again, I knew she wouldn’t move, so I didn’t ask. As a result, she conveyed her annoyance at me with words, and I apologized. Because I ignored the Holy Spirit and let her rudeness get to me, I allowed water into the boat, and my actions showed it.

Stay focused on God’s righteous rules, and you will experience smooth sailing. But ignore His nudges, and you will find yourself apologizing to a stranger in a hardware store. Cling to the Lord’s precepts and keep the water out of the boat.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for guiding and directing us with Your word. Please help us cling to Your ways and not allow culture to influence our actions. Let us honor and serve You well in all we do.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

When I think about keeping God’s commandments, Christ washing the disciples’ feet comes to mind. The event happened on Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, the last seven days of Jesus’s life on Earth before His crucifixion. Maundy means mandate or command.

After cleansing the filth from His followers’ feet, a job usually reserved for the lowest of servants, the Savior gives this command:

“For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
John 13:15

Turning our feet towards God’s commands means washing the feet of others. Finding ways to serve others means meeting the needs we see. In Jesus’s days, people had dirty feet because they wore sandals, so they needed constant cleansing. Today, we don’t have to wash feet physically, but we can serve others anyway God leads us. See a need, meet a need.

Love one another like Jesus loves us and fulfill God’s commandments. Such a simple statement, but so hard to do. Imperfect humans love imperfectly, but Christ loved with perfection. As we strive to become more like Jesus, we will die to ourselves and learn to put God and others first.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for setting such an amazing example for loving others. Please help us mimic You well, washing the feet of those in need and serving them with pure hearts.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

Promise, defined as “solemn decree” in the original Hebrew word, “imra,” sums up God’s covenant to us. Every utterance from the Lord comes to fruition, solemn decrees that carry weight. In old times, a person’s word meant something, but unfortunately, in today’s world, not so much.

“Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’”
Matthew 5:37

Jesus, speaking to the masses at the Sermon on the Mount, tells us to give weight to our words as His heavenly Father does. Whatever covenants we make with others, do them. God exemplifies trustworthiness, doing what He says. Reading the Bible from beginning to end, you will discover that the Lord kept His promises repeatedly, and He expects us to keep ours.

Before I commit, I try to pray about it. The times I don’t, make me regret my rash words, but either way, I strive to keep my word. When I’m dead and gone, I want people to say, “She was a woman of her word.” But for people to say it, I must do it, just like the Lord.

We can’t trust much in this world, but we can trust the Lord. If His people take His commands seriously, we can also trust them, knowing they will strive to keep their word to the best of their ability.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for Your trustworthiness. Please help us become people after Your heart, keeping our word, and living up to the promises we make.
IJNIP. Amen

One-minute read.

As the Psalmist exemplifies in his writing, living a lifestyle of praise and worship comes from a habitual practice of seeking God. Day after day, night after night, seeking the Lord through His words, people, and circumstances leads one to praise Him.

The more we experience life with the Savior, receiving the blessings that rain down upon us from heaven as we obey and submit to His precepts, the more we worship the Creator unabashedly. Understanding that journeys take steps and things don’t happen overnight helps us remain faithful in our walk.

God’s perfect timing unveils itself at His pace, not ours. Spending time in the waiting rooms of life gives us opportunities to contemplate the Lord’s ways. Diligently clinging to the Almighty on difficult days, trusting even though we don’t understand, will draw us into a more intimate relationship with the Lord as we experience His divine grace and mercy.

Obedience to God’s precepts brings falling blessings from above. As we submit our will to the Creator, we will experience life like never before. Each day will bring fresh gifts from the Savior that only come from following and obeying His commands.

Prayer:

Lord,
Thank You for blessing our lives as we follow and obey You. Please help us wisely choose the steps we take today and always. Let us practice Your precepts daily.
IJNIP. Amen