Encouraging Words Devotional

Why You Can Have Hope In Grief

Was last night a sleepless one for you because you recently lost someone dear to you? Maybe weeks have gone by, but somehow you’ve not been able to process the grief. You spent most of the night crying, and even now, the tears are flowing.

A Woman Of Surprising Faith

One chapter in the Bible consists of a listing of people famous for believing and trusting God It’s in the book of Hebrews, chapter eleven. You’d expect to find Abraham and Moses there.  But you may be surprised to see a woman listed who was not exactly chairman of the Spiritual Life Committee of her church. In fact, she was a prostitute. Her name is Rahab.

How to Give The Very Best Gift

Sometimes the very best gifts we give are those that we give spontaneously—on the spur of the moment—just because our hearts tell us we should. We don’t stop to ask how much the gift will cost. We just impulsively give.

Don’t Stop Climbing!

Have you ever noticed in the Bible this pitifully sad description of old age that King Solomon gave us 3000 years ago? He wrote, 

Don't let the excitement of being young cause you to forget about your Creator. Honor him in your youth before the evil years come--when you'll no longer enjoy living. It will be too late then to try to remember him when the sun and light and moon and stars are dim to your old eyes, and there is no silver lining left among your clouds [no doubt a reference to losing his hair]. For there will come a time when your limbs will tremble with age…and your teeth will be too few to do their work….Then let your lips be tightly closed while eating when your teeth are gone! …you will waken at dawn with the first note of the birds; but you yourself will be deaf and tuneless, with quavering voice.

Why Do I Get So Stressed?

Patricia Sprinkle, author of Women Who Do Too Much, writes “Stress does not come from being busy. Stress comes from being busy about things we don’t want to do, or from not being busy about things we do want to do.”[i]

 

[i] As quoted in Mary M. Byers, How to Say No and Live to Tell About It (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2006), 105.

What Does God Want You To Do With Your Life?

Much is being written these days about purpose—that is, about finding your personal reason for being on Planet Earth.  What does God want you to do with your life?

From Trash To Treasure

Once in a while there is a commercial on television that truly catches my attention--instead of merely irritating me because it interrupted the program I was watching. An ad like that recently showed a woman taking the broken pieces of a beautiful blue and white vase that no doubt had been a favorite. She glued the pieces onto a glass vase in such a way that she created a lovely new pattern.  Then she filled in the spaces with paint as if it were grout. A bouquet of fresh flowers completed the remake of this piece of art. Honestly, I don’t remember what she was advertising, but I was impressed with the way she turned a broken treasure into something new and lovely.

Ministry Of The Hairbrush

Bible study teacher Beth Moore tells of the day she was waiting to board a plane when she caught sight of a thin, disheveled elderly man bent over in a wheelchair.  What struck her most, Beth said, was his long, stringy, tangled gray hair. God began to speak to her.

Bernadette’s Story

If you read my book More Precious Than Diamonds, you may remember the story of Bernadette, a young woman who longed for a child at the same time her husband, Alex, was battling what turned out to be terminal cancer.  The good part to her story is that before her husband passed away, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. 

How Long Is Eternity?

Lying in bed the other night waiting to fall asleep, I got to thinking about eternity.  Pretty heavy subject when you’re supposed to be winding down for the night! I thought how hard it is for us human beings to get a handle on anything that will last forever because we everything we see on this earth has an ending point, including our own lives.