Go now, a child of God. Choose well the road you take,
And the decisions you make. Keep in mind always that The God you serve continues to call to you, making you more and more every day into the faithful one God wants you to be.

Monday, April 12, 2010

One hundred seventy

There has been a break in my 365 days of devotionals…
so my 365 days of devotionals will continue- but it seems that they will be longer than a year.

Lent was a trial time for me… I chose my personal trial to be chocolate. God didn’t think that was enough, he brought a lot more trials and I failed. I failed at resisting temptations. It never falters that when we decide to walk a certain path, many many things happen to throw you off the path. For me it was God revealing that chocolate was not a problem that God and I needed to work on. Resisting chocolate was nothing like resisting the other temptations. I did stay true to not having any chocolate during Lent. But my other trials I failed at.

Last week I reflected on the things that became evident to me – one is my finances, (Which I have been struggling with for awhile) My budget outcome is larger than my income. I was supposed to watch my spending and cut back but the more I tried to cut back, the more things came due. I had my daughters dance recital to pay for which after the costumes and recital fees (ads for program/ pictures/booklet) totaled approx. $500 { I tried to campaign for her not to participate in recital- but my campaign was ignored – and what kind of horrible mother would I be to ask that of her after she put in so much hard work?}

Then I had car trouble. I won’t mention the cost of the repairs but with all car trouble – it is never cheap.
Then my personal life is demanding financially and with all of this going on, I am praying about it, God is talking to me about it, because instead of staying home like I should have- I went out to dinner – almost three times a week – which I shouldn’t have, but I felt like I needed to build on my friendships during this time.

I had almost bought a house, but financially it is an impossible thing. I have been praying about it. I really need to be able to buy a house in about 4 months or have a cheap 2 bedroom place to live by the end of July (that’s when my lease is up on my apartment). I feel the clock ticking- then I realize that I have been irresponsible and that food that I ate could have been money paid on other things.

So my trials have been like that.

I’m trying to focus. I can’t seem to. I need to focus on myself and work a lot of things out. Getting out of debt should be my #1 priority. God doesn’t play when he finds that weakness in you. He draws it out, he expects us to come to him for the solution, and he expects us to have faith.

Being human, I feel the pressure of the trials, and I am admitting to you that I failed. I don’t want to take all this for granted. I want to be blessed and know God’s blessing. So I will have these trials. I will pray about them.

Financial troubles are in every household.

Today’s verse- comes from a man that knew so many trials- trials that I don’t think I could withstand…

Job 19:27-27
“And I know that after this body has decayed this body shall see God! Then he will be on my side! Yes, I shall see him, not as a stranger, but as a friend! What a glorious hope!”

We are to be reminded of hope. There is power in hope. Pray to God for encouragement for something positive to happen in your life if you are in an impossible situation, or pray for someone you know that is struggling – no matter what it is- bring it to God. God wants us to keep going, to look for something positive, even something (even a little thing that will bring laughter to remind us that God wants that for us) We can survive our losses. With hope I can do it a little more graciously, than with a heart full of dismal doom.

Have hope today in God. Whatever trials you are facing, face them with God.