Devotional: Growing Pains…They Hurt!

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasure. James 4:1-3

Growing pains are just that, a pain that occurs as you grow. Fighting stinks and hurts, especially when there is no resolution and the two people just part and you have to be patient with God’s timing in it all. What I am realizing, it’s all part of my growth. Recently, I was engaged in an argument that escalated way out of control. It started off as a discussion, then a debate, then a full blown, ugly argument. Can you relate? Has this ever happened to you? There should have never been an argument to begin with and I am embarrassed and ever so sad about it. So now I am left asking God to show me and convict my heart where I was wrong and how He wants me to grow from this. I ask myself, “How does this fit in to who I want to be in Christ?” It doesn’t. But reconciliation, forgiveness and growth all do. I immediately started praying, God laid on my heart the verse I used above. If only I could go back in time. But I can’t, what I can do is arm myself with learning from this and to be changed and prayerfully the next time I can choose differently. I can guarantee Satan will provide another opportunity and I pray that I have been sharpened by this experience. God’s word tells us in 1 Peter 5:8,9 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…..” This is one element that upset me the most; I desire to be more self-controlled when faced with a challenge like this one. Have you ever felt like this?

Jesus warns us in Matthew 7:1-5 about how we should not try and take a speck out of someone’s eye when we have a plank in our own eye. First, Jesus tells us we have to remove the plank from our eye before removing the speck of dust in another person’s eye. Reading this, I feel like so much of an argument or fight is about judging someone in the midst of our fight and we are so concerned with removing the dust in their eye that the plank in our eye gets in our way of making Godly decisions in the moment. I want to encourage you, to remember these verses next time you are upset with someone. Seek God in the midst of your feelings, in the midst of the argument, invite Christ into it. Stop and humble yourselves before God. I know it can be so very hard to do, but we have to practice it and put our pride aside. I know amazing growth can come from growing pains like this, but it still is painful and hurts while I am growing from it. I know God is an amazing, mighty God who wants us to glorify Him.

Let's Reflect: Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” James 4:7,8a,10 “Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you.” “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Proverbs 16:1-4a “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue. All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The LORD works out everything for His own ends-…”

PRAYER:   Oh, Jesus, how I need your peace right now. Thank you for the conviction and freedom found in your word. Please show me and grow me, give me the courage to be humble and banish my pride. I want to bring you honor and glory.

Be Blessed…Be Bold in the name of Jesus!

Suzanne Williams

South Jersey Christian Events/Devotions

Devotional: Caught Up

The Book of Eli

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” James 1:22-24

A part from the movie “The Book of Eli” the character Eli says something to the effect that he was so caught up in reading and protecting the bible, that he forgot to do what it says. That line got me thinking. How many of us, read our bibles, go to church, go to bible study and more, but we get caught up in life’s situations that we forget to put into practice what God’s word teaches us?

Today, I want to encourage you to make God’s word alive in your life.  Let’s try a few on and see how they look and feel in our lives. What situation in your life can you apply the following verses? Next time you are upset with someone, before you react, respond with love in this. Proverbs 15:1 says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” In Galatians 6:2 we are encouraged to “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Maybe a friend needs a listening ear and prayer, someone to pray over them right now. How about buying a winter coat for a struggling co-worker, or bringing a bag of groceries to a neighbor in need? In Proverbs 3:5-8 God is reminding us that we need to trust in Him, do you trust God? “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”

Let's Reflect: Acts 2: 42-47 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” To finish the verse highlighted in this devotional, James 1:25-27 “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

PRAYER:   Dear Lord, thank you for the truth and beauty of your word. I want to be humble, be a servant, listening to your word, help me follow your ways and your word and glorify You Lord Jesus. Amen.

Be Blessed…Be Bold in the name of Jesus!

Suzanne Williams