As I turned to God's Word, the Christ story, His love letter to me, I learned to lean in a more meaningful direction.

Matthew 6:33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (ESV)

Realizing and re-realizing every day that the love of God is unconditional, I learned to surrender my plans and seek His — to inquire.

Psalm 27:4 – One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. (ESV)

As I continue to grow in Christ and seek Him, I find myself celebrating both His love and His loving correction in my life. When I am in step with God, I am fulfilled. When I fall short and feel His loving re-direction, I am still fulfilled because He is walking with me, gently squeezing my hand and leading me forward in love.

Psalm 32:8 – The Lord says, "I will teach you and guide you in the way you should live. I will watch over you and be your guide. (ERV)

When I decided to trust the Lord, I had to make the personal choice that each of us is called to make: Will I follow the world or follow Christ?

Looking back and taking stock, it is clear to me. The world promises the world: everything that exists outside of our self. How sad and empty to have everything outside of our self, but never to know or to have a true sense of who we are. In my experience, the Lord reveals our true selves to us, our unique purpose and plan as children of Christ, as we walk alongside Him. In my experience, it is fulfilling and meaningful.

What is your experience? Is it outside of you or within you?

Ephesians 3:20-21 – Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (ESV)

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your mercy and grace, compassion and forgiveness. Help us to turn our hearts and minds to You and Your divine plan for each of us in Christ. Take our hands, Lord, and lead us forward in a fulfilling and godly direction. In Jesus' powerful name, we give thanks and pray. Amen.

Joshua and Caleb have profoundly influenced my life with their faith and optimism. As two of the twelve spies sent forth to give an account of the promised land, they alone returned with a positive report, in stark contrast to the negative report given by ten of their peers.

When I reflect upon this story, as told in Numbers 13 and 14, I wonder how doubt and pessimism appear to triumph over faith and optimism. Hadn't God freed them from the clutches of Pharaoh, parted the Red Sea (which swallowed their adversaries), fed them with manna, and led them with a highly visible cloud like a flawless GPS? God's faithful, protective presence was with them, loving, leading, and guiding them through their journey.

How, then, does that equate to ten negative reports versus two good reports? The spies had even brought back such a substantial cluster of grapes that it took two men to carry them, among other fruits of the land. Yet, ten were not able to see what Joshua and Caleb were able to see.

When I initially read this story, I needed to identify what the ten spies were missing. Where did they go amiss? I was compelled to do so, because I could relate more to the ten than the two. For me, it boiled down to faith, focus, and follow.

Faith – Joshua and Caleb had great faith, not in themselves or their own abilities, but in God: how He had previously worked in their lives and how He would continue to work in their lives when they trusted and obeyed Him. The ten naysayers had more faith in their opposition than they did in God.

Focus – The ten spies with negative reports were self-focused, rather than God-focused. They viewed the battle as one between themselves like little grasshoppers and their opponents as mighty giants. For the ten, God was altogether missing:

Numbers 13:33 – And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (KJ21)

Follow – The ten followed God through the wilderness, but when faced with this crossroad, they quickly assumed the leadership role, in contrast to Joshua and Caleb, who urged:

Numbers 14:7-9 – The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them. (ESV)

Each time I read this story, I am reminded to ask myself, Where am I placing my faith and focus? Am I presently following God?

Prayer: Loving Father, thank You for Your faithful love and fellowship. As we draw near to You in faith, reward us with Your divine guidance and Your presence for all of our days. In Jesus' name, we pray.

After a bombardment of emails, I took the time to unsubscribe from many sites that had at one time been useful but were now distracting me from relevant information. Not having received my PresbyCan Daily devotional for a period of time, I wondered if I had unwittingly unsubscribed. When I discovered that I hadn't unsubscribed, I became aware that my email program was filtering my devotionals and filing them in a junk mail folder. The filter was corrected, and once again, my devotionals began to flow through on a regular basis, and my morning ritual was restored.

God's Word revealed that this wasn't the only filter in my life that needed realignment. My priorities were subject to a faulty filter as well. In hindsight, I was behaving more like Martha than Mary as outlined in Luke 10:38-42. Over time, my priorities had made a subtle shift from "being" to "doing". Busyness had slowly crept in undetected and had infiltrated my life. It would seem that busyness was in the driver's seat. My self-imposed to-do list was not only outpacing my ability to keep up, but it was also rampant with things of little or no importance to me as a child of God. Irritated by interruptions and robbed of the joy found in Christ, family, and friends, I realized that it was time to turn my to-do list over to Christ.

Through God's great mercy and Paul's letter to the Philippians, joy was reintroduced into my life. Now, when my boys invite me to go for a bike ride, a hike, or a campfire around our fire pit, I relish the opportunity to spend time with them and listen to them share their hearts with me. If a friend or a co-worker needs someone to talk to when life gets messy, I can listen and lift them up in prayer, knowing that God will intervene in some divine way.

God's priorities for us are abundantly more rewarding and divinely balanced with our abilities, interests, and a godly interest in others. With God's grace, interruptions have morphed into opportunities to hear His voice speak richness and joy into my life.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 – All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (ESV)

We are blessed when our filters are aligned with God. Is it time to check your filters?

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your mercy and grace that are new every day. Lord, we pray that You will keep Your holy Word flowing into our lives each day to keep us aligned with Your perfect will. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Years ago when I was first married, I made a large poster-like sign of today's verses and proudly hung it above a common staircase wall leading up to our second-floor apartment. I was in love, and I was going to spread it everywhere. Each time someone walked down those stairs, they would see God's Word, and lives would be changed. I was so excited.

Isaiah 55:11 – So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (ESV)

At the time of hanging my poster, I had never imagined the various neighbours that I would meet over the years while living in the apartment or the number of times I, myself, would be called to live out the words of the text that literally hung over my head. Eleven years, two kids, and a myriad of neighbours, guests, and family traversed up and down those twenty-two long steps, yet those words called out to me, personally, again and again.

I am not aware of these words impacting anyone else's life as directly as they impacted me, but I do know that they stemmed more than a few disagreements, and changed my heart and thinking about my own behaviour on a multitude of occasions.

God knows what we need long before we know, and He is excited to be involved in our lives. Life doesn't always unfold the way we planned it, yet we can rest assured that God is the love that has our highest interest at heart.

Have you ever wanted to reach out to others for God, and seen the hand of God reach out to you first?

Prayer: Lovingly patient heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us, bearing with us, and pouring out Your endless mercy and grace upon our lives. Help us to change the world by changing our own hearts and minds. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

As a little girl, for a time, I kept a journal. In it, I would write about the ups and downs of my days, scoldings I didn't deserve, maybe, or picking strawberries down the road at our neighbour's house. Each day was a new beginning, an opportunity to experience life and record my particular view of it. As I grew, I found journaling to be childish, and I stopped. I had no idea that I would start again several years later as I embarked on a new beginning.

In 1995, as a new Christian, I struggled with prayer. Keeping focused was a constant, uphill battle. As soon as I would begin, I would get distracted by thirst, a noise, a fly, the sun filtering in the window, anything and everything. It seemed inevitable that something would invade my peace and intentions. Off I would wander, thinking that God didn't have time for me.

In an effort to focus, I once again began to journal. This was my own personal way of pouring out my heart to Christ. Handing over my challenges, thoughts, and feelings one by one, in brutal honesty, I wrote to God. The occasional entry became more regular and grew into a daily passion to spend time with God and to know more of Him and of myself, in Him. I liked who I was becoming in Christ, and I was surprised to learn that it didn't mean that I had to be solemn, or boring, or perfect, or any other label that I had associated with being a follower of Christ. Spending time with God opened my eyes to the lies that I had believed and never questioned, and brought a new joy into my life. A freedom to be me. A new beginning. This ministry of reconciliation was mine to receive and share.

Every now and then, I will pull out an old journal and read some entries from the past. It amazes me to see how vividly and faithfully God meets us wherever we may be at. God cannot and will not lie, and He promises to meet us.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 – "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me." (NLT)

We can all benefit from asking ourselves if we are seeking the Lord wholeheartedly.

Prayer: Dear loving Father, we offer up praise to You for new beginnings and for Your mercy and grace that You so freely give to us new each day. We lift up our hearts to You from Whom nothing is hidden. Meet us where we are at today, Lord. We seek You wholeheartedly. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Exceeding abundantly? Above all that I ask? Beyond what I can even imagine? How can that be? These are questions I asked.

Each year end, I used to take some time to reflect on the closing year, to take stock of accomplishments, review my goals and objectives, and put a check in the box for complete items and perhaps bring forward some items into the following year. It was like an annual report card for myself, by myself. But my rituals became stale and stunk. My goals and objectives took on the appearance of some corporate document, rigid in form, impersonal, and lacking in any real worth.

A few years ago, while praying for some guidance, I was compelled to re-think this calendar-like event. If I were on track, would my goals and objectives change every January first? How important were my goals and objectives if I reviewed them only on an annual basis? How could I grow in my relationships with Christ, my husband, my children, friends, and co-workers if my goals and objectives didn't even include them?

Feeling very hesitant and skeptical, I prayed that God would take the lead role and help me craft my plans for the year ahead. With great trepidation, I abandoned my old format and procedure and replaced it with opening my heart to the daily devotional and a commitment to memorize Psalm 8. Surprisingly, the insights I gathered from the daily devotionals were sometimes put to immediate use within the same day. At other times, it was later in the week or month, when I least expected it. Psalm 8 took a bit longer. To start, I read the psalm daily; each day I let it sink deeper into my heart, then I wrote it out daily, until writing was no longer required. I put words to music and sang it out to the Lord on my way to work each morning. Soon, I was singing it out in my mind throughout the day. "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:1 NIV) God was closer to me and I to Him than ever before in my life.

With joy and excitement, I began to share with family and friends how God had provided answers to everyday situations and prayers, because of insights that He had planted in my heart from a devotional I had read in the morning or the previous week, and which had stuck with me.

Since this change in my initial ritual, the memory work has changed several times, and each change is not tied to a calendar, nor do I give myself a check in the box. I praise God for His faithfulness and wait on Him.

Do you have rituals that need revisiting? Are you tied to a calendar, or to our amazing Lord?

Psalm 27:14 – Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. (KJV)

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we pray and trust that You will show us if we have rituals and habits that we need to change. Draw near to us and fill us with Your holy presence. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

The rapid, unpredictable development of the storm reminded me of Jesus' parable of the unclean spirit, because, as a child, I never really knew, when I walked in the door of our home, whether I would find the house clean and orderly, with a warm welcome, or filled with evil spirits and a ferocious storm. Like the rain storm, things could change quickly.

Matthew 12:43-45 – When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, "I will return to my house from which I came." And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation. (ESV)

Prior to becoming a Christian and coming to know the mercy and grace of Christ, I had lived a life of my own accord, reaping the harvest of ungodly seeds sown in ignorance and selfishness. Growing up with wounded, alcoholic parents, I was frequently left to my own devices and lived in a state of perpetual fear. I experimented with drugs and alcohol at a very early age, and when I did not know where to turn for answers, I sought the advice of fortune tellers. I lied, stole, behaved badly, and operated under a near-total veil of deception.

The results were disastrous, and after I became a Christian, the thought of returning to that state was frightening and unsettling, to say the least. The devil can be relentless, invading our thoughts, pointing out our past failures and shortcomings, and distracting us from the mercy and grace of God.

Thankfully, God took the time to point out how the evil spirits would attempt a return. He also provided us with the tools needed for effective combat.

Ephesians 6:13-18 – Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. (ESV)

Still resting protected under the porch roof, I took solace in the provisions of our Father.

Psalm 91:1-2 – He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." (ESV)

As quickly as the rains had started, they subsided, and the birds once again began to chirp and sing, jumping and dancing among the moist blades of grass, plucking out juicy worms for sustenance. It was a joyful sight.

With my new life in Christ fresh in my mind, I gave thanks for His teaching and my armour. My sustenance comes from the Lord!

Do you remember your past, or the glorious hope of your future?

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, we thank You for Your mercy and grace that is new each day. We pray that You will keep us strong and focused on our new, glorious life in Christ. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.