WRITING A DEVOTIONAL

WRITING A DEVOTIONAL

Back in 2003 after having spent the year before reading Sarah Ban Breathnach's book "Simple Abundance" I took her suggestion to heart and wrote my own daily devotional. Each day I took a line or two from one of the various spiritual authors from the last three centuries I was reading and wrote my own thoughts on the subject. I then looked for a scripture that illustrated the truth that had been revealed to me. What follows is the result.

"Our greatest bondage is to have our own way; our greatest freedom is to let God have His way." Warren Wiersbe

Thursday, December 15, 2011

December 15


“It is a simple fact that we see what we look at and cannot see what we look away from.  We cannot look to Jesus while we are looking at ourselves.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 12/4

I’ve been thinking about what it means to be “in” a relationship with people.  Too often we just have a relationship “with” people.  To me, it’s like having a relationship with my desk.  I depend on it to hold my computer.  In return I will dust it every now and then--but we are definitely NOT “in” a relationship.  In this kind of relationship we are looking only at ourselves and our needs.  I’ve come to realize how much my physical actions can add to or subtract from a relationship.  It’s very hard to have a long-distance relationship for this reason.  But it also applies to the people you live with.  I tend not to look at people when I’m talking to them.  This probably started as a child because I was so shy.  Later it was because I was so busy.  I realize now that I often miss important cues when I don’t look at people--their body language will often help me interpret what is really being said or let me know if I’m being understood.  Hannah, though, brings another element into my need to look at people when I’m talking or listening to them and that is I’m really looking at God.   Because we are made in God’s image and Jesus and God are One we are in essence looking into the heart of Jesus if that person is a Christian and if they are not we are looking at someone who needs Jesus.  This will keep my focus off myself.

“But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”  Micah 7:7

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