| This is my online devotional posted today |
| Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.Psalm 34:5 |
| Many years ago I spoke at a women’s retreat. Afterwards a young woman came up and asked me to pray for her. She was so ashamed because of what had happened to her, that she couldn’t look up.After I took her through heart forgiveness for those who had molested her, she clung to me weeping. Then with tears streaming down her face, she said, “You are the first person I could ever look in the eyes. I don’t even look at my husband in the eyes. Now I can!” I love the first part of Isaiah 54:4. It says, “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth…”What has happened in your life that keeps you downcast? Nothing is in vain in God’s economy. He will redeem everything we have ever been through. It starts with heart forgiveness. He then sets us free from the deeply buried emotional pain that has held us captive. David’s psalm is our promise also. When we look to the Lord, he brings inner transformation. He heals those deep places of buried pain through his healing balm of mercy and grace.Oh Father, thank you for your healing power that takes away the darkness of shame, and brings radiance to our faces. Thank you for your redemptive power to use what we have been through to help others. I am so grateful for your unconditional love for us. Throughout this day: When shame rises from a memory in your past, remember that God’s forgiveness is for past, present, and future sins. Let this song help remind you: Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) |
overwhelmed
Stress Reduction~Part One
David was stressed. In Psalm 31 he described what the stress was doing to him physically. Verse 9-10 says, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! For my life is spent in grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.”
At one point in David’s life, king Saul hunted him to kill him. David was on the run, hiding in rock formations and caves. He lived a lot in his sympathetic nervous system. Yet David knew that the Lord was with him.
In Psalm 61 he wrote that he was overwhelmed. Then in verse 3 he recounted how the Lord has been his protector. It says, “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.” Psalm 144:1 says, “Blessed by the Lord my Rock…”
M's Creations 