On Orchids, Ice Cubes and Patient Witnessing
Meet my beautiful Hawaiian orchid plant! It is tall with gorgeous flowers that go so well with my pinkish lavender-colored room. It was a just-because-I-love-you present from my amazing and thoughtful Mom. Ahhh, yes! I am quite fond of the love language of orchids (all all sorts of flowers)! Yes, I do believe it is a love language! It is my Mom’s! :)
If you’ve ever taken care of orchids then you know it is best to water these beauties with ice, which allows the water to release in a slow drip as the ice melts. A long time ago I was watering an orchid and poured water like I usually do with my other plants, and quickly learned it wasn’t the best way to water an orchid. Mmm-mmm. As I was wiping the water off the floor I thought, “Note to self: orchids are not fond of drowning.” Lesson learned.
Devotional // 10.23.2012 | Wait on the Lord
Summary: Let us wait on the Lord to fulfill His promises in His own way and in His own time. “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1).
Book read: The Promises of God by H. M. S. Richards
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The Music of God’s Silence
Silence. For some it is peacefully beautiful. For others it is awkward and intolerable. For many the thoughts, fears, doubts, anxieties, insecurities and endless questions that arise in periods of silence quickly become too deafening, and before long the presence of sound, any sound, is considered a ‘must have’.
Too often silence is the uninvited guest occupying that empty seat at the other end of the long table in executive/professional meetings. Sometimes it is the unwanted intruder in conversations originally meant to flow so easily. In rare situations silence happens within, while in a crowded room or an open space the size of a baseball field. Many go to great lengths to avoid this ‘big elephant’ in the room…or in their lives.
But why depreciate the value of silence? Why not appreciate it instead? Just like we can choose to view the glass as half full instead of half empty, we can also learn to appreciate the music of silence. The musician and songwriter in me believes silence is an inexhaustible symphony. I’ve found this to be consistently true in my experience as a songwriter. Writing music from ‘scratch’ (without any inspiration from already existing tunes and chord progressions) is most creative and liberating when one’s thoughts are allowed to explore, create, sing and play into existence the unsung, unwritten, unplayed and unheard music.
I know of a wonderful Father and Songwriter who writes the most beautiful and unique masterpieces. And guess what! We are His sheet music! I’ve heard measures, pages and movements of wonderfully moving masterpieces written by Him - we like to call them personal testimonies! Yes, those stories only you and I can tell about how He has led and transformed us.
Each song our Heavenly Songwriter writes holds its own unique DNA - there will never be two audibly and visually similar songs! God loves us so much He yearns to make each of our life stories different and special in their own way. And the beauty of His songwriting process is this: He writes masterpieces through moments and periods of silence. He writes when the world is hushed, when the ‘Berlin Wall’ of pride is crumbling to dust at the foot of the cross. When we think it is the dissonant sound of our sin-sick world that will get us through our periods of silence, it is really the music in God’s silence we must pay special attention to.
Just because God seems silent doesn’t mean we should doubt Him or stop praying. His red or yellow light isn’t our green light to turn our backs on Him. They are His invitations to press forward and seek Him even more diligently. For pages and chapters of the Book of Job, God is silent. In Job 13:15 we find these words: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” But in chapter 38 God speaks to Job and asks Him, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.” God is (and will always be) in control. He has been all along!
Are you in a period of silence? Listen for the music God is writing in and through you. Wait. Wait patiently. Wait with prayerful optimism. If you let Him, and if you trust Him (and yes, even through the repeats), He can and will make a masterpiece out of you! He’s already in the process of doing that today!
Devotional // 7.26.2012 | A Heavenly Hold
Written by: Aiane Karla
Devotional // 6.28.2012 | Fragrant with Heaven’s Blessing
“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.”-James 3:13, 14
What is lying against the truth? It is claiming to believe the truth while the spirit, the words, the deportment, represent not Christ but Satan. To surmise evil, to be impatient and unforgiving, is lying against the truth, but love, patience, and long forbearance are in accordance with the principles of truth. Truth is ever pure, ever kind, breathing a heavenly fragrance unmingled with selfishness….
To be unkind, to denounce others, to give expression to harsh, severe judgments, to entertain evil thoughts, is not the result of that wisdom which is from above…. The language of the Christian must be mild and circumspect, for his holy faith requires him to represent Christ to the world.
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
Be Still |by Kari Jobe
Waiting
“Lord, teach me to wait.” This is my prayer today. I recently read the following paragraph while reading a 31-day devotional book by Andrew Murray called ‘Waiting on God’:
If salvation indeed comes from God, and is entirely His work, just as creation was, it follows, as a matter of course, that our first and highest duty is to wait on Him to do the work that pleases Him. Waiting becomes then the only way to the experience of a full salvation, the only way, truly, to know God as the God of our salvation.
Devotional // 12.11.2011
“I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” - Psalm 34:4
Do not talk of the faults of others. Take care of your own garden. See that your own heart is cleansed by the power of God. When trouble comes, instead of getting out of patience, instead of fretting and worrying, go to the Lord and tell Him all about it. Do not go to human friends, for they have all the burdens they can bear.
Do not think that by placing your burdens on others, you can find relief. Come right to the Burden-bearer, and tell Him about them. Believe that He is able and willing to meet the circumstances of your case.
