The Writing on God's Hands

Years ago, I worked in a busy Emergency Department. I would go around, from patient to patient, gathering vital signs and other crucial pieces of information regarding each one. Now, the information itself wasn’t nearly as important as insuring that the right details were documented with the correct patient’s chart. For example, recording positive pregnancy results on the chart of an obese 50 year-old male is NOT a good thing! (hey, don't laugh) So, the ideal situation was to take the patient’s chart in the room with you at the time of the assessment. This, however, was not always possible. During extremely busy times, I can remember writing information down on a paper towel…or even on the palm of my hand. In these cases, only the most important info was taken down and I had to be very careful with it.

This passage in the book of Isaiah reminded me of those moments.

“See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.
 Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.”

Isaiah 49:16

The creator of the universe has personally written your name on his own hands. Your pain and struggles are always in his thoughts. He cannot forget about you….even if it were possible to. His love for all of us is intentional…it’s forever!

A Holy Partnership

Before we knew God, mostly everything we did was self-serving. Then one day, the revelation came to us that there is a God who might actually know what’s best for us better than we do. So, in other words…we stopped working for ourselves and others, and began working for God. Well, this morning I had yet another reminder while doing my devotional reading. In one of Max Lucado’s writings he points out that we not only work for God…but we work with Him. He’s not an over-bearing foreman holding us to our job and critiquing our every flaw.

“As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.” (2 Corinthians 6:1)

We are ‘fellow workers’ with Him. He’s out there every day with us, right along side us encouraging and strengthening us to get the job done…together!

This week, may you come to feel His partnership beside you. His success involves us. He has a vested interest in how well we do. It kind of gives going to work a little different feel, doesn’t it?

Fun-Time Meets Reality

Psalm 9:9 says…

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

This past weekend, four of us drove to Anderson, IN from GA for my wife’s graduation from her online Master’s program. She was surprised to have her mom and dad fly in from WA state to show their support. Aside from the long, less than exhilarating ceremonies over the coarse of two days…it really was a very special weekend. On our way home, we decided to stop in Nashville, TN to do some shopping and eat at a couple of famous restaurants that are also favorites to the locals and many well-known country music artists. Quite honestly, we were hoping to see one of our own favorites…but no such luck for us that day. We did, however, enjoy some of the best southern cooking…between brunch at the Pancake Pantry and dinner at Loveless Café! From Georgia Peach pancakes to real southern fried chicken and smoked pork BBQ…I’m telling you it was heaven on a plate!

We were having so much fun site seeing and just experiencing the history and culture, and then reality abruptly set in. While trying to find our way to the last restaurant, we approached a closed road. In the process of re-routing our course in unfamiliar territory, we found ourselves passing through a neighborhood that had been hit hard by the recent flooding. It has resulted in 27 deaths and tragic damage to historic sites, businesses, and homes. It’s one thing to see this kind of thing on the news, but very much different to see it first-hand and talk with people there who had been directly effected.

Our free-spirited, touristic mindset was quickly transformed to a sobering reminder of God’s providence in our own lives. Our family has endured it’s share of trials and challenges over the years, but nothing even comes close to comparing to what we witnessed in Nashville. We still have our health, our pictures and memories, our pets, running water and phone service…and these families do not. Our hearts hurt for them, and instilled an overwhelming reminder of how much God really has watched over us.

How has God’s hand been over your life lately? This week, take some time to recognize his recent blessings in your family. My prayer is that none of us will ever endure what the people of Nashville are suffering right now.

Remember and hold onto these words of hope…

‘The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.’

Substance-based Prayers

Don’t you just love how God works/plans things? As I was reading about the issue of prayer this morning in my devotional time, I became aware that Thursday is the 59^th Annual National Day of Prayer! How cool is that!

Colossians 4:2 says this:

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.”

To be mentally alert in prayer means to be sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance. It means that our prayers should not be limited to memorized, generic prayers. It means that our time of reflection with God should last longer than 30 seconds each day. An ‘alert mind’ indicates thought and attention being put into our prayers…some meat and potatoes instead of a mere sprig of parsley.

In addition, we are to have thankfulness in our heart as well. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have prayed self-centered prayers over the years. When our prayers tend to be completely focused on ourselves, the cause is usually an unthankful attitude. When we recognize all the blessings in our life…the evidence of God’s hand in motion, it’s much easier to focus our prayers on others. This is the basis of the Greatest Commandment.

This week, may you strive to prayer with the heart of Jesus. May you also get in the habit of asking the Spirit to direct your prayer time. When he guides our words and focus, we can’t go wrong!