Devotions by Meredith

My Own Opinions

 Proverbs 3:5 TPT

Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on Him to guide you.

The classic writer, Hannah Whitehall Smith wrote, “Mind the checks.” So many times I have remembered these words of wisdom. They have saved us from many disastrous events. For example, we were in Kenya where a wonderful team of skilled workers had helped to drill a well for the Mt. Moriah Children’s Home. It was a great experience seeing the water come rushing up powerfully out of the ground, an unusual happening for Kenya. We all shouted loudly and danced around hugging each other, celebrating the goodness of the Lord. 

We came down to the last day of our stay at the Home. The team was packing and getting ready to depart the next day for a time of sightseeing and shopping in Nairobi where there was so much to see and experience. We were all looking forward to the elephant and giraffe orphanages where these beautiful baby animals were rescued and cared for into their adulthood as well.

On the day of our departure, everyone was tying down luggage and settling in for the long ride into Nairobi, when out of the blue, my husband, Stephen announced to me and then to us all, that he felt he was not to leave with the team but stay another day. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I so was looking forward to a fun time after lots of days of hard work. Nothing could persuade him to change his mind. He was minding “the check” he had in his spirit. Our main well driller from New York, Cliffy, decided he would be staying with the boss as well to see what was going on. Everyone left but us. Sure enough, within a few hours of their departure, the pump that was pulling the water from the newly dug well stopped running. Wow! God knew this pump was going to blow. To make a long story short, we were able with the help of knowledgeable Kenyan pump people, to purchase another larger pump and install it within the hours we had left in the country. How good our God is! We could have lost all of the goodness from the new well if it had been left unattended with no functioning pump. My opinion of wanting to leave for a day of relaxation with precious friends seemed far more important than Stephen’s sense that God wanted us to stay. How wrong I was!

We can trust the Lord. Our opinions are just that, opinions. Our verse says, “With all your heart rely on Him to guide you.” We can’t pick and choose when we will trust Him and when we will not. This is what Jesus meant when He said He would abide with us and in us if we will abide in Him. We must learn to always keep the Lord before us, in the good and in the difficult times. He can always, always be trusted.

What about you? Are you trusting the Lord completely? Do you bring all of your decisions before Him or are you too busy and caught up in your opinions, making up your own mind and making your own choices? I challenge you today to lay everything, every decision on the altar before Him and seek His will and direction for absolutely everything. He will never fail you.  

Our Divine Calling

Ephesians 4:1-4 TPT As a prisoner of the Lord, I plead with you to walk holy, in a way that is suitable to your high rank, given to you in your divine calling. With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience. Be faithful to guard this sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among you in the bonds of peace, being one body and one spirit, as you were all called into the same glorious hope of divine destiny. 

Paul wrote the book of Ephesians from a prison cell in Rome in AD 60. My mind cannot take in the miraculous revelations and truths he shared from this horrid place. I heard someone say they had visited Paul’s prison cell while touring Rome. They said you couldn’t even fully stand upright in it. Imagine, to have to be stooped over to move around. He describes himself as a “prisoner of the Lord,” yet there are days I become downhearted because the last of my favorite cereal is gone. Ridiculous! 

Paul describes our place in the Lord as having high rank within a divine calling. How privileged we are! Yet, do I recognize who I really am in the Lord? Do I recognize His great love for me and that all of His ways and all of His timings are perfect, therefore He makes my way perfect? I lose sight of that, sad to say. I think good times, plenty, safety, and a myriad of all that God has blessed me with, somehow causes me to become complacent to who I am and how I am to be. Paul goes on by saying “with tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another.” Wow! Oh how I have fallen short of all of that! My pride, my impatience, my roughness, and measured out love makes me blush with shame. Oh, I may not have openly been mean or impatient, but if you could only read my mind, as the song says, “What a tale my thoughts would tell.”

Do I guard the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit among my family, friends and church family? To a point, yes, but not as I could be doing. Sometimes I have inwardly chuckled at discord, with an inward, “I told you so” attitude as if I were superior in some way, rather than encourage forgiveness and a shunning of backbiting and complaining. We are one body and we are one spirit, all called into the same glorious hope of divine destiny. As a girl we used to sing this sweet old chorus, “To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus; all I ask is to be like Him. All through life’s journey, from earth to glory. All I ask is to be like Him.” I don’t know about you, but I need to get real in singing this old song, to pray this old song and to apply the concept of this old song, “to be like Him.” I need to value everyone, not just when it fits my schedule and ways, but to love like He loves and to reach out like He reaches out. That is the glorious hope of my divine destiny and within this calling there will be a metamorphosis in me, a dying of the old man in a miracle change to the new, “to be like Him,” in my divine destiny. 

What about you? Do you need a metamorphosis, a heart change to be conformed to His image? Are you guarding the sweet harmony of the Holy Spirit in your family, friends and church fellowship? Oh Lord, help us to recognize our divine destiny in You and yield ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to you which is our reasonable service.  

God’s Plans

Proverbs 16:1-2 TPT

1 Go ahead and make all the plans you want, but it’s the Lord who will ultimately direct your steps. 2 We are all in love with our own opinions, convinced they’re correct. But the Lord is in the midst of us, testing and probing our every motive.

How many times in life, as sheer mortals, we get running forward, full steam ahead, making our own plans? I’ve done it many times. Then when things don’t go the way I had imagined they would go, I slow down to contemplate what happened. For example, I had completed the first leg of my journey in my studies for the ministry. I was in the season of having my babies, and there had always been this spot in me that wanted to become a criminal lawyer. I know, I know, that wasn’t in the heart of God for me. Yet, I signed up at the University of Maine, got my schedule and decided I was going to give it everything I had. There was just one problem—every class that was scheduled for me got changed. And heres the kicker. I had specifically asked the head office to notify me if a class got changed after this happened the first time. Yet, I was getting no calls. Finally, I woke up to the fact that maybe, just maybe, God didn’t want me in that field as a career option. So, I put out to the Lord, “Lord, if you definitely don’t want me pursuing this matriculation, then let the next scheduled class be changed again.” Sure enough, I’m walking down the hall of the university to go to my class and I could hear my professor ending the class. There it was. Here was the fullness of what God was saying to me. “Meredith, you can make your plans if you want, but it will be Me who will ultimately direct your steps. You’ve been in love with your own opinions about what you wanted to do. You were so convinced they were correct. But I am in your midst, testing and probing your every motive.” Needless to say, I did an about face, marching myself out the door, never to return to that pursuit of law again. 

Proverbs 16:3-4a TPT tells us, “Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed. 4 The Lord works everything together to accomplish His purpose.”

God knew the complete plan. I did not. Now that many years of my life have passed and He has taken me to the nations, allowing me to share the Good News of His great love with them, I am so glad He was the One with the ultimate plan for my life and not me trying to maneuver my way on my own opinions. 

We can totally trust Him. Share every part of your heart with Him, every thought, every concern. He knows and understands. Wait on Him to give you clear direction and then once He has given it to you, trust and follow Him completely, for His plans are full of grace, unconditional love and care along the journey and great excitement and joy as they unfold day by day for you. 

What about you? Are you trying to move forward stubbornly with some plan that God may not want you to do? Are you yielded or determined to do your own thing? Take some time with Him today. Share your heart. Listen for His Voice and watch to see Him move as you lay it all down before Him.    

Faith Is…

Romans 4:17 TPT That’s what the Scripture means when it says: “I have made you the father of many nations.” He is our example and father, for in God’s Presence he (Abraham) believed that God can raise the dead and call into being things that don’t even exist yet.

My husband, Stephen, in his years in college, received a burden to build a children’s home. We had assumed God was calling us to pastor, and that would be our life’s calling and ministry. Stephen didn’t share this with me at the beginning of when the Holy Spirit began to talk to him about a children’s home. He did though, begin to start cutting out and scrapbooking pictures of orphans that would move his heart. I saw this scrapbook upon occasion and wondered what was going on. Then one night, in the middle of the night, as we lay in our bed in Grampa’s old farmhouse apartment, he supposing I was asleep, was laying there softly crying, sobbing and muttering what sounded to me like heartfelt prayer. Disturbed at his distress, I had to find out what was going on. I rolled over toward him and asked, “What is it? What’s going on with you?” He replied, “I’m embarrassed to tell you. You’ll probably laugh at me.” I assured him that was not going to happen. Then hesitatingly he blurted out, “God is telling me that someday we’re going to build an orphanage for children.” There it was, out in the open. I was stunned, yet a sense of the Presence of God filled me with an excitement and joy that I had never experienced. Wow, God! What an amazing plan!

Years passed and we never saw a door open or receive a directive from God to begin that leg of the journey for us, until the day we were dedicating our newly built church to the Lord. As Dr. Pier, the president of our Bible college, was giving the dedicatory address, he suddenly stopped and pointed to us. He prophesied out of the blue, “Pastor, you will now build a children’s home!” We were stunned! There it was, what God had so miraculously said to us over twenty years previously!

At this present time, we have been in Kenya directing our Children’s Home (which we built), for more than twenty years. Like Abraham, Stephen has become the father in another nation. We love our children as our own, and we are so proud of each and everyone of them. Along with these precious ones in our lives, the Lord has drawn us to the nations and our church has become a House of worship. We have many nations gather together at our House of worship whom we call family. We truly have a prelude of heaven on earth. We are rich and highly favored and blessed with the rich beauty of His Presence as we worship together even as Scripture tells us it will be in heaven, “of every nation, tribe, and tongue around the Throne of God.” 

For you, dear one, God also has a marvelous plan and journey for your life. I heard it once said, “Faith is the hinge that opens the door to opportunity, blessing, and change for you personally and for others who follow you.”

What about you? Are you listening for His voice, day by day? Are you moving forward with the stirring of His Spirit in your inner being, even as Stephen did for many years? Can you believe Father to bring you into the fullness of His great purposes for you? Believe Him today. Release your faith for God’s absolute best and don’t ever settle for anything less. We serve the Almighty God, Ruler of His Universe.   

My Times Are In Your Hands

Psalm 16:5b-6 TPT I leave my destiny and its timing in your hands. Your pleasant path leads me to pleasant places. I’m overwhelmed by the privileges that come with following you, for you have given me the best!

The enemy of our soul comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Jesus came to give us life, and I love this part, to give us life more abundantly. He doesn’t want us to settle for just a mediocre life, but a life filled with the goodness of God, our heavenly Father. As we daily, and fully surrender our life to the Lord, He will lead us in the path He has already planned out for us. He knows down to the very tiniest part of each second of our lives what His plan is and how He will lead and direct us each step, at just the right timing, into all He has for us each day. 

The verses go on to say that His path is a pleasant path that leads to pleasant places. I believe there have been many times I have imagined myself into dreading my day, rather than looking forward to all He has in store, looking forward with faith and trust in my heart, to His great and perfect plan. 

I remember a morning when I went with one of my daughters and her family to a favorite spot, an apple orchard near where we live, for fresh, hot apple sugar donuts. Just thinking about them can make your mouth water! As we were sitting at a picnic table, watching the grandchildren jump around in the play area, up walked a dear old friend of my daughter, Andrea, who she hadn’t seen for a very long time! What joy spread across their faces as they hugged and re-hugged each other. The timing of the Lord in full display! He had led us to a pleasant place and had led the dear friend to the same meeting spot. 

Do you wake up dreading your new day? Or do you dwell on the many possibilities that may come throughout your new day? Sometimes we can get in a habit of pondering negative, despondent things that poison our minds and thinking patterns. Recognition of these patterns is a must! Catch them early and replace them with God’s thoughts from His Word and from the leading of the Holy Spirit. He will guide you if you have listening ears to hear and then choose to dwell on what He speaks. We miss so much of what our heavenly Father wants to share with us because we feed on the things of this earth and what flows from our emotions and carnal ways. Turn off the news, which is negative on purposes well. Don’t be drawn in the lures of the enemy to dwell on that which is not pleasant. 

Our passage concludes with “I’m overwhelmed by the privileges that come with following you, for you have given me the best!” His ways are the best for you. You can be confident and steadfast in His plan and ways. I challenge you to trust Him, to develop a thankful heart that dwells on His goodness and let the joy of the Lord be your strength today as you rest in His destiny and timing for your life. Your path will be pleasant and lead you to pleasant places. 

What about you? Will you examine your thought patterns and work to eliminate the negative junk that is there and begin to purposefully dwell on His plan and His great goodness? Remember today, He is for you and not against you.   

A Contented Life

Proverbs 10:27 TPT

Living in the worship and awe of God will bring you many years of contented living.

Since I was a little girl, I have always felt the Presence of the Lord in my life. Oh yes, there were those teen years where I questioned God and would wander off to the right or left of the straight and narrow path, but then I would eventually make my way back to center. When I was a girl, I would come home to a house where people lived who served the Lord, who had their struggles and hardships, but always turned to the Lord for their strength and guidance. 

Then I got married and Stephen and I went off to college together. Our little one-bedroom apartment became filled with His Presence as He went with us to Rhode Island and lived with us there. Our next abode was a little apartment over my grandparents, as we transferred to another college near our home. Yet again, His Presence was there. The story goes on and on throughout my life. Every place I have gone, He has been there. But there is one common denominator in it all—living in the worship and awe of God. That is the secret. 

It hasn’t just been me. My great English grandfather, Enoch Petchey, who I had the privilege of knowing when I was a little girl, worshipped and served the Lord with awe. My grandparents did the same, and so did my parents. This carries on in my life today and in the lives of my children and grandchildren. His Presence has always been there.

How does this happen? Our verse says as we live in worship and awe of God, our lives will be long and content. Psalm 23:6a says, “For your goodness and love, (your mercy), pursue me all the days of my life.” When we respond to His great love, His goodness and love and mercy will abide, dwell, inhabit our lives. We can’t ignore Him for days on end, and then expect He will abide with us in a strong way. No, He says He will never leave us or forsake us, but oh, how sweet His Presence is, how much stronger is His Presence in our lives when we worship Him and stand in awe of Him each and everyday. I must express my inner thoughts and feelings to Him, telling them to Him as He is the greatest confidante anyone can have. He listens, He responds, I listen and take in everything He speaks to me. I write it down and ponder and meditate upon His instruction and care for me. My restlessness soon settles into quite peace, a peace that even passes all understanding. Oh, how I love Him! How faithful He is to me!

Trust Him with everything big; trust Him with everything small and everything in between. Worship Him and be in awe of Him. He will lead your life into many years of contented living.

What about you? Is there contentment in your life? Are you worshipping Him throughout your day, or giving in to sadness and sorrow, confusion and hurt? Begin to worship Him and be in awe of Him. His contentment for you will come. Press into Him today.