The Mirror of the Word: A Daily Devotional Podcast from C.E. White

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he may become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they insult the members of his household!”

—Matthew 10:24–25

Our human nature wants to believe that serving God will have us living our best life (in worldly terms) in the here and now.

But God’s plans don’t always—or even often—look like earthly success. Trusting him will often mean walking a lonely road off the beaten path . . . a road that the world may not appreciate or recognize as valuable. We can look at nearly any Bible character to find that theme. Joseph was sold into slavery by his family. Moses was in exile from Egypt, losing all his earthly connections and power. Most of the Old Testament prophets were unappreciated and even hated. John the Baptist was beheaded. Most of the disciples were martyred. Jesus was murdered. 

Jesus was perfect, and he still didn’t get his earthly due. They even said he was working with Satan. So if we feel like people aren’t paying attention or are even hostile toward what we’re doing when we’re following the Lord, we’re in good company, and we shouldn’t be surprised.

Others’ approval or disapproval cannot tell us if we’re walking in the Lord’s will. Our only aim should be obedience to him, and we shouldn’t be shocked when that obedience leads to unpopularity or persecution.

The post JUNE 5-If They Hated Him… appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

—Psalm 119:105

Sometimes we don’t know what to do, and we go round and round trying to figure it out.

But the best decision–making strategy is to stop and spend time in the Word and in prayer, then wait. God’s guidance is the only sure guidance.

Sometimes the answer isn’t a direction; it’s simply peace in the not–knowing, which is an answer in itself.

When we walk with the Lord, we can have the peace that passes all understanding even when we don’t know what to do, because we are certain that he does. If we’re paying attention and being obedient, he will always reveal the steps to us as we need them.

A lamp does not show us the end of our journey—only the next few steps.

Sometimes we think we’ve let him direct our steps but realize on the way that we’re actually only letting him lead as long as we approve of the destination. We start going our own way and ignoring his guidance, the Word, and the Holy Spirit if we start thinking it might be leading us somewhere we don’t like.

But God is not like GPS. We don’t punch in the destination then ask him for directions.

If we want to know where to go, we must follow Christ, and the act of following someone else inherently implies we don’t know where we’re going.

If we choose our own path, we will be walking blind in a world of pitfalls and misdirection.

Christ and the Bible are our Word (John 1:1)—the light that reveals our direction on the good path he has for us (John 8:12).

The post JUNE 4-Follow, Don’t Lead appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“Do not trust in noblemen, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”

—Psalm 146:3–5

Many of our hurts come from trusting in mortal mankind.

Maybe we trusted in parents who failed us, a spouse who left, or friends who betrayed us. Maybe we put our trust in a church leader who fell into sin, a church that abandoned us when we needed it most, or a government that didn’t support the cause of justice.

These are soul–crushing failures, but they aren’t surprising, and they shouldn’t shake our faith. 

A person’s badness cannot invalidate the truth of Christ, because it’s for people’s badness that Christ came (Luke 19:10; Mark 2:17). This is why we need him. Our faith is not in humans, but in Christ himself.

When those things happen (and they will), we often become lost and disillusioned with faith in general. But if our faith can be broken by the deeds of people (even our own), institutions, or the failure of our own hopes and plans, then that’s where we’ve placed our trust.

But blessed is he whose hope and help is in the Lord.

Hope placed in him keeps us on solid ground where we cannot be swayed by the storms of this life and the disappointments of men who cannot save us.

Let’s take our eyes off ourselves, other men, institutions, and our own plans and put them back on the steady ground of hope in the Lord alone.

The post JUNE 3-Hope in Him Alone appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”

—Isaiah 55:8–9

It’s comforting to remind ourselves that the Lord knows far more and far better than we do when things don’t work out the way we hoped or prayed. The Lord sees and knows all the tiny steps each of our lives need to take in order to create the tapestry of the world from the beginning of time until the end.

It’s a tapestry that takes all the bad and brokenness our sin created—the dark threads of sickness, sorrow, evil, pain, and death—and weaves them into a beautiful picture of hope and redemption.

For those of us inside of time, it’s like seeing the tapestry from the back. It’s all knots and tangles and in pieces that don’t look like anything; we can’t see the pattern. But God, on the other side, omniscient and outside of time, takes those dark threads and turns them into triumphant depth and outlines of the people he is shaping us to be.

Because sin entered the world, the world is broken, and evil is possible (Romans 5:12). In that brokenness, we hurt one another. But because God is good and loves us, he’s promised that he can and will reshape all of those hurts and transform them into good for those who love him (Romans 8:28).

The ultimate healing is coming in our forever life, but in the meantime, we can trust that our sufferings are worked to good purpose. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and his ways are higher than our ways.

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The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; he withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.”

—Psalm 84:11

Sometimes it feels like God is withholding something good from us. It’s the oldest lie—the one the devil used on Eve in the Garden of Eden. He convinced her that God was withholding something good from her even though there was only one tree from which she could not eat. The devil put her attention on that one thing and had her questioning God’s goodness and intentions toward her.

I can look back and see things I desperately wanted but did not receive . . . things that seemed good. But I can see that getting those things at those times would’ve done me harm. I didn’t really know what was “good” for me, and I’m grateful now that God withheld things from me.

He wasn’t withholding good things; he was withholding dangerous things that seemed good on the surface. But God—knowing our inmost heart—knows what is actually good for us.

Adam and Eve had the perfect existence—complete provision and perfect fellowship with one another and the Lord—only that one tree wasn’t available to them. Yet by focusing on what they couldn’t have, they ran outside of God’s plan. They chased the one thing not allowed to them, and they caught it, to their detriment.

May we always live in the broad freedom God has granted us (Psalm 18:19) and trust that if it feels like he is withholding something, that thing would not actually be good for us in the long run.

The post JUNE 1-The One Thing appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“Do all things without complaining or arguments; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding firmly the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I can take pride because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.”

—Philippians 2:14–16

Doing all things without complaining or arguments is not the way of the world; there are many duties we would prefer not to do, both at work and at home. It’s easy to grumble and gripe, and it often feels impossible not to. So let’s look at the reasons these verses say to live this way and try to find our motivation there.

When we’re tempted to complain and argue, let’s reflect on these words instead and honor Christ with our attitude in all things. This is one way we practice prioritizing the things of the Spirit over the things of the flesh (Galatians 5:16–17).

It will ensure we have not labored in vain.

The post MAY 31-Lights in a Dark World appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

—Matthew 23:23–24

The Word tells us all the time that following a list of rules is never as important as understanding who God is and living his heart. Following his rules is important, but if our lives do not show love (1 Corinthians 13), justice, mercy, and humility (Micah 6:8), we have neglected the weightier things.

Are we trying to obey him with a formulaic list of duties like the Pharisees, or are we giving our whole hearts to him by submitting to the Spirit, serving and loving others, humbling ourselves to walk in his ways, sharing his Word and his kingdom with others, surrendering to him, and defending the weak? Are we only obeying outwardly for self–serving reasons, or are we denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following him?

The Pharisees made rules more important than people. Jesus showed that the rules were made for the good of the people. If we’re using them to hurt others, we’re using them wrongly.

If we are scrupulously tithing and appearing at church every time the doors are open, prideful of our “goodness” and holding all others to our external standard of perfection, but not walking in and sharing his steadfast love, we have strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel. We are like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. We have missed the beauty of the Father’s heart.

The post MAY 30-Don’t Miss His Heart appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.”

—1 John 1:5–7

Walking in the light, for us, means we walk with Jesus—we strive to walk as he walked (1 John 2:6). We will not do it perfectly, but where our imperfection shows through, we repent and have confidence we are forgiven through his sacrifice (1 John 1:9).

And the result of this walking in the light? Fellowship with one another. We don’t often connect in our minds that walking closely with Christ results in closeness with others, but this tells us that fellowship is dependent upon walking in the light.

I wonder how many of our relationships are broken because one or the other of us has decided we “have no sin” (verse 8) or we have not confessed and repented of our sin (verse 9).

Confession and humility before the Lord and each other are key to walking in fellowship. When we think, “If only they would . . .”, we’re ignoring our own part in the rift. When we look within and confess our part, we’re walking in the light.

And that’s worth it even if the relationship remains broken, which it may. It takes both parties walking in the light and in confession, repentance, and humility for true fellowship to exist.

The post MAY 29-Humble Steps, Holy Ground appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“All things are permitted for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.”

—1 Corinthians 6:12

If there is something in our lives that tells us where to go and what to do, if we place our identity in it, if we cannot imagine being content without it, or aren’t sure we could give it up if the Lord asked, we’re in danger of that thing becoming our master. 

There are a few obvious things people are dominated by—addictions, lusts, unforgiveness, and anger. But there are many more socially acceptable things that can dominate us as well—relationships, food, health, jobs, position, or money.

If any of those things are given priority over following God, we’re attempting to have two masters—a thing the Word tells us is impossible (Matthew 6:24). 

There are many good, permissible things we hope for in this world that make life easier and more enjoyable—safety, health, security, a wonderful community, and so forth. But if doing without them would turn us away from God, they hold too much sway in our hearts, and it’s time to dethrone an idol.

As with the rich young ruler, God will always show us the choice, but he will not force us to make it. May we not go away from Christ sad as that young man did, overtaken by a worldly master and unwilling to give it up.

The greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). 

As believers, no one and nothing should take a higher place in our desires, will, thoughts, or efforts over following Christ.

Nothing else should drive us or our decisions.

The post MAY 28-No Other Master appeared first on C. E. White.

The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“Or who enclosed the sea with doors when it went out from the womb, bursting forth; when I made a cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling bands, and I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, and I said, ‘As far as this point you shall come, but no farther; and here your proud waves shall stop’?”

—Job 38:8–11

Job is a hard book to read, and none of us want to be in his situation, but the Lord’s answers to Job’s questions are still comforting. We need to be reminded that our God is the one who built the foundations of the earth, the one who arranged the seas, and the one who holds them in their place.

When we consider his power, knowledge, and goodness in these mighty things, it’s so much easier to rest in his sovereignty.

We no longer have to understand what’s happening when we trust the one who’s in control.

It doesn’t mean we must enjoy the difficulties in this life. It simply means we see that the great God of the universe is not unaware of or unable to redeem those difficult things and that the wonder of our eternal lives to come will far overshadow this suffering.

As the Lord says to the sea, “this far and no farther,” so he says to the suffering of Job. And so he says to Satan of our difficulties: “You can only seek to steal, kill, and destroy my people in this life. In eternity, they will be fully healed and fully mine—safe forever. No more tears, pain, or sorrow.”

Rest in the forever that comes after “this far and no farther.”

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