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

“Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”

—Romans 8:26–28

We often hear the first and the last of these three verses independently but rarely in context with one another.

It’s quite comforting that the Spirit intercedes when my groanings are unintelligible and I don’t know what or how to pray.

But this passage also calms the fear that we’re praying things outside of God’s will. For when “we do not know what to pray for as we should,” the Holy Spirit intercedes for us “according to the will of God.”

Many of our prayers are about removing suffering, and that’s okay. Even Jesus prayed this way in the garden: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).

But just as Jesus’s prayer was not granted, what we hope and pray for may not be what would lead to the greatest eternal good. 

But when our hearts join Jesus in adding his, “yet not as I will, but as you will,” we can be sure the Holy Spirit makes all our prayers right, and that God will work all things—our misguided prayers, all of our suffering, the good in our lives, and the things we don’t understand—to good for those who follow him (Romans 8:28).

The post MAY 20-When I Don’t Know What to Pray 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

“Then the Lord said, ‘Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand there on the rock.’”

—Exodus 33:21

Only when we’re standing beside the Lord are we secure; every other place we could stand will lead to shifting sand and a faulty foundation.

There are days when we don’t place ourselves beside the Lord—when we choose to walk in ways contrary to what he tells us in his Word or what we know he’s called us to. Instead of standing beside him, we stand by our sin—whether from fear or selfishness—and that puts us on shaky ground.

It’s easy to think, “I’ll just trust this today and go back to trusting God tomorrow,” but that “today” often turns into several days or weeks or months. It’s always that much harder to go back to standing beside him when we’ve gotten into the habit of standing by our flesh.

When we’re tempted to choose something we know is opposed to the Lord’s will, a good question to ask ourselves is, “Do I really believe his Word is true? Do I believe following him will result in better things than giving in to my desires or feelings in this moment?”

As believers, if the answer to that question is no, we need to dig into our beliefs about the Lord! 

But if we answer those questions with a yes, then choose ourselves anyway, we know we’re not only walking away from the Lord’s will and in danger of giving the devil a foothold, we’re also acting in opposition to our core beliefs, which always leads to inner turmoil and dissatisfaction.

Let’s remember that it’s always worth following him, even when it means denying ourselves or walking into difficult situations.

Beside him is always best.

The post MAY 19-Shaky Ground or Solid Rock 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

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God really said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden”?’”

—Genesis 3:1

Eve had the entire world at her disposal . . . all except one tree. Satan wanted to keep her focused on that one thing God had kept from her; he also confused and exaggerated the difficulty of God’s restriction so it seemed excessive and unreasonable.

The devil still uses these same tactics; he continually draws our attention away from all the wonderful things the Lord gives us so we will focus anywhere God has said no. We start thinking more and more about the things we can’t or don’t have and how God must not love us because he’s keeping those things from us.

Satan wants us to believe we’re not walking in freedom and that the Lord’s rules are unfair.

But only God’s freedom is truly free. It’s like a fence . . . yes, it keeps us from going beyond it, but everything good is within. It exists because everything outside of it will hurt us in the end.

Satan’s “freedom” would have us climbing the fence and running out into traffic. His main goal is to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10). He wants us injured, wounded, angry, defeated, trapped, bitter, and divided from God.

When Satan tempts us to look at what God has not allowed us, our defense is to turn our eyes back to all the good God does give and remember that anything our loving Father restricts or withholds is because he knows dangers we cannot see; he would protect us from the pain of discovering them the hard way.

The post MAY 18-Has God Really Said? 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

“He who said to them, ‘This is the place of quiet, give rest to the weary,’ and, ‘This is the resting place,’ but they would not listen. So the word of the Lord to them will be, ‘Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there,’ that they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.”

—Isaiah 28:12–13

The Lord wants to teach us the truth that leads to a place of quiet and gives rest in Jesus. 

But in our stubbornness, we often only see his rules—“order on order, line on line.” Like toddlers, we haven’t proceeded beyond the “milk” of understanding (Isaiah 28:9), so we see these rules as arbitrary, not believing there are greater purposes behind them. 

And we remain spiritual toddlers for far too long, feeling like God is restricting us unfairly or trying to prove our “goodness’ by following them.

But there is only one work that will not perish: “that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). This means we can believe all he says and follow it even when we don’t understand the objective reasons behind his rules. 

Viewing God’s commandments as “orders upon orders” (instead of simply believing Jesus and all he taught) will only ever lead to pride if we’re really good at keeping them (like the Pharisees) or despair if we aren’t.

Only the obedience that comes from love (John 14:15) leads us to quiet, freedom, and rest, because it comes from trust that all he says is good and truly best for us. It doesn’t require the straining and striving we normally put into obedience when we truly believe it will also bring about the best good for our lives.

The post MAY 17-The Quiet Place 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

“We are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.”

—2 Corinthians 5:8–9

Sometimes this life is hard, and as faithful followers who have a sure eternal inheritance, we might wish to skip the current difficulty and go ahead and start that existence that has no tears, pain, or sorrow (Revelation 21:4).

There’s nothing wrong with that wish. To be with the Lord fully should be our greatest desire as believers.

But we don’t get to choose when we get there. It’s the Lord’s will and wisdom that ushers us into heaven at the right time, but it’s by living his will and pleasing him now that we make our lives here most like what they will be in the eternal kingdom.

Our whole ambition is to be set on pleasing our Lord.

Matthew 6:10 says, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Though the world around us may not help build the kingdom, we can. With every simple act of obedience, we grow nearer to our Lord, and our lives become more and more like they will be once we reach the kingdom of God, revealing more of the nature of God and his kingdom to others. Through this, our joy is made full even now (John 15:11).

Let us press on, longing for our Lord and eager to please him now just as we will in eternity, even while we still live in the troubles of this world.

The post MAY 16-Longing for Home 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

“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’”

—Luke 18:13

This tax collector was so aware of his sins he would not even lift his eyes to the heavens while praying.

The Pharisee, in the meantime, prayed to thank God they were not like these other sinful men, but that they were good and righteous, boasting in the middle of their prayers by listing all the good things they did.

Jesus tells us that the tax collector went away justified in the sight of the Lord while the Pharisee did not (Luke 18:14).

This story strikes home when we consider the times we’ve seen someone else’s sin and thought something like, “Well, at least I don’t struggle with THAT.”

We may not be putting those words in our prayers, but if the attitude exists in us at all, we’re missing a trait that’s essential for followers of Jesus—humility.

There will never be a time in our Christian walk when superiority and disdain for other peoples’ struggles will be acceptable. There will never be a time we don’t need to pray, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” just as much as we ever did.

We are always to come to the Lord and walk through life in humility.

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

The post MAY 15-Have Mercy on Me 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

“A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” 

—Ecclesiastes 3:4

Our world would have us believe we should never have to weep and never have to mourn—that our supreme goal is happiness and fun, and that we should be exempt from sadness and pain.

But this is a recipe for disillusionment and denial. We will all face pain and sorrow in this life. 

Our efforts to ignore, bury, or run from it will not change that. 

When it’s time to weep, don’t be afraid to weep. When it’s time to mourn, don’t be afraid to mourn. We don’t have to hide or ignore it. We don’t have to act like we enjoy our suffering. The Lord never says to pretend everything is fine. 

He says, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 

We can have courage even while we weep and mourn, because we know the overcoming is already accomplished. 

But we should also not be afraid to laugh and dance. Christianity is not meant to keep us from enjoying the good things the Lord has given us in this life. Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and solemnity is not a mark of righteousness.

If we’re in a time of weeping and mourning, we don’t have to lose hope. And if we’re in a time of laughing and dancing, it shouldn’t become the source of our hope.

The seasons of this life will always shift unsteadily, but we have a God who never changes, cannot lie, and who has promised the life to come is free from weeping, pain, and sorrow. All of heaven will be a time for joy.

The post MAY 14-A Time for Both 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

“There is a way which seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death.”

—Proverbs 14:12

We can make sensible decisions at every turn in life yet end up far away from the Lord or any good purpose he has for us. This is why asking the Lord for wisdom (James 1) is so important. Worldly wisdom—what makes sense to us if we are treating this world as our home—is rarely going to lead us down the narrow road to Christ.

We often get worried when we’re taking a path others question; their disapproval makes us insecure. We wonder if we’re doing the right thing or going off on a foolish quest.

But the Lord’s path will often look like a foolish quest to people who are worldly–wise (1 Corinthians 1:27). And sometimes the Lord gives us a path we can’t explain, just like he sent Abraham out without telling him where he was going. 

Many would say, “The Lord wouldn’t just tell you to ‘Go,’ without any further direction. You need to wait for more instruction.” But often, the Lord is waiting for our obedience in order to show us the next step.

Others’ questioning shouldn’t cause us insecurity about our choices unless we know them to be godly people who are also walking with the Lord. And even then, God puts us all on unique paths, so ultimately, our decisions can only be made by being obedient to and meditating on God’s Word, constantly walking in the Spirit (John 3:8; Galatians 5:16–17), and praying without ceasing.

The post MAY 13-Led by the Spirit 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

“And he said, ‘Come!’ And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and when he began to sink, he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’”

—Matthew 14:29–30

Not all the disciples asked to get out of the boat . . . but look what happened when Peter did ask! Because his confidence was in the Lord, he walked on the water.

Even though it was storming, his faith in Christ was stronger than his fear of the storm . . . until it wasn’t.

The wind didn’t bring him down. The waves didn’t bring him down. His fear and doubt did. He looked around at the wind and started thinking about how strong the storm was instead of how strong Jesus was.

If we keep our eyes on Christ and we’re doing something he has called us to do, we will go on without being tossed about or sinking even when life is stormy.

But if we start focusing on the overwhelming circumstances and believing that maybe Jesus really doesn’t have the situation in hand, we will start to sink.

Let’s ask the Lord if we can get out of the boat and watch what he will do in and through us. If we feel the circumstances start to overwhelm us, we put our eyes back on him and remember he is the same God who calms the wind and waves, the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, and the same God who has gotten us through so many things and provided for us in so many ways before.

The miracles come when we don’t look at the circumstances, however overwhelming they seem, but instead look at him.

The post MAY 12-Storm-Strong Faith 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 whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

—Matthew 16:25

We often look at the first part of this verse and think how hard it is. Rarely do we look at the second part of the verse and rejoice. We’re so focused on the difficulty of dying to self, we forget about the joy of what we’re guaranteed in its place.

When we’re still encumbered with trying to “save our lives” on this earth, we’re beset with all sorts of concerns, desires, and anxieties.

Can I do it?

Will it work out?

This isn’t fair!

Needing this life to fit our expectations straps us to the circumstances around us. We’re dependent upon them meeting our desires and fulfilling our expectations. And if they’re not what we want or think they should be, we drift into anger, anxiety, bitterness, or disappointment. We’re at the whims of this uncertain world.

But when we’re willing to lose our lives for Christ’s sake, our ability to be full of love, joy, hope, and all the other fruits of the Spirit is no longer dependent on the ever–changing conditions and situations we find ourselves in.

When we can’t succeed, when things aren’t fair, and when things don’t work out, we can still go on with hope. We are free from our wants and expectations. 

When we give up our lives intentionally for Christ’s sake, we cannot be shaken. We become fixed on the only unchanging, sure foundation, so when the world around us crumbles, we don’t fall apart with it.

The post MAY 11-The Joy of Letting Go appeared first on C. E. White.