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.

“Certainly all mankind standing is a mere breath. Certainly every person walks around as a fleeting shadow; they certainly make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.”

—Psalm 39:5–6

It’s good to remember that we often “make an uproar for nothing.” We are here but for a moment . . . a mere breath and fleeting shadow.

Our turmoil is unnecessary and unhelpful. We spend most of our time here on this earth in an uproar about what we’re building for this temporary life even though it’s like the snap of a finger compared to the eternity to come.

There is nothing worth building or gaining or achieving here on this earth more important than the things that will impact eternity—following the Lord’s commands (1 Corinthians 7:19), living out the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), doing the good works he placed us here to do (Ephesians 2:10), doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

Those are the unseen things that are eternal. Our aim should be to focus on them rather than on the visible, temporary things (2 Corinthians 4:18) that can be destroyed by moths and rust and thieves (Matthew 6:19).

May we constantly be evaluating what we make an uproar over and what we seek to amass. Is it something temporary or something that is going to last forever? What will those things be worth in the end?

There is nothing we can store in barns—or banks or houses—worth the uproar in our hearts.

The post November 22-Worth the Uproar? 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 will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established justice on the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for his law.”

—Isaiah 42:4

We frequently grow disheartened and crushed, tired and hopeless, but God doesn’t.

He knows he already has the victory. He knows that justice will be established. He sees everything from beginning to end and the glorious forever of those who follow him.

When we’re tired and discouraged, isn’t it helpful to have someone walking alongside us who we know is confident, hopeful, and has the power to help when we grow weary? Someone who isn’t mired down and can encourage us with truth and be there with their comforting presence? In our daily lives, knowing we have a friend supporting us is often enough to keep us going.

That’s what the Lord is for us. We have the strongest, truest, most loving companion walking this road with us when we grow faint.

When we’re weary and discouraged by the trouble in this world, it should be our practice to remind ourselves that God is walking with us and upholding us all along the way. We can’t see what’s happening, but he can, and he is always intimately involved in our lives.

We’re like children who have been walking a long way and now worry they’ve become lost, but when we look up to our heavenly Father and see his confident face, etched with comfort and peace rather than fear or concern, we put our hand back in his and trust he knows the way. His purposes will be fulfilled (Psalm 138:8).

The post November 21-He Knows the Way 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 fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self–control; against such things there is no law.”

—Galatians 5:22–23

Notice the fruit has nothing to do with tangible outcomes, rewards, or even how others respond to us. It has everything to do with what is being produced in and coming out of us.

Our society judges success by accomplishments, outcomes, and numbers. Unfortunately, the Christian community doesn’t seem immune to this. We think unless we can show the results of our work for God in numbers, with a product we’ve created, or by how many people respond, then we don’t have any “fruit.”

The truth is all those numbers, products, works, and responses will amount to absolutely nothing if they are not fueled by the love of Christ (1 Corinthians 13) and producing joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self–control through that love.

Rather than asking ourselves, “What have I done for God lately?”, we should ask, “What has God done in me lately? How is he growing and changing me? How am I allowing the mirror of the Word to show me areas I need to surrender to him?”

Our fruit cannot be measured by statistics of the good we’ve endeavored to do, though we may produce products and works and have great numbers and responses. Our call is to stay connected to the vine (John 15) and watch Christ produce fruit in us as we grow in love, obedience, and trust. If the fruit of the Spirit is expressed in our lives, then those around us will be nourished by our presence in ways we could never plan by strategy.

The post November 20-Love at the Root 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 encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called ‘today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

—Hebrews 3:13

As believers, we’re meant to be there for one another, to encourage each other, and to speak truth in a world that thrives on lies.

This verse tells us what happens if we’re not there to encourage one another—we’re left open to the temptations of this world and our hearts become hardened. We need to show up, speak truth, and encourage others every day so they’re constantly reminded of what is good and true. And we need others to do the same for us. 

Without this, believers become easy prey to the short–term visions of what the world tells us will make us happy.

People often wander into the ways of the world because their lives are missing something. What they’re missing is Christ, and we are the body of Christ, called to love and help each other remain in truth, to bear one another’s burdens, and support one another when we are weak.

And when do we do that? “Today.” Always today, because there is no other day in which to do it. Is there someone we can show up for today? Someone the Lord has put on our heart? Someone we know is struggling? A name that crosses our minds for no reason?

Perhaps what they need is for us to check on them, love them, and encourage them in truth and hope. Perhaps that simple act will help them defeat the darts the enemy is shooting at them.

The post November 19-Speak Life Today 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 when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

—Matthew 6:7–8

So many of us are nervous to pray in front of people because we don’t think our prayers sound good enough. Sometimes we’re even hesitant to pray to God in private because we think we won’t do it right; we’ll get distracted or speak with clumsy words. But God doesn’t care about whether our prayers sound fancy, thoughtful, or smart enough, and he already knows about all our weaknesses and distraction. He still wants us to come to him.

When Jesus tells the disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:9–13, the example he gives is about forty seconds long. This is our model prayer—the Lord’s prayer.

He wants our prayers to be full of our desire for him and his will, humility, trust in his provision, forgiveness, and hope for the future.

Our prayers—as we see in verse 8—are not even really about making sure we remember every tiny thing we should pray for, because he already knows them. They’re about communing with our Father, being in relationship with him, and trusting him. They can be simple and short.

A good father doesn’t require his children to speak with ceremony and flounder through unnatural words; he simply rejoices in their desire to be with him and receive his guidance.

The post November 18-Just Talk to 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.

“He [King Amaziah] did what was right in the sight of the Lord, only not wholeheartedly.”

—2 Chronicles 25:2

In the Bible, we see many stories of people who tried to follow God part–way or who followed him well for a time, then fell away. Each of those stories show us that God desires and, indeed, requires our true and persevering devotion.

King Amaziah was defeated and eventually killed because he took false gods from another culture and began to worship them as his own, despite the true God having helped him win a battle against those very people.

It’s a lesson on how easily we can become ensnared by the wiles of this world and that winning one battle does not mean we can take off our spiritual armor. Why would Amaziah have been tempted by gods that did not even protect those he had defeated?

We can ask ourselves the same thing. Why are we tempted by riches, fame, success, and unattainable beauty standards when we can see that the rich, famous, successful, and beautiful are often the emptiest of us all?

The world’s idols will never satisfy, and we would do well to remember that God is a jealous god who will not allow us to run after those false gods because he loves us. He is jealous of our devotion, as a good husband is jealous of a man trying to lure his wife away with false promises.

We are to be wholeheartedly faithful to the end (Matthew 24:13; Hebrews 6:11; Hebrews 12:1–2), being sure of our hope in him and not lured away by the false promises of these worldly idols.

The post November 17-Divided Devotion 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 people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living waters, to carve out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water.” 

—Jeremiah 2:13

Most of us have lived this story in one way or another. We run away from God because we think we know a better, faster way of getting what we think we want. We dig our own wells instead of believing him when he says that Jesus is the living water.

Maybe we’ve dug the well of control, relationships, addiction, shopping, financial security, the respect of our peers, or food. It could be anything.

All of it is more useless than trying to get our water from a cracked well. We might get a sip or two, but it won’t last long, and we certainly won’t have any to share. We’ll have to keep digging deeper for sips that do not sustain, always sliding further down into that hole we’ve dug.

When the Lord is our source, his unending supply of living water will not only fill us but provide all we need to give and serve sacrificially as he leads us, never fearing we will run out.

So how do we fill our cup from him? Abide in the Word daily. Obey what it says, and go where the Holy Spirit guides. Be a doer, not just a hearer. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks. Take our thoughts captive. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Trust him with our needs. Learn who God is. Draw near to him, and he will draw near to us.

When we’re feeling empty, we need to ask ourselves what cistern we’ve been drinking from and turn, instead, to the Lord and his fountain that overflows with the living water that is Jesus

The post November 16-The Source 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.

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

—Matthew 6:34

Sometimes we need to hear a familiar verse in a different package for it to sink in. That happened to me with this one.

I’d been feeling restless and stressed about the what, the how, and the when of whatever the Lord wanted me to do next when the message, “Trust God and do the next thing,” began to appear over and over in my life.

That line encapsulates this verse—to be faithful in the moment and trust the Lord with it.

We so often look ahead, stressing about what’s to come and whether we’ll know what to do or be able to do it.

But as we walk with the Lord, the “next things” line up naturally, and time forces us to take them as they come.

Though our lives do require planning future steps, they never require worrying about those future steps or trying to accomplish them before they arrive.

When we allow ourselves to be distracted by the future, we’re neglecting today, never really living our actual lives, but attempting to live our future lives in our minds instead.

This drains today of both the strength we need to fight its battles and the pleasure we could gain from its joys.

When our minds begin to run anxiously into the future, we can bring them back to the present through the Lord’s strength, trust him to order our steps, and rest in the fact that this day is the only one we can live right now.

What task has God given us this moment? Let’s trust him and do the next thing.

The post November 15-Do the Next 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.

“Why are you seeking the living one among the dead?”

—Luke 24:5

Sometimes, we’re so focused on the death that we can’t see the life that has sprung from it.

The dream died; the effort was unfruitful; the plan failed. So we mourn. We visit our sorrow and dig around in the rubble.

But we can’t see what is being planted with that death—what green shoot will sprout from the sacrifice.

It takes supernatural intervention to get us to look up and see that we’re searching in the wrong place.

We’re looking for what was buried when we should be looking for what was raised—a shoot, a vine, the green bud that will flower and turn into fruit.

The death and burial are painful, and we can mourn them, but they are not more powerful than what God can do. 

He says, “Behold, I am going to do something new, now it will spring up; will you not be aware of it?” (Isaiah 43:19). We have to be watching or we might not see it.

Between Jesus’s death and the resurrection, there were three long days when all seemed lost—when the disciples went back to being fishermen. It seemed like they’d been wrong about Jesus.

But the third day came and changed everything. Their hope and belief were not in vain! He really was the Messiah. The enemy hadn’t won after all.

The pain and loss in our lives is no different. Eventually, something begins to spring up out of the death; it’s time to turn from the dead and look to what now lives. 

The post November 14-Life from Loss 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 if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

—Galatians 6:3

When we think better of ourselves than we do of others or we think we’ve attained some level of enlightened spiritual greatness over others, we’ve allowed pride to take root, and we’re no longer recognizing the truth of ourselves.

In reality, any goodness that seems to come from us actually comes through us from Christ. We are nothing without the Spirit of God working in us, and knowing that should keep us humble.

We do well to remember it when we face those in whom we cannot see goodness. If we could see ourselves as we would be without Christ, we would be no better—and at risk of becoming much worse. The good we do is nothing we can boast of in and of ourselves; we can only boast in Christ and the sacrifice he made for us on the cross (Galatians 6:14).

Some of us may have gifts that put us front and center or that worldly wisdom tells us are more valuable than other gifts. But Romans 12:3–8 says we should not let those gifts make us think more highly of ourselves than we do of anyone else, because each gift is given from God. None is more important than another. When we begin to be arrogant in our own abilities, we become deceived. All our gifts, training, intelligence, talent, and advantages can be counted as rubbish, as Paul says in Philippians 3:4–11. They can all be used for evil if the Holy Spirit is not working in and through us.

It’s only our Lord who makes us into something.

The post November 13-Humbled by Grace appeared first on C. E. White.