Today’s Truth
Jesus said: “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of,” (John 10:10b The Message).
Friend To Friend
Yard sales. I’ve never really liked them. But when we were preparing to move from our home of twenty years, we decided it was a must. It was a way to clean out the clutter, make a little money, and not haul out yesterday’s treasures to today’s trash.
We displayed our lovely attic décor on makeshift plywood tables and waited for the bargain babes to descend. We were not disappointed. Two hours before the advertised opening time, treasure hunters began congregating outside the closed garage doors. Then, upon the unveiling, the swarm attacked.
Among the valuables from my past sat an electric, ceramic 12″ Christmas tree with various colored lights … no doubt a gift from the eighties. One particular woman perused the lovely display and came upon this “magnificent work of art.”
“I’ve always wanted one of these!” she declared with excitement in her voice. “How much is it?”
“Three dollars,” my husband, Steve, answered.
“Humph,” she grunted and walked on.
Steve and I just looked at each other and stifled our laughter.
Let’s rewind the scene for a moment. This woman said she had always wanted a ceramic Christmas tree just like that one. (I’m not here to judge another person’s dreams. That’s just what she said.) Always. Her whole life. And here it was! For a mere $3, her dream could have come true! The search over! Most likely we would have sacrificed this masterpiece for $2, but she didn’t even ask. She just shrugged and walked away.
Then my mind began to wander through a rummage sale of its own. As I watched the woman walk away, I thought about the Pharisees in the Bible. For years they waited for the coming of the promised Messiah. Prayed about it. Preached about it. Prepared for it. Then when Jesus showed up, they turned their backs and walked away. “Humph,” they said with a shrug. “No thanks.”
How many times do we long for a particular dream to come true in our lives? Long for it. Search for it. Obsess over it. A husband. A child. A job. A home. Then one day, there it is! It can be ours! The search is over. We say our “I do’s,” bring home the bundle of joy, log in our first eight hours, hang the last curtain. But then, a little time passes. The husband is not as romantic as we had hoped, the kids are not as obedient and loving as we had imagined, the job isn’t as rewarding as we had envisioned, and the house is a never ending maze of maintenance. “Humph,” we grumble. We think we want something, and then when we get it, we decide we really don’t want it after all.
Let me take it one step further. How many times do we long for love, joy, and peace in our lives? We search for it, long for it, and pray about it. Then someone points us to the cross and says, “There is it. It can be yours for the asking. It’s not even $3, $2 or $1. It’s free!”
“Humph,” we shrug. “No thanks.” And we walk away to rummage through the yard sales of life looking for treasure among other people’s clutter.
Dear friend, God is holding out His Holy hand with the most magnificent Gift of all time. Love, joy, and peace personified in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is what you have always been longing for, searching for, watching for. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have it to the full” (NIV). Will we take him up on the offer, or say, “Humph, no thanks,” and walk away?
Let’s Pray
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for making all of my dreams come true. You have given me everything I have ever longed for in the person of Jesus Christ. Please forgive me for turning my back on Your amazing Gift and trying to fill my longings with people and possessions. I know that nothing will ever satisfy my desire for peace, love, and joy except Jesus. And Lord, I also know that when I am filled with the peace, love, and joy of Jesus, I will spill that love onto those around me.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
Have you ever searched and searched for something in particular, and then when you found it, you realized it wasn’t so great after all? Make a list. If you’re like me, it is probably long … if you’re honest.
Now let’s look inward. Are there longings in your life that you are expecting other people to fill, but in reality, you know in your “knower” that only Jesus can really fill?
If so, what do you need to do about it?
Let’s chat. I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s devotion. Please visit and share with your Girlfriends in God.
More From The Girlfriends
One thing all women want to be is beautiful. If you would like to learn about how to become spiritually beautiful – a beauty that radiates from the inside out, see Sharon’s book, Becoming Spiritually Beautiful. You’ll begin to see yourself as God sees you and discover the beauty of you God has planned all along!
Comments 8
I want this. I want to be content with everything I have. I want God to be enough. I want it with all my heart. I just can’t release the control. Why is this so hard? Especially when the reward is so great and right at my finger tips. How do I just let Him do it all for me? I have prayed that He would. How do I let him?
Dear Sharon
I read your devotion today and as usual it hit a nerve so deep that I just started to cry. My devotions have hit an all time low..I feel that the Father has abandoned me, I feel like I am living my life for my husband and not me. He broke his back 10 years ago and has gotten progressively worse. He was supposed to have a surgery to help with the pain but his chances of survival are 10% or less. Not only is he disappointed but he is displaying it on me and the kids. I am a mother of 5 but the twins, youngest ones who are 16, are the only ones who are home. Because of his pain, anger, mood swings because of pain meds, they don’t even want to be there. In the last month his foul mouth has gone from nothing to 100%. He feels God has left him too. I lost my job in ’09 and now I am working my butt off for an insurance agency for less than minimum wage. The commission isn’t there because no one seems to be wanting anything on a car, a home, an apt, I mean these things people need but it’s like everyone has like disappeared!! I have lived my life for everyone else for years. I was abused by my 1st husband and after I had the 3 children with him (1981 thru 1987) long after I was divorced I met a man who loved the Lord, loved me, loved my kids and a year later inherited 3 kids and we were pregnant with twins..it was great. He was the hardest worker in the world and then he had an accident at work and has been on workmans comp since 2002, permanently since ’05. He sits around and does nothing, we made at one point well over $100,000 a year when we both worked and now we’re lucky if we are making $30K a year. I know it’s not the money, it’s not material things because God knows I have known and I don’t care about those things at all. I pray, I cry out, I ask why, when I’m at church I get prayer weekly, they all know what he has put me through..but at this point I don’t know what prayer I have left to ask???!! When I was a single Mom I sought the Lord daily and believe me I heard from Him, I have the notes in my Bible back in ’88 through ’91…I had no money yet HE provided through means that I can’t even explain. Sometimes I think it’s me always worrying whether or not Mike is going to be in a good mood, is his back going to be tolerable today, am I gonna get yelled at? He doesn’t abuse me but he is emotionally messing with my head..I need to know what to go to the Lord with. We are going to be on the street soon if I can’t find a job I can start making money for my children to at least eat, or at least have a phone where we can pay for the bill, or the A/C, or the gas! What am I doing wrong?? I know what I’m doing wrong..I’m looking at the outside sources and not what God can do, cause I want it in my time, cause I’m tired and I feel like I’m going to have a nervous breakdown..Sharon I know all this but I can’t seem to apply it anymore because I’m so hurt..please write if you can I need a break through and a miracle…
Love Donna
Hello Sharon,
I have just started reading Girlfriends in God and I absolutely love it. You have really put things in perspective for me. And this Devotional really hit home. I have done nothing but dream of a husband since i was very little. Its all i have thought about for the past 20yrs. I’m only 27 but it has consumed my life. And just like your “buyer”, I got the most amazing gift from God a best friend or my significant other. God blessed me with everything I have ever wanted in a husband. And all I did was push him away. I didn’t think it would add up, i didn’t think it would work, I had let doubts consume me. He was stationed in Iraq and the ONLY thing he couldn’t give me was precious time with me and my son. I was so selfish and ignorant. I made a choice that it was done and we could never be together. I made the worst mistake in letting him go. And now because of my selfishness I will have to live with for the rest of my life without my soul mate, my lover, my husband. God gave me something amazing, something I have always wanted and I just pushed it away! I took for granted God’s gift to me.
But i know God has a plan for my life whether “my best friend” is involved or not I know God’s standing there saying I forgive you. He is showing me his love threw my own actions. Even though i don’t deserve any of it, I know God will love me no matter what. Thank you for this confirmation of knowing I have done wrong but God still loves me.
You know this is so true , I have been praying and praying for a husband and peace . I don’t think I have come close to the boaz I have been praying for ,but peace God does give me, but I just keep searching and searching when I know that all God wants for me is to be content in him and all those other things will come , he promises it . I know this but sometimes my loneliness and void distracts me .I like this devotion a lot It helped me to get on track I have everything I need in the master If I only take him up on his offer every day of my life , so thanks and God bless you
I agree with this passage….sometimes we search for happiness in people and things when we should be seeking Christ….Thanks for this passage.
I’m struggling with longing for financial security. Currently, our income does not meet our expenses, and our savings is almost spent. I finally listened to God last October and became a stay-at-home mom, leaving a good-paying job with amazing benefits. I took that leap of faith, leaving my husband to cover our financial needs. This hasn’t quite happened. What do you do when you’re where God wants you to be, but being there is running you to bankruptcy, and your other half doesn’t seem to be ready to steer you away from it? I long for financial security, but God has made it really clear I’m supposed to be here at home, not working. How do I reconcile this?
We have lived in our house for a year. We rent an adorable modular with four bedrooms, a living room, family room, two bathrooms and in house laundry. I obsessed for months on the idea of living here. It was close to our church, great school system, and our blemished credit wasn’t an issue.
I prayed on the hour every hour. I even bartered with God. I would make sure my children would become missionaries, world famous preachers or even the next president. I just needed him to Grant this prayer request!
Three months later we were in house. New carpet, fresh paint, country setting…this was the life. Then December came, along with the utility bill. I stared at the paper and was sure it had a typo. There was no way my electric bill was as much as my rent, it had tripled from the month before.
We eventually came to find out that it was correct. Due to poor insulation and an insufficient old system, the horror sank in. Winter and spring electric bills would send me running for a place to hide.
Late spring came and I breathed a sigh of relief. No more heat bills! Let me sum this up by saying what spring brought. The air conditioner broke down 4 times in heat strong enough to cook an egg on my forehead. We found armies of ants swarming all over the house. A family of superhero mice decided to take up residence in our food pantry. 4 traps, 6 cubes of poison and 3 glue traps later…Henrietta (what we lovingly named the mother) is still seen sporadically.
We are currently looking to move somewhere we can afford. Without the help of family, I am sure I would have been holding a sign on Tenth Street begging for food.
I obsessed, I dreamed, I thought of nothing but this house. God granted my prayer request. “Just What You’ve Always Wanted” hit so close to home, my mouth his my desk. God allowed me have what I wanted, and now I am asking about the return policy!
We have a few options we are praying about, but I want our next move to be God’s move. He’s in control.
Psalm 32:8 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Thank you Lord Jesus that I don’t have to stand on Tenth Street begging for food. Thank you I have space at your beautiful feet to rest. Thank you that Henrietta finally left my spaghetti noodles alone. Thank you for you.
My high expectations of people are surely something that are a challenge, and that I pray about daily! 🙂 It’s important to remember that everything good comes from God, and to always be thankful to Him for all he has provided. 🙂 I love the saying:
“Gratitude is an attitude that hooks us up to our source of supply. And the more grateful you are, the closer you become to your maker, to the architect of the universe, to the spiritual core of your being. It’s a phenomenal lesson.” (Bob Proctor)