Glory Seed Devotionals, 2016: Year of the Blessing
Emmanuel (God is with us)…
Shalom!
The Sacred Space Daily Prayer for today begins with this paragraph. “I pause for a moment and reflect on God's life-giving presence in every part of my body, in everything around me, in the whole of my life.”** Almost immediately after reading the first paragraph I found myself asking, “I wonder if God is in my prostate cancer? Is God in my pulmonary fibrosis? Is God in the four 100% blocked cornary arteries?” In short is God in the brokenness of our lives? The answer of course is YES! YES! YES!
If the answer is yes does that mean God is happy that our lives are broken? Does God say, “Gary, I am happy that you have prostate cancer? I celebrate when you can’t catch your breath? NO! NO! NO! The bible tells us when Jesus encountered people whose lives were broken he had compassion on them and healed them. When reading of the various times when compassion prompted Jesus to heal someone we have a tendency to hang on the healing aspect of Jesus’ compassionate ministry.
No one in this world wants to have a trouble free unbroken life than I do and I am sure you can say the same thing about your life or the life of a loved one as well. However, the most important “thing” in our lives isn’t a trouble free unbroken life as important as those are, the most important “thing” in our lives is the presence of God. Not everyone will understand this but Jesus’ healing touch lasted only moments but God’s compassion lasts a lifetime. To have compassion for someone means we no longer just walk with them but we also walk in their shoes, we feel their pain, we feel their frustration, we feel their brokenness, we share their hopes, their dreams. That’s the God I want. That’s the God I need. That’s the God I have!
God says to each of us this morning, “With My love, compassion, and grace you have all you need! Rejoice and lean on My joy, happiness., and wholeness!”
Believe in presence of the GOD and in the strength of his GRACE!
GRACE and PEACE,
Gary
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Unless otherwise noted, “Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”
** Quoted from http://www.sacredspace.ie/plain/daily-prayer