“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Our plan was to catch the boat across Jenny Lake and then do the 0.5 mile hike to Hidden Falls. We had caught the sunrise early that morning and wanted to start on our hike by taking the first boat, which we thought was at 8:00am. When we got to the dock we learned that today the first boat wasn’t leaving until 10:00. So we decided that instead of waiting we would just take the 3 mile hike around the lake to the falls. As we followed the trail we got to a point high above the lake where we could see the vastness of the lake and surrounding mountains and the first boat of the day cut across the water. It was the Alpha boat, the first boat of many more to come that day. While we weren’t on the first boat we got to see it cross the lake and make the beautiful waves as it crossed. Like the boat, the Lord God is the Alpha, the beginning, the first one. We weren’t there when God created the world but we can now see what he has created and we can rest assured that he will always be the Almighty God.
Prayer Lord God, Alpha and Omega, When we look out on your world, may we take strength in the fact that you are the God who is and and who was and who is to come. Amen
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And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” There are so many things to learn from this story of Jesus. He was led by the Spirit to the wilderness, intentionally. He was there to face temptation. The temptations were specific, each one aimed at who he was and how he would accomplish his purpose. I read these words about the temptation to turn stones into bread from Ken Gire’s book, Moments with the Savior, this morning and they struck right to my heart.
The temptation is not to make Jesus doubt himself but to depend on himself. Since the Father hasn’t lifted a finger to alleviate his suffering, why not take things into his own hands? After all, it’s been forty days. Who would blame him? But Jesus doesn’t take the baited hook. Instead he answers, “It is written: ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Regardless of how consuming his hunger, Jesus would rather be fed with the smallest crust of his Father’s word than with an entire landscape of fresh bread from anywhere else. These words challenge me. I am so prone to take things into my own hands instead of trusting a loving God, especially when I am in the wilderness. I need to learn to take the crust of God’s word and see it as more valuable than any feast I can make for myself. Prayer Loving Father Thank you for your Word and embed it in my heart and mind so I can face the wilderness. Teach me to trust in your provision, first and to act only with your guidance. Amen But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”-- What is on the other side of the door?Dare we open it to find out?
Our senses and even our imaginations and intellect can only reveal attributes of God’s character, but to really know God we must open the door into our hearts. We must ask him to dwell in us and we must dwell in him. It takes discipline and it isn’t easy. We don't know what is on the other side of the door. We only know that God has prepared something wonderful for us if we open the door to him. Prayer Holy Spirit Take us into a deeper relationship with God. Give us courage to open the door to the way that God has prepared for us. Amen Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! In our hurried world today we offer “thank you’s” without thinking. It is just the polite thing to do. But real gratitude is a discipline that we must consciously develop. We need to take time each day to offer true thanksgiving to a good and loving Lord. And then we need to share that gratitude with others. So today I am grateful for clear blue skies and mountain views that remind me of the steadfast love of God. I am grateful for long conversations with a friend and the love of family. But most of all I am grateful for God's steadfast love.
Prayer Great God, Develop in me a sense of gratitude for all that you are and all the beauty you give. May that gratitude overflow into interactions with all I meet and bring a little joy into the world. Amen The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. I don’t know how flowers get their common name, but I think “bleeding heart” describes this flower well. It is a beautiful small heart-shaped flower with several blossoms on each stem. There are times in each life when we are brokenhearted and these are the times when the Lord seems nearer. I say ‘seems’ because God is always the same distance from us, just a cry away. But it is in the brokenhearted times that we actually cry for help and we feel him nearer. I think this flower has something to teach us about dealing with brokenhearted-ness. As the blooms grow taking nourishment from the same stem, so we need to be close to others who find their nourishment in Christ. We need others who will walk with us and carry us to Christ in their prayers. We also need to be sure that we reach out to those who are hurting. This small flower is beautiful and in its beauty we find hope when we are brokenhearted for it was Jesus’ bleeding heart that saves us and brings us hope.
Prayer Lord of the Brokenhearted, When we cry out to you from a broken heart, we are grateful for your presence. Open our eyes to those who need us to carry their hearts to you. Most of all thank you for the bleeding heart of Jesus who saves us. Amen As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I walked by this tree on the path down the hill to find the other “fancy” wildflowers, but on the way back up the hill, I saw this little Hepatica growing in the hole in the trunk. It was taking its life from the trunk, abiding in the trunk. Same tree as on the way down but now I saw something new that I hadn’t seen earlier.
Scripture is like this you know. You come to a familiar passage and almost skip over it. Then you stop and really read it again and you see something you have never seen before. The words that struck me this time were “as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Jesus truly obeyed God, in everything even his death on the cross, and abided in God’s love. The result of this commandment keeping is abiding in love - living in love, spending every minute of your life knowing that you are loved. How different would our lives be if we truly believed this, if we realized that we are gaining so much more when we keep God’s commandments than by choosing our own selfish way? Prayer Loving Father, As the flower found its place in the hollow of the tree, help me today to abide in your love and keep your commandments. Ame The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. I have passed this tree along the roadside close to my home for at least 20 years, but I am sure that it is older than that. I only noticed it several years ago after I began taking pictures. While it isn’t a palm tree or a cedar, it still stands tall and strong as it has for years. I want my life to be like this tree. I want it to bear fruit and always declare that the Lord is my great and might rock. The only way for this to happen is for me to make sure that I plant my life in the house of the Lord.
Prayer Great God, Grow me strong and tall as I take shelter in your house. Keep me watered and pruned so that I may bear fruit all the days of my life. Amen Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I have taken very few pictures of the night skies mainly because I haven’t developed the technical skills I need but also because to get a good image of the stars you need to be as far away from the lights of civilization as possible. And being this far away from city lights means being alone at night, in the darkness, afraid. Night and darkness are common metaphors for fear, sadness, and loss. To face times of darkness in our lives we must trust God and lean into his strength. Take hold of his hand and then, even in the darkest night, you will see the stars.
Prayer Lord of the Night When we walk through the nighttimes of our lives, remind us to reach out and take your hand. Take away fear and discouragement and replace it with your strength. Show us the beauty of the stars. Amen Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. I love those days when my hard work is productive. And it is even better when the reward at the end of a day of hard work is a beautiful sunset. I have found that productive days are more likely to happen when I begin the day by committing my way to the Lord. It is then that I have a strength beyond myself. I need to remember to begin each day seeking the work God has me to do with this prayer of Moses, “establish the work of our hands.”
Prayer Lord God Show us your handiwork and the work that you would have us to do this day. Establish the work of our hands and give us the strength to accomplish the task you set before us. Amen The righteous who walks in his integrity-- My grandfathers walked in integrity as do my father, husband, son, and son-in-law all walk in integrity today. For this I am grateful. Because of their lives, I know the blessing of walking in integrity. I am grateful my children’s children will also know this blessing.
Prayer Loving Father Thank you for Father’s who walk in integrity. Amen For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Flowers are some of God’s most beautiful gifts. Beyond their beauty they have a purpose; they both sustain and bring forth new life. In fulfilling their purpose they bring great joy to all who see them.Today is my daughter’s birthday and this flower is for her. She brings me great joy in the way she lives her life walking in truth.
Prayer Loving Father, Thank you for the gift of beauty and for the joy of knowing that your children are walking in truth. Amen My heart is steadfast, O God! If you take a walk the hour before sunset, you will see why it is called the golden hour. Everything takes on a golden hue, especially in the fall. At this time of day and year, even ordinary scenes like this one will take your breath away. It is times like these when I see the beauty of God’s world that I know for sure that I serve the Great Creator God. I want to worship him and sing to him with all my being. I know my hopes and my life is secure in the God who loves me.
Prayer O Great Creator God, Thank you for golden hours and the beauty found all around in ordinary places. Amen I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord Seeing a beautiful sunrise is hard, especially in summer when the days are long. Many times it means not just getting up early but getting up in the middle of the night to get to a good location and driving and/or walking in the dark. When you see the sky begin to fill with color then you know it was worth the work. To photograph sunrises takes discipline and desire. Waiting on the Lord also requires discipline and desire. But it is in discipline of studying his word that we find hope like the colors that fill the sky of a beautiful sunrise.
Prayer Lord, Renew our desire to seek you in your word. Fill us with hope that only you can give. Amen I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” The sun sets over the calm, still waters of the lake. It is peaceful here now, but I have seen the lake with choppy waters and a dark threatening sky during a passing thunderstorm. The only true place to find peace in our troubled world is in Jesus Christ. This weekend I came across a beautiful song about peace. I will put the first verse here and here is a link to the song on YouTube sung by Claire Crosby and her dad Dave Crosby and written by McKenna Hixson.
There is peace in Christ; When we learn of him; Feel the love he felt for us When he bore our sins; Listen to his words; Let them come alive if we know him as he is There is peace in Christ He gives us hope when hope is gone He gives us strength when we can't go on He gives us shelter in the storms of life When there's no peace in earth There is peace in Christ Prayer God of Peace, Thank you for the peace that only you can give. Amen Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Do you have a quiet place that you love to visit - one you go to again and again, a place you will never forget? This is one of mine. I have walking on this trail many times - . in the early morning, in rain, in the fall, at night, and even this year in snow. It is forever etched in my heart.
When Moses shared God’s law with the children of Israel God wanted it to be more than just written on the stone tablets. He wanted his people to write it on their hearts, He wants it to consume them. Spend time in God’s word. Open your heart to his presence. Let his Word fill your life and etch his law and love on your heart. Prayer Great God, Quicken our spirits and open our hearts to your presence. Etch your words on our hearts. Amen One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” In this story from Mark’s gospel, Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees about the Sabbath. They were worried about the appearance of the Sabbath and Jesus wanted them to see the why of the Sabbath. God made us to need rest. He didn’t rest on the seventh day because he was tired but because we need to rest. Rest is harder and harder to do in our culture. Work will always be calling, but we are more able to do our work if we are rested. Sabbath, whenever it is practiced, is a gift to us from God and we need to intentionally seek it.
So like I did this late afternoon, go somewhere and take a simple walk along an easy path. Listen and look for God in his world. Prayer Lord of the Sabbath, Thank you for the joy and rest that comes from a simple walk in the woods. Help us to intentionally seek out the Sabbath in our lives and truly learn to rest. Amen For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. I love a sunset in the mountains. Since I have lived close to mountains all my life, they have come to symbolize steadfastness and endurance for me. We got to the spot where I thought I could get a good sunset and we waited. I have found that photography involves a lot of waiting - for the right time of day, for the wind to stop blowing, for the sun to get in just the right place in the sky, for the fog to move in or out, and for the people to move into or out of the frame.
While waiting for a sunset doesn’t always yield results, waiting on God always does. It is hard to wait for anything in our instant gratification culture, much less to wait in silence. This is something that we need to learn, to cultivate, for it is only when we are silent that we hear God, the source of our hope. Prayer My Rock and Salvation, Teach me to wait in silence for your voice. Open my ears to your words and my eyes to your beauty. Amen So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Winter trees seem so bare and lifeless. They wait for the spring when the leaves return and their bare branches are filled with life. We all have times in life when we feel like we are wasting away. One day we will see that the difficult times we face today are preparing us for “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” We will come to see the beauty in the branches that was there all the time. God’s love and care is eternal.
Prayer All Seeing God, Give us the courage to look beyond the trials we face today and see the beauty that lies before us in your eternal love. Amen The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Since there were no leaves on the trees that that winter day, the sun shone brightly through the branches onto the trail as my friend and I started back down the mountain to the car. Just like that beautiful winter day on the trail, the Lord shines his light into our lives. In this Psalm the listeners are instructed to bring the sacrifice to the Lord in a celebratory way for this light he shone on them. Take time this day to bask in the light of God’s love and use that light to make your way to the altar of your heart.
Prayer Lord God, We celebrate the light that you shine on us to show us the way. Show us what we need to put on the altar of our hearts. Amen Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! The churches that remain in the cove were not ornate, for the people that lived in the mountains were not wealthy. But I believe that if you were to ask the people who attended these churches you would find many that would say they were blessed. Being blessed has often been misunderstood to mean material wealth. This past week has been one of great blessing for me as we welcomed our new granddaughter into the world. I am blessed that my daughter and her husband love and serve the Lord. As we spent time with her husband’s parents in the hospital waiting room and then in her home helping out with the new baby and her big brother, we would just stop and say to each other look at what we have. We are grateful for families who taught us to take refuge in the Lord, to stand in awe of the love of God.
Prayer Loving Father, Thank you for the blessings that you give to those who seek refuge in you. Amen |
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Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan