Welcome to my Sunday devo time! It is my conviction to take Sunday’s off from my blog, and really focus on the Lord and my family. I write these devotionals during the week, and schedule them for Sundays. I pray that you will be blessed by what I have learned in my personal time with God this week!
The Thoughts that Jumble
What are you reading right now?
I tend to read multiple books at the same time. For some reason, my brain does well with multiple things going on at once. Right now, I am only reading two “leisure” books, but usually I have a few that I am reading, along with my bible study.
Today, as I looked over at my pile of books, I started asking myself, am I studying to be better? Am I learning anything? Am I applying anything?
I know that sometimes we can get discouraged with our chaotic lives. I know that I do. The “thoughts” start taking over… “am I a good enough mom,” “am I a good enough wife”, “am I doing enough ‘God stuff'”, “am I praying enough”…on and on it goes. Those thoughts start to “jumble” your brain, until all you are thinking about are the negative thought processes.
When you start to let those thought processes take over, it is easy to get discouraged. When I started getting down on myself for not learning enough, I let my thoughts take over. I let myself get distracted from the whole point. The point of studying the Bible, or a devotional book is to learn about God, Yes, but it is about quieting your mind and focusing on Jesus. Not yourself and you “not being good enough”. the Bible tells us to “take every thought captive, to the obedience of Christ…”. That means that we have control over our thought processes.
I sure wasn’t controlling my negative thought processes when I was getting down on myself for not learning enough.
That silly story was just an example of how easy it is for us to lose focus.
The Antitheses
I never had heard the word “antitheses” before I met my husband. You see, my husband is super smart. He is one of those naturally smart people. One of those people that uses “antitheses” on a regular basis. haha. When he first used the word on me, I was like, “anti-tha-what???”
He explained to me that when you break apart the word, you get the first part, which is “anti”, which means….
Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
His promise
The best part of that verse is the fact that he promises to be with us WHEREVER WE GO! Isn’t that awesome? He promises to BE WITH US! His power in us!
Dang! The God of the universe says he will go with me wherever I go! Yea baby!
“…for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go…”
Don’t be discouraged Friend! if you have been struggling with discouragement, I just wanted to share what the Lord encouraged me with this week!
Be encouraged! God bless!
-Z
