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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781418584528 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperChristian Resources |
| Publication date: | 02/26/2008 |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishing |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 240 |
| File size: | 124 KB |
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Women of Faith
Devotional Journal
By Thomas Nelson Publishers
Thomas Nelson
Copyright © 2007 Thomas NelsonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4185-8452-8
CHAPTER 1
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
{Psalm 84:11 NKJV}
Being touched by God's extravagant grace ignites something within us that causes others to notice. It's an interior glow that is like an exterior light in that it casts its influence in spite of the degree of darkness in which it finds itself—not only in spite of the darkness but also because of it. In the darkness the light becomes more attractive, more influential, more valuable, and more obvious.
{Patsy Clairmont}
God is in all things, and in all things His intent is to draw us closer to Himself. His intent is that we drink more deeply from His well of love, forgiveness, and grace. His intent is also that we rest in the security of His forgiveness, which sets us free from condemnation.
{Marilyn Meberg}
As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
{1 Peter 4:10 NKJV}
Whenever I find myself overwhelmed with thoughts of my past or fears about my future, I have to catch myself and get down on my knees and bring these thoughts and fears to the throne of grace. We are not guaranteed safe passage through this world, but we are promised the companionship of Christ and a peace that passes human understanding.
{Sheila Walsh}
Nothing can happen to us without God knowing about it and allowing it to happen. Remember, He is in control! His mercies fail not. His truth endures forever. He gives more grace than we deserve. He cares for us better than He cares for the lilies of the fields.
{Thelma Wells}
Mercy means not giving someone what he or she deserves. Grace is unmerited (unearned, undeserved) favor. This week, give all your thanks and praise to God for the evidence of mercy and grace in your own life. Consider all the ways in which the Lord has been good to you, and count each one of them as a blessing.
{Receiving God's Goodness}
God is offering Himself to you at a generous exchange rate: His forgiveness for your sins, His joy for your grief, His love for your loneliness. You will grow rich as you spend time with Him, listening for His voice.
{Barbara Johnson}
There's something about loss that has the potential to take us by the hand and help us find a way to survive outside the context of our pain. I have found that my mistakes often lead to a clearer resolve, my losses often bulldoze a path to untapped courage, and my limitations can teach internal liberty by God's grace.
{Patsy Clairmont}
God shows up with power to infuse strength when we are helpless and have no reserves left.... When we are weary and exhausted and don't know how we will make it through another day, our great God is on His throne, eager to give us all the mercy and grace we need.
{Jan Silvious}
If we miss the grace of God in our own lives, we have no grace to give anyone else. How busy are we calculating what others owe us while forgetting to look at the balance that has been paid for us? If we don't first see what God has done for us—that He has offered us unmerited favor—we can never offer any unmerited favor to anyone else.
{Nicole Johnson}
Every day we must renew our minds. Right now is our only opportunity to live for Him. Treat this moment, right now, as if it's your last moment, because it might be. Yesterday's blessings and progresses are not today's. Be kind today. Lift up the Lord today. Share something with someone today.
{Thelma Wells}
I have peace about God in my heart. His Spirit rings true with my spirit, and He has kept His Word over and over. There is a validation inside that can't be had if belief is not present. I've learned the truth about God, and that truth has set me free—free to be me, free to love Him, free to live fully by His grace.
{Luci Swindoll}
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
{Ephesians 1:7 NKJV}
It is my prayer for you this day that God, by His grace, will help you understand the depth, height, and measure of His love for you so that you will be free to love and to love deeply.
{Sheila Walsh}
Being made right with God is being made perfect because of Jesus. God now sees us as perfect—not because we never sin but because Jesus died for that sin, and God sees us through the perfect person of Christ.... When Jesus made us perfect, our lives changed from groan to grace.
{Marilyn Meberg}
God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
{Ephesians 2:8 NLT}
How does one find God? He is in our prayers guiding our words, He is in our songs as we worship Him, and He is filling our mouths when we comfort a friend or speak wisdom to someone who needs hope. Count your blessings. He is in them, too.
{Patsy Clairmont}
Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
{Colossians 4:6 NASB}
For the sake of love, we can forgive much. We needn't be blind to the faults and failings of others, but we can love and accept them in spite of them.... The love we show to one another doesn't always just happen. There are times when we need to make a conscious effort to reach out with love and kindness to a friend.
{Receiving God's Goodness}
Grace offers us freely a home in heaven. Grace gives undeserving people time and opportunity to find the reason and purpose in life. This grace cannot be bought with credit, bargained for, or stolen.
{Jill P. Briscoe}
There are times I feel very self-sufficient and don't need anyone else. God has to remind me that He has a better way for me. He calls me to companionship, to connectedness, to reunions.... I don't want to be left where grace initially found me. I want to grow up in Christ, be His servant, and show others what grace is like.
{Luci Swindoll}
God's grace has no limits. His favor has no boundaries. His love has no borders. There is no compromise in God. God's grace is ours without asking for it. Everywhere we go, everything we do, every relationship, and every activity is covered by God's grace.... Look at every situation in life that you can think of and view the immeasurable grace of God towering over us all.
{Thelma Wells}
Grace is not earned, nor is it anything we can do for ourselves. It is solely based on the heart of the Father, who always seeks His own.
{Jan Silvious}
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
{2 Peter 3:18 NRSV}
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
{John 1:17 NIV}
I love the chorus, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." And that, my friend, includes our fears. They will wither in His presence while we grow in grace.
{Patsy Clairmont}
We hope to win God's favor by doing things to please Him. But the truth is, you can't impress God or make Him love you any more than He already does.
{Receiving God's Goodness}
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
{Acts 20:24 KJV}
Joy is just one of the many gifts that God gives to His people. God gives us His love, and that love humbles us. God gives us faith, and faith makes us confident. God gives us His peace, and that peace makes us steady. God gives us His hope, and that hope makes us expectant. And God gives us His joy ... the effervescent quality that makes our faith contagious!
{Contagious Joy}
The happy ending we didn't deserve—from the prison of sin to the freedom and hope that is ours through the amazing grace of God. We never deserved God's goodness, and yet He extended it to us. All we had to do was receive it!
{Receiving God's Goodness}
All of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
{1 Peter 5:5 NKJV}
Grace can only be found as we realize our lostness, mourn it, and ask God to forgive us for Christ's sake. "Grace alone" will offer us a way back to God. Have you said thank You for God's riches at Christ's expense?
{Jill P. Briscoe}
Joy isn't always just a by-product of God's blessings. Joy is a source of strength in our lives, and Jesus gave it intentionally.
{Contagious Joy}
He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend.
{Proverbs 22:11 NKJV}
God has an amazing ability to give a second chance right about the time you are ready to give up! ... He does the impossible in the face of the inconceivable. That is what grace is all about. It is God's favor in a hard place. It is His goodness when bad seems to prevail.
{Jan Silvious}
God serves up truth, mercy, grace, peace, and freedom in abundance. And He invites us to enjoy all of it in abundance! As the psalmist says in Psalm 25:7: "According to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness sake, O Lord." ... His bounty overflows.
{Luci Swindoll}
Grace is all that God is in the face of all that we are not. Grace is God's gift in a barren place of hopelessness.
{Jan Silvious}
God is full of grace. He withholds nothing that is good for me.... He sees the end from the beginning. He has the grace to give me what I need, and the grace to not. He's full of grace.
{Mary Graham}
O God, though our sins be seven, though our sins be seventy times seven, though our sins be more than the hairs of our head, yet give us grace in loving penitence to cast ourselves down into the depths of Thy compassion.
{Christina Rossetti}
God has manifested His love to us through Christ.... He sent us His Son that we might know of His holy affection for us—"for while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
{Patsy Clairmont}
If I could say only one thing, it would be simple and to the point: God knows all about you. He knows your good days and your bad days. He knows the noble thoughts and the shameful thoughts. He sees your devotion and your indifference. And He loves you—totally, completely, passionately, boundlessly. Forever.
{Sheila Walsh}
Maturing means two things—growing in grace and growing in knowledge. Growing in grace speaks of dependence on God—trusting Him to provide for your past, present, and future. Growing in knowledge speaks of a hunger to learn more, to strengthen your relationship with your Lord, and to keep on growing and changing.
{Encouraging One Another}
God's boundless grace has no room for prejudice. Every man, woman, and child is made and loved by God. He sees no distinction between races and colors, wealth and poverty, the cultured and the coarse.
{Sheila Walsh}
All who receive God's wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
{Romans 5:17 NLT}
We worry. Yet God tells us to trust Him to take care of the future we cannot see.... The real reason we should not be anxious is not merely because it's a command ... but because God really is in control. He really does take care of us. His grace is sufficient (and then some!).
{Mary Graham}
Our rebirth takes us to places we never dared to imagine. Regeneration catapults us to achieve things we never thought possible: to rejoice in suffering, be patient in adversity, love our enemies, do good to those who do us wrong.
{Barbara Johnson}
As we try to keep up with all that needs doing, stress can mount until we feel frantic. Instead of getting caught in a whirlpool of busyness that sucks you down into despair, ask God for the grace to face one task at a time. Pray for peace; plead for a calm heart. Ask the Lord to lead you through your days, changing your spirit until you are marked by quietness and gentleness.
{Living Above Worry and Stress}
As you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also.
{2 Corinthians 8:7 NKJV}
Decide to accept the path God has given you with courage, grace, and humor.
{Luci Swindoll}
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
{2 Corinthians 9:8 NKJV}
But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
{Colossians 3:14–16 NKJV}
All day long God longs for our company. All day long God longs to show us mercy.
{Sheila Walsh}
Christ ... loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
{Ephesians 5:25–27 KJV}
We don't have to be strong or perfect. God uses our imperfections and our weaknesses to highlight His grace and power.
{Living Above Worry and Stress}
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
{Romans 5:1–2 NKJV}
There's no glory in getting what you deserve. Maintain your integrity in the face of scrutiny, and don't be tempted to prove yourself. God asks us to take such persecution with patience and grace. That is hard to do, but commendable in God's eyes. {Discovering God's Will} Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
{Ephesians 4:29 NKJV}
Don't let the little troubles slip in and cause waves of fear or frustration. Face them bravely, and with grace.
{Living Above Worry and Stress}
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
{1 Peter 1:13 NASB}
That's the mystery of the gift of grace. It shows up just when you need it. Not a moment too soon, but not a moment too late.
{Sheila Walsh}
Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.
{Hebrews 4:16 NLT}
We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved.
{Acts 15:11 NIV}
Reach out to those around you. Tell them about your own experiences. God will use your kindness and unselfishness to capture the attention of the lonely and lost. The Spirit will kindle their hearts to know this same peace and joy you possess. Be matter of fact about God's love, grace, and forgiveness.
{Living in Jesus}
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
{2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 NKJV}
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Women of Faith by Thomas Nelson Publishers. Copyright © 2007 Thomas Nelson. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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