Today's Devotional:
The Upper Room Daily Devotional "The Big Picture" for Saturday, 16 May 2015 Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11 For I know what plans I have in mind for you,’ says Adonai,‘plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future. 12 When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly;
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.[Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)]
Many years ago I was sitting on a small boat deck at a youth camp. I had been having a bad day; everything seemed to be going wrong. Feeling sad, I looked down the river. The sun was just setting, and it caused a reflection of the trees in such a way that it looked as if the river ended there. However, having been down the river many times, I knew that after turning at an almost 90-degree angle, the river did continue beyond that point.
This experience reminded me of the many times in life that we feel we have reached a dead end in a situation — whether a job or a relationship or any situation that makes us feel as if our path is leading nowhere. During times like these it helps to remember that God knows what lies ahead. God can see the whole river and knows that just around the bend lies something better. So when it looks as if life is not leading anywhere, we can trust God and then persevere around that bend in the river.
The Author: Lia Evans (South Australia, Australia)
Thought for the Day: God always sees the big picture.
Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, when we feel uncertain of the way ahead, help us to trust in you — knowing that your will for our lives is much better than we can ever hope or imagine. Amen.
Prayer focus: Youth Attending Church Camps
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Today's Devotional:The Upper Room Daily Devotional "Counting to Ten" for Friday, 15 May 2015 Scripture: John 6:5 so when Yeshua looked up and saw that a large crowd was approaching, he said to Philip, “Where will we be able to buy bread, so that these people can eat?” 6 (Now Yeshua said this to test Philip, for Yeshua himself knew what he was about to do.) 7 Philip answered, “Half a year’s wages wouldn’t buy enough bread for them — each one would get only a bite!” 8 One of the talmidim, Andrew the brother of Shim‘on Kefa, said to him, 9 “There’s a young fellow here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But how far will they go among so many?”
10 Yeshua said, “Have the people sit down.” There was a lot of grass there, so they sat down. The number of men was about five thousand. 11 Then Yeshua took the loaves of bread, and, after making a b’rakhah, gave to all who were sitting there, and likewise with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 After they had eaten their fill, he told his talmidim, “Gather the leftover pieces, so that nothing gets wasted.” 13 They gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
Andrew said, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”[John 6:9 (NIV)]
In preparation for my mission trip, I planned to learn a variety of useful Haitian Creole words and phrases. But that goal dropped so low on my priority list that when I arrived all I could say in Creole were the numbers one through ten.
One afternoon I found myself away from the interpreters as I helped several students work on their sewing. My students’ assignment was to cut a variety of small pieces of fabric for a craft project. Lacking an interpreter, I found I was able to communicate with the students by way of hand motions and counting out the number of pieces each person was to cut. It seems like such a little thing, but through it, I was reminded that God uses the little things.
In today’s reading, Jesus used a boy’s five loaves of bread and two fish to feed thousands of people. My ability to count to ten in Haitian Creole did not help thousands, but it did help eight sewing students. It’s easy to disregard the little things, but God can turn the little things we offer into great blessings — for ourselves and for others.
Read more from the author, here"The Little Things and the Big Things" by Neely Baugh
That may sound like an ordinary little thing. But to me it wasn’t little, and it wasn’t ordinary.
If anyone else had walked into the youth room of our church at that moment, they would have simply seen several dozen kids in varying stages of puberty singing worship songs. But I saw so much more.
I saw the answer to a prayer I’d prayed countless times. The prayer that my boys would find a place within the body of Christ-followers where they fit. A place where they belonged.
Tears came as I sat down in the back of the room straining to distinguish my boys’ voices amidst the chorus of young teens. You see, for years these two boys complained to their dad and me about church. It’s not that they were rebellious. It’s not that they didn’t love Jesus. It’s that they felt out of place and uninterested.
“Church is so boring,” they said. “It’s for old people.”
I don’t deny there is some truth to that. Pastors generally focus their attentions on the adults in their congregation, and I can distinctly remember being bored at Sunday services myself as a kid.
But the gospel is bigger than Sunday morning church. And belonging to the body of Christ has little to do with singing hymns and taking notes during a Sunday sermon. It has everything to do with Jesus Christ giving his life up for us and our subsequent worship and devotion of our lives to him.
Seeing my boys worship, really worship God with their voices, in a room filled with their peers was amazing. It was a gift straight from God to this mama’s heart.
Just like I described in today’s devotion about God taking a little thing like counting to ten in Creole and showing me something bigger, so he also took a little thing like my sons’ voices in a crowd of their friends and made them something bigger. Something extraordinary.
I love that we have a God who takes our little things and uses them in big ways. And I am excited to see what little thing in my life God plans to wow me with next.
If you are interested in reading more of my journey as wife, mom, freelance writer, and co-founder of a clothing ministry to the impoverished, you can find me at http://kimharms.net/ and 500dresses.org.[Kim Harms]
Thought for the Day: What little things has God used in my life recently?
Prayer: Dear God, help us to recognize the little things in our lives and use them for your glory. Amen.
Prayer focus: Those Who Think Their Offerings Are Too Small For God To Use
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