I was drawn to the piano from a really young age. My uncle, who played the piano, told my parents that when I was old enough he would give me lessons. So when I was about five years old, my parents bought a beautiful upright piano for the living room and he began to come by the house every week for a piano lesson. I loved playing and it wasn’t hard to get me to practice. I can’t remember if my feet actually reached the floor at five or not but I remember when playing the piano with the sustain pedal began and it was a game changer!

No more plunking notes that were short and staccato. With the sustain pedal pressed to the floor, I could play notes that kept sounding even after I had lifted my hands from the keys. And it was pretty! When the electric keyboards for kids came out I remember being disappointed because everything sounded choppy. No sustain pedal! That sustain pedal was magical and without it my playing sounded like I was five years old again.

I was thinking about that sustain pedal the other morning when I read a Bible verse in Psalm 54:4 (NIV). “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.” The Lord sustains us. He keeps us going long after we think our chord has stopped. When we think our song is over… God is still playing His song through us. God IS our Help and our Sustainer! The New International Reader’s Version says, “The Lord is the One who keeps me going!”

There is a phrase that I use sometimes. I typically say it when someone owns up to a mistake. “That’s how we learn” is my way of saying…we all make mistakes. Learning from our mistakes is an important part of our growth process.

When my son, Cody, was about four years old, he was standing at a window on the front porch watching the last of a storm clear out of our area while I was in the kitchen in the back part of the house finishing up the dishes. Cody started calling for me to come look. Several times he said, ‘Mommy, come look!’ I was so close to being done so I finished washing the last couple of dishes, dried my hands, and walked to the front room where he was still looking out the window. When I got there I asked him what he wanted me to see and he looked at me sadly and said, ‘you missed it, Mommy. It was a pretty rainbow.’

I missed it. He wanted to share the beautiful rainbow with me and I missed the moment. Heartbroken by his disappointment I realized it was up to me to learn from that and try harder to be in the moment. That’s how we learn. Still a work in progress… as are we all. It’s an important reminder to listen to those around us, and even more so, to listen to the voice of God when He is calling us to look and listen.

Daniel 2:20-22 (NKJV) “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding; He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”

Let’s not get so busy that we miss what God wants to reveal to us today!

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked while surrounded by a large crowd. Jesus’ disciple Peter told him what clearly Jesus already knew. The whole crowd was pressing in toward Jesus as they walked. Yet Jesus asked the question for a different reason. He knew that the woman had suffered for 12 years. He also knew that she had been an outcast because of her condition and needed more than a healing. To let her slip away outside of the throng she would have missed the second miracle she needed that day. Restoration.

In Luke 8:46-49 (TPT) we learn how Jesus felt the difference of the touch between the crowd and this woman. “Jesus replied, “Yes, but I felt power surge through me. Someone touched me to be healed, and they received their healing.” When the woman realized she couldn’t hide any longer, she came and fell trembling at Jesus’ feet. Before the entire crowd she declared, “I was desperate to touch you, Jesus, for I knew if I could just touch even the fringe of your garment  I would be healed.” Jesus responded, “Beloved daughter, your faith in me released your healing. You may go with my peace.””

While Jesus was always gentle and kind to women this woman is the only one that He ever called daughter. This precious lady had been cast aside for twelve years and Jesus lovingly called her ‘daughter’…. in front of the whole crowd, the disciples and local leaders of the church. He didn’t just want HER to know, Jesus made sure the entire town knew that she had been healed. That’s what restoration looks like.

Jesus knows exactly what we need today. Press in to touch Him and believe that He will do it. Be ready to receive not only the healing you are praying for but also the restoration that you need. After all, you are His beloved.

There are seasons in our life that we experience deep pain. It might be from loss or injury. Whether it was accidental, self-inflicted or intentional the pain cuts us deeply and can leave us staggering to hold up under the weight of it. God is the One whose strength prevails in our weakness. Giving up cannot be an option when we know that God is for us and He is with us.

It’s not unusual to fall into a rut of despair when we are going through a difficult time. It is part of the journey to go through them and it is good for us to learn from them. We don’t fully appreciate the good places until we’ve gone through the hard ones.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (MSG) has brought me hope so often. The Apostle Paul said, “Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.”

Quitting is not an option. We are never counted out. When the hard times come, and they will, lean in closer to God. That’s where our strength and our hope are found.

Results may vary. It’s the final sentence on advertisements we see on television and in magazines. Whether its fitness equipment, weight loss systems or skin care regimens, the manufacturer can put everything into it except for one thing: consistent usage. You and I can sign up for or purchase the exact same thing but if we don’t follow the guidelines and use it consistently for an extended amount of time we shouldn’t be surprised because… results may vary.

We have received the same promises of God and the same opportunity to have a daily, on-going, rich relationship with our Heavenly Father. But we will not have the deepest, most satisfying connection with Him if we don’t consistently show up. Every day. Multiples times a day. Leaning into our friendship with Jesus brings us so much joy and peace. Those around us will recognize that we’ve spent time with Jesus the more that we invest that time with Him.

In John 13:35 (NLT), Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” We will love more when we’ve embraced His love for us. And Jesus said it, the world will know that we belong to Him by how we love each other. Consistent time spent with Him will impact our lives with better results. Because apart from staying connected to Christ….results may vary.

If there was a fountain near you that produced the most crystal clear, fresh water and you were able to stop and fill up your water bottle every day with refreshing water from this fountain you would probably stop by often, wouldn’t you? What if it offered clean water some of the time… and some of the time the water was polluted? Toxic even? Would you keep going back or would you look for a different source for good water? Of course you would go somewhere else. No one wants to drink bad tasting water!

New York Times Best-selling Author and Proverbs 31 Ministries Speaker Karen Ehman said, “When we open our mouths, let’s think praise…not put-downs.” When I read it I immediately thought of our water source. We wouldn’t keep going back to a source that constantly put out horrible water. So why would we expect people to keep coming back to us when our conversation is laden with negative, toxic comments?.. and yet we do!

Proverbs 18:21 in The Message declares, “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – you choose.” What if we measured every word that we spoke as life-affirming or life-robbing? We don’t just pollute others with our negative conversations. We pollute ourselves. Words of life are like little gift boxes of hope. Let’s choose to speak life today like little gifts of hope. Let’s look for ways to make our conversations with one another more sweet.

You are loved. You were formed in the image and likeness of your Creator. Long before your parents laid eyes on you for the very first time…in fact, long before your heartbeat was heard or your mama felt you move for the first time in her belly…God knew you. Jeremiah 1:5 (MSG) is such a beautiful exclamation from the Lord. “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you.”

Have you ever known someone so well that you know how they think and how they respond? You may even finish each others sentences you know them so well! I was thinking about that recently and had this thought: what if I allowed God to finish my sentences for me? What if, instead of saying, I can’t do this, I let God finish my conversation with “you can do all things through Christ because He strengthens you.” (Phil 4:13) When I begin to say I’m not smart enough, I give the Lord space to say “If you need wisdom, ask Me, your generous God, and I will give it to you. And I will not rebuke you for asking.” (James 1:5)

The more we know God the more we know how He finishes His sentences…His promises to us. What if today, when we find ourselves tempted to finish our sentences the way the world has spoken them over us, we allow God to finish our sentences with what He has spoken over us… from before we were born?! Allowing God’s Word to finish our thoughts and conversations will change the course of our day…maybe even our life!

I watched a man take a giant pickle jar and pour a bunch of sand into it. Then he added a tray of pebbles that filled the jar almost to the top. So when the man tried to add in the big rocks there was no room to fit them all into that jar. It was impossible to do it. But when he started over and put the big rocks in first, followed by the pebbles that found their way in and around the bigger ones. It was amazing how they managed to fit together. Finally as the man poured the sand into the jar, the sand filtered around all of it and filled in the spaces that were left in the jar. ALL of it fit in that jar.

It was astounding how much more he could fit into that giant pickle jar by putting the big rocks in first. And so it is with us. What are the most important things in our lives? Hopefully, they are not things. Our relationship with God, with our family and others God has placed in our circle should be the big ‘rocks’ in our life. How often do we find ourselves trying to fit them in after pouring in all the pebbles and the sand that fill our day? What if every day was our giant pickle jar and the rocks, pebbles and sand represent all that we attempt to fill it with? What should go in first?

Matthew 6:33 in The Message says, “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” The Passion Translation tells it this way: “So above all, constantly seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.” We need to put God in our day first, followed by His priorities, His Kingdom come in our lives. Then He will pour in the rest.

We can get so overwhelmed trying to fit everything into our day, when God tells us to put HIM in first! He will help us to prioritize the rest…and on top of that…He will pour in His abundance of blessings that He has established for today.