There is a lyric in the song by artist Seph Schlueter called “Counting My Blessings” that says, “the more that I look in the details, the more of Your goodness I find. Father, on this side of Heaven, I know that I’ll run out of time. But I will keep counting my blessings, knowing I can’t count that high.” Have you taken time to count lately? The Psalmist David said in Psalm 103(:2, NLT), ‘may I never forget the good things He does for me.‘ The more we count – the more we will remember.

I realized another blessing the other day that I don’t know if I’ve ever really counted. I found it in the Book of Revelations, chapter 3. I’ve read it before but I saw it completely fresh this time. This part of chapter 3 was written to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. Verse 8 reads, “I know what you do; I know that you have a little power; you have followed my teaching and have been faithful to me. I have opened a door in front of you, which no one can close.” Here is the verse right before it: “This is the message from the One who is holy and true. He has the key that belonged to David, and when He opens a door, no one can close it, and when He closes it, no one can open it.” (Revelations 3:7, NLT)

When was the last time we thanked God for opening a door that everyone else said should be closed? And how about when God closed a door to keep us from going where everyone else said we should go?Today I am especially grateful to God for the doors He has opened…and I am grateful for the doors He protected me from going through. How about you?

Have you heard the modern day parable about the man who prayed to be rescued from the rising flood waters in his town? He earnestly asked God to save him. Soon after, a neighbor showed up in a canoe and offered him a ride but the man declined saying that God would rescue him. The waters kept rising. The man moved up to his balcony and continued to pray for God to save him when a man with a motorboat showed up. Still the man refused to get on board. Just as the water was rising near roof level and the man was standing at the highest point of his house a helicopter appeared, dropped a rope ladder down and urged the man to climb onto the rope so they could take him to safety. The man refused…and drowned.

The story goes on to say that when the man got to heaven and asked God why He didn’t save him when he prayed to be rescued, God replied to the man – I sent you two boats and a helicopter! While that particular story may have been crafted as a joke, a variation of that story could happen in our own lives. We pray and ask God to rescue us from a situation…and while we are praying…we anticipate HOW God is going to do it. And we totally miss His answer to our prayer! We ask God to show us something and then we overlook or ignore the signs we asked Him to reveal to us.

The Lord said in Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” We weren’t looking for a way through the wilderness or the desert. We were hoping for a nicely paved expressway through the city to get us from point A to point B in a straight line! Here’s something I’ve learned about God’s ways. We pray for answers based on what’s most comfortable for us. God knows the way that will develop our character. He hears our prayers and He answers them…just not always the way we expect. Don’t miss today…what God is sending your way. If we are busy watching the flood waters rise, we will miss His way of escape.

Not long ago I watched a sweet little girl dance around holding a sticker that someone had given her. I’m not sure if her joyful jig came from the fact that it was a doggy sticker or just that someone had given it to her. But she was old enough to know what the word ‘sticker’ meant because she held it up to her shirt and pressed it against her chest for it to stick. As she moved her hand away, the doggy sticker fluttered to the floor. Surprised she just stared at it. I could sense her little mind trying to figure out why it didn’t do what she knew that it could! After all, stickers were made…to stick!

One very important step was missed. Someone needed to help her peel the top layer off the sticky side! She didn’t know it had a cover over it. Saving it for just the right moment to stick and shine! It wasn’t made to stay in a package with a bunch of other stickers or stuck in a drawer somewhere. It was made to show up and bring joy, to the little girl…and to those who get to see her wearing it on her shirt! That sticker has a purpose…and its purpose is revealed when someone removes the sticky side covering and puts it on something for others to see and enjoy.

We have a sticky side too. Ours is on the INside. We are created in the image of God and meant to carry His Light to the world around us. We are meant to stick and shine! If we’re not careful we can stick to the wrong things and not do what we were truly purposed to do. And even if you’ve been stuck there, the good news is that God’s Holy Spirit can set you free, peel the layers off that have held you captive and give you a fresh ‘sticky side’ so you can stick to Jesus! 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV), “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” There’s nothing more beautiful than connecting with the One who made you and adores you to help you fulfill your purpose…to stick and shine!

Have you ever fallen asleep on God? It’s a complete accident. We set out with the best intentions to designate a certain amount of time to reading His Word and spending time in prayer. And before we know it we are waking up from a quick nap or a deep sleep! And then the guilt rolls over us. I can hear Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 26:40-41 (NLT), “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

There are times that we must be vigilant in prayer. Jesus told us to keep watching and praying. And there is so much joy in being in His presence! And yet, there are times we just can’t seem to stay awake. You have so much on your plate. It seems every minute of your schedule has a name. People depend on you. Your people need you to go and do and be present for every little thing and especially the big things!

So exhausted you are that when you carve out a few minutes to sit with God and think about His promises and breathe a prayer or two…you just slip into sleep mode. Sigh.

May I share a word picture that someone recently shared with me that sent every guilty feeling I’ve ever felt about that scenario… running right out of my mind? Have you ever held a child in your arms and enjoyed conversation for a bit? Maybe you were reading a book to them or talking with them about their day? And they fell asleep in your arms. Did you get angry with them for falling asleep? or did you take in their gentle breathing and state of repose as precious and endearing?! Maybe you held them even closer, moved that stray hair away from their eyes and stroked your finger down the side of their sweet little chubby cheek to their chin.

Psalm 127:2 is a precious Word of hope for us. “It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to His loved ones.” I can’t imagine a better way to receive rest from the One who loves us most.

Misplaced trust. When it happens to us we are offended. When we are the offender, it is very likely that we will need to make extra efforts to show that we can be trusted. Learning to trust again or to BE trusted again really is a miraculous thing. God can help us regardless of the side of the fence we find ourselves. It’s a huge lesson we learn in life to know that guarding trust is so important.

There is a trust that we can place with great confidence in our God and there are incredible benefits that come to us when we place our trust in Him. As the Apostle Paul was finishing up his letter to the Gentiles in Rome, Paul wrote in Romans 15:13 (NLT), “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The benefits that come to us when we place our trust in God are priceless: filled completely with joy and peace and overflowing with confident hope through the Holy Spirit’s power. Today, if our joy or our peace feel lacking, the key to a complete filling…is choosing this day….to trust God. Trust Him with everything. Any thing that threatens us with anxious thoughts or tries to steal our joy…instead of focusing on that, choose to trust Almighty God.

Do you feel like you are walking in the overflow of hope in the Lord? If not, the key is right there in Romans 15:13. Trust in God. Really trusting Him opens us up to the overflow of the power of the Holy Spirit to hope with great confidence. You might feel far from it today but this moment is the moment that can change everything. Choose this moment…to trust God. Beautiful benefits await you!

One of my favorite Christian music artists from the 90’s was a group called FFH. Lead singer Jeromy Deibler is now helping people as a Life Coach and writes a wonderfully humorous and insightful newsletter through which I have enjoyed catching up on how God is writing his story these days.

In one of his writings he said that “taking on someone’s accent is a healthy way to find connection” and immediately my mind drifted back to when I had been living in Charlotte, North Carolina for about six months. The first time I came home my family said, ‘what in the world? why are you speaking with a southern accent?!!’ Truthfully, I didn’t even realize that I had begun to pick up the accent of the people I was living and working with day in and day out. It didn’t even stand out until I got away from them and back home with family.

Have you ever noticed that if you spend enough time around people who were raised in a different area, maybe even a different country, you begin to pick up little nuances of language and mannerisms the more you’re with them? I never really thought about it but it does make us feel more connected the more we can speak their language.

That’s why it is such a powerful relationship builder when we spend time reading God’s Word. It connects us to His heart and before we realize it we begin to speak more like Him. Acts 4:13 from The Passion Translation reveals this truth: “The council members were astonished as they witnessed the bold courage of Peter and John, especially when they discovered that they were just ordinary men who had never had religious training. Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with Him.”

Spend time with Jesus. You’ll be so glad you did. Your connection to Him can help others want to connect with Him too!

When the wind blows we cannot see the wind; however, we can see its effects. We hear the wind ‘whistle’ through the trees or ‘howl’ around buildings and bridges. We see the impact of the wind when its blowing. It can be as gentle as a light breeze or it can blow so hard it is capable of uprooting centuries old trees and moving heavy inanimate objects from one place to another. We feel the wind so we know that its there…but we cannot see the wind. We know the wind is present, not because we see it, but because our senses alert us to what it is doing.

Imagine when Jesus told His disciples right before He left them to ascend to Heaven that He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to lead and guide them…they had no idea the power and revelation that He would bring to them. Jesus told them to wait for the Holy Spirit. He said, in John 14:17 (CEV), “The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don’t see or know Him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.”

Acts 2 describes the effect of the Holy Spirit on them when He arrived…(vs 2) “suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” They could not see Him, but they knew that He was there with them. He brought the power…in a powerful way. And their lives were changed forever.

Our lives are changed forever when we receive the Holy Spirit. He brings the power for change and He will always show us what is true just as Jesus said. We may not see Him but we can see and sense what He is doing.

If you watch the news, read the headlines, listen to conversations in the supermarket and the gas pumps, you will see and hear that our world is in pretty rough shape. Poverty, corruption in government, earthquakes and weather phenomenons and wars are in no short supply. It can be discouraging and stir up anxiety in us that can threaten to take our breath away.

There is a reason why the Psalmist looked UP. Psalm 121:1-6 (NLT) reminds us, “I look up to the mountains – does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the One who watches over you will not slumber…The Lord Himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.”

When we look OUT we can forget the benefits of belonging to the Lord. We are distracted and dismayed by the turmoil in the world which may even be happening in our own backyard. And when we do that, we open the door to anxiety and allow fear to take hold of us. Before we know it, our peace has evaporated and our faith is weakened.

Today we must choose to look UP. Regardless of what is happening around us, our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth! On Him, we can put our trust.

I’ve been hanging around the book of Deuteronomy lately and this verse rose to the top in my reading today. It is Deuteronomy 6:18-19 (CSB), “Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors, by driving out all your enemies before you, as the Lord has said.”

If you want to be prosperous God gives us the ‘if this, then that’ equation flat out in this passage. If you want to be prosperous…then DO what is RIGHT and GOOD in HIS sight. Putting God first in every thought and decision and doing what He wants us to do…that is His instruction to us and the benefit is this, in all that really matters, we will prosper.

God also tells us that when we do what is right and good in His sight He will open the door for us to enter and possess the good land that He has for us…and as an added blessing…He will drive out our enemies right in front of us. So if you’ve been feeling like the enemy has been robbing you of your territory lately, stirring up trouble and prohibiting you from moving into the good space that God has for you, this is your invitation to camp out here for a while. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight. Watch and give thanks for what God will do because of your obedience to His Word.

Have you ever participated in a play? Or maybe you play an instrument and you have a concert coming up? Lawyers present arguments in court. Those who sell practice their ‘pitch’. Even if none of those have been your experience, perhaps you’ve asked your boss for a raise, or you’ve asked someone to spend the rest of their life with you. I’m pretty certain that you practiced what you were going to say before you said it for real! It’s called ‘rehearsal’. Repeating your thought process over and over in your mind and by speaking it out loud helps us frame our words and remember them.

We rehearse a lot of things. Practicing over and over until it is solidly memorized in our mind. I love that the word rehearsal is actually spelled with the word ‘HEAR’ in the middle. It’s the re-hearing of something that solidifies it in our brain and eventually in our heart.

Deuteronomy 6:5 – 7 (CSB) tells us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” ReHEARse them! God’s formula for hiding His Word in our heart is simple. Keep telling it and retelling it. Hearing it over and over. It is not just for us but our children will hear it as well.

Today, let’s start with this and reHEARse it all day long. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deut 6:5, CSB)