Devotional #1 12/4/2012

Welcome to my brand new blog! I'm really excited about starting a blog.  I’m starting a full time women’s ministry and I’ll be giving updates on the ministry here!  I also will be writing daily devotions (that's my plan anyway).  

So here’s my very first devotion written by me! J

Here I am again. Christmas is right around the corner. Thanksgiving came and went a couple of weeks ago. I have yet to buy any Christmas presents for my own children let alone for anyone else. Right after Christmas, every year, I say that I'm going to buy presents throughout the whole year so that I won’t have to buy presents at the last minute. I think that buying things that are on sale throughout the year is better than buying presents all at one time at higher prices.  I could even save some money that way.  But, no, I have yet to do that.  It is nice to plan things. Its nice to say that you’ll do things that you know would be beneficial to you or to others.  But putting them into practice is a whole other thing.

It's the same with applying God's Truth to our lives. For me personally I am by nature, thanks to my DNA, an incredibly stubborn woman. I know that His Word is Truth. I know that applying them to my life is what will help me grow and improve. There are things that I haven’t had a hard time applying to my life like when Jesus said not to worry about tommorrow because it has its own trouble (Mathew 6:34 NIV “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”)  I’m easy-going by nature, I’m not really a “worry wart” so I didn’t find that one too hard.  (But then again, there are days that I find myself worrying about the same thing I was worrying about the day before, hmmm)

But here's one that I have stubbornly avoided until just this very week. In Philippians 4:6-7 it says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Intellectually I understood this verse but in my heart I had a hard time with that part that says, "do not be anxious about anything.”  I tend to second guess myself.  My expectations for myself are usually too high and so when I don’t meet them I’m hard on myself. Like I find myself today, being hard on myself for not shopping earlier.

So, in reference to Christmas shopping and tying in these verses.  I cannot be anxious about not having shopped for gifts yet.  Anxiety left “untreated” turns into major worry which then goes against what Mathew 6:34 says because that worry from today will spill into tomorrow.  Instead, and here’s the application, what I will do is accept that I didn’t do as I planned last year and go shopping at the last minute and be thankful that I can go shopping at all!

God bless you!  Thanks for reading my first devotional post!