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Listen while you read: "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah"1 (Lyrics) |
Luke 15:8-9 – Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin." (NIV)
"Now where could I have put that key?" I wondered. I discovered that my house key was not on the hook where I customarily keep it. I didn't panic, but I whispered, "Lord, I don't know where my key is, and it really is important that I find it. Please sharpen my eyes or bring a thought to mind to help me find it."
Over the next couple of days, like the woman who had lost her coin, I swept and searched my house carefully. I walked through my apartment, carefully looking on every flat surface, and searched in drawers and cupboards. I checked pockets of garments that I'd worn recently. I mentally and physically retraced my recent activities and whereabouts. Still no key.
I knew that there was more than one solution to my dilemma. If the key never surfaced, I could get a replacement key made. But most of all, as I continued to ask God for sharp eyes and good remembrance in searching for my key, I knew that I could trust Him to take care of me and my need and reveal a solution.
A couple of days later, I reached into my closet and pulled out a jacket. As I put it on, I felt the slight weight of a hard object in the pocket. My key! Ah, yes, I had checked pockets of other garments, but just not this one. "Thank You, Lord!" I said. And just as the woman who found her lost coin rejoiced as she told her friends of her find, I quickly texted my daughter to tell her that I'd found my lost key.
In a previous devotional, Praying For Sunshine, I commented that when we limit prayer to our wish list, we are treating God as our personal, celestial genie. We can certainly talk freely to Him about our mundane, daily needs, but He knows that we need food and clothing, and we can trust Him to provide everything we need. The Lord's Prayer should, nonetheless, be our model prayer as we focus on God's majesty and glory and His work and will on earth.
We can exercise a sort of nonstop prayer in our daily life as we talk to God (seldom out loud!) about everything that is going on in our life. We can tell Him about big things and little things that are on our minds. We can also trust Him to answer as He knows best.
Prayer: Dear Father, thank You for Your constant care and concern for us. Help us to trust You in every facet of our lives as we bring all of our concerns to You every day. Amen.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2024 – In Peru — Please pray for this summer season at our beach-town home to be a blessing to the little Fellowship we have started and that the Lord would "add to our numbers those who are being saved".
Housing: "Update April 14, 2024; Please pray extra fervently for tomorrow when she and her son will be going..." 
Thanks for the good advice, Gail.
Thanks for this devotional. God’s blessings.
Thank you, Gail, for encouraging us to talk to God often and about anything.
This is so true. God wants a personal relationship with each and every one of us. Thankyou.
Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us! Yes! May all who are lost be found! Blessings.
Hi Gail,
Thank you for your Devotional on Finding Lost Things. I too often lose things in my house and it is about taking both the big and little things in our life to God and being in constant communication with Him.
Blessings on your writing and on you.
Good Morning, Gail
Wow, can I ever identify with this. He amazes me how He supplies what we need just when we need it. Trust and obey and patience for His timing!!!
So thankful we have a Father who knows how to help us in every aspect of our lives.
God bless and have a nice weekend.
You should have seen my joyful face, when after a search such as yours, for a Crusaders’ Cross, bought in Jerusalem, and resigning myself to having to purchase a replacement, I put my hand on the “Prayer Square” in the pocket of my housecoat and felt something tangled in it. My cross! The Lord HAD answered my prayers!
He is Jehovah Jireh, my Provider, and He does so abundantly!
Once again you have delivered an uplifting DD!
Thanks for your skill in writing,
(BC Canada)
Good morning, Gail,
I enjoyed your devotional and how we should not use God as our “wish list”. A friend shared with me recently about she used to do this when she was younger and when God didn’t give her what she wanted, she gave up on God. When she got older, she did find Jesus again and with greater wisdom knew she had not prayed for God’s comfort, love, and support but for just what she wanted. Your devotional brought that thought back into my mind. We mature slowly with our understanding of the Bible as we continue to read it and explore with others. God opens our eyes when we are ready to learn more and share our thoughts with others.
God does want a deeper relationship with him, and we do get that by sharing with him and including him in our every day life but as you say he is not our “personal genie”. That is a good picture of what prayer is not meant to be. It is funny that I would not have thought years ago that some images help me to remember but as I age, I definitely find it does. Picture God as a “genie” will help me to remember that that is not the relationship I want with God. Thank you for sharing and relating happenings in your life with your faith. It helps us all to learn and value our relationship with God. May you enjoy your trust in the Lord.
A great devotion. God does answer prayers. Years ago, I had paid for a trip to Britain, but hoof and mouth disease became an issue. We had cattle in the barn and would have had to burn our clothing that we wore over there. We had cancellation insurance, but I didn’t know what to do. I prayed and something told me not to go. We just had to prove we had cattle in the barn, and we got all our money back except for the insurance.
Well, my husband came down with appendicitis when we would have been away. Was I ever happy that we had stayed in Canada. God does know what is best for us. Thanks so much for you devotion.
(Ontario)