We Forget About God

The prophet Samuel reminds his people about how their ancestors forgot about God much the same way they were doing at that present time. I Samuel 12:9-10 And when they forgot the Lord their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.  Then they cried out to the Lord, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and Ashtoreths; but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.’

They were no longer grateful for the protection and provisions of God. Recently I was speaking to a young father who was complaining about his circumstances because he felt unappreciated. It was easy for me to see that he lived a blessed life if the only complaint he had was not feeling appreciated. God had given this young man a beautiful life, a home, a job, friends, etc. but his complaint was that he was not appreciated enough. How often do we ourselves not see God's blessings because of a feeling? 

We forget about God when we are complaining to ourselves or to others about our feelings when they outweigh our gratefulness. Let's have an attitude of gratefulness no matter the circumstances and let God know how grateful we are for all He has provided each day!

This is a picture of my husband with our niece's dog when we were visiting in Delaware. I thought the dogs frisbee had a great message.

Reflections of a Prayer

 

 My Bible is my prayer journal! I found this as I was reading my devotions today. I took a picture of this prayer from 2005 and placed it on a background I painted. Added flowers from a vintage 1940’s card I bought in 1980! I love reflections of prayer!

Critical In Nature

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." Matthew 7:1

It is so easy to be critical of others and when I begin to go down that trail I have to ask myself: "When did I get to be so superior?" Am I so perfect that even though I have so much to work on myself personally I need instead to take time and thought to what others are doing wrong? I instead need to begin praying for those individuals and realizing they are in God's hands and take responsibility for myself. I think it is easier to see the faults of others than our own faults. We are fools if we believe we have it right and others have it wrong.

We need to stop believing we have the power to change others when we cannot even change ourselves. Let's work on encouraging others instead of tearing them down. Let's learn to take our focus off what others do and say so we can focus more on what we do and say instead.

Criticism has never accomplished anything but instead has brought pain to others. 

Criticism is a lot like cruelty, it leaves similar scars.

This picture was taken of the flowers in my yard!