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The Devotional Diva - Words
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The Devotional Diva - Words
By Barbara Gobbs
Executive Assistant and Ministry Partner - Pocket Full of Change Ministries
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
The Lord has marked my life with many wonderful and dear friends. My husband is my best friend. I consider my family to be friends. I work with two precious women, Cheryle and Gail, and they allow me to them call friends. My church overflows with friends. Each one, I admire and respect.
One of my closest friends is Kiki. We’ve been bud-ettes for many years. No matter how weird I get or even how wrong I get, she loves me and is always there to provide gentle and godly guidance. However, last week Kiki and I had words.
After traveling for the holiday, she called to chat. During the conversation, we had words. Now before you think we exchanged unpleasant words and before you think I’m a lousy friend for writing about it, there is a reasonable explanation. Actually, we shared words. Today, and with her permission, I’d like us to have a few words.
Four words to be exact. You see Kiki and I feel like God has given us each a word for the year. They are specific words, which need to characterize our attitudes and our behaviors. During our phone call, we exchanged these words.
Let me start with Kiki’s word: Surrender. What a good word! However, it’s a hard one. My on-line Encarta Dictionary gives several definitions of surrender:
As a verb: 1. Declare yourself defeated
2. Give up possession of something
3. Give something out of courtesy
4. Give self up to something
5. Abandon rights to something
As a noun: 1. Giving up fight
2. Giving up control
3. Delivery into legal custody
4. Abandonment of legal rights
5. Giving self up to authorities.
If you think about it – this is precisely what God asks from each of us. I could outline a paragraph or two illustrating each point in regards to its spiritual application, but you can do that for yourself. It should prove to be a good exercise. Although surrender isn’t an easy principle, it is a principle with life-changing worth, when you consider WHOM you are surrendering yourself too.
After KiKi shared her word with me, I shared mine with her. However, since then I’ve done some mulling over it. Two more words surfaced on my heart. Now I needed to differentiate how they would interact in my life. During Bible study yesterday – God provided the clarity I needed.
I give you the word Challenge. While I desire God to challenge me in my personal faith, this word is for you. It’s a word given to me to give away. It’s what I am supposed to do for others. At North Phoenix Baptist Church, their mission statement is “to challenge people to discover and live a Christ-centered life.” That has resonated in my heart since the moment I heart it. I believe in my teaching, speaking and writing, I am to challenge you, to first discover Christ and then live a Christ-centered life.
Then God gave me the word Presence. This is my specific word, but I’ll be glad to share! I need to increase my day-to-day, hour-to-hour and minute-to-minute awareness of Christ’s presence in my life. I need to learn with freshness, His constant and abiding presence. Then I need to live and love and breathe and move in that presence.
The last word is Adventure. It involves my eyesight or mindset. Five years ago when we left Jacksonville for Denver, I left my home, my friends and my family – including my only child and 4 month old granddaughter. The only way I survived was knowing that God was in control and this move was indeed, part of His plan for our life at the time. The move became an adventure. It took on a sense of excitement like going on safari!
Over the last year or two, I’ve misplaced that sense of adventure. Yet, slowly I feel a rediscovery at hand! I look at the tasks already planned for 2009 and suddenly they’ve sprung up with new life. My mind physically feels a spiritual momentum building, an expectation of God to unfold glorious treasures before us in the days ahead. There are no roadblocks, only heaven sent opportunities to trust Him and bask in His glory! You know, Steven Curtis Chapman is right on! Life in Christ is the Great Adventure!
In closing, there is one more thing to leave with you – the Word. It’s terribly hard to get a word from God, if you’re not reading God’s word. It’s hard to determine direction without picking up the Holy Guide Book. Yesterday in worship, Brother William’s sermon just “happened” to be on God’s Word. How do preachers get inside my head? It must be a super power. He read a cute little ditty about a diary written by a Bible – about its owner. While it was comical, the Bible’s owner didn’t come off looking too good.
If your Bible, your copy of His Word, kept a diary – what would the Scripture write about you? I challenge you to ask God to give you a special word for the year. Ask for a word that will mark your footsteps of 2009 and influence those around you. Ask the Father in prayer and then go to the Word for your word. Let it light your world!
Loving the Word,
Barbara
Barbara Gobbs is a ministry partner with and the Executive Assistant of Pocket Full of Change Ministries. For more information, to schedule a speaker for an event, or to request a newsletter, go to www.pocketfullofchange.org or call Gail Golden, Publicist at 904 316-5462. This ministry is supported by donations. If this ministry helps you or others, and God calls you to help support this work, you can make a donation to Pocket Full of Change Ministry at POB 51205, Jacksonville Beach, Florida 32240.
© Pocket Full of Change Ministries
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