The Day I Became a Prodigal

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Janan

There was a time in my life, at the ripe old age of 18, that I became a prodigal daughter. This may not have been one of the proudest moments of my life, but it was life-changing all the same.

Nearing my high school graduation, with my whole life ahead of me, I chose to run away from home to marry a boy I thought I loved. He was a boy my parents would not approve of me marrying, and one I had “dated” secretly behind their backs. Of course I thought I knew more about life than my parents! My dad had once said to me that if I ever left home that I better take all my things with me because I wouldn’t be coming back, so I had cleaned out my room, taken what would fit in my car and disposed of the rest, and off I went!

Let’s look into the Word of God and relate my experience to the story of the prodigal son and his earthly father (who really was an example of our Heavenly Father.) Think about it, here was this son demanding his inheritance so he could go off and live life however he wanted to, and his father granted his wish.

Luke 15 tells the story this way: 13“And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. 14“Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished.

The thing that impresses me most is that when this prodigal son “came to his senses,” he decided to return to his father. Did he know his father would take him back? Did he know his father still loved him? I think he was pretty desperate at that point and knew his father was the only one who could help him, and I think he realized that whatever consequences awaited him would be better than the state he found himself in.

The bible says in Luke 15:20, But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. This father loved his son and welcomed him back, even held a feast in his honor to celebrate. …for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.~Luke 15:24

So how does this relate to my story of running away? Well, even though I may have taken my dad’s comments to “take everything with me” in the literal sense, they apparently did not reveal his true heart and love for me. My dad and my brother came after me to bring me back home!! If I ever questioned my dad’s love for me, it was solidified that day. Yes, my dad really did love me and he welcomed me back! There was no feast or fattened calf, not even a party, but there was love, love and more love, that’s for sure!

Now think about our Heavenly Father and the example Jesus gave in the story of this younger son who demanded his inheritance and went and squandered it all, then came running back to his father for provision and sustenance since he had nothing left in himself! I am certain that had my dad not intercepted me that day when I ran away from home, I most definitely would have suffered some serious and regrettable consequences and likely would have returned home to my dad asking for mercy just like the prodigal son of the bible!

Aren’t we just like that sometimes? We have to come to the end of ourselves, hungry, lonely, feeling defeated, destitute, broken, and then our Heavenly Father picks us up and loves on us, provides for us, and gives us victory over our defeat. Glorious, glorious love our Father hath lavished on us!!

Thank you Heavenly Father for your unconditional love for us. Thank you that no matter what crazy thing we might do, You still love us and welcome us back with open arms when we return to you. Thank you Father for not allowing us to stray beyond your reach. There is nowhere we can go, nothing we can do, that is too far from your love, mercy and grace, to keep us from returning to your loving arms!

Serving God

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Janan

Heard a great song this week while driving in my car. Such a good message from John Waller,

“I will serve you while I’m waiting…I will worship while I’m waiting on you, Lord.”

Have you ever waited and waited, prayed and prayed, asking and believing God to do something for you, and yet it seemed like the answer was taking forever to come?

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Even when God promises us something, He will only give it to us in His perfect timing, and believe me His timing IS perfect. He does have great plans for us, and He does give us hope and a future, but only according to His plan, when the time is exactly right.

It is, however, our job to be patient, to serve Him while we wait. Even if we find ourselves getting discouraged, we need to continue to believe Him, serve Him, and worship Him while we wait for the plans He has for us, the plans to prosper us and not harm us, the plans to give us hope and a future.

And then look at the promise that follows in Jeremiah 29:12-13: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

You see, we may be waiting on God to do something, we may be praying and asking Him to move in a situation in our lives, and He makes these wonderful promises to us, but notice the requirement that He places on us to seek Him with all our heart!! He wants us to give Him our whole heart, to love Him as He loves us. He wants us to want Him, not just for what He can give us but for who He is.

So serve Him while you’re waiting, worship while you’re waiting on the Lord!!

Distracted by my In-Box

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Janan

Not again! I just logged out of my email and realized I didn’t do what I logged in to do! Once there, that In-box distracted me yet again. All those new emails staring at me, blaring their subject lines, screaming “Open me first.” Next thing I know, 15-20 minutes have passed and I’ve long since forgotten why I logged into my email in the first place.

Got me thinking about spending time with God. Even with the best of intentions, daily distractions pull and tug at us, luring us away from the One who can help make everything work out right in our day. Proverbs 16:3 says to commit to the Lord whatever we do and our plans will succeed. And in Exodus 14:14 we read these words, The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Be still….now that’s a difficult thing to do!

When I think about this, I realize that I can get so busy being busy, so lost in everything around where I’m going that I never get there, so absorbed in the immediate things in front of me that I lose sight of the important things I intended to do. So often when I want to spend time with God and in the Word, my mind wanders off to all the other things that need to be done. Sometimes that to-do list looms over me so much that I just lose track of what is most important.

Lord, help me to always put You first in my day. Draw me to Yourself and help me to focus on the important and not let the immediate overtake me!

Slow to Speak

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Janan writes for Him

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

Have you ever opened your mouth and spoken so quickly that you later wished you could take those words back? God in His Word gives us much direction on harnassing our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

He wants us to always respond to others with grace, but in our humanness we often fail when we don’t take time to stop and consider what we are going to say and how it will affect the person we are speaking to. Will our words encourage? Will our words show love and compassion? Or will our words wound and sting? Will our words put a wedge between us and the person we are speaking to, or will our words help to maintain good relations between us?

Words from a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. Ecclesiastes 10:12

We should always consider the other person first and not just blurt out the first thing that comes to our mind. We should respond in love after considering our words and God’s instructions for our speech, and not just react and spew all kinds of nastiness onto the other person.

I just love the Proverbs in the Bible. God promises to give us wisdom if we seek it and the best place in His Word to find wisdom is in the Proverbs. Here is a nugget of wisdom from Proverbs 16: 21 and 24:

The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Dig into the Word of God and find these nuggets for yourself, and watch how they can transform your speech!

A girl’s best friend

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Janan writes for Him

We all know the saying, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”, right? My birthstone is a diamond and I do enjoy wearing them. Beautiful, aren’t they? I love the way diamonds glisten in the sun. But are they really a girl’s best friend?

I’d like to say that while I do like my diamonds and think they are very beautiful, they don’t compare to the love Jesus showed me on the cross, the love Jesus shows me daily when I walk in and through each challenge life throws my way; even when I mess up He loves me still.

Yep, I’d say that Jesus is a girl’s best friend!

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”~ John 15:13

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” ~ John 10:11

“I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” ~ John 10:14-15b

Thank you Jesus for being my good shepherd, for laying down your life for me, and for being my best friend!

He Goes Before Us, He Goes With Us, He Goes After Us

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Janan writes for Him

Have you ever felt alone in a situation, wondering if God cares about your struggles? Have you ever felt like just when everything was going good in life, everything went wrong? That was the case with Job, a man considered blameless, upright, and one who feared God.

Job had great possessions, servants, sons and daughters. He was considered the greatest of all men of the East, so much so that God said to the devil, “For there is no one like him on the earth.”

Listen to this account from Job 1:6-12, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. ⁷The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” ⁸The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” ⁹Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰“Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹“But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” ¹²Then the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.”

Many of us know the story of the loss and afflictions Job endured at the hand of Satan, but he continued to praise God anyway. At the end of the story in Job 42, we read these words, “Then Job answered the LORD and said, ²“I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”

If we could only be more like Job, knowing and believing that God can do all things and that His plans for us are good. We read in Jeremiah 29:11 the following promise from God, ¹¹‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ¹²‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ¹⁴‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’” Notice we have a responsibility in this, to search for Him with all our heart, and when we do this He promises to be found by us and to bless us.

I’d like you to consider the ways that God goes before us, with us and after us. Proverbs 16:9 says that in our hearts we plan our course but the Lord determines our steps. God’s got our back. He goes before us to pave the way, to open doors, to put things before us that will bless our lives, and then He goes with us as we step out in faith and walk through those doors. Even when doors close and things don’t pan out to all that we had hoped for, God is still with us and will still make something good of the situation. Remember His promise in Romans 8:28 which says, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Here again He lays out our responsibility along with His promise to us. We are responsible to love Him, and He promises to make all things in our lives work together for our good. He calls us according to these promises.

I’d like you to think about another thing I believe God does for us and that is that He goes after us. I don’t mean that he follows us and then makes good things of our mess, although He certainly can and does do this. What I want you to think about are times in your life when you strayed from God, times when you perhaps walked in direct disobedience to His word. Did you turn back to Him? Do you believe he was “going after you” to draw you back? I know from personal experience a time when I was walking just that way and I know that my Lord loved me too much to leave me there in that sin. He lured me with His love for me, He called me back into His presence and into a right relationship with Him again. Even in this, though, I had responsibility. I had to recognize and repent of my disobedience and rebellion and ask Him to forgive me, and that was all it took to get right with Him again.

Thank you Father that you do go before us, you go with us, and you go after us. Thank you for loving us even when we are most unlovable. Walk with us this day and help us to never stray from you again. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

Acquire Wisdom! Acquire Understanding!

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Janan writes for Him

Proverbs 4

~~Reading this Psalm this morning I was struck by the fact that God gives us specific instructions concerning our responsibilities to seek out His wisdom, wisdom He freely gives us but only when we seek it. With our free will, one of the gifts God gave us, we must desire, seek and pursue wisdom, and He will gladly lavish it upon us. Glory!!~~

Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father,

And give attention that you may gain understanding,

~~We are responsible to listen and give attention. He will help us understand.~~

For I give you sound teaching;

Do not abandon my instruction.

~~God gives sound teaching (we cannot go wrong with this teaching)~~

~~We are responsible to heed and follow this instruction.~~

When I was a son to my father,

Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,

⁴

Then he taught me and said to me,

“Let your heart hold fast my words;

Keep my commandments and live;

~~We are responsible to hold fast to God’s words and keep His commandments (be obedient to what He tells us to do and do it), and He will give us a full and abundant life!~~

⁵

Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!

Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

~~We are responsible to seek wisdom and understanding and not ever turn away from God’s word.~~

⁶

“Do not forsake her, and she will guard you;

Love her, and she will watch over you.

~~If we keep focused on the wisdom God gives us, that wisdom will guard us always.~~

~~If we love wisdom and love God, His wisdom will watch over us always.~~

⁷

“The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;

And with all your acquiring, get understanding.

~~The first wise thing we learn is that we need to seek wisdom, and by doing so we will understand what He is teaching us.~~

⁸

“Prize her, and she will exalt you;

She will honor you if you embrace her.

~~When we prize wisdom above all other things, that wisdom will place us in high esteem with God, but we must seek and embrace it always.~~

⁹

“She will place on your head a garland of grace;

She will present you with a crown of beauty.”

~~Through wisdom we find grace and beauty.~~

¹⁰

Hear, my son, and accept my sayings

And the years of your life will be many.

~~Walking in God’s wisdom will give us long life!~~

¹¹

I have directed you in the way of wisdom;

I have led you in upright paths.

~~God is the source of our wisdom and the one who directs our steps in life.~~

¹²

When you walk, your steps will not be impeded;

And if you run, you will not stumble.

~~God will make our life productive and prosperous.~~

¹³

Take hold of instruction; do not let go.

Guard her, for she is your life.

~~We are responsible to hold God’s instruction high in our life and never let go.~~

¹⁴

Do not enter the path of the wicked

And do not proceed in the way of evil men.

~~We are responsible to refrain from following wicked ways and evil men.~~

¹⁵

Avoid it, do not pass by it;

Turn away from it and pass on.

¹⁶

For they cannot sleep unless they do evil;

And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

¹⁷

For they eat the bread of wickedness

And drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

~~Our days will increase with calm and brightness.~~

¹⁹

The way of the wicked is like darkness;

They do not know over what they stumble.

²⁰

My son, give attention to my words;

Incline your ear to my sayings.

~~We are responsible to listen to God by reading His word and pay attention to what He says.~~

²¹

Do not let them depart from your sight;

Keep them in the midst of your heart.

~~We are responsible to keep His words always in our heart, thinking about them all day long.~~

²²

For they are life to those who find them

And health to all their body.

~~His words will give us life and health in our bodies.~~

²³

Watch over your heart with all diligence,

For from it flow the springs of life.

~~We are responsible to guard our hearts.~~

²⁴

Put away from you a deceitful mouth

And put devious speech far from you.

~~We are responsible to control our speech.~~

²⁵

Let your eyes look directly ahead

And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

~~We are responsible to keep looking to Him and not looking back at past mistakes or looking to the world for answers.~~

²⁶

Watch the path of your feet

And all your ways will be established.

~~We are responsible to be careful where we go and what we do.~~

²⁷

Do not turn to the right nor to the left;

Turn your foot from evil.

~~We are responsible to follow the straight and narrow path of life and to stay away from evil things.~~

~~We serve a loving, gracious God, but we must never forget our responsibilities to serve Him with our whole heart, seek Him always, and obey the things He tells us to do. We cannot live our life however we want and still expect Him to bless us and let us spend eternity in Heaven unless we do our part, and that starts with surrendering our life to Jesus as Lord! Make sure you are right with Him today, and seek always to serve Him and follow His instructions for your life. Seek wisdom and you will find it! He is faithful.~~

A Gentle Answer Turns Away Wrath

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Janan

The words stung like a knife. “How about if we all treat her to dinner to thank her for all the lovely ornaments she is letting us give out?” All the ornaments SHE is letting us give out? Are you kidding me? I contributed quite a few of those ornaments, and so did other coworkers. Why is SHE getting all the credit?

Reactions, perceptions, offenses, responses…What a difference words can make.

It was Christmastime and my coworkers and I were getting ready to go caroling at our local hospital. Along with singing the carols, we gave out ornaments to the patients to wish them a Merry Christmas and hopefully bring some cheer. Who wants to be in the hospital at Christmas, especially in a cancer ward???

It was a noble endeavor for us and we felt good about it, but then there were those ornaments. Someone had the idea for each of us to bring in ornaments from home that we no longer wanted and use them to give to the patients, as long as they were nice of course. We had tried making ornaments the year prior and they didn’t seem to hold up very well so we were looking for nicer ones but didn’t want to spend a lot of money to purchase them. It seemed like a good idea…. until SHE got credit for ALL of them!!

Well, at least it bothered me, but then maybe other people just weren’t bold enough like me to speak up; but was speaking up really worth the wrath that followed? I think not, now that I’ve suffered the consequences, and those consequences continued on for quite a while, and it even caused us to forego the caroling the following Christmas.

Thinking about Abigail’s response in 1 Samuel 25 when Nabal refused David’s request for food after watching his flocks, the way she immediately went before him in humility, showered him with food and gifts, intervened on behalf of her mean husband, makes me so wish I had responded differently in this situation. Makes me wish I had overlooked the comment the way Abigail overlooked her husband’s selfish responses.

Unfortunately, once the words are spoken from our mouths or put down in print, they are irreversible. The damage is done, and sometimes the effect cannot be undone no matter how hard we try.

We all want to live out a good testimony for the Lord, don’t we? But when we find ourselves taking offense to something someone said and reacting to it, we often tarnish that testimony. That is how I felt about what happened when I reacted about who was getting credit for those ornaments.

Humility. Not always an easy thing to carry out in our life. To be able to overlook an offense, to be able to let something go that really gets under your skin, to be able to truly leave it in God’s hands instead of taking into our own and lashing out…wow, what a struggle it can be!

But God is faithful! Let us always remember Proverbs 15:1, which says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Lord, help me to always use Your gentle answer and never my own harsh words. Help me to remember who I am in Christ and lead me in behavior and speech that reflects Your character, not mine.

Faith of Jesus

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Janan

I happened upon Creflo Dollar’s broadcast this evening and know it was a divine appointment made by the Holy Spirit. He was speaking about the difference between what we had to do when under the law and what Jesus already did under grace.

I bet you have heard the saying, as I have, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” Well, as Creflo pointed out, we are saved by grace (Glory halleluia!) BUT, we are no longer sinners!! Once we are saved, we are the righteousness of Christ! The bible says that Jesus Himself is righteous and that “He justifies and accepts as righteous him who has true faith in Jesus.”~Romans 3:26b When we have true faith in Him, He gives us His righteousness. Glory halleluia!!

Romans 6:13 instructs us to “not continue offering or yielding your bodily members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to life, and your bodily members to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.” We are to live as if we were raised from the dead because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. We are to present ourselves to God as righteousness not as sin because Jesus lives in us and He gives us His righteousness. Our sin died with Him on the cross.

Galatians 2:20 states that we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in us. We are still in our body but we now live by the faith of Christ. Sin no longer has power over us and we should no longer think of ourselves as sinners.

We have to exercise faith in order to receive what Christ gave us when He died on the cross, but we don’t rely on ourselves for that faith; that faith comes from Him! Him living in us gives us the faith we need to receive all that He did for us on the cross. That, my friend, is exciting revelation!

II Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way: “For our sake He made Christ to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Time to celebrate my friend! If you have true faith in Jesus and He lives in you, you are no longer a sinner but are the righteousness of Jesus Christ!

Praise His name forever!

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Janan

My personalized version of Psalm 44:5-8:

Through you, Lord, I push back my enemies; through Your name I trample my foes. I do not trust in my own resources; they do not bring me victory, but You give me victory over my enemies. You put my adversaries to shame. In God I make my boast all day long, and I will praise His name forever!

And from Psalm 34:1-6:

I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together!

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