Manna For Moms

Devotions for Moms Like You!

February 2010

PEEK-A-BOO!

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

One of Jessica’s favorite games is peek-a-boo. She loves to cover her face with her little hands, fingers splayed apart, and say, “Where you go?”, indicating that I’m supposed to ask her that question.

“Where’s Jessica?” I say obligingly.

“I don’t know,” she says innocently, in a ‘hmm, I can’t imagine’ tone of voice.

“I don’t know, either,” I say.

Suddenly, Jessica pulls her hands away from her face, grinning. “Peek-a-boo!” she says delightedly.

Jessica finds this game so much fun chiefly because of her mistaken belief that when she can’t see me, I can’t see her, either. If she knew I could see her the whole time, it wouldn’t be nearly so much fun to try to hide from me.

We play a similar game with God. We act as if because we can’t see Him, He must not be able to see us, either. Or if He can, He isn’t looking.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Bible clearly teaches that God is intimately involved in our lives. He knows what we need before we ask, then fulfills our needs. He causes all things to work together for our good. He has numbered the very hairs of our head.

That hardly sounds like a God who isn’t really paying attention.

Failing to realize that God sees us and knows the thoughts and intentions of our heart every minute of every day can lead to either of two serious errors. The first is thinking, “God isn’t really paying much attention to me, so I can do what I want.” Friend, there will come a day of reckoning for all of us. Just because God has chosen to withhold consequences for now doesn’t mean He will do so forever. God isn’t letting us get away with anything, as if He were an earthly parent who is just so tired He decides not to enforce His law this particular time. Rather, He may be giving us a chance to repent before He has to step in and bring us to our senses.

The second error is thinking, “God isn’t really paying much attention to me because He doesn’t love me.”

Once again, we couldn’t be more wrong than to think this way. Over and over, the Bible teaches us that God is intimately acquainted with us and longs for a relationship with us. Jesus laments that He had wanted to gather Jerusalem into the folds of His love, but she wasn’t willing. The Psalms rejoice over and over in God’s full knowledge of us, because it reflects His love for us. Let’s not forget the clearest illustration of all—that God sacrificed His own Son to redeem us.

God loves us. He loves us, and He knows us. There’s no escaping that fact. Just because we can’t see Him physically doesn’t mean He can’t see us. All it means is that we walk by faith, not by sight. But one day, the faith will be sight. We’ll see Him face to face. We’ll look into His eyes and see the love that’s been there all along, that we’ve never fully comprehended.

O God, may You give us a glimpse of that now—of Your incredible love and complete knowledge of us. May we not play games of hiding from You, but may we rejoice in the relationship with You that You offer us through Your grace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Jeremiah 1:5—“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Luke 12:6-7—Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Psalm 139:1-4—O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

Bringing Them to the Father

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

One of Jessica’s favorite activities is playing “bobbies” (her word for “babies”). We have several baby dolls, some doll-sized equipment, and a thousand little outfits and accessories. Jessica loves taking care of her dolls, doing all the things with them she knows mommies do with babies.

One day, Jessica and I were playing dolls in the playroom. We had a few dolls spread out around us, and we were taking care of them all. I put two of the smallest ones in the doll swing, which is not balanced very well, and swung them until they fell out.

“Waah! Waah!” I said, pretending they were crying.

Jessica reached toward them.

“Help us, Jessica!” I said, in my best baby doll voice.

Jessica picked up the babies and handed them to me without hesitation. She watched me as I comforted them and made them feel all better.

In the same way that Jessica handed me her babies, we, too, should bring our broken, hurting loved ones to our Father. Instinctively, Jessica knew that the best comfort for those babies was to be found in my arms. Likewise, we know that the greatest healing is to be found in the arms of our heavenly Father. Yet too often, we focus on offering our friends other things rather than bringing them to God. All of these things—our support, counseling, medication—are fine in and of themselves, and they may be the means through which God chooses to heal our loved one. But we make a critical mistake when we do these things to the exclusion of pointing our loved one to Jesus.

It’s wonderful to offer our empathy, but let us not forget also to remind our loved one how God feels.

It’s great to offer sympathy, but let’s not fail to gently correct or rebuke where that may be needed, and to point our loved one toward God’s righteous standard.

It’s healing to help our family and friends through their struggles on this earth, but may we never forget to remind them of heaven, where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain”.

I’m not suggesting that we listen to someone’s pain and offer them a pat, religious answer, or a cliché. I’m suggesting that we do every bit of the kind of comforting and encouragement we are used to, but that we also offer them more. We bring them to God.

Of course, the ultimate “bringing to God” involves introducing someone to Him, to His love for them and their need of Him, and to His wonderful plan of salvation.

Providing comfort is part of the healing ministry of Christ’s church. It’s something we must do, because humanity needs it, and we’re commanded to do it. But even more important than comforting their souls is introducing them to the One Who can save their souls.

The next time someone comes to us for comfort, may we comfort them in a way that shows them God’s love.

But even more important, may we show them God Himself.

John 1:40-42—Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.

Mark 2:1-5—A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Forgiveness…Again

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

My just-turned-two-year-old daughter, Jessica, enjoys dressing up. She likes to put on several necklaces from the dress-up closet, plus maybe a hat and a purse. She also seems to have particular ideas about which shoes she wants to wear, even when she’s just wearing regular clothes.

One of her favorite pairs of shoes is a black, slip-on shoe with a very low heel and pink flowers across the top of her foot. A few days ago, she was wearing them while walking around our kitchen. She came closer to me to check out what I was doing, and then she pushed herself in between me and the counter and went past me. In the process, she stepped on my foot.

“Ouch,” I said, because I wasn’t wearing any shoes, and she actually hurt me a little bit.

“Sorry, Mommy,” Jessica said.

“I forgive you,” I said. Again, I added mentally.

There are times in the course of our day when Jessica does something that hurts me, mainly because she is only two and doesn’t always realize when something she does will hurt someone. Because she is the extremely polite child that she is, she always says, “Sorry, Mommy.”

“I forgive you,” I always say. But lately, we had gone through this routine several times, because Jessica had accidentally done several minor things that caused me brief moments of pain or discomfort. I was tired of having to forgive yet again.

We should be very glad that God never gets tired of extending forgiveness to us. When we come before Him, repentant, asking His forgiveness, He always responds the same way: “I’ve already forgiven you,” He says. “My Son paid the price for your forgiveness when He died on the cross.”

One of Satan’s favorite deceptions is to try to make us think God doesn’t want to forgive us. How could God forgive you? he whispers in our ear. Look at what you did. Look at all the things you’ve done.

But you can’t out-sin God’s grace. No matter what you’ve done, no matter when, or why, or how many times, God can and will forgive you when you come to Him repentant.

Isn’t that amazing? Despite all the sins we committed before we became Christians, despite all the sins we committed afterward, and despite those we’ll commit in the future, God still loves us and still forgives us.

He doesn’t forgive us because we deserve it. He does so because of grace, because He loves us and has accepted His Son’s sacrifice as payment for our sins. You and I are already forgiven because Someone paid the price.

If you don’t know that Someone, or what He’s done for you, I encourage you to check out the “How to Know God” section of this website. Don’t wait to get acquainted with the One Who died so that you could truly live.

Those of us who do know that Someone should spend time meditating on the immensity of His incredible grace toward us. We should marvel at it. May we never take something so incredible for granted.

Instead, may we make our lives unceasing offering of gratitude for the amazing gift we’ve been given.

1 John 1:9—If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 18:21-22—Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Lifter of My Head

Megan Breedlove 0Comment

Recently, our local football team, the Dallas Cowboys, lost in the playoffs to the Minnesota Vikings. The score was 34-3. It wasn’t even close.

Several times during the game, it looked like the Cowboys would pull ahead. But ultimately, they lost, and lost badly.

It must have been a particularly disappointing loss for Tony Romo, the quarterback. In a game when he should have been at his best, Romo wasn’t. His stats were disappointing, and he was sacked six times. He knows he is capable of better. Everyone else knows it, too.

Though the loss certainly wasn’t Romo’s fault alone, I bet he assigned himself a significant percentage of the blame. At least, looking at the picture on the next-day paper’s front page, it looks like he did.

In that picture, Romo is walking down a ramp that leads beneath the bleachers to the locker room. As he approaches the tunnel, there are fans on either side and fans in front of him who are sitting above the tunnel. Romo is walking with his shoulders looking as slumped as they can in that protective padding, his head down. His posture says that he’s taking it hard, and the headline agrees: Defeated, dejected.

Romo’s not the only person who stands out in this picture, however. There’s one more, a fan to Romo’s right, leaning over the railing with his arm and hand extended down, reaching out to Romo. Many other fans in the picture are doing the same thing. But what makes this fan stand out is the look on the young man’s face.

He’s not smiling. He’s not calling out to Romo. He wears a quiet, solemn look.

The difference between him and all the others is that this young man looks like he’s reaching out to offer Romo support, rather than to enjoy the privilege of slapping hands with a famous football player.

I could be completely wrong about this man. Maybe he was starstruck. Maybe all he wanted was the brief contact with fame.

Or maybe he really was reaching out to offer Romo support. Maybe he was reaching out his hand to say not I want a piece of you but Hey. It’s okay, man. You’re still great.

I’ll never know how he really felt because I don’t know who he is, so I can’t ask him. But I do know Someone who does respond that way in the face of someone else’s dejection and failure.

Our God responds like that. He sees us hurting, and He stretches out His hand, or wraps His arms around us, and says, It’s okay. I still love you.

Just as the fan must have been well aware that the Cowboys had just lost, God is well aware of when we’ve failed. If our failure involves sin, He doesn’t minimize that. But He does reassure us that whatever the circumstances of our failure, whether sin, mistake, or inability, He still loves us.

Looking at the picture, I thought about Romo looking up and seeing the fan’s outstretched hand, and I realized that it was a beautiful illustration of how God lifts up our heads.

When we look down at our feet, we see only our sins and failures and feel only the crushing weight of shame and disappointment. But when we look at Him, our heads are lifted, and we can see and receive His comfort and love.

Are you looking down at your feet today? Is the weight of your failure so heavy that it’s bowing your shoulders?

Look up. Look up and see the comfort God offers you. If you need forgiveness, He offers that, too. Let His encouragement soak into your soul.

Yes, you have failed. So have I. But despite our failures, we are loved. So let’s no longer focus on the ugly way we feel, but on the beautiful way He feels. Rather than allowing our sin to be our shame, let’s allow Him to be our glory. May our heads and our hearts be lifted as we learn to look not to what we have done, but to what He has done for us.

Psalm 3:3—But thou, O LORD, are a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

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