Month: May 2021

Love is the ultimate ‘keep on keeping on’.  It doesn’t give up.  We all know there will be difficulties.  There will be struggles and challenges.  This is part of life.  No matter how much money we have or our status or our prestige or anything else, we are not exempt from the difficulties of life.  Since we are faced with this, love carries us through.  

Over the last few days, I have been writing about this special kind of love.  It is not any ordinary love.  It is not infatuation.  It is not lust.  It is not impure or selfish or based on appearance.  It is this deep abiding love that only comes from God because God is love.  This love keeps on keeping on even when adversity comes.  Even when love is challenged, it does not give up.  It perseveres through the most difficult.  I think of Jesus’ teachings on what love looks like.  He always reiterates the importance of loving God and loving others.  It is of utmost importance to him – and therefore, should be to us as well.  This is a love that carries through to our enemies.  It is a love that allows us to move forward, seeking God’s goodness.  It is a love that endures whatever life throws our way.  This is remarkable love we do not see in our world – we only see in God. 

Yet, God gives us this love.  He pours out this love in us.  He gives us this love so that we can persevere in loving others.  This love is based in God, not in our situation.  This love overcomes.  This love keeps on no matter what.  

This is the love I want to receive and share.  This is the love that will change the world.  

Focus Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:7

⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

There are people who keep a tally.  They know who does what for them and they have high expectations of some people.  So if someone brings them something, they get a good mark.  If they don’t visit enough, they get marks deducted.  If they don’t get things done in a timely manner, another bad mark.  In this system, it is as if the people in their lives are just there to serve – to do what they want when they want.  They measure love by the number of good actions verses the number of bad.  It isn’t as if they show the scores – so others really never know how they are ranking.  It is shown in comments and in not so pleasant attitudes (or maybe in special favor).  

It may sound crazy, but I would dare say there are more people keeping tally than we would like to admit. There is the “good child” or the “good friend”.  All is based on actions or lack thereof.  The problem is this isn’t love, at least it isn’t God’s love.  In the description of love we are given, we are told that love is not self-seeking and keeps no records of wrongs.  That almost seems out of reach – especially if we “keep score”.  Our natural tendency often is to seek what is best for us.  We note when someone does something we do not like.  It’s almost like we are in school and we don’t earn enough stars – except unlike school, the board never gets erased and we don’t get a clean start.

Thankfully, God models real, genuine love for us.  Since God is love, he teaches us what it is to love.  He doesn’t keep record of our wrongs.  We are told he casts our sins as far as the east is from the west.  He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Let’s face it – we couldn’t do enough good things anyway.  We cannot earn God’s love.  We are simply given his love – even if we feel like our board is full of bad marks. 

God isn’t keeping score.  He sent Jesus to wipe the slate clean.  He simply loves us.  Wouldn’t it be powerful if we followed his example and simply loved?  What a difference we might make if we stopped keeping score and started loving like God!

Focus Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:5

⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

It’s a lot easier to be patient when nothing is testing our patience.  When all goes according to our plan and there are no interruptions in our flow, patience feels so natural.  We may even claim patience in moments like these.  But how patient are we, really?  In our ever on-demand world, patience becomes even more challenged.  We have expectations that we will pull through a drive thru and our order will be done when we want, how we want, and to the level of quality we demand.  We have expectations we will not have to wait in line when we go to the gas station (at least most of the time anyway).  We have expectations there will be enough lines open to check us out when we visit a store – or at least, we think that’s the way it should go.  When we sit down at a restaurant, we expect to be treated and served a particular way.  Our expectations set us up to have our patience challenged at every turn.  And all too often, we end up showing our butt instead of our patience.  We end up acting like first world privileged people who have demands that must be met rather than God’s children.  

I think it is interesting that in the verse today, patience and kindness are contained together.  They seem to serve as a unit.  Love is patient and kind.  It seems to be that if we can exercise patience, we can also find time for kindness.  When those minor inconveniences do not cause us to become angry and hateful – those are times when we can share kindness with someone who could probably use a lot of kindness at that moment.  It allows us to take a step back and find ways to be kind in the face of adversity.  It allows us to be a little more like Jesus.  Isn’t that really what it is all about anyway? Our delay in getting something we want may just be the opportunity show the love of Christ – if we can simply be patient.

I am grateful God is patient with us.  We are reminded in Psalm 103:8 – “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”  God is love.  And God is patient and kind.  Maybe we should give it a try too.

Focus Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:4

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. 

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

Love never fails – it’s a hard statement for us to wrap our mind around.  We see so many things fail which seem so full of love.  We experience the car we love refuse to crank when we are not even home.  We taste the food we love and know it is adding to the abundance of us to love.  We watch relationships fail we just knew would survive most anything.  We see things we love fail and we feel things we hold so dear slip away. How is it that it can even be written that love never fails?  Was Paul having a moment of insanity?  Or was he with the one he loved?

We are taught in the Bible not only that love never fails, we are also taught that God is love.  If love never fails and God is love, that would mean God never fails.  God’s love never fails.  God’s love transcends the experience.  God’s love is more powerful than the things we often associate with the word ‘love’.  People fail.  Ideas fail.  Experiences fail.  Our thoughts of what should happen when, where and how fail.  Our demands upon God fail.  Yet, God never fails.  

God is love and his love cannot be compared to anything else.  And even though it is so powerful, he pours out his love on us.  We get the opportunity to live in this love.  We are given this love to not only change us, but to share. This is how we love God and love others – through God’s love.  God is offering this love to you and me. May we experience the love which never fails – and may we share it.

Focus Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. 

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

It occurs for two Psalms in a row.  There are times of great relief.  There are struggles and a search for God.  There are cries to God to help in the overwhelming weight of it all.  And there are exclamations of thanksgiving.  But the conclusion to both says so much for us all.  No matter our situation or what we may be struggling with…No matter if all is well and we are giving thanks to God…The conclusion always comes back to – hope in God. 

While all the world may feel as though it is collapsing around us – hope in God.  While there is a song in our heart and joy on our lips – hope in God.  Our hope is found only in him.  All others will fail us.  Nothing else will give us the calm assurance.  No one else can promise us the future God can.  No one else can be with us through it all – except God.  

Make it your beginning, your theme through the day, and the conclusion as you lay your head down tonight – Hope in God.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 43:5

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

In this time of social distancing, there is one in my life who knows no boundaries.  That, for me, is Leo.  He is such a sweet dog and he requires close proximity at all times.  If I get up to go to the bathroom, so does he.  If he wants to go play outside, he needs me to go sit outside with him.  When he sleeps, he sleeps as close to us as he possibly can – snuggled right up.  There is no such as too close for him – only too far.  At first, it drove me a little crazy.  I felt like I couldn’t even breathe he was so close.  But as time has gone on, it actually brings me comfort and joy to have him by my side.  

As I read today’s scripture, I noticed the anguish expressed by the Psalmist.  He is in agony – physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Not only does his heart hurt, his body is wasting away right before him.  He understands his sin has done some of this.  And yet, he pleads to God to hear him, to rescue him, and to provide reprieve.  This is not an unusual theme in the Psalms.  What really spoke so loudly was his conclusion.  He records, “O my God, do not be far from me” (vs 21).  He is asking for God to be close.  He wants the distance between them to be erased.  He is confessing his sins in an effort to be cleansed.  He is seeking the comfort and care of God, One who is closer than a brother.  His plea is simple – be close to me.  I hear he seeks God’s arms of protection, his wrap of refuge, and his outpouring of love.  What a salve to a broken spirit!  He wants God to be even closer than Leo is to me – and that’s really close.  

What if we sought to experience God’s presence like this?  How might our lives change if we wanted to be as close to God as Leo seeks to be with me?  What if our desire was so strong we begged to just be close?  We may find comfort.  We may find peace.  We may even find we are held in the arms of the Almighty.  That seems like a good place to be.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 38:21-22

²¹ Do not forsake me, O Lord;
    O my God, do not be far from me;
²² make haste to help me,
    O Lord, my salvation.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

Music can teach us so much about life.  There can be a song in our hearts when we cannot find a word to speak.  Notes can flow from us as an offering to God when prayers seem so distant.  Music moves us and changes us.  It can motivate us or calm us.  One of the gifts of music is harmony.  To sing in harmony is when a group sings different notes that come together to create a full, beautiful musical masterpiece.  Each part of the group is singing a different set of notes.  They are not all singing the exact same thing.  Yet, when they come together, something truly amazing happens.  This rich experience teaches us something about life.

Today’s scripture reminds us we are given the opportunity, through Christ, to live in harmony with one another.  This doesn’t mean we all are the same.  We look different, we sound different, we sing different notes.  But when we come together with the love of Christ at our core, we create a unique and symbiotic experience that could not have been created alone.  Alone, we may create a song, together we create a masterpiece.  Life is lived so much richer and fuller when we come together in harmony with one another.  This is possible through Jesus.  We come together in a chorus that offers up a praise of one complete song to God.  When love fills our hearts, songs flow from our lips.  When we harmonize together, incredible things happen.  And it is all because the Creator gives us the perfect sheet music.  If we can learn to harmonize together, we can change the world.

Focus Scripture:

Romans 15:5-6

May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

Peace comes from God.  The inner peace that gives us a subtle calm in the middle of a raging chaotic mess is our gift from our Creator.  He knows what we need when we need it.  He fills us with peace.  And because he lives in us, he also fills us with the ability to make peace.  We are given wisdom, pure wisdom.  This wisdom is not manipulative.  It is not harmful or deceitful.  This wisdom is pure and good.  This wisdom yields peace – both in us and from us.  It is like planting seeds in our hearts of peace.  When we nurture and provide the right environment (following God), our seeds produce a harvest we can share with others.

When we are filled with God’s wisdom, we are able to find ways to bring about peace in situations that would otherwise know no peace.  This is not because we are good negotiators.  It isn’t because God’s children have an extraordinary gift for bringing about peace in their own ability.  It is only because of God living in us and through us.  Peace comes because we seek to make peace, following God’s plan.  We do not seek revenge.  We do not seek vindication.  We do not seek other’s harm.  Even those we disagree with (and doesn’t that seem to be most everyone now), we still can make peace.  It comes from us because God has given us this wisdom.  

If we find we are not bringing about peace, either in our own lives or in the lives of those around, we may want to re-evaluate.  Are we being peacemakers?  Are we forgiving as God taught us to forgive?  Are we living as children of God?  Are we loving as he has taught us to love?  Are we making peace in situations where he leads us?  Is God’s wisdom filling our hearts or is it our own plans and desires? 

May God’s peace fill you today.  May his wisdom guide you to share peace with others. May you live in peace, even when the world is in chaos. 

Focus Scripture:

James 3:17-18

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

It can be tempting to become frustrated at those who seem to have it so much better than we do.  We can find ourselves wishing for what someone else has.  We may wish we had that job or that house or that family.  We look at our own situation and wonder how we got here.  Comparison is the enemy.  Comparison steals our peace, our joy, and our ability to love.  Comparison shifts our vision so that we don’t truly see, we are blinded by greed or envy or anger.  We begin to wonder why God hasn’t been as good to us.  We worry because we see other people prospering more than us.  And we go down a path that is destructive and deceitful.  It leads to no good.  

When this happens, when we find ourselves traveling down this path, we need a vision shift.  We need to take a close look at the goodness we have been given.  We must stop comparing and start giving thanks.  We have so much more than we realize.  We have been given so many good things we take for granted.  We are loved beyond measure.  We are filled with enough.  We are called children of God.  These are treasures that no amount of possessions can replace.  The things which we think are so very important are usually the things which cause us to forsake our peace.  

The good news is God can help us to see differently.  The Holy Spirit can fill our vision with the abundance of God’s goodness which abounds in our own lives.  He can help us to begin to understand the things of this world are fleeting and often of way less value than we give them.  What matters is God’s steadfast love.  God’s mercy, his grace and his peace can fill our empty souls.  God can give us more than what we could ever imagine – and it is better than anything we can find in a magazine or online.  God can give us all we need to live a full life, today.  Maybe we just need a vision shift to see it.  And it isn’t found in our neighbor’s yard, but maybe in our neighbor’s heart.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 37:3-8

³ Trust in the Lord, and do good;
    so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
⁶ He will make your vindication shine like the light,
    and the justice of your cause like the noonday.

⁷ Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
    do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
    over those who carry out evil devices.

⁸ Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath.
    Do not fret—it leads only to evil.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery

We easily identify the violence in the world – it is thrown at us on a regular basis through the ‘news’.  We can feel the tensions.  We hear of the hatred (and maybe experience it).  We would say the world is full of many things – greed, despair, anger.  But the Psalmist gives us a different view.  There is more than what the media tells us.  There is so much more offered we will not see on TV or on our phones.  Social media isn’t able to adequately capture it.  And so, we can miss it.  We can miss there is more than what we are being told.  We can miss there is more than what we read about.  There is more.  There is love – God’s love.

The Psalmist talks about the earth being full of the steadfast love of the Lord.  This wasn’t a conclusion based on what was seen around him.  He didn’t look to find love was abounding.  He experienced wars and fighting and loss if he simply looked at the view in front of him.  This love isn’t the mushy, infatuation type of stuff.  This is the love that endures, the love that breaks down barriers, the love that crosses borders.  This is the love that changes things – including us.  The Psalmist comes to this conclusion because of who God is.  God is merciful and kind, slow to anger and ABOUNDING in steadfast love.  This love covers the entire earth.  The earth is saturated in the never-ending love of God.  Why don’t we hear about it?  Why don’t we realize it?  Because we choose to focus on other things.  We choose to see the hatred.  We choose to gossip about the negative.  We choose to be entertained by the things which are not loving.  The media gives the people what they are willing to watch.  We see what is around us from the view of what we are seeking.  What if we sought out the love of God?  We may find, like the Psalmist, the earth is crammed full of the love of God.  And we just might be changed.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 33:4-5

⁴ For the word of the Lord is upright,
    and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery