Author: J Brad Mitchell

Traveling through the fog can skew our perspective.  We don’t always know where the next turn will be.  It even causes us to question what we know about the roads.  Everything seems out of sorts.  Our vision is distorted from what it might otherwise be.  I noticed something intriguing this morning as I was running in the fog – when I looked up, I could see the clearing of the fog and a whole dome of bright stars.  The fog was settling on the earth and left the sky completely clear.  While my vision was distorted looking all around me, I could clearly see when I looked up.

I was immediately reminded this is what life is like.  So many times I look around me and see trouble.  I feel the anxiety and chaos.  The uncertainty of each day can feel so heavy.  All too often, that’s all I see – or all I allow myself to see.  I get caught up in the fog of life.  It is when I cry out to God for rescue – when I seek him on his Holy Mountain – I find relief.  When I look up, I see clearly.  I see I am not in control, but I am not alone.  I see there is joy and hope which awaits.  I see there is a peaceful presence of beauty.  But to see it, I must look up.  I can’t get mired down in the bog of this life.  

Maybe today is the day you need to simply look up.  You may find you see so much clearer when you focus on God and not on your problems.  You may even find rescue.  He hung the stars and yet, he loves you and me – that’s the God I want to serve.  Look up, my friends – God is with us.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 147:3-5

³ He heals the brokenhearted,
    and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
⁵ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.

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

Wendy and I went on a trip years ago to a place which felt like a tropical paradise.  It was warm and welcoming.  The waters were crystal clear and seemed to go on forever.  I do vividly remember one interesting aspect of this paradise – rain.  It wasn’t that it rained much at all.  We had many days of absolute beauty, no overcast.  But when the rain came, it was unexpected.  It seemed to come on in the blink of an eye.  When it rains on the beaches of North Carolina, we usually pack up and go inside – the rain seems to take a seat and stay a while.  But not here.  People would just crowd under one of the nearby trees.  Just hang on a little and the storm will pass.  There was no need to pick up your stuff.  No need to go inside.  Just hang out under the tree for a few and then return to your normal activity.  The trees provided a reprieve in a downpour.  They gave us a refuge from the storm.  It didn’t last long and it was just what we needed.  

When I read the Psalm in today’s focus scripture, I thought about how God provides refuge in our storms.  He shields us and protects us.  He provides exactly what we need just when we need it.  But he doesn’t intend for us to stay there forever.  We have to go back out.  We have to move forward, seeking to serve him.  We are called to go and serve, not stay and hideout.  We are taught to be strong and courageous, God is with us.  These are gifts as we go.  

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I want to just stay in the refuge.  I want to be covered and not come out again.  The world can be cruel.  There can be so many things which hurt us.  It can feel like too much.  But God has given us the courage to move out into the world to share his love.  We are given all we need to reach out with his kindness and spread his hope.  These are things so desperately needed in our world.  And we have the keys – the peace, love, joy and hope.  Sometimes we just need to move out of our comfort and into a hurting world.  

There is a time when refuge is exactly what we need.  There is also a time to step forward with God into the world.  Wherever you may find yourself today, may you feel the presence of the Almighty.  He is with us.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 57:1

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
    for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
    until the destroying storms pass by.

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

As we begin to take a look at where we are, what we have been doing and how we might be missing the ways to be a follower of Christ, we may find our mistakes tend to add up.  We may find we keep repeating the same ridiculous errors over and over.  We may find the same things trip us up and get us off the right path.  This can be frustrating.  But the more we take the time to see, to identify those problems, the better we are equipped to give them to God.  When we do that, we are asking for help.  We are looking for a better way.  We are laying it all out before him.  Until we take that long, hard look at our mistakes, we won’t realize the things which continue to haunt us and send us in the wrong direction.

One of the issues we often run into is we want an easy fix.  We want it to all go away.  We don’t always want to put in the work to combat our weaknesses.  We just want it all to end.  Yet, there are consequences to our bad decisions.  There are outcomes to the ways that we go – and sometimes those are really challenging, even painful.  We sometimes suffer because we have chosen the wrong path.  This isn’t always the case.  But there are many times when we have gotten ourselves into the situation that is dragging us down.  While God provides mercy and redemption, we are not without consequences.  

In today’s portion of Psalm 51, the Psalmist admits to God where he has gone wrong.  He understands that God has every right to punish him, to cast judgment.  He knows he has gone off course and comes before God with it.  This is often an important step in getting back to where we need to be.  When we can understand how we have gone wrong, we can also appreciate the redemption that is before us.  It can also help us not to go that direction again.  

Today, may we come before God with an honest assessment of where we are.  May we lay it all out before him.  This is a step towards healing.  It is painful.  But it is necessary to begin to move forward.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 51:3-4

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
    and blameless when you pass judgment.

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

For so many of us, these are the most difficult times we have faced.  Fear and anxiety have seeped into our existence as we seek to find a new, safer normal – at least for now.  We are constantly making more difficult decisions.  Life is uncomfortable and admittedly, that is an understatement.  We are never really sure when things will ‘let up’ and what it will look like when they do.  With all of this going on, we can find ourselves more angry and more unsettled.

How timely that we are at the starting point of the Lenten Season.  It is the beginning, just celebrating Ash Wednesday.  We are here and it couldn’t be a more appropriate spot to be.  Lent gives us a time of self-evaluation.  We are given an opportunity to check ourselves out, where we are and what we are doing.  It is a season of reflection, lamenting when we have not been all we could.  We can redirect, listening to God.  We can refocus, setting ourselves on a new path.  But it takes real work – a real effort to evaluate ourselves.  It isn’t easy.  We don’t often what to admit how anger has gotten the best of us.  We don’t want to look at the times when we said things we shouldn’t have or did things which we are not proud.  But really looking deep, we can seek God’s forgiveness.  We can seek his redemption, his cleansing.  We find we are not stuck where we thought we were.  And we seek the way of Jesus – the way of love.

How will you begin your time of self-evaluation?  What can you do to begin to see where you are and where you have missed it?  For me, it begins in quiet reflection, listening to God.  He knows.  He knows when I have not been who he created me to be.  He knows where I struggle.  He knows how I have allowed toxic things to seep into my life.  And he knows how to clean me up.  He can do the same for you.

Today, may we begin to look deep within.  Where are we?  And how do we get to where we were created to go?

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.

Ephesians 4:26

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger

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

Today is Ash Wednesday.  It is the beginning of the season of Lent – a 40 day journey to the cross.  The start of this journey is important.  It sets the tone for the trip.  It is the first day into a meaningful experience of growth – if we so choose to travel the journey.  Ash Wednesday reminds us of who we are – in our humanity.  We are reminded that we are not perfect.  We are given a visual clue of our brief time on this earth.  We were created from dust and to dust we will return. 

This may not sound like the start of something exciting and may not appeal to you as a journey you want to travel.  But I find the most meaningful journeys are those which challenge me and remind me of the goodness of God.  That is what Lent is for me – a reminder of the love of God and how much I need him.  I can’t do this alone.  I am not in control.   Lent is a way to redirect our vision toward God and away from self – a giving up of the things which hold us back from following Christ with our all.

For as long as I can remember, I have always begun Ash Wednesday with Psalm 51.  The Psalmist helps us to feel the pain and agony of mistakes and guilt – and yet a deep desire to be cleansed and made new.  If we truly read, it gives us pause to consider where we might be going the wrong direction and how we may need a clear course.  We are reminded of how we may be missing it but this isn’t the end – actually this is the beginning.  Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a time of repentance and renewal.  

Today, we can come to God as verse 17 so beautifully describes:  with a broken spirit and a broken heart.  We can come to him with exactly who we are and allow him to mend us, cleanse us, and set us back on the right path.  May we lay our brokenness before him today.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
    and blameless when you pass judgment.
⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty,
    a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶ You desire truth in the inward being; 
    therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence,
    and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you have no delight in sacrifice;
    if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
¹⁷ The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
    rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
¹⁹ then you will delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

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

When my kids were growing up, I often felt like a broken record – repeating myself over and over and over.  I wondered if they ever heard me, especially when they asked the same things continually.  I’m not much for repeating myself – it seems a waste of time.  Well, it is a waste unless what is repeated needs to be heard. Some things are so very important they need to be repeated continually.  I love my kids with all my heart – so I want them to hear how much I love them – always.  That message never gets old and I never mind saying it.  It is just that important.  

Reading the Bible can be daunting.  There are many pages filled with unusual people and concepts that often seem so foreign to us today.  Yet, every page is there for a reason.  It is actually a very condensed version of occurrences.  Only the necessary is kept and told.  When we consider this, we should pay special attention to the teachings which are repeated over and over.  They are there for a reason.  They are repeated for importance.  They are emphasized because it was something the people needed to hear.  Essentially, it is also something we need to hear as well.  It is also something which is often quite challenging.  If it was easy and natural, there would be no need to keep repeating it.  

Today, we are reminded to love one another.  This is a teaching found in the beginning of the Bible and carries all the way through.  It is obvious.  It is not hidden.  It is not mysterious.  It is given to us continually.  We are called to love one another.  God gets it isn’t easy – that’s why it is repeated over and over.  He also gets how important it is – one of the most important teachings in the entire Bible – central to our faith.  If we miss the part of loving one another, we have missed what it means to be a follower of Christ.  This isn’t one of those optional, extra credit teachings.  This is a main idea in the story.  

Today, hear it again, and may it ring fresh and new – love one another.  Now, go and do.

Focus Scripture:

1 John 3:11

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

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 difficult to stay focused.  We have difficulty concentrating on just one thing when so many are calling out.  Our phones are dinging or buzzing.  The TV is flashing with images to capture our attention.  There are people sitting around us talking.  We can find it nearly impossible to focus our attention.  It is understandable.  Even if we cut out everything else, our minds can wander.  We are even challenged to listen to someone else.  We may be thinking about the things we need to do.  We could be searching for the answers to the questions they are asking.   We may be seeking solutions to their problems, even if they are not asking for solutions. Focusing can be difficult.

So it is no surprise if we have difficulty focusing on God.  Much of the time, he is more subtle.  He provides for us, yet we don’t realize it.  He sends people our way with encouragement, but we don’t always listen.  He has given us guidelines for living, yet we don’t always read them.  He is in constant contact with us.  The problem is we don’t always focus.  All of those things I mentioned above are already screaming for us – and God is not.  To see and hear him, we must look for him, seek him, and focus.  Our eyes need to be fixed on him.  

This takes our effort and our concentration.  It takes our focus and consistently seeking God.  He is with us.  He is working in our lives.  He is taking care of us.  Where are your eyes focused?

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 16:8

⁸ I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
    With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

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

There are so many times in life when we just don’t get it.  We don’t understand why things happen the way they do.  We don’t even understand why good things happen to us – often feeling too unworthy for the goodness given to us.  We don’t understand how we got to the place we find ourselves – good or bad.  We just don’t get it.  And yet, here we are.  Wherever we find ourselves, we are here.  And so is God.  When we find we have run everyone else off, God is near.  When we find we have run from everything, God is still there. When we long to know we are loved, God’s there with his embrace.  We don’t get it.  But we don’t need to get it.  That isn’t our job.  That’s not what is needed of us.  We aren’t required to figure it out.  We can live in the shadow of the Almighty and find we don’t remember how we even stumbled there.

God gives us powerful, vivid reminders of him in the wonders of the world.  The Psalmist sees God through creation.  God is represented in the visual amazement all around us.  We don’t have to get it because God is present.  Just look around.  Do you see, feel, experience him?  

The Psalmist reminds us that God’s love is both steadfast and extends to the heavens.  That means God consistently loves.  It also means we cannot measure his love, it is endless.  We cannot see the end of his love because it doesn’t exist.  It is more than our minds can comprehend.  God’s faithfulness expands all the way to the clouds – beyond us.  His righteousness is solid, majestic, and ever present like the mighty mountains.  His judgment is deeper than we can swim, explore, or dive.  God is present, do you feel him?  He offers refuge in the shadows of his wings and nourishment in his presence.  He flows with goodness to restore, renew and revive us.  Have you experienced him?

Creation teaches us so much about the power and love of God when we take the time to notice.  We live in a time when we want to know everything.  We want to google all the answers.  But God is more than we can understand.  That is reassuring.  I am grateful he gives us a glimpse of his power in the beauty surrounding us.  He is holding us close in the gifts of the trees, the mountains, the seas and so much more.  He can even be seen in the eyes of each other – if we look really close.  May God remind us he is near today.  And may we be changed.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 36:5-9

⁵ Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the clouds.
⁶ Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
    your judgments are like the great deep;
    you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.

⁷ How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
    All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house,
    and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
⁹ For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light.

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

To cling to something is to hold fast to it.  There is a constant contact.  We don’t let go of something we cling to.  When a child is shy, he or she will often cling to parents seeking safety from strangers.  We can get upset when someone seems to be clingy to us.  Cling wrap is often misnamed since it clings to everything except the bowl we are trying to put it on.  We seek something or someone to cling to when we are frightened or in distress.  It is a sign of seeking a reprieve or shelter.

What might it look like to cling to God?  You may say holding onto God is not physically possible, so why try.  We don’t have the option of hiding behind God in the physical sense like we may have done with our parents.  So clinging to God might look different.  It might look like staying in constant contact with him.  It may look like seeking him all of the time, always on the search for his goodness.  It may look like being in communication with him, striving to hear him.  Clinging to God may be different than clinging to a human being.  But clinging to God is the ultimate safety, the place to be when all the world is raging around us.  To be held by God’s hand when everything feels so very out of control is a comforting place.  We can rest there.  We can find healing there.  We can find shelter there.  If my entire being is clinging to God, there is peace.  

Our lives might look different if we sought to cling to God, if we stayed in constant contact with him.  We may find we are filled with love despite all that is going on.  We may begin to see things differently – and see God.  May we cling to him with our everything as he holds us up and carries us through.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 63:8

My soul clings to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

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