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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

I am not a good dancer.  Okay, that is an understatement.  I have zero ability to dance.  Actually, I can sing better than I can dance – and I really am not a good singer.  You get the idea – it isn’t in my skill set.  It isn’t part of the gifts God has given me.  Regardless, sometimes we must dance.  It is in our hearts and our feet begin to twitch – and we dance.  We are not dancing for anyone (thankfully).  We are not trying to impress or win an award.  We are simply dancing – head thrown back and nothing else on our mind.  There are times when dancing is the answer.  

This is what I hear from the Psalmist this morning.  There is a time for mourning and then there is a time for dancing.  Mourning is appropriate and necessary.  Mourning can last for way longer than we want.  But there is a point when mourning will turn to dancing.  It can happen very subtly.  It begins with a little glimmer in our day.  Then the glimmer turns into sunshine.  Then the sunshine turns into a tune. Before we know it, we are dancing.  We are dancing in joy.  We are dancing in thankfulness.  We are dancing because the weight of our mourning has been lifted – if but for just a moment. So dance!

Don’t be afraid to dance if this is what God has given you today.  If he has turned your mourning into dancing, then dance.  Let it all out.  Move freely in joy and gratitude.  If you are not there yet, just hold on.  Your time is coming.  Maybe it is just a twitch in your foot today.  Maybe it is a song in your heart.  But don’t lose heart – God will turn your mourning into dancing too.  And when he does – don’t forget to actually dance.  It may be just what you need today.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 30:11-12

¹¹ You have turned my mourning into dancing;
    you have taken off my sackcloth
    and clothed me with joy,
¹² so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
    O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

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

We are surrounded by God’s goodness.  It envelopes us on a daily basis.  From the cool, crisp Spring mornings to the humid, seemingly unbearable Summer days.  They are all packed with God’s goodness.  He has surrounded us, encased us in this beauty.  We are a part of the goodness.  You and me are part of the goodness God has provided to this earth.  We pass by it most days.  We continue on with our lives as if nothing has happened.  But it is there.  

Sometimes we don’t notice because we are sad or anxious.  We could be angry or distraught.  It could simply be we are pre-occupied.  Or maybe we just aren’t looking for it.  Sometimes his goodness is subtle.  His goodness may be gentle and almost unnoticeable to the common observer.  That’s why we can’t be the common observer.  We are God’s children surrounded by God’s handiwork.  

I will be the first to admit it is easier to detect when the flowers are blooming and the garden is bountiful.  When things are going as we think they should, we can pick out all God has done.  I can see his love as I hover over the fresh vegetables.  I can taste his goodness in a fresh, home cooked meal.  I can hear his goodness in the laughter of children and the sound of music.  I can feel his goodness in the sunshine wrapping me up like a warm blanket.  But what about when things aren’t so obvious?  Do we really believe we will see his goodness even when things are going horribly wrong – at least by our evaluation?  Do we really believe God’s goodness is a part of us when our world seems to be collapsing?  These are the times we are challenged to believe.  We are pushed to the boundaries and find ourselves scrambling.  Yet, God hasn’t changed.  He has declared goodness from the very beginning and continues to do it moment after moment, day after day.  The Psalmist believed in seeing God’s goodness even with enemies surrounding the area.  How about us?

Will you seek God’s goodness today?  Will you find where God has provided good to us, right before our eyes?  I choose to echo the words of the Psalmist and believe I will see God’s goodness today.

Focus Scripture:

Psalm 27:13-14

¹³ I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

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