He Preserves The Faithful

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He Preserves 
The Faithful
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio




Psalm 31:23-24 (NIV1984)
 Love the LORD, all his saints! 
The LORD preserves the faithful,
   but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart, 
all you who hope in the LORD.

We moved to Spokane for a better job with the company my husband had been working for and two months later they closed their doors. We had committed to renting a big 5 bedroom home and signed a 2 year lease. He looked for jobs for 2 years while also going to school to get his associates degree. During that time we did have unemployment money but the budget never worked out on paper.
Over and over again God supplied our need most often at the last moment. He preserves the faithful!

Un-employment ended and my husband still had not found a job and so we decided to move out of the big house. It was a horrible hard move. We had to get rid of about half of our stuff in garage sales because we knew we had to move to a smaller home. Then we did not find another place in time and had to move to storage and went to stay with my mom. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD

While we were there my mom fell and the place she hit her arm became infected with a type of MERSA. She was in the hospital and they tried and tried to treat it with various medications. Soon as the medicine course would end it would flair up again. They finally after more than a month, had to do an operation to remove the tissue in that area. During that same time my aunt that lives above my mother also had to have surgery.  So it was clear that God had us there on purpose. They could not have managed with out our help. It was a 45 minutes drive from her house into Spokane.  With lessons and activities we are involved in we made that drive several times a week. We did finally find a small home to move into a year ago in July. It was more than I had hoped to have to pay but it over looks a beautiful wetland area. My husband did get a part time job working nights doing store resets - He has to travel to stores around the region. He is still doing that job a year later. 

I’d like to say I have easy answers for why some periods of our life are so difficult. I know that God has used it to cause me to press into Him.  I have seen God to be faithful and I have learned to need less. Gods goal is to shape us and mold us to fulfill his plans and purposes. To do that he often uses trials, hardship and pain - they are in hind site often blessings in disguise that prepare us for future things. Joseph spent 22 years as a slave and in prison.  Would God put someone through pain, disappointment, hardship to prepare them to later save a nation. We read those stories and we know the ending but during those years Joseph did not know how it would turn out.  If I have learned anything it is to trust God even when I don’t understand. Some things will only become clear in the light of future. One never knows when we will turn the corner and that future someday will be staring us in the face providing the answer to what we do not yet understand.  We can't however just stand around scratching our heads. We need to be taking the little steps of faith that present themselves day by day.  He makes the vision and the way more clear as we take each progressive step of faith.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank you for your promise to preserve the faithful. Help me be strong and take heart. My hope is in you Lord. Right now I don’t understand all the whys. I pray you use this time in my life to mold and shape me to fulfill your purposes.

Pure Joy

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Pure Joy     
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Joy is generally not the first thing one thinks about when thinking about or experiencing trials. I suppose if we look at things in light of asking why me and while serving cake at our pitty party there may not seem to be any reason for joy. The problem is we are asking the wrong question. The question is not why me? The question needs to be Lord, what are you doing through this?
The verse above tells us that trials test our faith. Do we really believe God will help us?  If so we will keep our focus on him in expectancy that what he is doing is for our growth and for our good. Quite often we get to a trial and we find out that we are busy trying to fan the flames of faith but find we have not put more than twigs on the fire. We can’t just look to God when things are hard. We have to be building that relationship on a daily basis. Everyday, I need to be in His presence, every day I need to develop an on going conversation with him as I go through the day. Every day I need to be in his Word, every day I need to be believing and trusting and watching in wonder at the works of His hand. If I am when I get to times of trials there will be logs in my fire and I will burn brightly for Jesus.

Those trials that we face produce perseverance or patience. Thats the stick to it resolve, the I know, that I know, that I know that Jesus loves me and has a plan that is good. It moves me from a shallow faith of lip service to one of maturity and depth in which my life speaks and confirms that no matter what God is with me, No matter what is way is good, no matter what I know He loves me. No matter what I will stand for Him.

Things to Ponder:
If you are currently going through a trial - what is it showing you about your level of faith?

Prayer:
Dear Lord, I ask you to help me in this trial I presently face. I can see that I have not built up much of a reserve. Help me to use this expereince and remeber how you have helped me to be a log for a future fire of faith when I walk through other trials. In my life. Help me remember in this one your word, your ways, your love and how you have helped me in the past. Help me to ask with joy, what you are doing rather than the whiny why me? of my pitty party. Help me to seek you all the time not just when things are rough.

So that...

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So that...
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Psalm 67:1-2
 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
   and make his face shine on us
2 so that your ways may be known on earth,
   your salvation among all nations.

I love the many blessing and apostolic prayers found in the pages of the bible. I like to use them when I pray for people or to end letters that I write. This one I like because, so often we want God to bless what we are doing when really He blesses us to further His kingdom purposes through our lives. He is gracious and blesses and His face shine upon us so that.... His ways are made known on the earth and his salvation reaches the nations. That puts a whole new perspective on the me me me attitude of many of us who what to be blessed by God. While we may enjoy the blessings that we receive we need to be asking how is God wanting to use this blessing to make his ways known on the earth? I don’t think we touch that very often. We want God to bless us to prove that He does indeed love us. If you keep the perspective that His purpose for blessing is so that His ways may be known,  one can start to look at how many of his blessings come in packages that we don’t even acknowledge. For example the peace that I have in a particular trial or season of hardship. Yes the peace directly blesses me but what is it also doing for those who are observing how I go through the difficulty of life as a believer.
His blessing us is not so we can one day say ta-daa I have it all - see now I am blessed. I have a house, a car, a job, a mate, two kids, a dog a cat and a gerbil. We may or may not get blessed with the American dream.  David as a shepherd was blessed by God with the trials of having to deal with lions and bears that came to steal his sheep. God allowed him to practice with lions and bears to prepare him to one day face the biggest badest giant in the land named Goliath. The lions and bears my not have seemed like blessings at the time but they were. God blessed him by preparing him with skills and faith that he would need in the future. God made his ways known through David on the earth when he said in 1 Samuel 17: 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”   Some of the things we are dealing with in our life can’t be reconciled in the light of our current circumstances. They can only be reconciled in the light of what is yet to be. Who are you or I to say what tools or blessings that God is presently using to prepare us for His future purpose.  
Things to Ponder:
Am I allowing my present circumstances to work Gods character into my life? ____________
Is my view of “Blessing” shallow allowing only for things that make me happy or feel good?
Is my view of Blessing - getting my own way rather than that God’s ways may be made known?
Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help me expand my understanding about the purpose your blessings in my life. Some of the things I am currently facing seem difficult and not very pleasant. Help me to allow them to produce the desired results for your present and future purposes in and through my life. Make your ways known in the earth through the abundance of ways that you choose to pour out your blessing through my life.