January 7 ~ Isaiah 25:1
God, you are my God. I celebrate you. I praise you. You've done your share of miracle-wonders, well-thought-out plans, solid and sure.
(Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies of The Message call (800) 366-7788.)
When things work out well for you, do you stop to thank God? Or do you say to yourself (or whoever will listen) “Man, that was lucky!” Friend, luck had nothing to do with it! If something good happens in your life, God deserves the credit. If you get a miracle, God gave it to you.
So what about when bad things happen? Did God plan that, too? No! I do not believe for one minute that God is behind bad things, misfortune, illness, disease, or anything negative in your life. But…I do believe that God will take your worst experiences and turn them into blessings if you will let Him. God is in the business of blessing those who love Him, and He will make a way where none seems evident. With God, all things are possible.
I don’t know what you are going through… or what lies ahead for any of us. But I do know WHO is planning my future. And I will celebrate God and give Him praise in all things. Will you?
©2008 Debbie Robus
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January 6 ~ Proverbs 16:1
Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word.
(Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies of The Message call (800) 366-7788.)
”Never say ‘Never!’” That’s something I say to myself from time to time, because just as sure as I say, “I will never do so-and-so,” God changes things and I end up doing just that! When my husband and I moved back to the city where we attended college, I said more than once, “I will never live in Heber Springs again!” ”Never say ‘Never!’” When I joined the church I now attend, I planned to attend 8:30 worship service, followed by a 9:30 Sunday School class, and have the rest of my Sunday to do whatever I pleased. Then one day as I left the sanctuary, the 9:30 Praise and Worship band was scrambling because their pianist had not shown up, and they had no instrumentalists, and I offered to pitch in as best I could. I’ve been with them for almost eight years now, with Sunday School classes and small group leadership thrown in at the 11:00 hour. ”Never say ‘Never!’”
We are all really good at making elaborate plans… mortal plans. But God does have the last word. And for all of the plans we make, His are far better than we could ever concoct. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing to plan. In fact, it’s a good thing, especially if you plan prayerfully. But understand that even on our best day, the plans we make may fall short of God’s plans for us, and His trump ours every time. So open your heart and mind to the possibilities that God offers, and ask Him to guide you as you make your plans.
©2008 Debbie Robus
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January 5 ~ Proverbs 15:22
Refuse good advice and watch your plans fail; take good counsel and watch them succeed.
(Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies of The Message call (800) 366-7788.)
Can you recall a time when you got good advice? One that comes to mind for me is my freshman English class. In high school, I took tests called the College Level Examination Program (CLEP). If you made a certain score on these tests, you could skip (or “CLEP”) college classes and receive credit for them. I was able to “CLEP” College Algebra and the first semester of freshman English. So the second semester of my freshman year, I enrolled in an English composition class. My professor, Francis Irby Gwaltney, took one look at my record and said, “My dear, why are you here? You belong in the “honors English” class.” I explained to Mr. G. that, while I had excellent instruction in high school in English grammar, I had not gotten much literature and virtually NO instruction in writing. In fact, in three years of high school, I never wrote a single composition (or “theme” as we called them in the 1970’s). I respectfully asked to stay in this composition class, and Mr. Gwaltney (a successful author and screenwriter) graciously agreed.
Mr. Gwaltney advised me that the “honors” class would look better on my transcript, but he knew that this class would consist of reading literary classics and then writing about them, and I had no background for doing this. So, he offered to go with me to visit the chairman of the English department, where he explained my situation and recommended that I be allowed to remain in his class.I know God was behind all of this, because all we did in Mr. Gwaltney’s class was write. Every Monday we were assigned a topic. Every Friday, we turned in our “theme.” Mr. Gwaltney had an incredibly entertaining but discombobulated way of teaching, but learn we did! He counted off .25 points (on a 4.00 system) for each misspelled word. And he counted off just as much for use of the word “very.” He felt this word was “very” unnecessary and redundant! It took me years to be able to use it in a sentence again!
Mr. Gwaltney laid the groundwork for a skill that has served me extremely well in the last 30 years. He took a 17-year-old “child bride” (his nickname for me) and gave me skills and advice that proved invaluable. God knew I needed Mr. Gwaltney, and He made a way for us to work together that semester. God gave Mr. G. “good counsel” to pass along, and I am so glad He gave me the wisdom to take it!
©2008 Debbie Robus
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January 4 ~ Job 42:1
Job answered God: "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, 'Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?' I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, 'Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.' I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I'm sorry—forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor."
(Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies of The Message call (800) 366-7788.)
When I was teaching, I worked for a principal who was something of a tyrant. She simply was not a nice person, and she treated the teachers in my building terribly. Job vacancies came open in another elementary school in our district, and I applied. I had taught kindergarten for eight years, and I was ready for a change, so I applied for a fifth grade teaching position at this other school. The interview went well, although this principal expressed skepticism that I could make the switch from teaching 5-year-olds to relating to 10-year-olds. I assured him that I could do it and was ready for the change.
There was one other person who applied for this job, and the word circulated back to me through fellow teachers that I had done well, and I was a shoo-in for the position. And then the call came. One morning as I taught my kindergarten class, I was summoned to the telephone, where the interviewing principal thanked me but said he had decided to hire the other teacher. I was devastated. I had put all my hopes in those rumors and talk. I had become convinced that job was mine, and I was crushed. For a couple of days, I really didn’t know what to do. I prayed for answers, but I also wallowed in the disappointment and futility of having to stay in my present situation and work for the oppressive principal.
As I looked back on these events later, I realized that God was orchestrating everything. The principal who didn’t hire me did me a favor, because I began to formulate a plan for leaving my teaching job and starting a new business. I wish now that I had been mature enough in my faith to realize that God was at work, but that came later. I was as foolish as Job, listening to others instead of staying in tune with God and trusting Him to deliver an outcome. I still would not have gotten the job, but I would have better understood why I didn’t get it, and that God was planning something bigger and better for me.
Let’s agree – you and I – to avoid muddying the water. Let’s not listen to the idle talk of others… the predictions and rumors. Let’s not run to psychics and read horoscopes and try to figure things out on our own. Let’s pray and read God’s word and listen for His voice and “be still and know” Who is in control. God can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset His plans. Let’s let Him give the answers and do the talking from now on.
©2008 Debbie Robus
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January 3 ~ 2 Kings 19:25
Did it never occur to you that I'm behind all this? Long, long ago I drew up the plans, and now I've gone into action,
(Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies of The Message call (800) 366-7788.)
When I was in junior high, I attended a summer church camp. Caught up in the emotional hoopla of nightly church services and peer pressure, I was convinced that I was called by God to be a missionary nurse. The trouble with this was that, first and foremost, I am reduced to fainting at the sight of needles and not worth a flip when it comes to watching surgical procedures. Somehow I didn’t feel this would play very well in the medical arena. I was offered scholarships from leading state universities to study piano, and that was my next plan. But in the summer before my junior year, I conducted art and music activities for preschoolers at our church’s Vacation Bible School, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was called to teach young children. So I became an elementary school teacher and taught first grade and kindergarten students for almost a decade.
I also assumed that I would marry and have children. I had it all mapped out… two kids, Christian and Courtney, and a nice home, summers off, and a happy life. Over 30 years later, I have had nice homes, a few summers off, and a happy life, but Christian and Courtney must belong to someone else! You see, God’s plans for me did not include children of my own, but He gave me hundreds of other children to love, plus a couple dozen nieces, nephews, and children of friends on which to dote. He also gave me time that would have been spent on rearing a family to devote to helping with the care of grandparents, relatives in need, and friends and neighbors.
God’s plans for my life included developing a magazine with my husband that would help thousands of retired travelers find work to keep their RVs on the road. His plans included turning bumps in the road into opportunities for blessings, and along the way, my relationship with my church family deepened and opportunities arose for teaching Sunday School classes and small groups… and for writing these devotionals!
I don’t really know what God has in store for me now. I hope I have many years ahead to find out! But I have come to see His hand in every step I have made… even the mis-steps – and there have been many. That is when He truly arrived and “saved the day!” And now I feel like I have grown and see the signs of His influence better and sooner. No matter what age you are, I challenge you to watch for God as he steers your life in various directions. Learn the signs and how to hear from Him, and follow His plans. They may not be what you expected, but I promise, when God is the designer, the end result is always better!
©2008 Debbie Robus
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January 2 ~ Exodus 25:1
God spoke to Moses: "Tell the Israelites that they are to set aside offerings for me. Receive the offerings from everyone who is willing to give. These are the offerings I want you to receive from them: gold, silver, bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet material; fine linen; goats' hair; tanned rams' skins; dolphin skins; acacia wood; lamp oil; spices for anointing oils and for fragrant incense; onyx stones and other stones for setting in the Ephod and the Breastpiece. Let them construct a Sanctuary for me so that I can live among them. You are to construct it following the plans I've given you, the design for The Dwelling and the design for all its furnishings.
(Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies of The Message call (800) 366-7788.)
When my husband and I decided to build a new house, we knew from experience that we were in for months of planning and preparation. We spent days sitting on our vacant lot, deciding how and where to place the rooms for maximum appeal and comfort. We spent weeks drawing the floor plan, and then working with a building designer to make sure the house would be structurally sound and feasible. We spent months gathering the hardware, fixtures and other materials needed to bring our drawings to life, so to speak, in the form of a house in which we could actually live.
In this scripture passage, God has sent plans to the Israelites for a Sanctuary. If they built it based on God’s plans, He promised to dwell there with them and live among them. God has spent time planning each of our lives, and if we follow His plans, He will dwell among us, too. But quite often, we are not as careful in the attention we pay to our life plans as we are to something as insignificant as a structure in which to live. We must realize that we are a house, of sorts – a temple for God. And as such, the most important plans we make involve including God in each decision, each piece of “hardware” and each “fixture.” We must be sure our Spiritual “house” is structurally sound. In other words, God won’t live in a Spiritual shack!
So start today - ask God to guide your steps. Ask Him to help you with each decision you make, no matter how small it seems. Ask God to be the designer of your life, and then invite Him to live with you every day. I promise, His plans for you will result in something far grander than you could ever design on your own!
©s Debbie Robus
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January 1 ~ Genesis 50:19
Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid. Do I act for God? Don't you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I'll take care of you and your children." He reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart.
(Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies of The Message call (800) 366-7788.)
Happy New Year! Here it is, a new day, a new year, a “fresh start” and “clean slate” and all of those other clichés we always hear! But truly, this can be all of these things and more, if we remember Joseph’s words. God has good plans for us this year. I don’t know what they are, exactly, but I know that God can use anything for good and for His glory.
Last year on January 1st, I had no idea that I would spend nearly three months with my leg in a cast. Maybe you had no idea you would lose your job, your marriage or relationship would fall apart, your loved ones would die, you would get sick, or you would flunk out of school… or whatever might have happened to you. You might not have known you would inherit a lot of money, win a big sports tournament, meet somebody new and wonderful, or have a baby!
I don’t know what your circumstances are, but I do know that God can turn anything around if we let him. Our illness or injury can be a time to grow closer to Him and to witness to others. Our loneliness in a failed relationship can be a chance to reach out to others who are lonely and hurting. Our victories can be a chance to share with others how God has blessed us. Our windfalls can be an opportunity to bless others and share the wealth in God’s name.
I don’t know what God has in store for us in the coming year, but I do know He will be with us. No matter what happens, God can see us through it. This month we will look at devos that ask, “Where Do We Go from Here?” We will see where God is taking us and how to figure out what lies ahead according to HIS plans for our lives. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about the future? Where do we go from here? Let’s explore it together. With God by our side, I know it’s going to be a great ride!
©2008 Debbie Robus
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