Azaleas

I felt down.  I couldn't get my mind wrapped around everything that was going on.  I needed an uplifting word or some type of encouragement.  I told the girls I was going to read for a brief moment at the kitchen table.  It wasn't my usual time for reading anything.  I usually didn't sit at the kitchen table to do my reading.  But I could feel the chair calling my name.  I was armed with a very short devotion, but I knew I just needed a moment to think, to talk with God, to read, and ask for guidance on our day.

The devotion was very uplifting, but it still wasn't exactly what I needed.  I stared our our kitchen window.  That is when I first saw it.  We have a lot of azalea bushes in our yard.  Two very small dark pink ones are out by the mailbox.  Five big lite pink ones line the side of our porch where we park.  But there is one and only one white one.  It is out by our swing.  And that is what my eyes saw.  The perfectly white azalea.  It was brilliant.  It was beautiful.  It was the farthest thing from what I was feeling.

Isaiah 1:18 came to my mind.  "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."


Although I had been beating myself up that morning, I knew deep down God did not view me that way I was seeing myself.  He loves me.  He loves you.  Once we are His children, are sins are washed away and we are "white as snow".  When we are putting our selves down, it is Satan using his evil tactics to make us feel down.  He doesn't want us to accomplish what God has called us to do.  But remembering God's love for us can help lift us from the fog.  We can plant our feet on His truths and walk the path He has chosen for us with confidence!


Today's verses
Ephesians 2:4-9 "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."


That view lifted my fog that morning.  It reminded me I am His.  I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me it would be ok and to continue to trust.  I had to keep on keeping on.  I am a sinner saved by grace, and the pretty white azaleas was a reminder that I am loved and my sins are washed away.  God thinks we are even more beautiful than the pretty white azalea.  I was able to walk away from the table with a whole new perspective for the day.  It took only a moment, but that is all God needs to touch our hearts.  Please make sure you are spending those moments with Him everyday!