As a child, I will try to use my vivid imagination (cough), if you ever did anything wrong you were threatened with a punishment. Yours may have been having your allowance withheld, or no TV for a week, these days it is no Facebook, phone, for an extended period of time. As for me, it was a spanking! And in my time, any adult available felt free to administer it! My granddaddy spanked me for the simple sin of punching out the intriguing green light on the console radio, my grandmother for stepping on her toes, my dad for talking in church and my mother, well, you better not be "sassy"! As you grow older you seem bent on punishing yourself, whether you realize it or not and there is the beginning of being afraid of the punihment of God. Yes I heard about hell fire, but I also heard about the love of God from a dad who explained why I was being punished and then prayed with me and then let it go, so I understood the difference between being rewarded and praised for something good I had done and being punished for my "evil" ways! I thought it was time to bring you a few scriptures showing the reward side of our God.  Genesis 15:1 this word of God came to Abram in a vision: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be grand!" Psalm 19:10-11The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous...By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.  Isaiah 40:10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,.. See, his reward is with him. Jeremiah 31:16..But now this is what the Lord says: “Do not weep any longer, for I will reward you,” says the Lord. Matthew 6:4 Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 2 John 1:8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Rev. 22:12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. These are only a few of the 103 references to "reward" in the Bible, compare that to the 25 times that the word "punishment" is used in the Holy Writ! WOW, I would say that God loves us, His own dear children! 2 Chronicles 16:9 The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. Psalm 33:18-19 Watch this: God's eye is on those who respect him, the ones who are looking for his love.He's ready to come to their rescue in bad times; in lean times he keeps body and soul together.  My dear reader, are you feeling pretty special right about now! If you aren't you ought to be, read these scriptures again,these are only a few of the ones that tell us how much God loves us, how He is watching over us, how He wants to reward those that love and serve Him! Does He still give us lessons? Read yesterday's devotion! Be blessed, pray, fear not, you have a reward on the way!

Actually I think it's comical! God has been one of my "Readers", He heard me spouting about having "patience" and decided to try mine!  When our cable went out at 3:10 pm and I began to call Comcast to report it, the frustration began. All my neighbors were calling and we all got different answers, the only common thread was that we were each told that no one had called to report an outage and unless/until that happened they would not send help. I got irritated and asked them to look at the amount of money I pay a month for their service and wondered if that didn't make me eligable for help even if no one else had called. To put it mildly, their advertisement of wanting to care for and appreciate their customers did not happen for me nor three of my neighbors that were affected. About the time I was ready to scream, it struck me funny! I thought about all the scriptures and lofty words I had been writing about patience and love and I had to just laugh at myself for not realizing that I was just before magnificently failing the test to see if I believed what I had been teaching! Lesson learned! I wanted to say that I was glad God wasn't like Comcast where I was put on hold repeatedly and then told it would be three days before I got helped because not enough people had called, but then I remembered a story found in John 11(exerpts) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Master, the one you love so very much is sick." When Jesus got the message, he said, "This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's Son."Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea."......"He said these things, and then announced, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I'm going to wake him up."The disciples said, "Master, if he's gone to sleep, he'll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine." Jesus was talking about death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.Then Jesus became explicit: "Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn't there. You're about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let's go to him."  Did you notice (v 1) that Lazarus is referred to as "the one you love very much" and then again "he loved Lazarus and his sisters very much!" But He waited three days before he went to help, why? So that God would be glorified in Lazarus being raised from the dead! Point taken, sometimes we have to wait, didn't I already say that? I was more thinking of the parable where the Shepherd goes after the one lost sheep while leaving the ninety-nine behind, or pictured Him telling the disciples to bring the children to Him, while the others had to wait! Well, we can't have it our own way everytime and if I had to learn another lesson in the "P" word, then so-be-it! When I finally realized that and irritation gave way to mirth, I found a lady named Carla who solved the whole thing and within thirty minutes I was back on-line and able to do what I feel I have been called to do...be an exhorter with the written word in the form of this simple little devotional blog! Be blessed, pray, but not for patience, you will get a test!
 

In the world we live in, we want everything instantly! We use microwaves, instant potatoes, drive thru for everything from burgers to fried fish or chicken. If we pray for patience, we want it NOW. We pray a prayer, we want an instant answer. Did you think God forgot you? He Who formed you? Jeremiah 1:5 Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations that's what I had in mind for you."  I have prayed prayers that received instant answers then there have been times that I had to wait and work on my patience before it was answered! Luke 21:19 In your patience you possess your soul. Imagine, your immortal soul depends on it! Habakkuk 2:3 If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time. I have read that promise to myself many times! There is no quick fix in this life for anything! If there were, no one would be: fat, thin, scrawny, poor or sick, we have to work for what we want, but God is faithful to help us when we ask him! Matthew 7:13-15 "Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do.The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention. "Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned. I read a statement today by Rick Warren that made me think:When God wants to make a mushroom he takes 6 hrs.To make an oak tree he takes 60 yrs.Which do you want to be? Be patient!  Philippians 1:6 There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. When God starts a work in you, He finishes it! I used to see a lady on late night TV billed as "Moms Mabley", she always said, "God don't make no junk!" Psalm 8:1 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! who has set Your glory above the heavens. Praise Him, give Him your trust, He won't let you down!

Be blessed, pray, bring all your needs to the altar, He hears and answers your prayer!

In listening to different people talk about themselves, women and men alike, it seems that no one is really happy with the way they are. This includes everything from the way they look to how they conduct their business...and the problem is this...even if you are happy with yourself...there are those critics around you that are always trying to change you into the "person you need to be."  There are those of us who feel that we are doing the best we can and still come up a little short of perfect. Matthew 5:48 "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."  We read that and, frankly, it can scare you just a little..."how can I be perfect?" Look at V43-48You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. This is HOW you can be this perfect, or at least a work in progress! Here's the hard part, 1Corinthians 13:3 "and though I give all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (or just doesn't matter)."  If it has been a while since you read that chapter, do yourself and favor and "go for it",it will help you see that the only person you have to please is God and all we have to do is love people, even if they don't love us back. This includes the person who thinks you "ought to": lose weight, wear less make up, go to the places they want you to go, always do exactly what they want you to do, shun the same people that they don't like, gossip about those "less than" or anything from there to in-between and on and on. Take a look at yourself in the mirror and know that this is the body that you have, the face and eyes and hair that only you have and the only one that can control the things you are looking at, in the flesh, is YOU...to let yourself feel inferior to anyone is a sin not only against yourself but against the God that made you exactly who you are. God does ask the question, in Isaiah 45:11, "Who do you think you are to question how I made you?" (this is paraphrased by me) So that is the first step, then look in the Bible, which is the mirror of the Word of God, to see what we look like to Him. From what I know, we have to obey His commandments or we cannot say that we love Him, and His first and greatest commandment is that we love one another. I want to be right in God's eyes, not man's! When it comes down to it, no one can tell you what is right or wrong for you, you have to look in the Word and find out what God has to say about it, for yourself. When you love Him you will keep His commandments and you will become that "perfect person" that everyone around you seems to think you should be, being good and not "sinning" is the easy part for me, it's the "love thing" that gets me also, so excuse me while I go work on myself, with the help of the Holy Spirit, Who KNOWS that I am a work in progress!

Be blessed, pray, where's that mirror?