I hope my post didn’t wake you last night. I didn’t finish it until 11:30 p.m. I cleaned up the kitchen, started the dishwasher, and dropped into bed at midnight. Waking up at 4:45 am as usual was a shock! Though I am grateful for this discipline.

“Daily discipline is the door to full freedom, and the discipline to count to one thousand [gifts] gave way to the freedom of wonder and I can’t imagine not staying awake to God in the moment, the joy in the now.” “One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voskamp

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Proverbs 10:17, “Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.” New International Version

I thought my night was short until I read about Paul and Silas! Beaten black & blue and shackled, they were in a dark prison. An earthquake broke their shackles and opened the doors. But it was too dark to see their way out. They shared the gospel with the jailer and stayed up all night!

Acts 16:30-31, “… ‘Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?’ (31) They said, ‘Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you will live as you were meant to live – and everyone in your house included!’ ” The Message

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“…God works in darkness. …There may be a great work occurring in your life when things seem their darkest. You may see no evidence yet, but God is at work. …” “Streams in the Desert” June 4th

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“…So, if I say, ‘God wants you to win,’ and you’re in a cycle of defeat, that might contradict your experience or your reality, and therefore, you reduce God to a coping mechanism for your losses. …I believe He’s gonna eventually let me see victory…because…God wants me to win.” “This Might Contradict Your Experience…” 1 Min Motivation, Steven Furtick

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“We beat it down a gravel road in a cloud of dust, and I looked over at the billboard that the van Veens had planted back in their woods. I asked Dad why anyone would bother putting a sign up in their woods if no one could make out the words. He looked at me squinting, and my mamma made me an optometrist’s appointment.

Next time we drove by the van Veens’ words in the woods, I wore glasses, horn-rimmed frames. And I saw the words as clear as a bell and I read them plain: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ (Acts 16:31 King James Version).

The woods spell out words. I need a lens to read them.

Every dark woods has words. And every moment is a message from The Word-God who can’t stop writing his heart.” “One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voskamp

Maybe all I need is a new lens to understand what God is trying to show me. Or just clean off my present lens. Many things cloud our “glasses.” We can’t see because of past hurts, resentment, unforgiveness, etc. There are others around us who have smudged “glasses,” too. We must never give up on them!

James 5:19-20, “My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.” The Message

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Acts 17:2-3, “…he preached to them from the Scriptures. (3) He opened up the texts so they understood what they’d been reading all their lives…” The Message

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Acts 17:20, “…Explain it so we can understand.” The Message

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Dear Father God,

Give us the right words to say when the opportunity arises. May we never give up hope on our friends and family.

In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Amen

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