Month: January 2024

Morning Dew #69

God, my Hope

Morning has Broken, Jamaica. Photograph by Josephine

“I don’t want to hear it. Just leave me alone!” 

Sometimes we are so overwhelmed by life’s frustrations that we want to shut out the world, pull the covers over our heads, and hope that when we emerge, calm and sanity will prevail. 

Can we really believe in God and have moments like this? Israel, God’s chosen people, did! Discouraged by their circumstances, they blocked out God’s message:

“ Say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them . . . . I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. . . . I am the Lord.’” Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” Exodus 6:6-9.

Today a typhoon of problems may be overwhelming us— Bills to pay, jobs to complete, arguments to resolve, apologies to make or accept, loneliness to overcome . . .  God says, “I am your God, I am able, and I love for you.”

Dear Lord, help me to hear your calming voice above the roar of life. Grant me peace as I trust in You even in my anxiety. Amen

Morning Dew #68

God, my Promise

The Rainbow after the Rain. Photograph by Josephine

“I hear what you are saying but I look at my hands and they are empty. I need proof!” 

There is a tension between reality and promise— Abraham heard God’s promise to bring from him a great nation. But his wife was barren and the prospects were poor since they both were past child-bearing years. So could they trust God?

For us today the tension is between knowing that there is a God and believing that He has an interest in our circumstance. When in crisis we wonder, “Am I delusional. Is there a God who actually impacts the specifics of my life? What of my stalled career, my dysfunctional home-life, my health issues, my imminent financial disaster. . . . Can God, and does God actually business Himself with my minutia or am I just hoping that the “coincidences” of my life are His doing? 

Faith is the only way to know God. Hebrew 11: 1– “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  So this week, like Abraham, let’s earnestly put God to the test!

Dear Lord, here is my concern . . . . please take it and do for me what You see as best. Give me evidence that You care. Amen

Morning Dew #67

God, my Avenger

Thanksgiving and Caring, Pennsylvania.  Photograph by Josephine

Psalm 139  overflows with a poignant description of God’s tender brooding over each of us in the secret of our mother’s womb. Thoughtfully, He “knits” each frame, blueprinting a life that brings joy and glory to Him. Throughout our lives, His adoring gaze ardently follows us day and night. 

Suddenly, this beautiful, tender, love song is shattered by a strident, clamorous call in verses 19 – 23 for harsh vengeance and judgement to “slay the wicked”. A cruel, ugly interruption! 

Sin brings death. God’s law is unchangeable. Death is irrevocable. . . . But is it? 

The Psalmist places vengeance in the hands of God— the only One who can infallibly look into our hearts to deliver just reward. Our judge sees our sins and shrouds His vengeance with loving sacrifice. He provides a surrogate, a substitute! For the guilty—a Lamb! Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God— God incarnate, came to earth to satisfy vengeance by dying for us.

Thus— the exultant, fearless, joyous last two verses of the Psalmist’s unabashed and unafraid cries to God, “search me”! Look through and through! See my sins Lord, and do Your glorious, loving work of recreation in me!

Dear Lord, Thank You for loving me unconditionally. Help me to return to You my love in faithful submission. Amen

Morning Dew #66

God, my Architect

A Mosque in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Photograph by Josephine

Most people have an idea of what their dream-house would look like. My dream house would have a big bay-window looking out to the ocean, where the golden evening sun dips beneath the glassy horizon into a blazing pool of crimson. In the rear, there would be a spacious veranda where in the crisp dawn air, I watch the gently rising sun exchange velvet-black starlit skies for a silvery, gray-blue canvas.

God also has His idea of a dream-house— a dream temple to be exact, where He may visit daily and in loving acceptance, listen to the hopes, expectations, concerns, and anxieties of its dwellers. We are that temple! “do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19

He also has big plans for each of us:  “For You formed my inward parts .  . . .  And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” Psalm 139:13, 16.

Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am Your temple. Teach me how to enjoy daily communion with You, and may the activities that I enjoy each day be pleasing to You. Amen