[Friday's Devotional] - I know a man who can!

These devotionals are always written in advance and today it is the hottest Sunday of the year. I am sitting on my balcony amidst a display of spring bulbs which have burst forth into colour, a new season has begun.

I am pleased to testify that God has brought me to a place of breakthrough in my work-life and tomorrow, Monday morning, I will again be smiling as I begin my 3^rd week in my new job and I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT – thanks be to God!  I find testimonies as encouraging as scripture, the bible is full of them, so today I am sharing my gratitude.

Hope establishes the goal; faith is the bridge that gets you to it.  There’s no need to build a bridge if you’re not going anywhere.  But if you’re going after something you can’t reach on your own, you need the bridge of faith to get you there.

Incredibly I have a job that was not advertised and I did not even apply for, nor would I have done!  I took my CV to an agency in order to work until the ‘right’ job came along. They called me 2 days later to say a school had seen my CV and were really interested and wanted to chat with me.  On Monday 10^th February I went for an informal chat and came out with an awesome job, as it was term-time only I started with a week’s holiday! – the Lord sure has a sense of humour.

On starting work I had a week’s handover with my predecessor, we had so much in common and I have gained a new friend as well as a new job.  We both became Christians on Alpha, both had been to Africa and Romania on mission, both have a son named Daniel, both worked in the same manner and the list of God-incidences was astounding!  It was a seamless and enjoyable handover, after 16 happy years she was going to a full-time job at an independent school.

I had assumed the school approached the agency but I learnt they never use agency staff.  I discovered the agency had emailed my CV to several schools, as I have 15 years experience in education and previous secretarial experience, I was advertised as ‘Dawn – PA to Headteacher’.   I had never been a Headteacher’s PA nor would I have applied to be!  However, this email caught the attention of my predecessor who thought the agency must have known she was due to leave - they did not – but I know a man who did!  I cannot recount here all the other factors that have made this so remarkable, but all convince me that nothing can thwart God’s plan for our lives.

 

‘Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God”
1 John 5:4-5  [The Message]

Dawn Milward

[Thursday's Devotional] - A Place of Breakthrough

On Monday I shared a picture of spring bulbs breaking through from beneath the dark soil, beginning a new season with the scripture:

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”  Isaiah 43: 18-19 [NIV]

Some of you will know that after 3 years ‘waiting’ (as instructed by God) at my previous job, I stepped out in faith last September from that ‘desert place’ of my work life.  I pushed several doors of opportunity towards a new job, hoping for a breakthrough – yet one almost lead to a breakdown rather than a breakthrough!  But, remembering those spiritual markers of Gods faithfulness in the past I waited for his timing and his plan to unfold.

On 31^st January I attended an interview for Office Manager for a faith-based children’s charity which, with their puppet ministry, took assemblies into schools, it seemed wonderful.  That morning I read:

“When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” And David came to Baal-Perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood.” Therefore the name of that place is called Baal-Perazim. (2 Samuel 5:17-21) ESV

Before the breakthrough, the scene in this scripture is called “Valley of Rephaim,” meaning, “House of the Giant.” After the breakthrough, it is called “Ba’al Perazim,” meaning, “Possessor of Breaches, Lord of the Breakthrough.”

I did not get that job, but I stood on that promised of breakthrough. As we ‘inquire of the Lord’ he rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).  When we are active in prayer the ‘Lord of the Breakthrough’ will reward us with His strategy!

Dawn Milward

[Wednesday's Devotional] - A Grateful Eben-Ezer

In doing my best to practice gratitude, I have not found that the interruptions, disappointments and hurts have ceased—if anything, I am even more aware of them.

In my last set of devotionals I shared about spiritual markers and how important I feel they are in our lives to express gratitude. We discovered the Israelites crossing the river Jordan and saw how Joshua set twelve stones at Gilgal as a marker of remembrance of what the Lord had done. (Joshua 4)

Recently I came across another story that affirmed the importance of spiritual markers:

 ^“While Samuel was offering the sacrifice, the Philistines came within range to fight Israel. Just then God thundered, a huge thunderclap exploding among the Philistines. They panicked—mass confusion!—and ran helter-skelter from Israel. Israel poured out of Mizpah and gave chase, killing Philistines right and left, to a point just beyond Beth Car. Samuel took a single stone and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it “Ebenezer” (Stone of Help), saying, “This marks the place where God helped us.”   1Samuel 7:10-12 [The Message]

How quickly we can forget the feelings of gratitude that most of us experience when God answers our prayers. Samuel, by example, urges us to pause and carefully consider thanking God for all he has done. We should count our blessings and use our memories of what God has done in the past to inspire us in our faith.

There is something quite pitiful about us when we take God for granted. I know I can often be guilty of this and my failure to sometimes appreciate God’s blessings reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch “what did the Romans ever do for us?”

Let us, like Samuel, be grateful for Jehovah Ezer – The Lord our Helper.

Dawn Milward

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Practice Gratitude

Yesterday I referred to our desert places and also to the promise of breakthrough following our season in the wilderness.  Often such places can be a time of preparation for the next thing the Lord wants to birth in our lives, and we need that time of preparation, painful though it may be.  If God chose to put his own son through a time of testing and preparation, why should it be any different for us?  We too are his children.

During this season of Lent I’m sure we all have our own 40 day Lenten practices and these may have changed over the years.  Today I will share my current one, it is not right or wrong (I’m a pilgrim not a preacher) but of course it begins with pancakes!

The Rev. Dick Hotchkin, at St. John’s United Church of Christ in Port Huron, said:

 “Most Christians recognize Lent as a time of preparation “looking at one’s life and seeing how one might make improvements or changes.  I don’t think Jesus is as worried about giving up chocolates and things like that as he is about giving up things we harbour in the secret recesses of our hearts, giving up those things that make us small of soul are more important than giving up chocolates”.

This used to be my view of Lent—40 days of chocolate-less Facebook, however for the past few years I have been adopting a different attitude which started when a dear sister in Christ (now a super-Rev) shared her decision to give up ‘complaining’ rather than ‘chocolate’ and I loved this radical idea. I even thought it might be easier than giving up chocolate but was soon proven misguided in that assumption.

This Lent I chose to focus on (not give up) ‘gratitude’ - a gratitude for the gift of life in this world, troubled though it may be.  Each morning I look at two recent ‘order of service’ funeral sheets of loved ones who were both my age, I remind myself of the gift of each new day on this earth.

When we set out to practice gratitude we discover that grateful people are happier, healthier, live longer, and are just more enjoyable to be around. 

The calendar on my desk this week reads “Lent is not a deprivation, but rather a reminder of what you have been blessed with” and I must say, I am prone to agree.

Dawn Milward

[Monday's Devotional] - It's Springtime!

“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’   —the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.”   Isaiah 43:18-21  [The Message]

I love Isaiah, for me it’s a book full of promises that I have hung on to over the last 16 years and, in due season, I have seen the fulfilment of many in my life….. for others, as I’m sure you will relate to, I still wait.

In my experience it can seem we spend more time waiting than we do receiving, but God knows when the time is right. Paul also assures us:

 “for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”
Galatians 6:9 [NIV]

A few weeks ago I was encouraged by a picture the Lord gave me of spring bulbs breaking through the cold, dark soil, having weathered the recent storms, now bursting into life  ….  a promise of new life and a fresh season of hope.

If right now you are feeling in a desert place, lost in the wilderness, badlands or wastelands, trust this prophetic promise:

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 
Isaiah 43: 18-19 [NIV]

Dawn Milward