enLIVEn Devotionals

Abiding in Jesus - Overflowing His Spirit

Challenge

I am convinced there is a challenge. It is on my behalf. It is from two opposing worlds. It isn’t for my life; no, the enemy has given up on that. My life is spoken, fought and paid for. This challenge isn’t so obvious…it is for my joy. I lose my joy when I begin to question the devotion that already exists within my heart. I become anxious, which grows and expands until my joy has fallen off the edge. I slow down, and weariness sets in. I am consumed with the feeling that I’m never going to get there – like there is this line I just can’t seem to cross. Remember when we would play tag ... Read the Post

Distractions Turn Me Into a Stale Cracker

Lately, we have had a massive influx of visitors at our house – nephews, friends, sisters and parents and sometimes multiple people at a time – it’s been crazy. Good…really good, but crazy. And distracting. I’m noticing the more distracted we are, the more unintentional we are about studying the Word, praying together and seeking God on a daily basis. We seem to drift into merely managing a Christian like life rather than being a slave to God and living what comes out of that. I say “Christian like” because I don’t know what it would look like for the Spirit to actively live through me ... Read the Post

Leaving our Husbands in the Dust

The danger of being in ministry of any capacity is that we find more joy in it than we find in our husbands. At times I find myself giving all my time, energy, words of affirmation and encouragement to others, leaving my husband in the dust. As I gazed into my soon to be husband's eyes in front of God and all those people, I repeated those words of love and devotion: "in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad..." I don't remember saying the following stipulation: "as long as blogging, ladies retreats, Facebook, twittering, or going out with my friends for coffee don’t get in the ... Read the Post

Philemon Promise

After a painful break-up with my then boyfriend, Mark, I was feeling very down and discouraged. What went wrong? We had both been Christians and had lots of fun together, making sweet, special memories. But, though we both had hope in our hearts, it hadn't lasted. One day, still hurting from the loss of this once rich relationship, I was on the floor, leaning against my bed, crying for some comfort, looking in His Word. It was then that my pages fell to a passage I had never noticed before. With my eyes growing wide, the Scripture jumped out at me from Philemon, verse 15: “Perhaps the ... Read the Post

H1N1 and Horses and Chariots

Today my whole family got vaccinated for H1N1 (that's a whole "can-o-worms" these days). As I walked from the hospital, I felt a little relief that we had taken some measures to keep healthy; but at the same time, I consciously tried to remind myself that my whole trust cannot be in a mere man-made precaution. Many moons ago, before there were tanks and air planes and guns, there were horses and chariots. Kingdoms built up their store of pure bred horses and magnificent chariots as a way to arm themselves in the event of war. I can just imagine a king sitting back in his throne with a sense ... Read the Post