Eastridge Daily Devotion
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Wednesday, November 6, 2024
God's Protection
As autumn settles in, you surround us with warmth and tenderness, like a parent cuddling a child. Thanks for your protection and love, Lord.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
A Prayer for Election Day
A prayer for Election Day
Holy God, we come to you today in prayer, full of emotions. Election seasons always seem to bring that out in us - worry and hope, fear and frustration. The list could go on. So today we bow our heads and ask for guidance, open our ears to hear the groans of creation. Open our eyes to see the needs of others. Open our hearts to make room for empathy. Give us the wisdom to navigate challenging conversations. Give us the compassion to make decisions for the greater good. And when all else fails, bring us back to love. Bring our hearts and our hands, our dreams and our hopes, our anger and our frustration, our hurt and our fear all back to love. With hope we pray, with hope we are sustained. Amen.
reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art
Monday, November 4, 2024
God Will Provide
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of
the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes
the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the
fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry,
saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that
you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34
Friday, November 1, 2024
Thursday, October 31, 2024
How to Find God in a Horror Movie
This may seem counterintuitive but bear with me as I explain.
Horror movies may seem like the bane of good Christian values, but like an onion it has layers. Peel back the surface, you will find that there are inherent values and a lesson to be learned by those who seek it. When you see a horror movie you come face to face with the worst mankind can come up with. In the movies, the devil is on earth, the dead come back to life, and society as we know it crumbles. Cynical viewing aside, a horror movie can be a morale about the injustice in this world. A simple truth that bad things happen to good people. Horror movies bring that to the forefront of our minds. Like Job, we are forced to reconcile that our power is limited when compared to the all-mighty. We don’t know everything. In the story of Job, we are shown that bad things happen to good people. We are humbled because our power doesn’t match God’s power. No one is perfect like God. We can struggle to comprehend the concept that bad things happen to good people. A good horror movie brings that struggle to the forefront. He knows all and we know little compared to him. We find God in horror movies by accepting our limited understanding when compared to the Almighty.
Then Job replied to the Lord:
“I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Prayer: Dear God, please bless us with your wisdom. Help guide us as we confront injustice in this world. Help us to put our faith in you lord. Help us to understand our shortcomings. Help us to grow. Help us to love. Guide us when life is cruel when we stumble and fall. Lift us up with your loving hands. In your name we pray, Amen.
Charles Kendeigh (reprinted from 2021)
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Creation's Beauty
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. Genesis 2:8-9
I know God created these mums when I see them in fall.
Having been raised on a Nebraska farm, I always appreciated
the vegetation around me whether it was for beauty or for food. I worked in the
fields, gleaned corn and gathered the cattle with my horse Queenie. My mother
always had a vegetable garden with multiple flowers. I can picture that garden
in my thoughts. These mums that come alive in my yard each October give me the
same warm feelings I had on the farm. My granddaughter studied this summer in
Oxford, England. It warmed my heart when she brought home this small sign. She
saw “garden” and thought of me.
But soon they rebelled and were driven from the beautiful
garden. Genesis 3:24.
Creation’s beauty waits to thrill us and instruct us. Our
loving Father wills it so. But creation will be fully restored soon, and soon,
and “the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing” Isaiah 35:1-2
Prayer: I pray to God our Father today, be with those who
have lost their homes and gardens in the war or the hurricanes. Thank you for
the first garden of Eden and all the geraniums, hibiscus, roses, hydrangeas,
daisies and other flowers I can grow in my garden. I think of you, Lord, when
each of these has its season in my yard. Amen.
Sandra Hilsabeck (photos above shared by Sandra)
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord! I will give thanks for the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Psalm 111:1