Rest your life in God’s hands alone. Let all your hopes and dreams, your aspirations and plans, your well-being and your future rest securely in His care. And do not allow the prattle of man’s devices to lure you into a lesser allegiance.
Are you in good hands? You are if your life is placed in the trustworthy Hands of God. For He will cover you “with His feathers” and His truth will be “your shield and buckler.”
We need rest from our work. We need rest from our worries. We need rest from our griefs. We need some down time! We need time to breathe.
I’ve pretty much quit using the term “quiet time” because more often than not, it isn’t – and I don’t have kids! But, I do have a husband, 2 dogs and 2 cats; that’s a lot like having kids. One or more of them is always needing/wanting something: feed me, walk me, I want to go out, I want to come in, pay attention to me – it seems the demands never end.
If we’re not careful, our “quiet time” can be more of a worry time. Rather than it being a time to be still and know, it can become a time when the weight we are carrying presses in on us.
As one woman told me: “we need to make our time as much of an investment as we do our money. That’s so true. When it comes to our time with the Lord we need to ask ourselves…
Again, Jesus is our example.
In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. (Mark 1:35)
Even when, especially when the people were pressing in on Him, demanding His time, Jesus took Himself away to a quiet place to pray. If the Lord had such a need, why would we think we wouldn’t?
Copyright ©️ 2022 Sandra Bivens Smith. All rights reserved.
Not sure if any of you have watched many westerns. My grandfather loved westerns and when I was a child I would sit and watch them with him. There was one thing you knew you were going to see in every one of them… wagon train being attacked by Indians.
When the attacks came what did they do? They circled the wagons.
That’s something we women need to think more about doing. We need our circle of friends who can help us get through the rough times. Women who will lift us up not break us down.
Women who will
Jesus is our example. He had 12 Apostles, men who were close to Him, men to whom He ministered and taught. But He also had an inner-circle; those with whom He shared his best and worst moments.
Today many women, especially younger women, measure themselves against their “friends” on social media. Too often they think they are less because they don’t quite measure up. It’s very sad.
In Ecclesiastes chapter 4 King Solomon writes: “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor; for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up! Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”
Who do you call out to when you fall down?
Copyright ©️2022 Sandra Bivens Smith. All rights reserved.
Jesus Himself said it: “in this world you will have troubles,” and we do. As women our days are often long and our burdens are many and heavy.
Just a normal day can test our strength. Add in a sick child, an unsettled argument, an overdue bill, a backed up toilet; whatever strength we had will be quickly drained leaving us to wonder how we will ever make it through the next hour, much less the next day.
Then there is this. So many of us are “fixers” and so we not only carry our own burdens but we take on other’s troubles as well. Is it any wonder we have so many back problems?
Life is full of problems. We can’t escape our troubles but we don’t have to carry them alone. Scripture tells us to cast all our anxieties on the Lord, why, because He cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7)
Copyright ©️ Sandra Bivens Smith 2021. All rights reserved.
We need to know that we are appreciated, and loved; that we are valued.
The world would have us believe that our value is only what we can give back to it – according to what it determines is valuable. Back in the 60s the “women’s movement” began convincing women that they were to have any value, they would have to get out of the kitchen. That if they wanted to be truly fulfilled, they not only needed to cook the bacon, they had to be the ones to “bring it home”.
The movement hasn’t lost steam, over the years it has only accelerated influencing the lives of 3 generations of women. It has not only succeeded in taking away our femineity, and degrading our God given purpose, it is now making every effort to rob us our gender itself.
It’s influence has even moved into the Christian community. Professing Christians, women who are out there, getting a lot of media attention, are telling us that if we’re not pursuing and occupying the same positions as men, if we are not filling those “male roles” that we are somehow less than.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It all sounds good but God’s word says different. When we need to know our true value let’s remember:
So, when in doubt, and we all have doubts, just remember, it doesn’t matter what the world says, it matters what God says and He says our value is in Jesus Christ and we are more valuable that precious stones!
Copyright ©️ Sandra Bivens Smith 2021. All rights reserved.
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. (Proverbs 31:10)
Reading about the life of the Proverbs 31 woman stirs in me a mixture of emotions. Naturally I admire her, I somewhat envy her, in some ways I resent her. But the one thing that is most disturbing is knowing that I can never hope to be her.
As I thought about the Proverbs woman, I had the silliest thought : that the Proverbs 31 woman is the “Barbie Doll of scripture”; you know, the image of the perfect woman. That thought got me to wondering, “if Barbie was a real woman…?” So, I did some research.
Read the remaining Proverbs 31 verses. This woman is a woman of strength, wisdom, loyalty, virtue, and much more. She has an inner beauty to be admired by all who know her.
I don’t think any of us wants to be the unrealistic image the world considers the perfect woman, I do believe however that most of us would like to be as “Proverbial 31” as possible.
Copyright ©️ Sandra Bivens Smith 2022. All rights reserved.
Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne;
Hark! how the heav’nly anthem drowns
All music but its own:
Awake, my soul, and sing
Of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King
Thro’ all eternity.
Crown Him the Lord of life,
Who triumphed o’er the grave,
And rose victorious in the strife
For those He came to save;
His glories now we sing,
Who died, and rose on high,
Who died, eternal life to bring,
And lives that death may die.
Crown Him the Lord of peace,
Whose pow’r a scepter sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease,
And all be pray’r and praise:
His reign shall know no end,
And round His pierced feet
Fair flow’rs of paradise extend
Their fragrance ever sweet.
Crown Him the Lord of love;
Behold His hands and side,
Those wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified:
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
For Thou hast died for me:
Thy praise and glory shall not fail
Thro’ out eternity.
When I see and experience God’s love for me, found in a personal relationship with Jesus and lived out in true friendship with others who know Him and love Him – my life becomes filled and strengthened with the many wonderful benefits of salvation.
There is no challenge too great, no failure too bad, no enemy too strong – for we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us! And there is no dream too big, and no hope too audacious, and no task too impossible – for we can do all things through Him who loves us.
There are many people, even some Christians, who buy into the world view that all we have to do is to be good to be saved. They believe that if we act good and do good, God will reward us. It sounds right doesn’t it? After all, if God is truly a just God, and if He is a God of love, would He really allow all these good people to spend eternity in torment? From our world view, it makes perfect sense. But God doesn’t see things from a world view, He sees them from an eternal view.
Some time back my daughter asked her Sunday school class “how do we become righteous”? One of her students raised his hand and answered “by what we do”. She was so disappointed. She is constantly trying to drill into them that righteousness is of God, not of our own efforts. Why, she asked, can’t the kids get it? Why indeed? Why don’t we adults get it?
God’s word says that no matter how good we are, how much we try, or how hard we work, it will never be enough. We can give our human best but to a holy God, it amounts to nothing more than a pile of dirty rags.
Throughout His word, God tells us how we can obtain Godliness. In his letter to the church at Corinth Paul wrote “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. (1 Corinthians 6:11). And Peter, in his 2nd epistle, reminded the early believers “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed”. (1 Peter 2:24)
Until we understand just how depraved man’s heart is, it’s difficult to appreciate fully the gift we have received through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Spend a few minutes and meditate on all that Jesus has done for you and praise him for His wonderful love.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
I remember when my Daddy bought our first set of encyclopedia. The year was 1959, the encyclopedia a twelve volume set of Compton’s. Daddy was so proud, he read them as if they were the latest novel. Owning this priceless set of books took the arguments that were so common in our household to a whole new level. Whenever there was a dispute about anything, we knew we would soon hear “get the book”! The book was the authority and whatever it said pretty much settled it. The tradition continued throughout my Daddy’s life. Even though the world wide web was at his fingertips, it was his beloved encyclopedia that was the final word on any subject.
Every day we make thousands of decisions. Most of them are a natural part of our daily routine and we aren’t even aware that a decision has been made. But then, there are those situations that come along that aren’t so routine: Am I going to tell my boss about the mistake I made, or try to hide it? The clerk gave me too much change, give it back or put it in my pocket? I betrayed my best friend’s trust, confess and ask forgiveness, or just hope she doesn’t find out. A coworker is flirting with me, smile and enjoy the attention, or ask him to stop. These are the kinds of decisions, seemingly inconsequential ones – that have the potential to change the course of our lives.
Where do we go for advice? Some of us would look to Oprah or Dr. Phil for counsel. After all we tell ourselves, they have a finger on the pulse of the world, they are the experts. Others of us would call a friend, someone we can always trust to gives us “sound” advice based on past experience and personal opinion. However, if we are serious about making right choices in this world gone wrong, we need to go to The Book!
Copyright©Sandra Bivens Smith 2011. All rights reserved.
Sandra Bivens Smith 