Dec 20, 2025 – Tuned In
While at physical therapy yesterday, face down on my table doing my best to lift my arm in a backwards motion, I heard my therapist at another table telling that person about his daughter and a scary moment she had on the road. (The tables are all close so you can’t help but catch some of the conversations nearby.) I didn’t hear the details exactly, but basically she was sitting at a red light with a bit of a hill to her right (I think) which sort of blinded the traffic coming from that direction. When the light turned green, she felt odd and had a check in her spirit (she’s a believer so we know what that was) to stay put. The car behind her honked. And then, within the next few seconds, an 18-wheeler came barreling through the intersection! Barreling. He said she was specific about that. The truck wasn’t on his brakes slowing down through the light. He was…more than barreling…and she just sat there in shock at what almost happened.
That happened to me in Huntsville a couple of years ago at a similar intersection; but, if there was a still small voice whispering to me, I wasn’t tuned in and drove on when the light turned green. The people in the car behind me later told me that they thought they were about to see someone die as the other car sped through the light and broadsided me sort of at an angle. Maybe I should say sort of at an ANGEL. I’ve never known whether to lean in to the “it wasn’t his/her time” thinking, but more and more it’s these kinds of things that help me with the regrets of perceived mistakes. We have to believe God is in control and allow His guidance and comfort to give us His Peace every day all the time. We have to be tuned in….
Power – Galations 5:22-23 NIV – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Joyce writes, “Love and self-control are like bookends that hold the rest of the fruit of the spirit in place. All of the fruit initially grow from love and are kept in place by self-control.” That’s very interesting. I’ve never thought of the order of that list and that it could have meaning, but of course it does!
Prevail 354 – Larson focuses this devotion on Revelation 2:4 and the Spirit’s warning, “you have abandoned your first love.” Larson explains, “The large, established church of Ephesus got a lot of things right….But they lost their pulse. God’s love no longer tenderized their hearts. Their love for others waned as well. Plenty of ministries today have the same problem….They’re no longer moved by acts of God, no longer undone by a sunset, a baby’s birth, or a life restored…. Repent. Or you will lose your influence. Return to your First Love. We’re nothing but noise without His love.” (see 1 Corinthians 13).
JA – “Whenever you’re feeling lonely, take time to enjoy My Presence. Thank me for wrapping you with a robe of righteousness to make you righteous. Ask Me – the God of hope – to fill you with Joy and Peace. Then, through the help of My Spirit, you can overflow with hope into the lives of other people.” (See Isaiah 61:10 and Romans 15:13).
Utmost – John 12:32 – “I, if I be lifted up,… will draw all men unto Me.” Chambers writes, “Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there was no need for it. What the world needs is not ‘a little bit of love,’ but a surgical operation…. If you can help others by your sympathy or understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ…. The one thing we have to do is exhibit Jesus Christ crucified, to lift Him up all the time…. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful discourses.”
JC – “Imagine the self-control required of a martyr who could free Himself at will! All of this was necessary to provide the relationship with Me that you now enjoy. Let your life become a praise song to Me by proclaiming My glorious Presence in the world.” And at traffic lights!
Streams – John 16:32 – “I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” Cowman writes, “God knows how to change our circumstances in order to isolate us. And once we yield to Him and He takes us through an experience of isolation, we are no longer dependent upon those around us, although we still love them as much as before. Then we realize that He has done a new work with us and that the wings of our soul have learned to soar in loftier air. We must dare to be alone, in the way that Jacob had to be alone for the Angel of God to whisper in his ear…(Gen 32:28); in the way that Daniel had to be left alone to see heavenly visions; and in the way that John had to be banished to the Isle of Patmos to receive and record ‘the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him’ (Rev. 1:1).” They were tuned in….
