August 28, 2025 – Light
I love walking out into the living room here in Washington and seeing the view. DC is a low-rise city, like Paris. The buildings can’t be taller than the Washington Monument (which I can see from the window on one side of their living room) so being on the top floor of their 13-story building gives us a 180 degree view across this side of the city. I sometimes imagine I am in Paris because off in the distance there is a cell tower that looks like the Eiffel Tower and, a little ways to its right, there’s a Basilica that makes me think of Sacre Coeur. This is a beautiful, calming place to for Carrie to recuperate. She is a great patient. Thank You God for being with us through the whole surgery, and now the recovery, process.
Utmost (27th) from yesterday is entitled “Theology Alive” and makes me think of Lisa Harper’s book that I’ve been reading which encourages us to dive “deeper into theology.” John 12:35 – “Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.” Because my eye has been a little sore, and has me slightly concerned, I’m believing that this devotion is focusing on spiritual light and darkness and is not preparing me for something else. “Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount with God. [In other words, when we have inspiring faith experiences, we should come down from the mountain with our faces, and spirits, glowing like Moses’ and not forget all that we’ve learned and experienced.] If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. The second you waive the question of sanctification or any other thing upon which God gave you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality….” That’s what I’m trying to do, respectfully, in my blog with being vulnerable, to hopefully help others see another person handling the joys and trials of life. May it be so, Lord, with Your guidance and blessings. “If you say you are sanctified, show it….Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent….You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you running it out into the practical issues of your life?”
Utmost (28th) – “It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished, not by food, but by prayer….We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves. The Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.” That is surprisingly eye-opening for me. Prayer and seeking God has been part of my life since childhood; but prayer for many years was pretty much “as needed,” which I sort of hate to admit. And, for a long time, seeking God was geared more toward understanding faith rather than getting to know God. So, prayer is spending time with God not just petitioning Him – wow, ok – it’s telling Him things and asking about things like we would with the people in our lives, but this is the ultimate, life-sustaining relationship! When I think of it that way, as if I’m just getting to spend time and talk with someone I love, prayer is a get-to not a have-to, as I’ve heard someone say.
Chambers writes, “It is not so true that ‘prayer changes things’ as that prayer changes me and I change things….Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man’s disposition.”
