Feb 3, 2026 – Exalt
One of the reasons I chose “Outlook” for yesterday’s title, besides that it seemed to fit, was because I was having such frustrations with my email address that’s in Outlook; so, it was on my mind. For a couple of months now, I’ve not been getting emails from certain addresses, one of them being the winery I am now an independent rep for. I’ve been missing helpful information that was important to get my business started.
For over a month now, Don and I, have been clicking and searching through Outlook and Googling trying to find clues as to what was going on. The winery has a great help line, but all they could offer on this was to check SPAM. Outlook doesn’t have SPAM; it has JUNK, and my junk folder is always empty. It was all just so puzzling and frustrating almost to the point of maddening. So many emails with questions and so many searches and so many baffled sighs, and even a call to an IT company for a potentially expensive consult, until, after hours sitting at the counter working on this last night, we decided I should just start using a different email address.
Don got it all set up and I changed my old address to the new one in my wine account. I didn’t have total peace about starting on this new address path (but I had no peace at all about using my old address); however, it would offer me a clean slate with no junk mail, at least for a while. As I was scrolling through the inbox of the old address one more time, Don asked me if I was happy with his help; and, because he’d devoted so much time and effort running down this rabbit hole with me (and because it was a good solution), I of course said yes, BUT that I was still perplexed as to why the emails were being blocked.
AND THEN the answer jumped off the page – an answer that had been there in plain sight all along! We were under the management of a different system when Don first created my old email address; so, when he moved us to GoDaddy management, I started getting “quarantine” emails. There were so many each day with confusing information in them that it had just become part of my routine to delete them every day. But then it hit me (in that moment and NOT AT ALL in any of the previous moments over the last month) – QUARANTINE – so I opened one of the GoDaddy emails that I hadn’t yet deleted and there, staring back at me, was an email from one of the addresses that I’d been missing!
I know this may sound far-reaching, but to me (and to Don) it felt like a lesson – God allowing me to go down the path I’d chosen (carefully, and sometimes prayerfully, but mostly frustratedly) until He opened up the better path for me to see. It’s just one of those experiences with Him that solidifies what I know and believe about Him. This small example (that wasn’t small at the time) prepares me for perhaps bigger issues down the road. Stay the course and trust God to tell you when it’s time to turn or stop.
Streams – Mark 1:12 – “At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert.” Cowman, through George Matheson, begins the devotion talking about how let downs come after great triumphs, “This seemed a strange way for God to prove His favor…. You, my soul, have also experienced it. Aren’t your times of deepest depression the moments that immediately follow your loftiest highs?” Based on my experience last night, God can lead us through situations in the opposite order with highs following lows.
Through Aphra White, Cowman shares, “The time of testing that distinguishes and greatly enriches a person’s spiritual career is not an ordinary one but a period when it seems as if all hell were set loose.” Being so perplexed about what was happening with my emails was not the worst experience of my life, but it was indeed trying which almost made me feel like giving up. I even briefly wondered if God was blocking the emails from the winery because I wasn’t supposed to go in that direction. I submitted my interests and desires to Him ready to walk away or keep pressing forward. White continues, “It is a time when we realize our soul is caught in a net, and we know God is allowing us to be gripped by the Devil’s hand. Yet it is a period that always ends in certain triumph for those who have committed the keeping of their souls to God.”
JC – “I am with you and for you. You face nothing alone – nothing! When you feel anxious, know that you are focusing on the visible world and leaving Me out of the picture.” On the way to PT today, Joel Osteen’s sermon was “Pray God-sized Prayers” and he told about an issue with his mother’s car not starting until she prayed a powerful, believing prayer. And last week, our small group, and even many around the world, experienced the power of prayer for the little girl with the brain tumor. Jesus Calling advises, “Verbalize your trust in Me, the Living One who sees you always.”
Utmost – Chambers writes, “’Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,’ says Peter. If we do think it strange concerning the things we meet with, it is because we are craven-hearted…. A servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to go to martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God.”
Prevail #34 – Larson tells us, “A guest on my radio show once shared his dad’s oft-repeated phrase, ‘Don’t go out to eat unless you can afford a big tip.’ I love that. Christians should be the biggest tippers, the most generous givers, and the ones least likely to take advantage of another. We show we love Christ when we act this way…. Hasn’t God been faithful in the past? Won’t He be faithful again? Yes, He will. Ask a generous person. God won’t be outdone. He always replenishes the storehouses of the generous.”
Max – Proverbs 22:4 – “Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.” Max points out, “Those who walk in pride God is able to humble. But those who walk in humility God is able to use.”
Power – 1 Peter 5:6 KJV – “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” Interesting that we’ve shifted to the topic of humility. Joyce concludes similarly to Max, “A prideful person tries to exalt himself, but a humble person exalts God and lets God exalt him in due time.”
JA – “GLORY IN MY HOLY NAME; let the hearts of those who seek Me rejoice. To ‘glory’ in something is to give it praise and honor. Jesus is the Name that is above every name….” See Psalm 105:3, Philippians 2:9-11 and 4:4-5.
