July 15, 2026 – Wilderness
Power – Proverbs 3:3 – Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart. Joyce cites two more Scriptures about knowing the Word, “In Psalm 45:1, the psalmist said his tongue was ‘like the pen of a ready writer.’ And in Proverbs 3:1-3, the Word states you should not forget God’s laws but ‘write them upon the tablet of your heart.’ We see from these two Scriptures that the heart is the tablet and the tongue is the pen.”
She explains the importance of writing and speaking Scripture, “When you confess God’s Word out loud with your tongue, you are effectively writing it on your heart. When you write it on your heart, it becomes more firmly established both in your heart and in the Earth. God’s Word is forever ‘settled in heaven’ (see Psalm 119:89), and we establish it in the Earth each time we speak it. When your mouth is filled with God’s Word, it is a weapon against the devil…use it!”
JC – “Do not worry about tomorrow! This is not a suggestion, but a command. I divided time into days and nights, so that you would have manageable portions of life to handle. My grace is sufficient for you, but its sufficiency is for only one day at a time…. Anxious thoughts meander about and crisscross in your brain, but trusting Me brings you directly into My Presence. As you thus affirm your faith, shackles of worry fall off instantly. Enjoy My Presence continually by trusting Me at all times.” See Matthew 6:34, 2 Corinthians 12:9, and Psalm 62:8.
I prayed about something this morning that seemed too worldly, and perhaps selfish, to bring up to God, but I was getting anxious and distracted (and not able to focus on the blog) because of it; so, it was indeed something I should have given to God. I hesitated, though, because there are so many other needs in the world – estranged family members, people with addictions, cancer diagnoses – but what I kept hearing was that God cares about every detail of our lives (and I don’t think it was my own voice justifying the ask). Plus, He doesn’t have a limited supply of answers. He didn’t part water or make a donkey speak, but He did redirect my thinking from what I’d been trying to make work over and over and over. I submitted my concern (that I didn’t see a solution for) and truly let it go; and, it wasn’t long before He opened my eyes to the alternative solution. I am not saying that He always eases our anxieties quickly in the way we deem acceptable; but, when He does, it should fortify us for the times when He doesn’t, because we know He can and that He will do what is best for us in each case.
Max – James 2:23 – Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Max points out that we pay off our credit debts; and, “According to Paul, God has done the same with our spiritual debt…. Abraham had sinned. He was a good man, I am certain, but not good enough to live debt-free…. But for all the bad things Abraham did, there was one good thing he chose to do. He believed. He put his faith in God. And because he believed, a wonderful unspeakably great thing happened to his debt. It was returned to zero! God’s promise to Abraham was salvation by faith. God’s promise to you and me is salvation by faith. Just faith.”
Prevail #196 – Still leaning into the story of Gomer from yesterday (in the book of Hosea), Larson points out why God sometimes allows dry seasons in our lives, “God leads us into the desert – not to dismiss us, but to deliver us. After a time of discipline, God led Gomer to the desert to remind her who she was, to reset her course, and to reawaken her heart. Sometimes we arrive in the desert because we’ve lost our way. Sometimes it’s through no fault of our own. One day we’re thriving, and the next we feel cut off from community, from flourishing. And still other times, we feel dead on arrival…. God does some of His best work in our desert seasons. He reminds us that we’re not what we do, we’re someone He loves…. The desert is the place where we break unhealthy attachments to the things of this world…. But if we determine to embrace this season and listen for the Lord’s tender voice, we will come out of this wilderness leaning on the arm of our Beloved.”
Streams – Cowman shares George MacDonald’s thoughts about wilderness seasons, “Trusting even when it appears you have been forsaken; praying when it seems your words are simply entering a vast expanse where no one hears and no voice answers; believing that God’s love is complete and that he is aware of your circumstances, even when your world seems to grind on as if setting its own direction and not caring for life or moving one inch in response to your petitions; desiring only what God’s hands have planned for you; waiting patiently while seemingly starving to death, with your only fear being that your faith might fail – ‘this is the victory that has overcome the world’ [1 John 5:4]; this is genuine faith indeed.”
Utmost – Romans 1:14 – I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians. Chambers opens our eyes to thinking beyond ourselves, which can help us find our way out of wilderness seasons, “Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent himself to express it. The great inspiration in Paul’s life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that sense of indebtedness to Christ in regard to every unsaved soul? …am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His Redemption into actual manifestation in other lives? …Quit praying about yourself and be spent for others as the bondslave of Jesus. That is the meaning of being made broken bread and poured-out wine in reality.”
JL – “Holy Lord, Help me to worship You in the beauty of holiness…. I’m finding that worshiping You well is transformational; it changes me more and more into the one You designed me to be…. Through studying Your Word and deepening my understanding of You, I am transformed and You are glorified – in beautiful worship! In Your spectacular Name, Jesus, Amen.”
