Simply Broken

Posted on February 17, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

I recently heard a discouraging report about Baltimore schools: only 7% of 3rd through 8th graders can do grade-level math. Last year I read that at one high school, less than 2% of seniors were able to read at grade level. 

 

This makes me sad. Surely Baltimore isn’t the only place like this.

Something’s broken. Very broken.

Lord, give us, as a nation, eyes to see the broken homes, broken communities, broken spirits, broken systems. Break our hearts, O God. Give us wisdom to know what to do and the will to follow through.

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Fair Enough

Posted on February 16, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


Consider Christ’s parable of the workers in the vineyard. The landowner hired workers in the early morning, in the middle of the day, and at the last hour. 

 

Matthew 20:9-10 (MEV)
When they who were hired about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. 

But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more, but each of them likewise received a denarius. 

“It’s not fair,” the first-comers complained. 

God rewards late-comers with the same salvation as early believers. I accepted Christ as a child. I’m an early-comer. And I’m not complaining. 

Fair enough, Lord. It’s all good.

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Never Enough

Posted on February 15, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

God is always enough.
The other side is never enough.

 

Proverbs 27:20 (AMP)
Sheol (the place of the dead) and Abaddon (the underworld) are never satisfied; Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.

 

Which side are you on?

 

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More Than Enough

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

God goes beyond “enough.”


Ephesians 3:20 (MSG)
God can do anything, you know—
far more than you could ever
imagine or guess or request
in your wildest dreams!

 

Salvation would be more than enough. And yet God goes above and beyond, giving me more than I can ask or think.

Thank You, O God, for your extravagant generosity!

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Good Enough

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


I know some folks who think at the ends of their days, God will weigh their good deeds and their bad deeds. If they’re good enough — if their good works outweigh the bad — God lets them into heaven.

 

Not so, says the Bible.

Romans 3:23 (ERV)
All have sinned and are not good enough
to share God’s divine greatness.

God is good. Thankfully, He’s also gracious. And for we who believe, grace is enough.

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Extravagant Prayer

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

 

Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

.


Paul wasn’t afraid to ask for God’s biggest and best.

 

 

Don’t be afraid to pray extravagantly.

 

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Pinches of Prayer

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


Leviticus 16:12 (NIV)
He [Aaron the priest] is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain.

Two handfuls of prayerful incense! My experience with incense has been limited to cones and sticks—more like pinches than handfuls.

Sometimes our prayers are all pinches: a quick prayer in the morning, another short prayer as at bedtime, grace before meals, pleas for safety behind the wheel. Our slivers of prayer waft up to God.

Lord, I long for handfuls of fragrant prayer!

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Sweet-Smelling Prayer

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


Psalm 141:2 (GW)
Let my prayer be accepted
as sweet-smelling incense
in your presence.

 

My prayers have an odor. Are they

        • sweet with praise or reeking of bitterness?
        • tinged with delight or singed with grumbling?
        • fresh with hope or stale with gloom?

O God, who created my sense of smell, may my prayers — at least most of them! — be pleasing to Your sense of smell.

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Time for Prayer

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

 

“On all occasions.”
“Always.”

Wow! I fall short. Not even close.

Teach me to pray, Lord, all the time, for all time.

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Better Prayer

Posted on February 5, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

 

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