Welcome to the February Edition of the 2013 Christ United Methodist Church Women’s Ministry Daily Devotional. This devotional is meant to offer inspiration, guidance, and encouragement to the women of our church. Throughout this year, our hope is that you will begin to look forward to reading each day’s entry as an addition to your faith journey and that it will “wet your appetite” for finding endless ways of seeing just how good the Lord really is and how much He loves each one of you. The theme for the whole devotional is the theme for the Women’s Ministry in 2013, “Living a Life of Gratitude”. Step by step you will be guided to live your life learning how to find something to be grateful for each day. Some days you will be blessed and inspired by stories from many of the faithful women in our congregation, other days the entry might simply be a scripture about being grateful. You will also have days that the devotion is a creative idea one of our members has shared to help them be thankful or a book recommendation that has motivated them. Other days the words from well-known authors and saints as well as hymns will bless and guide us.

We hope you were blessed by the entries found in the January edition and look forward to hearing from you as a contributor in future editions. If you would like to submit an entry for next months issue, we would love to include you as part of this ministry. Your entry needs to begin with a scripture that has inspired your thoughts, then a paragraph or two in your own words telling your story of thanksgiving. You can submit your entry by dropping it by the church office (Attn: Women’s Ministry Devotional) or by emailing it to cre8dzins@comcast.net. We look forward to reading about how God has blessed you!

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For February 1st:

“Here I am.! “I stand at the door and knock.”  “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

I know God must have spoken to me many times throughout my life but I think I was usually too busy to hear him. That all changed several years ago when I became very disillusioned & disappointed with my childhood best friend.  After college, my friend & I took jobs in different states but promised we would always stay in touch. I certainly held up my end of the bargain with phone calls, cards, emails etc. I often tried to plan visits but to my disappointment, she was always too busy. I would go long stretches without hearing from her. When I did hear from her, she was usually in a crisis and needed advice or a shoulder to cry on. After my advice was given, I wouldn’t hear from her again until the next crisis came. I was hurt that she could treat me this way after all of the years we had been friends.  One day I finally decided that I would just give up on our friendship. I was tired of being the only one making an effort to maintain our friendship. The very moment I made that decision, I heard God’s voice loud and clear! He said; “Angie, that’s exactly how you treat me.” “I only hear from you when you need help.” “I haven’t given up on you so you can’t give up on her.” That stopped me in my tracks! I then realized how disappointed God must feel that he was the only one making an effort to maintain a daily relationship with me. Thankfully,  by his grace and mercy, I realized that he still loved me even though I didn’t deserve it.  I am grateful for God’s reminder to be faithful to him.  As a result, I now have a closer relationship with God. I try daily to be still long enough to hear him and thank him for loving me. I still love my friend and I have not given up on her either.

Prayer: God, thank you for speaking to me. I pray that my ears are always open to hearing your voice.

Angie Van Sickle