November 15th, 2021
Today's devotion is taken from The 21 Day Challenge by Scott McKenzie. We read this devotional guide as a congregation a few years ago.
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Hosea 14:3
Assyria won’t save us; we won’t ride upon horses; we will no longer say, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds compassion.”
Tears streamed down Susan’s face as she stood before the congregation and shared her stewardship story. Susan is a physician who literally came up the hard way. Susan’s mother was bipolar and self-medicated with drugs and alcohol. As an infant Susan was often rescued from bars and street corners by aunts and uncles. Susan survived. Against all odds she went to college and onto medical school. She successfully completed her residency as the first African American female in the program. Susan now has her own very successful practice. If anyone ever had the right to say they were a self-made man or woman it would be Susan.
And yet as I heard Susan tell her story it was never about Susan but always about gratitude and always about God. Susan recognized that it was the hand of God that had saved her, not her own. Susan somehow knew that everything she had was a gift, a gift from the hand of a loving and compassionate God. Because Susan realized everything was a gift, she gave back in amazingly generous ways.
Take a moment and look at your hands. Are these the hands that have created your life? Are these the hands that have made you successful? Is your life and all that you have and all you've accomplished, the work of these hands? In gazing at your own hands can you somehow see the Hand of God? Right now as you gaze at your hands, say Thank you! All that I am and all that I have are the result of Your Hands. Thank you!
Prayer
Oh God, I confess it is so very easy to look at my hands and think of all that I have accomplished and done. Help me Oh God to see Your Hands. Help me Oh God to recognize you as the source of all I have and all that I am. And help me to give back in gratitude. Thank you God!
- Scott McKenzie
_________________________
Hosea 14:3
Assyria won’t save us; we won’t ride upon horses; we will no longer say, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds compassion.”
Tears streamed down Susan’s face as she stood before the congregation and shared her stewardship story. Susan is a physician who literally came up the hard way. Susan’s mother was bipolar and self-medicated with drugs and alcohol. As an infant Susan was often rescued from bars and street corners by aunts and uncles. Susan survived. Against all odds she went to college and onto medical school. She successfully completed her residency as the first African American female in the program. Susan now has her own very successful practice. If anyone ever had the right to say they were a self-made man or woman it would be Susan.
And yet as I heard Susan tell her story it was never about Susan but always about gratitude and always about God. Susan recognized that it was the hand of God that had saved her, not her own. Susan somehow knew that everything she had was a gift, a gift from the hand of a loving and compassionate God. Because Susan realized everything was a gift, she gave back in amazingly generous ways.
Take a moment and look at your hands. Are these the hands that have created your life? Are these the hands that have made you successful? Is your life and all that you have and all you've accomplished, the work of these hands? In gazing at your own hands can you somehow see the Hand of God? Right now as you gaze at your hands, say Thank you! All that I am and all that I have are the result of Your Hands. Thank you!
Prayer
Oh God, I confess it is so very easy to look at my hands and think of all that I have accomplished and done. Help me Oh God to see Your Hands. Help me Oh God to recognize you as the source of all I have and all that I am. And help me to give back in gratitude. Thank you God!
- Scott McKenzie
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