We all have times when we just don’t feel God’s presence in our lives much. When our quiet times feel dry and functional, without any depth or intimacy with God. When our prayers feel like they are bouncing off the ceiling. When we just wonder where God is.

Yet, the Bible tells us that God turns His face towards us, that He is so close it is like we are face to face with Him. So what can prevent us from knowing God’s presence in our lives? How can we recapture that feeling of closeness? How can we feel like we are face to face with God once more?

We all have up and down times in our faith. There are times when we feel really close to God.

When we discover new things from reading the Bible every day and we are excited as we grow in His truth.

When we have deep, profound prayer times and sense God’s peace and stillness in unmistakable, tangible ways.

When we have been part of exciting, stirring, emotional worship where we have seen the power of the Holy Spirit at work.

Then there are the times when we have doubts in our faith, feel far away from God and struggle to make that connection when we come into His presence.

The thing is however we feel in our relationship with God, we can be assured by what the Bible tells us about the reality of the presence of God in our lives. We may not always know where He is and wonder if He has left us, but the Bible promises that we are face to face with God.

For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
And His ears attend to their prayer,
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

1 Peter 3:12

There are encouraging truths which we can glean from this verse -

1. The righteous are face to face with God

If you have accepted Jesus into your life then you are called righteous because of Him. You may not always feel like it, but it’s true.

God promises that His eyes are turned towards the righteous. His eyes are turned towards you.

I remember when the children were babies and I spend those long, tortuous, sleepless night,s rocking and shushing a crying baby and I wondered where God was in it all.

I have been through many dry times in my faith when, despite my efforts to connect with God in my quiet times, it felt like I was just going through the motions.

I suffered the pain of a failed ministry, during which I lived somewhere that no longer felt like a comfortable place to call home and I wondered if God really knew about my suffering.

But despite all this there has not been a moment in my life that God has not seen and walked through by my side.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And your right hand will lay hold of me.

Psalm 139:7-10

2. God is always face to face with you and hears your prayer

Sometimes we may feel like our prayers go unanswered. We may have prayed the same prayer for many years and wondered if God is really listening. We may be longing to see a breakthrough in our lives and still God seems to be silent.

Yet, in these wonderfully encouraging verses from 1 Peter we are assured that God is always listening. He always hears our prayers.

Our prayers are never wasted. We may not always understand what God is doing in response to our prayers, but be assured He is doing something. Listening to us. Comforting us. Caring for us. Changing us.

Waiting for answers to prayer is never a passive process, it’s always an active process with God. When we pray it changes our heart. We grow a little closer to God, understand a little more of His will and  grow a little more like Him.

We may not always know God’s presence in our lives and sometimes we might wonder where God is. But be assured He is with us. All. The. Time.

We have the amazing privilege of living our lives face to face with God. 

See the miraculous in your life today. Know that you are face to face with God and He is right by your side. In everything you do. In the good, the bad and the ugly.

Photo credit – Julia Freeman-Woolpert from stock.xchng

Sharing today with Christian Mommy Blogger, Womanhood with Purpose and Bible Love Notes.

Watch what you say! The words we speak have enormous power. They have the power to build up or destroy. To encourage or to criticise. To create opportunities or block them. To make people laugh or cry. The Bible describes the tongue as fire capable of destroying an entire forest, a deadly poison and capable of defiling the whole body. Strong words!

Watch what you say! God is clear that this is important. But it’s so easy for the wrong words to just slip out isn’t it? For our thoughts to become words spoken out loud without us meaning to. For our raw emotions to be expressed by flinging words around like a petulant child throwing his toys.

Watch what you say!

I struggle with this so much. One of the reasons I enjoy writing is because of the best button on the computer keyboard – the delete key! I can think carefully about what I say, phrase and rephrase, delete and edit so every word that is written is carefully planned and thought about. Not that I always get it right but it certainly reduces the chances of making mistakes.

Yet, speaking is a very different kettle of fish. When I’m nervous I have this awful habit of putting my foot in it. If there’s a wrong thing to say, I’ll say it! For some reason, when I feel nervous my tact wiring seems to go haywire. All of a sudden sparks fly in my head, things short circuit and before I know it I’ve said something offensive without meaning to.

The problem is that because I’m an introvert I often get nervous in social situations. I feel out of my depth in the company of more than about three people unless they’re people I know really well. So the likelihood of me saying the wrong thing becomes amplified.

Just recently we have started to attend a new church and, therefore I have to endure the painful socialising and small talk which happens at coffee time after the service. Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely that people are friendly and want to get to know us, but I just really struggle with that kind of mixing and conversation.

So, one lady came over and started chatting and we remarked on the sweets that our children had been given in their Sunday groups. She declared that Abigail was sulking because she had been told to wait until after lunch to eat hers. For some unknown reason, I just thought she was talking about some random child and immediately said “How ridiculous! A min packet of Haribos will hardly ruin her appetite!”

Awkward silence.

Suddenly the penny dropped and I realised that she was Abigail’s mother and it was her who had made the rule that her daughter needed to wait until after lunch to eat her sweets. Doh! How stupid of me! We all smiled nervously at each other and my husband quickly changed the subject.

This is typical of my life!

Now, ok we all put our foot in it from time to time and hopefully don’t cause much more than minor offence and may be even something we can laugh about (hopefully… at some point… maybe…).

But the Bible doesn’t use these powerful words to describe the tongue for no reason. It has the capability to do much damage, cause great hurt and be very destructive. We can use it to gossip, lie, criticise, manipulate, be unkind… the list goes on and on and it isn’t pretty.

For,

“The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
He must turn away from evil and do good;
He must seek peace and pursue it.

1 Peter 3:10-11

So, as I suspect that I’m not the only one who struggles with these things what can we do about it? The Book of James tells us that “no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil.” So how can we avoid doing harm with our tongues?

1. Watch what you say – be a better listener than talker

One of the simplest ways to avoid doing harm with our words is to keep our mouths shut. This is a great one for us shy introverts. Ask questions, learn to encourage others to tell you about themselves and their lives. Be a great listener.

People like to talk about themselves and it’s a great ministry to be an intentional listener. You will be a valued friend and people will feel loved and special when they are around you.

2. Watch what you say – pray about the words you say each day

If guarding your tongue is a particular problem in your life then pray about it. Ask for God’s help to purify your words.

It may be that it’s in a certain relationship that you find your words are quite destructive in. Pray about that relationship. Ask God to reveal truth in this area of your life and ask for His help to redeem this relationship.

3. Watch what you say – what goes in must come out!

The things we fill our minds with will often be revealed in the words we speak. If we watch a lot of soaps with strife, bitching and gossiping in they are bound to influence out thoughts and words towards the people we ourselves are in contact with. If we read a lot of magazines which are critical of celebrities we may begin to judge others by the same standards.

We might not think we are that easily influenced, but it will have an effect, even if it’s small.

Yet, if we dwell in God’s Word and spend time reading the Bible every day our thoughts and words will be influenced daily by God’s heart. This will impact our relationships and the way we communicate love, grace and truth.

Now it’s over to you – what’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever said? Have you ever spectacularly put your foot in it? Share if you dare!

Photo credit – Julia Freeman-Woolpert from stock.xchng

Shared this devotion with Found the Marbles, Live Laugh Rowe, Intentional Me, Katherine’s Corner, Hope in Every Season, Serving Joyfully, Jenni Mullinix and The Fontentot Four.

Did you know that you were created to be blessed by God and therefore to bless others? It’s a truth that we can easily forget in all of the different efforts we make to be godly women. We’re so busy reminding ourselves that we need to follow all of God’s teachings, engage in our spiritual practices that we lose sight of the fact that by being in relationship with God we can receive His blessings daily and in abundance and spread those blessings abundantly to others.

How are you blessed? Spend a moment thinking now of all the ways in which you have been blessed by God in the last week.

Many people keep a blessings section in their prayer journal to keep them mindful of all that God has given them. It’s a great way to be encouraged especially when you are going through a hard time.

The flame of love in our relationship with God is kindled and stoked by the constant blessings He loves to pour out on us. The culmination of this is the death of Christ on the cross, blessing us with redemption from sin and death. A blessing which is open to all who accept Him as their Saviour.

We celebrated our two youngest children’s birthdays on Saturday – Alfie and Millie were both born on exactly the same day two years apart! Although we don’t have birthday parties every year in our family, we decided this year to mark the celebration to hold a Pirate and Princess party. Millie and Alfie had a fabulous time, the pirates all roared together, the princesses looked beautiful and the parents collapsed in a heap when it was all over!

Millie and Alfie were lucky enough to receive a lot of amazing presents from all their family and friends. One of the things we were very conscious of as parents was that they wouldn’t take those gifts for granted. That the sheer quantity of presents wouldn’t dilute their feelings of gratefulness and showing thanks to the people giving the presents.

That is the danger when we are blessed. That we cease to be amazed and awed by the blessings showered upon us. That we lose our thankful hearts and start to take the blessings for granted.

Now, this doesn’t mean we are to live in a state of delirious happiness focusing only on our blessings, forgetting our struggles and worries. This is a false idea of what it means to have joy as a Christian and leaves many of us feeling deficient in our faith, guilty and inadequate. However, being mindful of our blessings enables us to keep a perspective in our hard times and helps us to remain focused on Jesus in the midst of the storms of life.

We are in the middle of a series called Becoming a Godly Woman (A Work in Progress) working through the book of 1 Peter. A godly woman knows how much she is blessed. She lives in a state of perpetual thankfulness to God for the many things He has given her and those she loves.

To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

1 Peter 3:8-9

A godly woman knows she is blessed and also lives to bless others. There are countless opportunities that we have to bless others every day. Being a blessing to those we are in relationship with should be one of our main purposes in life. Intentionally to love others, show God’s love and bless them as we touch their lives.

Every day as we care for our homes, raise our kids, support our parents and honour our husbands we can be a blessing to those we love.

We can bless our friends with kindness, love, care and support and causing them to smile or laugh.

We can bless our communities with unseen acts of generosity with our time and money.

We can bless our enemies through prayer, being forgiving and turning the other cheek (toughie, eh?)

When God first spoke to Abraham and  anointed the people the Israel to be His people, set apart for His purposes He gave this covenant -

“And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Genesis 12:2-3

The calling that He gave Abraham as a foundational building block for the nation of Israel was to receive His blessings and to bless others. This was the way God wanted Israel to live as His chosen people.

This is the way He wants us to live as godly women. You were made to bless and to be blessed.

Photo credit – Michael & Christa Richert from stock.xchng

Shared today with A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Raising Homemakers, Simply Helping Him, We are THAT Family, Jennifer Dukes Lee, My Daily Walk in His Grace and Deep Roots at Home.