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365 Spirit-Lifting Devotions of Faith

ISBN-10: 0-8249-4523-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-8249-4523-7

Published by Guideposts

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New York, New York 10016

Guideposts.org

Copyright 2012 by Guideposts. All rights reserved.

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Acknowledgments

Every attempt has been made to credit the sources of copyrighted material used in this book. If any such acknowledgment has been inadvertently omitted or miscredited, receipt of such information would be appreciated.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, King James Version (KJV). Other Scriptures are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. The New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. The New American Standard Bible (NASB), Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. The Living Bible (TLB) 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. The Message (MSG). Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. The New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV). Copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. Good News Translation (GNT) Copyright 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Cover design, Interior design and typeset by Thinkpen Design, Inc.

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Printed and bound in China

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F aith is the beacon that lights the way along the road of our lifelong F journey. It guides and protects us, enriching our lives with meaning and lifts us up with the knowledge that we are loved.

365 Spirit-Lifting Devotions of Faith will make the road easier to follow. This unique volume will keep you on course, no matter what life puts in your path. Each day offers a Scripture, a true-life story and a prayer that unites the devotions theme. The devotionsone for every day of the year, including Leap Yearare by people from all walks of life who share their insights on how faith has touched their lives in everyday and extraordinary situations. Join them at work and on vacation, in good times and bad. Their stories will strengthen your own faith as you confront lifes joys and challenges.

Meet Lindsey, the little walker-using ballerina who keeps up with the moves of other girls in her heart. Faith makes her a dancer too.

Vacation with Pam and David Kidd on the Isle of Vieques. There, trillions of microorganisms in the black-as-night water of Bioluminescence Bay reward visitors with a magical blue-green lightbut only if they trust their guide and jump into the water.

Rejoice with Marion Bond West when her prayer for a terminally ill neighbor, Lord, do something brand-new for E. J. today, is answered by a peaceful death in his favorite recliner.

Follow Brock Kidds passage from despair to renewal as he comes to terms with his fiances decision to break their engagement and in the process gains a new understanding of his purposes in life.

Spend a week at the shore with Elizabeth Sherrill as her faith leads her to discover new wisdom in words from the sea.

These and other faith-affirming stories make 365 Spirit-Lifting Devotions of Faith a book to treasure and grow with, day after day and year after year. And because 365 Spirit-Lifting Devotions of Faith is not bound to a particular year, you can start reading today and continue lifting your spirit in faith for years to come.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

PSALM 100:1

T he Rejoice banner goes up on New Years Day at my mom and dads home. It usually hangs over the garage, the colorful letters on a white background reminding the neighbors to rejoice. Something of a historical artifact, it made its first appearance on January 1, 1983, carried by two Boy Scouts down Colorado Boulevard before a million people in Pasadena in that years Rose Paradewhat we always refer to as Dads parade.

That was when Dad was president of the Tournament of Roses, the volunteer organization that runs the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl. He and Mom traveled across the country, meeting the bands that would march in the parade and the civic groups that would sponsor floats. They ate at pancake breakfast fundraisers, shook hands with mayors and boosters, marched in other parades and cheered through Pac Ten/Big Ten football games. In preparation, Dad crowned a Rose queen and selected a grand marshal. But his biggest challenge was to come up with a theme for the parade.

I can remember some of the rejects: Faith and Family, Faith, Hope and Love, Faith and Enterprise (somehow I could never see that on a banner carried down Colorado Boulevard). Clearly Dad was trying to find the right message to help people celebrate the New Year. It should have meaning for everybody, he said.

What Dad finally settled on was a simple verb, one that appears a couple of hundred times in the Bible. It was on the banner and the floats and in the band music, and it was the word he repeated that sunny morning as he waved from the horse-drawn, flower-covered carriage that led the parade.

Rejoice.

What a way to greet the New Year!

Lord, on this New Years Day, I rejoice in the world You made.

RICK HAMLIN

Sing to the Lord a new song.

PSALM 96:1 (NRSV)

O ne New Years day many years ago, worried over finances and an undiagnosed illness, I chose these words of Psalm 96 as my Bible verse for the year. Whenever I felt anxious, I decided, Id learn a new hymn and replace the what-ifs with songs of faith.

The hymn I picked to launch the experiment was Another Year Is Dawning by Frances Havergal. Appropriate for the day, but also, given the unknowns I faced, faintly annoying. How could the author be so sure it would be another year of gladness...of quiet, happy rest? Life in the nineteenth century, I thought, must have been a lot more placid than it is today!

Several days later, spotting a book on hymn writers in our church library, I looked up this woman whose words I was singing. Frances Havergals life, I quickly learned, was far from placid. I faced a potentially serious illness; Frances was ill all her life, never able to attend school, marry, have children. I worried about paying bills; Francess father, an English clergyman, had scarcely started work in his first parish when he was thrown from a carriage and incapacitated.

Then when Frances was eleven, her mother died. In her grief, the girl turned to writing hymns of faith. Until her own death at age fifty-three, this frail woman never stopped composing verses that have given strength to others ever since.