Darlene Sala - You Are His: Daily Encouragement for Women

2014 by Darlene Sala

Originally published in the Philippines under the title Refreshing Words for Busy Women, by OMF Literature, Inc. Selections in this book previously published in the United States in the books You Are Blessed, You Are Loved, and You Are Chosen by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Print ISBN 978-1-68322-144-9

eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-63058-975-2
Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-63058-976-9

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the H OLY B IBLE , N EW I NTERNATIONAL V ERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Published by Barbour Books, an imprint of Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com.

Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

Printed in China.

Dedicated to all busy women who thirst for freshening, invigorating, revitalizing, restorative, health-giving Living Water.

Every woman I know is a busy womanthats the way life is in the twenty-first century. All the more important, then, to take daily breaks to refresh your soul (Psalm 23:3). Not meant to be a substitute for Bible study, these one-a-day short selections are written to restore and strengthen youand sometimaes challenge you as well.

You will soon notice that every seventh selection is comprised of verses from Psalms, for you to find special refreshment in Gods poetry.

Because the selections are scripture based and always encouraging, I hope they will be for you like a drink of cool water when you are thirsty and tired.

I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.
J EREMIAH 31:25

Commit to the L ORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

P ROVERBS 16:3

When I was a kid, I always liked to get a brand-new pencil, sharpen it to a perfect point, and sit down with a fresh new notebook. Somehow that pristine pencil and paper presented so many possibilities. A new year feels like this to me, tooa fresh beginning.

I remember sitting down at the start of one new year and praying, Lord, I want this whole year to make a difference for You. But the problem with that prayer is that its impossible to experience the whole year in one instance. Every year comes in 365 days, each of which has 24 hours or 1,440 minutes. Unless I make those individual days and hours count for God, when December rolls around again, nothing will have changed.

Maybe one never gets to the place of total 24-hours-a-day commitment to Gods will. My experience is that commitment only comes in moment-sized acts of obedience. I find no problem, personally, in committing the whole year to Godor my whole life, for that matter. Its the moments that give me troublethe little decisions about the use of my time, money, and energy. What does God want me to do right now? Am I willing to do it?

Lord, beginning today, help me look at each moment as important to You. Your Word says, Commit to the L ORD whatever you do (Proverbs 16:3). Help me care more about what You want than what I want. Thank You for the new pencil and new notebooka fresh start.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

C OLOSSIANS 3:20

One evening my daughter called my eldest grandson, who was just a toddler then, to come to the table for dinner. She was taken aback when he replied, No, Mommy, Im not going to come. Im going to play now. As you can imagine, that day my grandson learned the meaning of the scripture verse that says, Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Colossians 3:20).

When my daughter told me about this, I felt a twinge of guilt. How many times have I said that to God when He spoke to my heart about something He wanted me to do? No, Lord, I want to do something else right now. You see, theres another power in my life besides Goda strong one: its my own will. While I hate to admit it, many times my will is against Gods will. This battle for my own way is the essence of sin. Isaiah wrote, We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way (Isaiah 53:6). My way as opposed to Gods way. I have been given the ability to make the choice.

Every day I need to come to the Lord and ask, What do You want me to do today? Romans 12:1 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord. But as someone pointed out, the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar. Thats why I find I need to present myself to the Lord every day.

Which will it be todayGods will or yours?