Inspiration Between Friends

© 2012 by S L Atkins. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 12/23/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4678-7417-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-7416-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-7415-1 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011960940

Printed in the United States of America

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Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New Kings James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

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Contents

A Place of Rest

A Word from God

Acceptance

Accountability

All that Glitters

Ask, Knock, Seek

Balance

Beauty for Ashes

Beyond Imagination

Bittersweet Memories

Blessings

Bottled Tears

Choices

Commitment

Confession is Good for the Soul

Contentment

Dance with Destiny

Discipline

Do Unto Others

Don’t Attempt This On Your Own

Don’t Give Up Now!

Doors of Opportunity

Dreams

Enemy Mine

Expectations

Faithful to His Promises

False Gods

Fight or Flight?

Foundations

Friends

Get Moving

Gift of Praise

God Does Not Compromise

God Has a Divine Design

God Is Not Finished with Me Yet

God is Still in Control!

God’s Unlimited Power

Gratitude

Growing Pains

Hear My Prayer O’ Lord

Help is on the Way

Help! I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up

Help Me to Stand

His Grace is Sufficient

His Love Never Fails

Holding Temptation at Bay

Hope

How Glorious Is Your Praise

How Heavy Is Your Bag?

I AM

I Am Everything You Need

I Am God

I Am Thankful

I Trust You, Lord

If God Is For Us

If It Doesn’t Fit, Don’t Force It!

Illumination

In the Presence of God

Inner Change

Is It Our Business?

Is Your Blessing Wasted?

It Won’t Be Long Now

It’s a Thin Line

Jealousy

Key to the Kingdom

Lead the Way

Learning Acceptance

Letting Go

Limited Vision

Lost

Majesty

Merciful Kindness

Miry Clay

My God Is An Awesome God

My Soul Cries Out

Nothing Just Happens

Obedience

Obstacles

One Day at a Time

Overexposure

Past Hurts

Peace

Peaches

Perfect Peace

Perfection

Perseverance

Positive Reinforcement

Praise

Praise His Name!

Praise in the Midst of the Storm

Praying for Others

Press On

Problematic Complaining

Provision

Read Between the Pages

Relationship

Renewal

Searching

Secrets

Seek God While He May Be Found

Seek His Face Not His Hand

Separation

Severed Connections

Show Me the Way

Spending Quality Time with God

Spiritual Navigation

Stability in an Unstable World

Standing on the Word of God

Sticks and Stones

Surrendering our Hearts and Minds

Tangible Evidence of a Changed Heart

Tender Loving Care

Test of Faith

Thank You, Lord!

The Attitude of Servitude

The Beauty Within

The Best Laid Plans

The Blessing of the Cross

The Challenges of Life

The Consequences of Sin

The Cost of Impatience

The Face of Evil

The Gift

The Gift of Forgiving

The Gift of Salvation

The Goodness of His Love

The Hand of God

The Holiday Spirit

The Lord is My Keeper

The Main Focus

The Miracle of Birth

The Price of Freedom

The Prodigal

The Symbolism of Trees

The True Vine

The Whole Armor of God

Time

Triumph

Trust

Trust in the Lord

Unconditional Love

Vision

Waiting to Exhale

We Praise Him

What If There Were No Tomorrow?

What Lies Beneath

When is it Enough?

Why Can’t I Hear You Lord?

Without You

Wrestling with Temptation

You Alone Are God

You Knew Me

Your Will and Not Mine

A Place of Rest

My soul needs a resting place

Somewhere to call home

A place it can go in times of trouble

In times of despair

My soul needs a resting place

Under the shelter of Your mighty wing

Hold me

Protect me

Let me find quietness and peace

In the comforting embrace of your arms

The spirit of God is in me

Providing comfort and guidance

Sustaining me

Giving me the strength

To face another day

A Word from God

A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps. (NKJV: Proverbs 16:9)

Have you ever experienced the pain of heartbreak? If so, you know it is very real. There have been times when I thought my heart was broken but it was more about pride than pain. However, my heart has not escaped unscathed.

At the time, I did not think I would ever get past the pain; it felt as though it would be with me always but time and distance heal most wounds or give us a different perspective. The wound did not scab over but healed from the inside and there is no lingering scar tissue. The memories are there but the pain is gone.

God is truly amazing because without Him by my side telling me it would be all right, I might have fallen into a deep dark hole of despair. There were days when the effort of getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the other seemed too difficult. If you give depression a stronghold, it will drain the life out of you.

Sometimes, you just need to be able to hear God’s voice. Just a word from Him makes even the darkest day brighter because God always knows the next step we should take. If we put our trust in Him, He is a sure compass. He sees the big picture and can help us adjust to the conditions or maneuver the pitfalls. One word from God is worth more than a thousand words from well-meaning friends because there is no guesswork involved. When we listen to God, there is no chance of receiving bad advice. His guidance is invaluable. When we place our trust in God, He will make even the crooked places straight. (Isaiah 42:16)

Acceptance

God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (NIV: Romans 5:8) Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. (NIV: Isaiah 55:6)

If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you know the kind of life you should be living and if you have not accepted Him as your Savior, you might want to give it some serious consideration while there is still time. God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. (NKJV: Psalm 53:2)

There are no perfect people. We are all a work in progress and will be until we die or until Jesus returns. Even though we strive to be like Jesus, we often fall short of the goal but we cannot give up. We are saved through grace but in order to receive God’s grace, we must confess our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior believing that He was sacrificed on the cross to take on the sins of the world; that He was buried and that He rose again on the third day.

We do not have to be perfect—a goal we can never attain—to come to Jesus. The time never seems right to turn our lives over to God. We make excuse after excuse while we continue to procrastinate about making a commitment that is really quite simple. Either we desire abundant life in Christ with the hope of eternal life or we want to belong to a world that can only offer us temporary pleasures—subsistence with no substance—and eventual death.

Most people view making a commitment to Christ Jesus as synonymous with death. Of course, it is the death of our old life but it is the beginning of our new life in Christ. Christians are not exempt from enjoying life even though some people believe being born again means the absence of life. Jesus did not come to deprive us of life; He came so that we might have life more abundantly. (John 10:10)

Accountability

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (NKJV: Isaiah 55:8-9)

God can miraculously open a door that was previously closed; a door that no matter how hard you pushed, you could not gain entrance. Suddenly, the door swings open and you are allowed to not only glimpse the inner corridor but to enter, to observe, to linger.

God does not have to explain His reasons to us. He is omniscient. He knows everything and in knowing everything, He obviously knows what is best. He does not ask Himself if He is making the right decision nor is He concerned about how we feel about His decisions. It is not up to us to question God’s decisions, actions or motives. We must learn to trust Him; to understand that He causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose—His purpose; not ours (Romans 8:28). He is not accountable to us in any way.

We, on the other hand, are totally accountable to Him. Yet, we continually ask God for an explanation to satisfy our curiosity; our inherent need to know. The human mind is always seeking an answer; an explanation for things we do not or cannot comprehend. We do not need to know everything and God shares those things He wants us to know. We only need to know that we can place our total trust in God, that He will never disappoint us and that He will always take care of us. Even when He does not give us the solution we want, He still knows what is best for us because His vision encompasses the past, present and future. God sees the big picture not just the current circumstances.

All that Glitters

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (NJKV: James 1:17)

One day my young cousin and I went berry picking. He wanted to pick the red berries because they were more eye catching—bright red in color. I explained that the red berries were not ripe and, therefore, were not as sweet as the blackberries but he insisted on picking the red ones so I finally said, Okay. You can pick the red berries and I will pick the blackberries. Thank goodness we found more of the blackberries because I had absolutely no desire to eat those sour half ripe red berries.

While we were searching for berries, we had to climb over fences and trample through berry vines and weeds. The thought that snakes like berries, too, was uppermost in my mind. However, I kept this thought to myself. My young cousin kept up a steady stream of chatter. He made so much noise trampling through the bushes and kicking the weeds that any snakes that might have been in the vicinity, definitely slithered off to find a quieter resting place.

My mind drifted back to times gone by when life was much simpler. My young cousin is like so many of us. We continuously reach for the bright, colorful object because it is the one that captures and holds our attention. We want what we think looks better but looks can be so deceiving. Oftentimes we look at the outer trimming without examining the inner depth. Most of us will give up the 80 percent to seek out the 20 percent that we perceive to be better but everything that glitters is not gold.

The 80/20 principle applies to just about everything in life, including relationships. We will give up the person who loves and respects us, and even understands us, for the one who makes us feel good. We often discover too late that the very thing we gave up is the one thing we really needed. You know the old saying, You never miss the water until the well runs dry.

In the end, he decided he actually liked the purple berries better. After all, we all know the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. A simple lesson learned. Sometimes, God tries to give us something good, yet, we question Him because it is not what we want. Many times we miss out on good gifts from God because we are afraid to let go of the very thing He is trying to remove. If God told you to let go, let go. He has something better He is trying to give you. Trust Him. Accept the gift. God does not withhold any good thing from those who trust in Him and who are obedient to His word. (Psalm 84:11).

Ask, Knock, Seek

Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (NKJV: James 4:2-3)

There are some people who pray to God, yet, they never seem to receive their requests because they ask for the wrong reasons—personal pleasures and sinful desires. Materialism has pervaded our society and we spend less and less time with God even though without Him we can do nothing. It is as though we do not realize the importance of the investment God has made in our lives.

Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. (NKJV: Isaiah 55:6)

We are dependent on God whether we acknowledge it or not. Failure to acknowledge God’s grace in our lives does not void its existence. Some of us have everything we could possibly need and most of what we want, yet we are still not satisfied. We will never be satisfied until we realize that an active, ongoing relationship with God is the missing link.

Salvation is a gift from God, yet we do not all accept it. Some of us relegate God to a small corner of our lives and some of us avoid any reference to God, acting as though spending time with Him is shameful. Not only do we not spend time in God’s presence, we seldom acknowledge His existence—if at all. And we have the audacity to ridicule, scorn and even laugh at people who walk with Him daily. We have time for everyone except God and yet God is our sustaining light. Without Him, we cannot exist.

It is these same people who run to God at the first sign of a problem or difficulty. As soon as trouble appears on the horizon, they immediately beat a hasty path to His doorstep, trying to gain entrance into His gates; an audience to petition Him for help.

We even have the nerve to get upset when God does not respond in what we consider a timely manner and heaven forbid that He should deny our request. Some of us are proud, vain, selfish and arrogant. We do not show the proper respect or reverence for God’s omnipotence or His omniscience and yet, we expect God to bow to our demands simply because we ask.

We expect God to make time for us even though we rarely, if ever, make time for Him. We expect Him to cancel His appointments; drop everything and take care of our issues simply because we have finally remembered there is someone greater than us. It is not God’s fault that we make poor choices and decisions that are often detrimental to our well-being. Consulting God after the fact defeats the purpose.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (NKJV: Isaiah 55:8-9)

The truth is God does not honor requests that are contrary to His will. He is not required to answer our prayers affirmatively if they contradict His will. We must remember that ultimately, God is interested in furthering His purposes so that we can glorify His name and promote His kingdom.

God’s favor cannot be purchased for any price. We can be reassured that God does not judge us based on sex, color, ethnic background, financial status, or our religious and political affiliations. He is not interested in our titles or what clubs we belong to. His decisions and judgments are not swayed by the neighborhood we live in or the type of car we drive.

God does not show partiality or favoritism. He realizes we will make mistakes; that we are selfish and still He loves us. This in itself is a testimony of how much we mean to Him. God accepts us with all our shortcomings, loves us unconditionally and is infinitely patient with us because it is His desire