When I was a kid, I learned very quickly to never tell my mom that I was bored. I grew up in a time when boredom was the fastest way to a list of chores. My mom and dad would always tell us to use our imaginations and go make something. Imagination, or the exercise of creating in our mind, is a beautiful thing. It’s my imagination that planted the seeds for my love of writing. Even now, it’s my imagination that helps me to make dinner when I don’t have all of the right ingredients, but I can think up a new and different way to make a dish.

How has your imagination helped you? Think back to March 2020. At the beginning of the month you were imagining the normal thoughts associated with the beginning of spring whether it was imagining your new flower beds, spring cleaning your home or imagining your summer vacation. Then, by the end of March and the start of stay at home, your imagination saved the day! You began thinking creatively of all the ways to pass the time while staying at home. Back then, my Facebook news feed exploded with pictures of new crafts, hobbies, sourdough bread and video content.

I’m not sure if animals have imaginations, but it seems like the ability to create in our minds is a gift that God gave to us as humans.

But, we’ve got to remember that our imaginations need Jesus.

 Last Thursday morning we woke up to the news that that Russia had invaded Ukraine. How many of your imaginations fired up and began creating awful mental movies of how this event overseas was going to hurt you or destroy your lives? If you’ve done my Joshua Bible study or Winning the Worry Battle book, I call those awful mental movies “WorryFlix.” Like Netflix or any other streaming media, WorryFlix can play endlessly. While we may struggle to find the time for prayer or Bible study, our minds seem to have no problems whatsoever finding time to create WorryFlix. Our imaginations can take what we see on the news or social media and generate a storyline where our safety as well as our hopes and dreams are stripped away.

Take a moment and think about your thinking:

After you watch a WorryFlix episodes in imagination, do you tend to experience more anxiety, depression, hopelessness and distraction in your actual life?  

Here’s an important question: During your WorryFlix episodes or anytime that you’re imagining the future, how does Jesus show up in your imagination?

Years ago, I experienced an aha moment, a profound spiritual breakthrough. You see, I thought that I had a lifetime subscription to WorryFlix. I could take any real event and create an Oscar-award winning nightmare in my mind that would leave me crying real tears and struggling with awful anxiety. Then one day, I reflected on my imagination movies and realized that that my WorryFlix episodes NEVER included Jesus’ presence or factored in God’s promises.

This is when I realized that my imagination NEEDED Jesus!

Here’s the thing, our imaginations are like two-year-old toddlers without a diaper. They want to run free and don’t want to be under the authority of anyone or anything. But our imaginations are not in charge of us. God is. So, you and I need to snatch up our imaginations and drag them to Jesus just like 2 Corinthians 10:5 says:

We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:5 AMP).

This means that when our minds start imagining scenarios that don’t align with the truth of God, WE are responsible for saying, “No. Stop. If Jesus isn’t a part of this scenario, then what my mind is creating is a lie and every lie must die in Jesus’ name!”

 My sweet friend, we need to do this now more than ever. We don’t know the outcome of what will happen in the days ahead. I don’t want your imagination to feed you lies that God never intended for you to base your life upon. God’s promises and truth MUST fill and feed your heart, body, soul AND mind!

I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU: Was this devotional helpful? If so, I’d love for you to tell me about it! Also, if this was helpful, you can send this to your friends. Look, it’s not a sin to be afraid of what’s happening in our world, BUT God does not want us to live in fear.

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Have you ever tried to fight worry with faith and felt you were losing the battle? Have comments like "God's got this!" or "Just pray about it" left you feeling more burdened? We know we shouldn't worry, but the reality is that we all do at times.

Barb's Winning the Worry Battle, combines her personal stories of confronting her worry and anxiety as well as fresh Biblical insights as you reflect on Joshua and the Israelites journey into the Promised Land. You'll position yourself to experience God's victory over your worry battle by learning how to apply God's promises with Barb's scripture-based practical tools.

Few groups in America feel the sting of negative stereotypes more than young, African Americans. Whether it's assuming that every young, black woman aspires to be in a rap video, or that every young black male is a gang banger or a drug dealer, those stereotypes undermine the truth that we are surrounded by countless numbers of young, gifted and black souls. 

Join Barb and award-winning author and therapist, Sheila Wise Rowe, for an eye-opening, powerful yet tender conversation about the celebration as well as the lament that young, African Americans grapple with each day. If your heart's desire has been to see people through the eyes and heart of God, this is a conversation that you don't want to miss.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

sheilawiserowe.com

Young, Gifted, and Black

Young, Gifted, and Black by Nina Simone (song)

ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUEST

Sheila Wise Rowe is a truth-teller who writes passionately about matters of faith and emotional healing. She advocates for the dignity, rights, and healing of abuse survivors, those carrying racial trauma, and racial conciliation. Sheila holds a Masters degree in Counseling and has lived in the USA, Paris, France and Johannesburg, South Africa. For over twenty-five years she has been a counselor, educator, writer, spiritual director, and speaker.

Sheila is a member of the Community Ethics Committee of Harvard Medical School, a policy-review resource for it's teaching hospitals. She is a member of the Redbud Writers Guild and writes essays for several publications including; The Redbud Post, Mudroomblog.com and READY Publication.

Sheila co-authored with her husband Dr. Nicholas Rowe, The Well of Life: Heal Your Pain, Satisfy Your Thirst, Live Your Purpose. Sheila's essay; Awakened to Adventure is found in the anthology by Leslie Leyland Fields entitled; The Wonder Years: 40 Women Over 40 on Aging, Faith, Beauty, and Strength. Her 2020 book, Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience (IVP) was awarded the 2021 best book in Christian Living/ Discipleship by Christianity Today.

When Sheila is not writing or counseling she creates art, and crafts or searches for treasures in local antique and thrift shops.  

Check out this episode!

I’m finally watching The Chosen. I know, what’s taken me so long? If you’re not familiar with the television series, it’s based on Jesus’ life and the people who interacted with him. Like any other dramatized depiction of the scriptures, The Chosen isn’t trying to be a perfect replication of the Bible, but the series’ goal is to help us see the stories of Jesus in their proper context. It’s helpful for me to “see” the people that I read about in the Bible wearing clothes, living in homes, and eating food.

And, it’s also helpful for me to see their struggle.

In Luke 5, Jesus approaches Simon (later Peter,) who’d left his boat on the edge of the Sea of Galilee so that he could go wash his nets. Jesus asked Peter for permission to stand in his boat and teach the crowd who’d gathered on the shore. After teaching, Jesus told Simon to take his boat back out and let down his nets to catch fish (verse 4). However, Simon respectfully tells Jesus “we’ve been there, done that.” They were out all night fishing and hadn’t caught anything.

I don’t know about you, but as I read scripture, it’s easy for me to see Simon’s situation and not understand how big of a deal not catching fish was for him. While The Chosen dramatizes the personal lives of several characters, I was able to see into the tension and stress that Simon might have been facing. As a fisherman, his ability to take care of his family depended on whether or not he could catch fish.

Simon told Jesus that he’d been out all night. Think about that. Have you ever been up all night trying to fix something or figure something out? As I watched The Chosen, I ached for Simon because he frantically threw out one net, then another net. Next, he’d draw the nets in and hold them up into the light to make sure there weren’t any big holes where the fish could get out. As the night went on, I watched as he grabbed his hair, dropped his head into his hands and raged against the night because his nets were empty, but his heart was full of frustration and fear.

With all of that emotional turmoil, it took great faith for Simon to say to Jesus at the end of Luke 5: “But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.”

I don’t know about you, but when I hit my maximum frustration point, what I usually want to scream is, “I give up!” Yet, Simon doesn’t give up and storm off. He does what Jesus asks him to do. We’re not told whether or not Simon has a good attitude or if he doubts, all we know is that he says “yes” and he takes a next step.

If you’ve heard the story before, you know that a large number of fish miraculously appeared in Simon’s nets and those nets began to tear from the weight. When another boat came to help, that boat also filled with fish, so much that both boats were in danger of sinking.

That’s just like Jesus, isn’t it?

Whenever it looks like we’ve got nothing, Jesus shows up and gives us more than we could ever ask or need.

Sometimes it looks like tangible provision and at other times, it looks like an abundance of peace, strength or comfort. Whatever it is, Jesus isn’t asking us to have perfect faith, he just asks us to take a next step of faith and trust that he will do the rest.

JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION:  Do you watch The Chosen? How does Jesus and Simon’s story encourage you today?

Have you seen the theatrical release of “Redeeming Love” based on the best-selling book by Francine Rivers? My friend, Elaine and I saw the movie last weekend.

If you’ve been on social media, you may have seen a wide range of opinions, out-right enthusiasm, or objections for this adaptation of River’s work to the big screen. I’ll include a link to the Facebook review that I posted at the bottom of this post. But, I don’t want to use our precious time together to debate the controversy. Instead, I want to revisit the basis for River’s original novel in the book of Hosea. This book of the Bible shares the heartbreaking and incredible message that God conveyed through his prophet, Hosea, who endured his own heartache in order to reach God’s people.

This short, prophetic book of the Bible shares the heartbreaking and incredible message that God conveyed through his prophet, Hosea, who endured his own heartache in order to reach God’s people.

Let me highlight four things that you should know about the book of Hosea and the major themes in this story about God’s redeeming love when we run away from Him and instead choose to sell ourselves for what the world has to offer, whether it’s money, comfort, fear, status, etc.

1. Hosea’s name means “salvation.” His name is an adaptation of Joshua and Jesus. If you’ve done my Joshua Bible study, you know that Joshua was a savior symbol for the Israelites as he led them into the Promised Land, and Jesus is our Savior.

2. As a prophet, Hosea was God’s spokesperson. However, God’s instruction to Hosea was to marry a prostitute named Gomer, who would symbolize the Israelites who were unfaithful to God by selling themselves to other leaders and gods. Not only would Hosea bring a prophetic message to stubborn and rebellious Israelites, but he would live through personal heartache at home each day (Hosea 1:2-3).

3. The book of Hosea paints a graphic and uncomfortable message that reminds us of just how badly it hurts God when we run away from Him or fall in love with anything and everything other than Him. The overt sexual imagery in Hosea, both in Gomer as a prostitute as well as other verses illustrating the sexual intimacy between a man and a woman, are all symbols of how much God values an intimate, close connection with us (Hosea 3:1-2).

4. The overwhelming message of Hosea is that God’s love for His people always prevails over their sin. There may be hard seasons and consequences for our unfaithfulness, but His love and redemption are always a part of His plan (Hosea 2:14-20).

Again, I encourage you to read the book of Hosea with these thoughts in mind. Here are two powerful verses.

The first verse is God’s message about what He wants for you.

“I want to show you love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.” -Hosea 6:6 NLT

God wants to love you, and He isn’t looking for you to try to earn His love or favor. Remember from my Breakthrough: Finding Freedom in Christ Bible study, Breakthrough Principle #1: God’s love is based on His perfect promises and never your performance.

In this second verse, Hosea calls the people to repentance. He implores them to turn from whatever they’re selling their souls to and turn back to God. As you read this verse, perhaps it can be your declaration and prayer today:

Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring. -Hosea 6:3 NLT

I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU: Have you read the book Redeeming Love or seen the movie? Also, as you read today’s verses from Hosea 6:6 and Hosea 6:3, which one resonates more with you today? Hit “reply” and tell me about it.