God Keeps His Promises
"And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.'" Genesis 9:12 & 13 (NAS)

Off the Top
A Devotional Study by Margaret L. Paxton

Scripture readings: Exodus 23:19a; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Provergs 3:9, 10; Malachi 3:1-12; Psalm 78:21-29; I Corrinthings 16:1, 2; II Corinthians 9:6-15

Commit to memory: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and test Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, 'If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need.'" Malachi 3:10

When we started to give an allowance to our six-year-old this summer we also started to teach him about tithing. I wasn't too sure it could be done simply. He can be pretty possessive of what is his. And besides, he tried to negotiate a dollar instead of fifty cent! [this was written in 1985] So I prepared myself for a more difficult teaching session on the importance of tithing than I'd had with our oldest son. You can imagine my pleasure when I held out a quarter, two dimes and a nickel and said, "Now God has provided the way for you to receive this. The Bible tells us that we are to give back one tenth to God for His work. Your tithe out of fifty centers is this nickel"; and he said fine, could he have offering envelopes too?

Our thirteen-year-old has never had to be reminded to tithe his earnings. He does it first off and quite willingly. Both our boys' reactions to tithing gladdens my heart for I see it as such a marvelous way to honor God.

The dictionary says that a tithe is "one tenth of one's income, paid as a tax to support a church." In one of his sermons, my husband said, "A tithe is recognition of God as the owner and source of all things. It is an act of trust, love, worship, and sacrifice."

I love these first elevent verses of Deuteronomy 26. We can be likened to the Israelites. The Lord has brought us out of the miry clay of sin just as He brought the Isrealites out of Egypt. He has given us new life, an abundant life, flowing with His love, guidance, grace and blessings. And so we too can put the first of all the produce that the Lord our God has established. We can declare to the Lord that we have entered into that life the Lord promised us through His Son. Then the usher can take that envelope, and set it down on the altar before the Lord our God, with a prayer being offered to the Lord thanking Him for all He has done and is giving to us; "Behold, we have brought the first of the produce which Thou, O Lord has given us." It has been set down before the Lord our God and we can worship before Him. Isn't that wonderfu? What an uplifting experience. What a way to worship our God.

And let's not miss the cream topping in verse eleven. We and the stranger who is among us will "rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household." Praise God!

Tithing must not be something we do under compulsion. We must not see it as a tax that has to be paid for our citizenship in the family of God. Second Corinthians tells us that God's love is for the giver who gives with a cheerful heart. God takes those gifts and tithes and increases them and His name is glorified.

In Malachi God promises to pour out His blessing to us when we bring to Him our whole tithe. What a picture is created through words for us in the 10th verse of Malachi 3. Look up into the heavens and just picture the windows to them opening wide and the blessings of God being poured out until there simply isn't any more room to hold them.

That's what God has promised us when we bring to Him our whole tithe. When we are able to recognize that everything we have, everything we earn, is given to us by God, then we truly will desire to honor Him by giving back the first fruit of what He has given to us.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, You are the giver of all good gifts. You own the cattle on all the hills and the wealth in every mine. Thank you for providing for my needs and for those of my family. Take my tithe, Father, and increase it for Your purpose so that Your name will be glorified. Amen.

Thoughts for meditation or discussion:

1. Does God mean for us to tithe the first fruit of our earnings before or after government deductions?
2. Why is it many Christians do not want to hear about tithing?
3. Do you tithe? Why or why not? Carefully examine this question in light of the Scriptures.
4. This Sunday, when you give your tithe, make it a real personal act of worship to God.

"My Soul Will Exult
In My God!"
A Devotional Study by Margaret L. Paxton

Scripture Readings: Psalm 16:11; Psalm 94:19; Job 22:26; Isaiah 61:10 & 58:14

Commit to memory: Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.Psalm 27:4 (NAS)

Last March when Dad's illness called me home my husband's grandmother was visiting us. It was in God's timing that she was here and could stay on for two weeks and help with our boys. One day she and your youngest planted some morning-glory seeds along the backyard fence. After I came home I would sit with a cup of coffee after getting the kids off to school and observe their daily growth. As they entwined themselves on the fence I was filled with anticipation for the sight of the first flower. One morning my husband looked out the back door and called to me, "You've got a morning glory in bloom!" We hurried out to see it. The sight of that first beautiful, blue bloom, open to the heavens, literally took my breath away. I just gazed in silent admiration upon the work of God's hands.

Enjoying God's creation is one of my favorite ways to "delight in the Lord." I never fail to be awestruck with the myriad ways God has created in nature that can stir the depths of my being.

I remember a trip our family took years ago over the mountains from Western Washington into Eastern Washington. Looking out the car window to my right was a Christmas card picture that became indelibly printed in my memory. In a small clearing, with snow glistening from the sun, was a lone deer reaching up to lick an icicle hanging from a low branch. I was so captured by the beauty of that scene that I couldn't even call anybody else's attention to it. Still today, the memory of that sight helps me to "delight in the Lord."

I'm a lousy gardener. I don't have time to be a consistent weeder, fertilizer and bug sprayer. But every season I make a stab at growing various plants and flowers. I've always enjoyed the feel of the cool, dark earth in my hands as I've prepared it to receive the seeds or plants. I've delighted in the Lord during the times spent on my knees introducing each of my boys to the wonder of how God can take a small seek planted firmly in His earth and grow it into an unmistakable thing of glory.

Our lives are filled with so many avenues that one can take to "delight" in our Lord. Daily I walk the avenue marked "My Children." What an avenue! At one point it's marked with a little boy's hug and the words, "I love you," embellished with a smack. At another it's finding myself at near exasperation when I've yelled, for what seems like the hundredth time, on a hot, sticky July day, "Shut the door!", and the bang nearly rocks the house. At yet another point it's finding myself standing next to my thirteen-year-old brother to his shoulders to see the 4th of July fireworks better, and he stands ever so much taller.

I love the avenue marked "My Husband." What a delight to walk this avenue, all the time being loved and cared for by a man who loves me just "as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her." (Eph. 5:25).

I treasure the times I walk the avenue marked "My Friends." I delight in experiencing friendships that have been bonded in Christ's love.

The avenue marked "Devotion and Prayer" is a quiet street. No one walks with me here except God. He sits with me and leads me to find just what I need in His Word. I can give Him my praise and worship, my requests and expectations. I can "delight" in His presence.

Each of us has a "Career" avenue we've taken, hopefully under the Lord's direction. My avenue is marked, "Minister's Wife." How I do delight in this way. Even though it is lined with pressures, weariness, disappointments and sacrifice at some places, the sun always is shining through and I find so much delight in doing what God has called me to do.

Where do I stop? There are so many avenues--worship, music, tithing, service, witnessing, family, salvation, on and on. Each one a means and a way to delight myself in my God.

The Psalmist tells us that in God's "presence is fullness of joy." When we live each part of our lives in God's presence, letting Him make the "path of life" known to us, we discover a lovely thing has happened. We find ourselves with new desires of the heart. And while we may have some of the same old desires they seem to be framed in a new attitude. Our heart's desires are for what God wants us to want and what God wants us to have.

I discover anew each day that my desire to be more fully in accord with God's will and in a deepening relationship with Him, colors all my other heart's desires. So I find that one of the greatest desires of my heart is not for something material, but that my sons will grow to walk in an intensely personal relationship with Jesus.

My sister gave me our memory verse framed in a lovely flower setting and it hangs over my kitchen doorway. Two years ago a fire completely destroyed our kitchen. Out of the ashes God gave me a desire of my heart--a kitchen designed more to my tastes. All of our married life I had looked at a wall each time I did dishes. I longed for a window. Now we could have the sink moved, not under a window, but looking out into the family room. Indeed, now this chore is much more pleasurable. And joy, of all joys, I had a brand new stove with a sparkling clean broiler pan, the first we'd ever owned.

Just recently God has given me a desire of my heart and I am so humbled by His abundant generosity. Our youngest son has been in a Christian school for pre-schooling and kindergarten. When it came time to register for first grade this spring we found out that the tuition had been raised enough that it was simply out of our reach. For a number of reasons we knew that this was where God wanted our son to be. So it remained to be seen how it could be managed. The most obvious solution was for me to return to work. For a number of reasons also this did not seem to be right for me. But there didn't appear to be another answer. I enlisted the prayers of two close friends and my sister. We prayed for God to make His will clear and that if it was His will for me to return to work at this time He would give me the energy and the peace I would need and would open a job door. I began to make inquiries for work, but as the weeks passed I became perplexed as nothing opened up. We proceeded to register our son for first grade and waited on the Lord. Then one afternoon the school called with words to this effect, "An angel came in today and paid Philip's tuition for next year." How the tears of gratefulness flowed and are flowing again as I share this with you.

Yes, God does give us the desires of our heart. If we "delight" ourselves in Him our desires will be for what God wants and knows is best for us.

"Then you will take delight in the Lord,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth...." Isaiah 58:14a (NAS)

Oh Father, I praise Your name today. I praise you for keeping our world in place, for the beauty of a pansy and the fresh smell of rain. And most of all, Father, I praise You for being God and Your gift of love in Jesus. Amen and amen.

Walking Through Dark Valleys

A Devotional Study by Margaret L. Paxton

Scripture readings: Psalm 23; Psalm 107:10-16; Psalm 27:1-6; Psalm 16:8; Isaiah 43:1b-3a; Psalm 28:7

Commit to memory: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

Our church sits on almost five acres of property. A little lake is also a part of the property. Around the lake are some beautiful huge oak trees and pine trees. Pine and punk trees are found here and there around the rest of the property. They help to make a pretty piece of land. To reach the parsonage from the church, as the crow flies, one must cross a nice open field. It's not too big a field, but it makes for a good-sized ball game. At night, however, the shadows cast by those lovely trees and our own shadows make us feel skittish and we walk with a faster step than when in daylight.

When our youngest son walks with me across that field in the day time he's always running way out in front of me or lagging way behind. But at night he holds tightly to my hand and I can feel his fear. As I did with his brother I talk to him about how beautiful the lake looks at night, and we look into the heavens at the magnificent sky with all the sparkling stars and the bright silver of a moon. We remember that we don't need to be afraid because God is with us to keep us from fear. Before we know it we are on the other side and the house is just a few steps away.

Writers and film directors make good use of shadows to create fear. They represent the unknown, menacing enemies, impending danger or death. As the reader or movie watcher we find the shadows, or the suggestion of shadows, gripping us, causing us a sharp intake of breath. Our hands clench into tight fists, our teeth set on edge and our whole body gets tense. Then the scene is over, our body relaxes and we let out a deep breath.

David couldn't have phrased fear any better. The margin in my Bible says that the "valley of the shadow of death" can also be translated, "valley of deep darkness." Our valleys of deep darkness are not always as easily nor as quickly gotten through as those we experience vicariously in a book. So it is most important for us to have learned to trust God to keep His promises. We need to be learning to understand the character and nature of God. Understanding and having faith in the character of the Shepherd, which enables Him to help us cope with fear and bring us comfort, will help us immensely when we have to walk through a "valley of deep darkness."

All through the Psalms we find David calling out to God when he is in "valleys of deep darkness'" :Hear my cry, O God," "Save me, O God." When we get in a deep valley and there is so much darkness, panic and fear begin to overtake us and we cry out, "Hasten to me, O God! Thou art my help and my deliverer." With David we acknowledge that God is our "very present help in trouble."

One Saturday afternoon, not long ago, our oldest son was doing his regular job of mowing the church lawn on the large Hustler mower. I was busy in the house when I heard this terrified screaming. Looking out the window I saw a neighbor running to me with panic on her face. My son's foot had gotten caught in the mower blade. I looked past her to see my son being brought to me with a large part of his big toe just hanging and blood everywhere. Through my own panic I could hear my son crying out, "God help me, God help me!"

Through the next few hours each of us walked through a "valley of deep darkness." But as He promised, God was with us and we received His comfort in many ways. He used capable nurses and doctors, a neighbor, each other, Scripture and His Presence to help us walk through that valley into light.

Read the words of this promise in Psalm 23:4 very carefully. God did not tell us He'd take us out of the valley so we wouldn't have to experience what was in the valley. Instead, He told us to not be afraid because He would be with us as we walk through the valley and He would give us His comfort.

I guess the darkest valley I've been in began in March (it is now July) with a phone call from Mom about Dad. This valley was of the "shadow of death" and I'm not out of it yet. I have lived in fear of this valley for a long time. In fact, a close friend, when she'd heard that I had gone home, said she asked God why me. Not more than a week earlier I'd told her through tears that I just couldn't deal with the possibility of losing one of my parents. Yet, God keeps His promises.

There isn't enough time to share with you all the ways God has walked with my family and me, and still is walking, to help us not fear and to bring comfort. He began by using my husband to help me focus on my own children and to see what their emotional needs were as I prepared to leave them. God then slipped air travel into place so that my brother, sister and I would arrive in Chicago from three different areas at about the same time to catch the same plane to Omaha. This enabled us to rent a car for the drive to the hospital in Red Oak, Iowa together.

Our first night home I spent at the hospital with Mom. Dad's heart stopped twice that night. As we stood in that dark hospital corridor holding on to each other God stood with us, holding on to us both. God moved with the doctors and nurses in Dad's room continually for the next eight days. He walked with all of us, Dad included, listening to us and comforting us as He prepared us to accept His ultimate will.

The next week brought immeasurable comfort from God's rod and staff in the form of people. The way God uses His people to carry out His promise is so precious to me. God knows each of us and He knows exactly what we need that will bring us comfort. For us, God used our friends and the many, many people across this land who had been touched for Christ through Dad's ministry to bring us comfort and encouragement. Most precious of all, God used my brother's words at the service to bring us joy even in our sorrow and the ability to focus our eyes on Jesus and His shepherding of us. We have experienced the great comfort that comes from the touch of the Shepherd's rod and staff.

Daily now I hold tightly to his promise as I seek God to walk so closely with my Mother through her valley. As much as I long to take her out of this valley I know I can not. But I truly trust God to continue to be with her, to help her cope with her fears and sorrow and to give her His comfort.

Let me close by sharing with you some words from my Dad's writings:

"He (David) is picturing the experiences along the way when sorrow and distress and pain make the heart break under its heavy load. The Good Shepherd knows and understands. He, as a faithful Shepherd, must lead through those harrowing experiences. Some suffering must come. Some days the sun will refuse to shine. Sorrow must have its place in all our lives.

"When dark shadows gather, when tears flow as a torrent, one must hear again the words of the Psalmist, 'I will fear no evil for thou art with me.' Why should one fear when the Good Shepherd is near? He walks before His own. He knows the dangers, the pitfalls, the hidden enemies. The Great Shepherd loves His own enough to hold, protect and lead safely through the dark valley into the sunny fields."

Prayer: Dear God, thank You so much for understanding when we're afraid, hurt and sorrowing. Help us to cry out to You and to feel Your presence with us as we walk through "valleys off deep darkness."

God In Control
A Devotional Study by Margaret L. Paxton

Scripture readings: Proverbs 3:1-8; Psalm 37:3-6, 23-26; Jeremiah 9:23, 24; Proverbs 16:3; I Chronicles 28:9; Isaiah 45:11-13; Jeremiah 10:23; Ephesians 4-5:1

Commit to memory: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:6, 7

The older I get, the more aware I am each day of my need to trust the Lord instead of myself. Seventeen years ago I was so smart, I had all the answers, not only for myself, but for everyone else too!

In my mind's imagination I can picture God gently shaking His head and lovingly saying to me, "Daughter, your life has been a fairly smooth one. You've been blessed with parents who have guided you into making right decisions and a family with whom you've shared normal, happy, growing-up years. You've received a good education. You didn't always apply yourself as best you cold, but you have learned and are trained for teaching. You are happily married and committed to serving with your husband in My vineyard. You don't, as you think, however, know everything there is to know about building a successful marriage, raising children and serving a congregation. If you persist in your present attitude you are going to experience some unpleasant bumps and bruises before you come to understand that you cannot be wise in your own eyes. You cannot lean on your own understanding to make a success of your life and your relationships with other people. Trust in Me, acknowledge Me, and I'll see that your way is made straight."

I have learned, although not all at once, not even in one year's time, that I can never lean on my own understanding. I have learned from experience what happens when I make decisions or do things without checking them out with God first and I know that leaning on my own understanding is the last thing I want to do.

From this promise we learn that if God is to direct us we must do two things. First, we've got to trust God with all our heart. That is easy to say--not as easy to do. We've got to do more than just verbally admit to our belief in God. We must exercise that belief. We can understand quite easily what it means to trust God, but to actually exercise that trust, to completely depend on Him to direct us, may not be so easy at first. Our human nature wants to maintain control so that, if we don't see God moving fast enough; or He is not doing it the way we think it needs to be done, we can take things back into our own hands, under our control.

Exercising this kind of trust won't grant us the blessing of God's promise to direct us and make us successful. To exercise our trust is to totally and completely give ourselves over to God's control. This trust has to be renewed on a daily basis. Just as one good stiff physical workout won't keep us physically healthy for the rest of our lives, neither will relinquishing ourselves to God's control one time allow Him to maintain control for the rest of our lives. Satan is continually warring for control and, because God leave the choice as to who will control our lives up to us, we have to make that choice every day of our lives.

Our family was glued to watching the Summer Olympics. We appreciated watching these athletes make their particular sport look like a breeze. But our appreciation of them came from knowing the discipline that they have had in exercising their routines thousands of times to bring about the perfection we saw for a few minutes. When each of the athletes decided to aim for honors in their sport they did not find the exercising of their sport as easily done in the beginning as they did when they became more accomplished. So it is with trusting God. It is not as easy at first to give control of our life to God as it is when we've exercised that trust over and over.

The athletes received a medal for all the years they've spent exercising their sport. You and I receive a medal each day that we "trust in God with all our heart." It comes in the knowledge that our life is being controlled by God's wisdom and not our own. Our medal is of lasting value and will bring us so much more happiness and success than the Olympic gold medal ever could.

David gave a particularly good piece of advice to his son, Solomon, in I Chronicles 28:9. He advised Solomon to serve God with "a whole heart and willing mind." Then he reminded his son that the Lord searches all hearts and understands the intent of our thoughts. We need to understand that God will search our heart and will know if we are trusting Him with all of it.

We are to trust and, secondly, we are told that we are to acknowledge Him in all our ways. Cross references for this verse are Proverbs 16:3 and Psalms 37:5. These two verses use the word "commit." The dictionary defines commit as, "to give in charge; place as a trust." In order for God to direct our life He must be in charge.

When an empty lot across the street from us was sold and the building of a duplex and triplex began we were not terribly thrilled. There went what was left of a quiet neighborhood! But we began to pray, "Okay, Lord, You place in these quarters those You want here, those to whom You would have us minister." A young family moved into one apartment and the young mother has ministered as much, or more, to me as our church has been able to minister to her family. The young woman is a three-year-old Christian. Her husband has made a decision for Christ but is in a daily struggle with his choice of who is to be in charge of his life. Many times my heart literally aches for that with which my new friend must deal. But it has been such a blessing to me to watch her apply this promise to her life. Daily, she exercises her trust in God and commits all she is, all she thinks, all she does, her children, her husband and marriage to the Lord. She places her trust, not in her own understanding of how to make her life successful, but in God, and knows that He will make her paths straight.

The words of a familiar old hymn speak beautifully to this Scripture from the book of Proverbs:

Prayer: Dear Father, help me to exercise my trust in You. I know that only You can make the paths of my life straight. I acknowledge You, I trust You, and I commit my ways to You. Amen.

Thoughts for meditation or discussion:
1. When you get on a plane do you not place complete trust in the pilot and crew for the safety of your life? Would you demand to take over that control for them? Why not? List other people and objects that you trust at different times with your life.
2. Why do people hesitate to give God total control of their lives?
3. Today, are you trying to control some area of your life? Or maybe you are trying to steer God in a certain way in His control of that area. Give God complete control. Let go and trust God.
4. Sing Trusting Completely in Jesus.

copyright (c) 1985 Heritage Guild
Used with permission

"Tie A Knot and Hang On!"
A Devotional Study by Margaret L. Paxton

Scripture readings: I Thessalonians 5:16-18; Philippians 4:4-8Review the story of Joseph: Genesis 37:1-28; 39; 40:9-15, 21, 23; 41:1, 9-43, 50-52, 56, 57; 42:1-3, 6, 8, 9a; 45:4-15, 25-28; 46:26-30; 50:15-26

Commit to memory: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 (NAS)

Early in my freshman year at college an attractive and personable young man asked me for a date. From that date a friendship developed which eventually turned into an engagement the summer before our senior year. Then as we neared graduation and the wedding date, this young man broke our engagement. Well, of course as far as I was concerned, my world had just crumbled. I can't say what made him take this step, but I imagine that God, through a series of events, helped him to realize that the love he felt was not going to last a lifetime. We had both been called according to God's purpose so God was working things out for our good, even though I wasn't quite ready to see it that way.

There I was, a young woman with all my hopes and dreams broken and I was determined to go around feeling very sorry for myself. My father was just as determined not to feed my self-pity. Although he comforted me and let me know that he understood my hurt he continually instructed me to believe in Romans 8:28.

Because I stubbornly held onto my "dream" it took a few months for me to grasp the depth of this wonderful promise. And of course, God did work things out for my good. A little over a year later I met a young ministerial student who didn't have to work very hard at capturing my heart. A year later we were married and for seventeen years we have been building our lives, marriage and family on Jesus.

Now God wasn't just concerned for my good alone. He also was working things out for the young man's good and so led him to met a lovely young Christian woman who became his wife. They have been blessed with two children and lead their lives under the Kingship of Jesus. We count it a privilege to be tied with them in friendship and by kinship in the family of God.

Sometimes it does seem to take an awfully long time for God to work things out. It is then that we must determine not to lose grip on our faith and belief that He does keep His promises. We "tie a know and hang on."

Our oldest son is now thirteen. In all his growing up he has never had that one special friend with whom to share his deepest secrets and leisure hours. It just happens that neither Sunday School nor our neighborhood has ever produced that friend. If you are a mother, you know the heartache one feels when your child is really hurting. So many times I've thought God to be deaf to my prayers and I've wanted to be able to take things into my own hands and fill that very real need for my son. I've sat and talked and prayed with him when he has been brought to tears by the desire for a special friend. How I've wanted to say, "Well, tomorrow I know you're going to meet that friend." Instead, I've said, "We will continue to talk to God about this and believe that in His love for you He is working all things out for your good. As your Mom, I want you to know I'd rather you not have that closest friend right now than to have one who might want to draw you away from your walk with God." Meanwhile God is allowing him to see that he has gained respect from his friends at school and from his teachers because of the Christian character that God has developed and is continuing to develop in him. I do know that one of these days we will see how God not only has worked friendships out for good in our son's life but honor will be brought to God's name and to our son in the process.

I think it is important to understand that this promise doesn't mean that when difficult times come our way God is going to take a magic wand and wave it over us and everything is going to turn out just "hunky-dory."

More than once I have reacted out of anger to someone or something, have spoken when I should have kept my mouth shut, or have taken things into my own hands. Just because I was sorry later didn't mean God fixed it so I wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of my behavior. I had to suffer humiliation, I had to swallow my pride and apologize, and I had to ask God to straighten out the mess I'd made of things. But God used those times to benefit me in some way. I learned more patience and to ask for it when I needed it. I learned, and continue to learn, how to react to situations in a more Christ-like way. I'm learning from experience that if I let God be in control of situations, they really do turn out better.

My very dear friend, whom I wrote about in My Grace is Sufficient for Thee, has not found that all the pieces of her marriage have been put back together just as she would have liked them to be. But for her, God's promise is an ongoing happening in her life. She lives each day of her life believing in this and every one of God's promises. By living according to His principles she has found joy in living. Not only has God worked so much out for her good, but through her has worked out good and joy in the lives of others.

Prayer: I am so relieved to be able to give you control of my life so that You can make all things work out for my good. I trust You. Amen.

Thoughts for mediation or discussion:

1. Think back to the time in your life when God worked everything out to your good. Make a list of all the ways things worked out for your good, of the truths from God you learned, and of the ways you grew in spiritual maturity.

2. Now -- give God your thanks, sing a praise song to Him.

Copyright (c) Heritage Guild 1985

God Keeps His Promises was a booklet of eight devotional studies written by Margaret L. Paxton. They are printed here with her permission. Copyright (c) 1985 Heritage Guild. All rights reserved.

Contact Information: Homer Easley, President Mike Gardner, Superintendent Webmaster