A Proverb for Sunday, 9/27/26
“A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1
Not always easy, but always smart!
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
Photo by David Knox on Unsplash
RealChristianWomen.blog
1-Minute Devotion for Thursday, 9/24/26
We don’t really know how strong our faith is until it’s tested. And it’s hard to be joyful about our testing, but the Bible says,
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2 NIV
My faith has been tested. It was so hard not to give in to fear and worry. Once, my daughter went to Kenya to help in a children’s hospital. Another time was when my son had to undergo back surgery. (You can read these stories at the links below.)
As mothers, it’s really hard not to worry about our children, even when they’re adults! So I had to ask myself, Will I choose faith or fear? It can’t be both.
I didn’t want my faith tested again. I didn’t care if it would make me mature and complete. I didn’t say it to God, but He knows what we’re thinking.
I knew I had to choose to trust God in both of these situations. It wasn’t easy because if I was worried and afraid, I wasn’t trusting God. But I was determined to not be afraid. I wrote out every Scripture that encouraged me to trust the Lord and to be unafraid. God’s Word strengthened me as I read these verses every day.
You have to CHOOSE faith! Refuse to be fearful. Pray and ask the Lord to help you.
This post was inspired by Alan Kearns’ post, Unshakable Faith on Devotional Treasures.
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
RealChristianWomen.blog
Quote of the Week for Wednesday, 9/23/26
“Sometimes life is so hard you can only do the next thing. Whatever that is, just do the next thing. God will meet you there.” – Elisabeth Elliot
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” Romans 15:4-5 NIV (emphasis mine)
No one ever said that answering God’s call would be easy. To endure means to go on, hold on, abide, continue, persist. We can do that!
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash
RealChristianWomen.blog
2-Minute Devotion for Tuesday, 9/22/26
“If God has called you, do not spend time looking over your shoulder to see who is following you.” Corrie ten Boom*
Why do we blog? Why do we write? As Christian writers, we say it’s to tell people about Jesus and His love. But we must be careful that our ultimate desire is to follow Him, not to be followed. He has promised to guide us by His Word.
“Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.” Psalm 119:105
This is especially true for those of us who want people to follow our blog, Facebook, or Instagram. Although we are encouraged when readers decide to follow us, that cannot be our guiding force.
What good is it if millions of people follow your blog, but God isn’t in it? When we follow Him, God can use us to encourage and bring hope to others.
The Apostle Paul taught “from house to house”. (Acts 20:20)
Did you notice that he did not consider himself too important to reach out to a small number of people?
When we fix our eyes on Jesus and follow Him, He will accomplish His purpose in our lives and in our writing.
Should we develop our skills and study our craft to be the best writers we can be? Absolutely! The Bible says,
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart…” Colossians 3:23
I am convinced that the closer we follow Him, the more He will use us for His purposes. We must not despise the day of small beginnings. (Zechariah 4:10) If only one person is encouraged by what you wrote, God has used you! God cares about individual people.
Nothing thrills me more than when a reader tells me, “I needed this!” or “This spoke to me.” Then I know that God has used me.
May we always follow Him with our whole heart and pray as Jesus taught us:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
Are you blogging to follow Him or to be followed?
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
*Corrie ten Boom is a Holocaust survivor and author of The Hiding Place.
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
RealChristianWomen.blog
Monday’s Meditation for 9/21/26
“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
They will put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:1-3 NLT
My Thoughts: This is King David’s testimony, but it is also my testimony. Is it yours?
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
RealChristianWomen.blog
1-Minute Devotion for Thursday, 9/17/26
After the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, they began to grumble against Moses and Aaron. They said,
“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Exodus 16:3
Moses told them,
“Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.” Exodus 16:8
As I read this, I was convicted about my own complaining. I realized that when I complain, I am really complaining (grumbling) against the Lord. (Thank you, Moses, for pointing this out.)
Read what the Apostle Paul had to say about this very same event,
“And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us…” 1 Corinthians 10:11
As Christians, we have followed Christ out of Egypt (slavery to sin). Let us trust Him to lead us.
“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Philippians 2:14-15
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
Scriptures from the NIV
Photo of the Red Sea from Pixels
RealChristianWomen.blog
Quote of the Week for Wednesday, 9/16/26
“Wise Christians surround themselves with reminders of God’s goodness as a way to move beyond their pasts.” Jeremiah Study Bible Notes
Genesis 41:51 tells us that Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh; the Hebrew sounds like the word for forget. And he said,
“It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.”
The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” Genesis 41:52
Ephraim sounds like the Hebrew word for twice fruitful.
Learn about the fascinating events in the life of Joseph in Genesis, chapters 37-50.
The featured image shows Joseph’s brothers selling him as a slave to the Ishmaelites.
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
Google Stock Image
RealChristianWomen.blog
Why do people believe a lie?
Many times, people believe a lie when that lie is something they want to be true. Sometimes people believe a lie because they have heard it so many times. In fact, a study at Villanova University proved just that. If a person hears something often enough, they will start to believe it’s true.
Is there any way to know what is really true and what is not? There is! God’s Word is true. The longer you study it, the more you will realize how true and relevant it is today!
One of the best things you can do to protect yourself is to commit to a “Read the Bible in a Year” chronological reading plan. The reason I recommend it so highly is that you will be exposed to “the whole counsel of God’s Word” and begin to see God’s Word as the complete story of Christ.
At the very least, read the New Testament cover to cover at least once a year (although twice a year would be better). But remember that the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy saying,
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16 NIV
Paul is talking about the Old Testament! It must not be neglected because it has much to teach us! Some preachers have said the Old Testament is not relevant today, but that is clearly a contradiction of 2 Timothy 3:16.
Many preachers claim God wants you to be wealthy and rich. That’s called the “Prosperity Gospel” and it’s very popular. (Possibly one of those things people believe because they want it to be true.) But the Bible says something different.
“These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” 1 Timothy 6:2-5 NIV
Errant teaching thrives when specific verses are taken out of context, as in the two examples above. We can pray for discernment, but we must still check what is preached against the Word of God.
Let’s take Harriet as an example. Harriet goes to church on Sunday, has a devotional at home (usually a passage from Psalms, and reads random verses for encouragement. She even attends a Ladies’ Bible Study in which they study the latest best-selling book of a well-known Christian author. For the most part, Harriet gives well-known Christian personalities a lot of respect and she trusts their teaching. She has attended church her whole adult life.
Here’s the question I have for you: Is Harriet a mature Christian woman? Is she safe from false teaching? She thinks she is. But is she? Is she developing discernment? Take another look at Harriet’s habits. She depends almost entirely on Bible teachers to guide her beliefs. She has never read the whole Bible, not even the entire New Testament. Is she well-equipped to recognize false teaching or is she vulnerable? You decide.
In his book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, Tim Challies compares spiritual discernment with identifying counterfeit currency.
Challies writes, “We can best know what is wrong by first knowing what is right. Experts on counterfeit currency know this as well. They train others first to know the traits of genuine currency… Experts in counterfeit money study every aspect of their currency including how it feels and every detail of its appearance and color. Only after they do this are they shown counterfeit currency. And guess what? They know immediately what is not real!”
In the same way, the better we know the Bible the easier it will be to discern truth from error.
“I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” Psalm 119:16 NIV (emphasis mine)
Learn more about discernment in the following articles:
How To Be a Discerning Christian
Why Do Christians Listen to False Teachers?
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
RealChristianWomen.blog
Quote of the Week for 9/11/26
“Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil’s reach as humility.” Johnathan Edwards
Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Matthew 23:11-12 NIV
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
RealChristianWomen.blog
2-Minute Devotion for Monday, 9/7/26
Just the thought of studying the book of Revelation can be daunting. I’ve read it several times, but what does it all mean? I challenge you to tackle this book, take notes, and delve in, expecting God to teach you.
Jesus assured His disciples,
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26
Learn the characteristics of a healthy church according to Jesus. Find out the things Jesus held against them, things which would result in the removal of their lampstand if they did not repent. The lampstands represent all Christian churches. (chapters 2 and 3)
Some of the things prophesied made little sense until recent times. That’s why Revelation is even more interesting and exciting than it ever was!
“It (the beast) also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Revelation 13:16-17
In the past, we couldn’t imagine how this would be possible. But today we know that through modern technology, it is possible. The mark of the beast could be an implanted microchip that allows people to access their digital currency.
Key end-time events involve Israel. But before Israel became an independent nation on May 14, 1948, the Jews had not been living in their land since the first and second centuries.
These are just a few examples of what you can (and should) learn in this timely message from Jesus.
“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” Revelation 1:3
“The angel said to me (John), “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.” Revelation 22:6
“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.” Revelation 22:7
These are words in red, the very words of Jesus, our Savior and Lord.
In His Love, Cindy
To learn more about Jesus, read Who Is Jesus? A message for the Skeptic
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, … “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…” Genesis 17:7 (emphasis mine)
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
Scriptures from NIV
RealChristianWomen.blog
