Prodigal: Why beat around the bush, I’ll be back.
Me: I’ll be here.
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 12:19 The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: Sometimes we don’t get things right.
Me: But that is why God has given us grace.
This is from the book Reclaiming Your Heart by Denise Hildreth Jones
The lie of the shamed heart strikes at the very core of who we believe we are, trying to convince us that God can’t love or use us because we’re just no good. Now this may sound similar to the performing heart and the critical heart. And indeed there are similarities, but there are also important distinctions.
The lie of the performing heart is I’m not enough the way God made me…so I have to fake it. A discomfort with our authentic heart leads us to act as if we were someone else.
The lie of the critical heart is God wants me to get it right. Our misconception about God’s expectations results in an exaggerated focus on who is right and who is wrong.
But the shamed heart is haunted by an even more basic sense of being damaged or inferior goods–unworthy, valueless, unsuitable, even soiled. And doesn’t’ the enemy love to accuse us of being just that? He knows that the more we believe it, the less impact we can make for the Kingdom of God.
So what have we forgotten in this lie? We have forgotten that we are made in God’s image.
John 8:36
Because “if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through”
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Me: I think you are getting photo bombed.
Prodigal: I reckon, I might be.
Me: It is ok, it is fun.
This is a poem from Phil
Just suppose, when I pray, there really is someone listening who cares about me and wants to know what is on my mind.
Just suppose, when I pray, it changes me and my view of how the universe operates and who is involved.
Just suppose I put my doubts aside for a minute and consider the possibility that someone who knew me before I was born loves me, warts and all, without condition or reservation, no matter how badly I have behaved in the past.
Just suppose a prayer was my first response instead of my last resort when facing a new challenge or an old temptation.
Just suppose I lived each day knowing that there is an inexhaustible supply of love for me to pass along to others.
Just suppose.
We believe all of these just suppose things are true. Just suppose they are true for you too.
Psalms 31:24
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: How ’bout fetchin’ me a drink o’ water?
Me: Sure thing.
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 12:18 There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. (ESV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: Look at this well!
Me: I love it!
Prodigal: There are very few of those around.
Me: Yes, that is true of other things also.
This is from the book The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others did cannot be expected from the many. The future in modern society depends much more on the quiet heroism of the very few who are inspired by God. These few will greatly enjoy the divine inspiration and will be prepared to stand for the dignity of man and true freedom and to keep the law of God, even if it means martyrdom or death. These few perform the law because they “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: I am tired.
Me: Take it one step at a time.
This is from God will Make a Way
One migration season, three whales captured the headlines of the world when they became entrapped in a rapidly forming ice flow. Would-be rescuers were stumped as to what they might do to free the whales from their captivity within the “fence of ice”. The ice was forming rapidly around the whales, and soon scientists predicted there would be no way for the whales to surface and breathe the oxygen they needed to survive.
Finally one naturalist suggested that the whales might be lured to a breathing hole drilled just a few yards away, and then lured to yet another breathing hole even farther away. As new breathing holes were drilled, old ones were covered over, leaving the whales with no alternative–they had to move under the ice flow or die. Over the next several days, dozen of such breathing holes were drilled short distances apart to lead the whales step by step out of their problem and into the open waters.
The way God makes for us through a difficult time is often a step-by-step process. We must walk out the solution, step by step, day by day, decision by decision. It may seem that we take one step backward for every two steps forward, but if we could see the bigger picture of what God is doing, we would conclude, “Things are getting better.”
Sometimes God delivers His children overnight, in a single, dramatic act. But other times, a slow and gradual leading, requiring deliberate and steady obedience on our part, may be His way.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. (KJV)
Psalm 61:2
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: Couldn’t tell a nickel’s worth of difference after that.
Me: Well, glad we tried.
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 12:17 He who speaks truth declares righteousness, But a false witness, deceit. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Me: Baseball is not my strength.
Prodigal: But Brady is good at it!
Me: I love to watch him play.
This is from the book Pure Desire by Ted Roberts
First, we need to know our own weaknesses very clearly. We all have weakness, because there are no perfect families. Here is where the Christian perspective differs radically from much of the popular perspective of today. Understanding the points of weaknesses that may have been passes on to us from our family backgrounds is not an investigation to fix blame. It is, instead, a discovery of the points where God’s power can be released in our lives where we are weak, we have to work at listening to God carefully, because our ingrained habit patterns can lead us astray.
You are not stuck. God has a way!
1 Peter 2:2-3
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by you may grow up into salvation. if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: I think we should go that way.
Me: There is more than one way to skin a cat.
Prodigal: I am sure you might be right.
This is from the book My Heart’s Cry: Longing For More of Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz
Philip, who would be tied to a pillar and stoned to death?
Matthew, who would be nailed to the ground with spikes and beheaded?
Jude, His own half-brother, who would be beaten to death with sticks and clubs?
Simon, who would be tortured and crucified?
John, son of Zebedee, who would be tortured and exiled?
James, brother of John, who would be beheaded?
James, another of His half-brothers, who would be pushed from the top of a building, then his broken body beaten to death?
Peter, who would be crucified upside down?
Andrew, Peter’s brother, who would hang on a cross for three days before dying?
Bartholomew, who would be beaten, crucified, and skinned alive before dying?
Thomas, who would be thrown into a fiery furnace then speared with a javelin?
Every single one of His beloved disciples except John would die a greusome death for standing out and speaking up–for Him? How was it that these rough, untrained, mostly uneducated men would speak out with such power that the authorities would consider them a threat to the security and economy of the Roman empire? Their competency would come from the Spirit within them.
John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: I’m sharp as a tack.
Me: Praise God! That is a good thing.
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 12:16
A fool’s wrath is known at once, But a prudent man covers shame. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
