Prodigal: I’m just sittin’ a spell.
Me: I’m with you.
This is from I. Williams
The heart that trusts forever sings,
and feels as light as it had wings,
A well of peace within in springs–
Come good or ill,
Whatever to-day, to-morrow brings,
It is His will.
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Matthew 9:12 (KJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
Prodigal: About to eat.
Me: Let’s watch this first.
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 11:10
When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices; And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: Just thinking today.
Me: What about?
This is from the book The Soul Winner by C.H. Spurgeon
I ask you what was there in Paul, by the grace of God, that may not be in you? What did Jesus do for Paul more than He has done for you? He was divinely changed; so have you been changed if you have passed from darkness into marvelous light. He had much forgiven him; so have you also been freely pardoned. He was redeemed by the blood of the Son of God; so have you been–at least so you profess. He was filled with the Spirit of God; so are you, if you are truly such as your profession of Christianity makes you out to be.
Owing your salvation to Christ, being debtors to the precious blood of Jesus, and being quickened by the Holy Spirit, why should you not bear the same fruit from the same sowing? Why not the same effect from the same cause? Do not tell me that the apostle was an exception and cannot be set up as a rule or model for more common folk, for I will have to tell you that we must be as Paul was if we hope to be where Paul is.
And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Acts 13:34 (KJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: Now if that don’t beat all.
Me: What?
Prodigal: Just what I heard.
This is from God’s Psychiatry by Charles L. Allen
Just suppose that here was only one real believer on earth and that during an entire year this one believer made one convert. Then there would be two. Suppose that during the next year these two made one convert a piece, then there would be four. Suppose that the next year these four made one convert a piece, then there would be eight. Suppose that they kept that pace of each winning one every year, how long would it take to convert every person in the entire world?
It has now been two thousand years since our Lord was on earth, Has that been enough time? Actually, there has been time enough, with just one wining one other per year, to convert sixty-five worlds like this. Starting with just one and doubling each year, at end of just thirty-one years there would be 2,147,483,648 souls filled with God’s righteousness. The next year they could convert another world the size of this one.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
Ecclesiastes 6:1 (KJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodialpig.com
www.faithincounsleling.org
Prodigal: Time for a peach!
Me: Sounds yummy.
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 11:9
The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: It is time to pray.
Me: Yes, and today we need to pray for our nation.
God of our fathers in Whom we trust and by Whose guidance and grace this nation was born, bless the Senators of these United States at this important time in history and give them all things needful to the faithful discharge of their responsibilities.
We pray especially today for our President, and also for him who will preside over this chamber.
Give to them good health for the physical strains of their office, good judgement for the decisions they must make, wisdom beyond their own, and clear understanding for the problems of this difficult hour.
We thank Thee for their humble reliance upon Thee. May they go often to the throne of grace as we commend them both to Thy loving care and Thy guiding hand.
Romans 6:22
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: Out here by myself today.
Me: Solitude it a good thing, it can help you be with God.
This is from the book Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard, Phil Hodges and Phyllis Hendry
Solitude is truly countercultural and therefore a challenging behavior to adopt. Furthermore, solitude draws us into the very place so many of our activities seem designed to help us escape: being truly alone with God and without an agenda. It is a rare and often unsettling feeling to stop doing and just be. Yet as strange as it feels to actively seek opportunities to “cease striving” (Psalm 46:10 NASB), the result of doing so consistently can be life changing. We can find clarity in the silence.
Romans 8:31
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: What shall I cook up today?
Me: Anything is fine with me, I am sure it will be good!
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs
Proverbs 11:8
The righteous is delivered from trouble, And it comes to the wicked instead. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: I think this fence will protect us.
Me: Don’t put all your trust in the fence. We need the Lord also.
This is from the book It’s Not Supposed to be This Way by Lysa Terkeurst
The Moabites were lulled into a false sense of security. Without challenges and changes people tend to grow increasingly distant from God and resistant to His ways.
The Moabites lived in a place geographically where they escaped the invasion of the Syrians and Babylonians who came in to destroy Israel. The Moabites were untouched. Because they were untouched, they could settle into complacency while their neighbors, the Israelites, were forced to depend on God and to learn to survive suffering, captivity, enslavement. The Israelites appear to be the ones not being “saved” from hardship by God. But if we look through the lens of what’s best in the long term, Israel was being strengthened by God for its eventual good.
Settling into complacency might seem to be comfortable for today, but in the long run we, like the Moabites, may suffer more if we go untouched by God for too long.
Make no mistake: being lulled into a false sense of security is worse than going through the process of suffering.
Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. James 5:13 (NASB)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: I have so much work to do today.
Me: You can be happy while you work.
Prodigal: Maybe that is what God wants.
I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul, than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and heaven in my eye….I rejoice in being exactly what I am,–a creature capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look for a while out of the window, and gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an Almighty hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe, and then sit down, and think myself one of the happiest beings in it.
—-A poor Methodist Woman, 18th Century.
John 14:23
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
