Strive to See God

Me: What God has made is beautiful!

Prodigal: Amen!

This is from St. Francis De Sales

Strive to see God in all things without exception, and acquiesce in His will with absolute submission. Do everything for God, uniting yourself to Him by a mere upward glance, or by the overflowing of your heart towards Him. Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. Commend all to God, and then lie still and be at rest in His bosom. Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God, trusting to His eternal love for you; and if you find that you have wandered forth from this shelter, recall your heart quietly and simply. Maintain a holy simplicity of mind, and do not smother yourself with a host of cares, wishes, or longings, under any pretext.

For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Proverbs 23:21 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Our Life Himself

Prodigal: I’m noodling my noogin.

Me: Let’s hear it.

This is from Saint Augustine Confessions

Our Life himself came down into this world and took away our death. He slew it with his own abounding life, and with thunder in his voice he called us from this world to return to him in heaven. From heaven he came down to us, entering first the Virgin’s womb, where humanity, our mortal flesh, was wedded to him so that it might not be for ever mortal. Then as a bridegroom coming from his bed, he exalted like some great runner who sees the track before him. He did not linger on his way but ran, calling us to return to him, calling us by his words and deeds, by his life and death, by his descent into hell and his ascension into heaven. He departed from our sight, so that we should turn to our hearts and find him there. He departed, but he is here with us. He would not stay long with us, but he did not leave us. He went back to the place which he had never left, because he, through whom the world was made, was in the world and he came into the world to save sinners. To him my soul confesses and he is its Healer, because the wrong it did was against him. Great ones of the world, will your hearts always be hardened? Your Life has come down from heaven: will you not now at last rise with him and live? But how can you rise if you are in high places and your clamour reaches heaven? Come down from those heights, for then you may climb and this time, climb to God. To climb against your fall.

Wisdom has built her house,
She has hewn out her seven pillars; Proverbs 9:1 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Women Lovin’ Jesus

Prodigal: You look free as a bird!

Me: I am!

This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.

click here to watch the video

Proverbs 16:17

The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul. (NKJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

The Root of the Tree

Me: Beautiful!

Prodigal: Darn tootin’

This is from the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

If this be the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch and leaf and fruit. If humility be the first, the all-including grace of the life of Jesus,-if humility be the secret of His atonement, then the health and strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend upon our putting this grace first too, and making humility the chief thing we admire in Him, the chief thing we ask of Him, the one thing for which we sacrifice all else.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. Isaiah 10:27 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

God Hides

Me: This was made with Love.

Prodigal: That can be seen!

This is from Robert Collyer

Now, believe me, God hides some ideal in every human soul. At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good thing. Life find its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best. There is a time when we are not content to be such merchants or doctors or lawyers as womanhood as sister, wife, or mother. Here is God,–God standing silently at the door all day long,–God whispering to the soul, that to be pure and true is to succeed in life, and whatever we get short of that will burn up like stubble, though the whole world try to save it.

All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king’s order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman. 1 Chronicles 25:6 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org