Jesus Calling: October 26

Come to Me when you are hurting, and I will soothe your pain. Come to Me when you are joyful, and I will share your Joy, multiplying it many times over. I am All you need, just when you need it. Your deepest desires find fulfillment in Me alone.
     This is the age of self-help, Bookstores abound with books about "taking care of number one," making oneself the center of all things. The main goal of these methodologies is to become self-sufficient and confident. You however, have been called to take a "road less traveled": continual dependence on Me. True confidence comes from knowing you are complete in My Presence. Everything you need has its counterpart in Me. 

John 15:5
English Standard Version

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

James 1:4
English Standard Version

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

My Prayer
Lord, I am hurting today. Granted, it is emotional, concerned about my son and his current poor choices he is making with his life. You know about it. We've talked about it, but it hurts. It hurts to see him throwing his life away at the age of 15, with not a care in the world. Soothe my pain. Why is it I just come to you when its bad? Rarely do I come to you and celebrate victories. Yet, you are reminding me of this. You are reminding me that I need to keep coming to you. I want to be centered on you and run to you, no matter the experience and have confidence that you will take care of the problem. I do want to depend on You, not me and not even on what an author says about how I should handle this or that situation that is under your control. You are all I need. I want to believe that and live like that every moment of the day.

Update: October 26, 2017, 9:50am, Albuquerque, NM - I appreciate your prayers and standing in the gap with me. My son is 16 and still a challenge, but also a joy. His mother and I continue to commit him to the Lord, praying Ezekiel 36:26 for him daily and we are thankful for friends and many that support. We dis-enrolled him from school last month and he's doing an online public school with mostly my wife's help, as he is more accepting of her. We are praying for good people in his life, preferring people that honor God with their life. His idol of choice is Cannibas and we feel it has a big hold on him these last 2 years.  He was in substance abuse counseling for 16 months, but recently quit that since he has no desire to be sober. We understand that in life not everything works out the way we want it to, but this never changes our dependence on God and our trust and belief on Him to do the impossible and no matter the outcome, we want to continue to abide in Him. Thank you. 

Update: October 26, 2019 - My son is 18 now; he graduated from high school and is working now at a local restaurant. The bottom line is I love my son and nothing will ever change this. All of us have a tendency to turn to things not named God to cope with life and the struggles and disappointments and hurts we experience - but God remains the only anchor and help and the only one that brings true peace. While it hurts for anyone to not see this truth and naturally it hurts the most for those closest to us -- my response remains the same - love people, love God, and pray that more people, including my son, will love God more than anything else and turn to Him throughout all of the turns of life. Thank you for coming alongside me in this journey. 

Note: The devotion and scriptures are from author Sarah Young. If you haven't already, please purchase the book and support the author.


Also, bookmark https://bibletags.blogspot.com/2019/06/jesus-calling-366-days.html to have an easy link to the entire year of these entries.