The Span of Time

 By: Joanne Viola

We don’t like to wait for a lengthy amount of time. Long lines, and long rides, can cause the best of us to become impatient. Just spend time with a toddler and you will quickly agree.

• “Why can’t these people move?”
• “How long do we need to stand here?”
• “Are we there yet?”

We have become a people accustomed to the instant. We want what we want and immediately.

But life does not unfold immediately. It unravels in minutes, days, weeks, months, and yes, even years.

As we read our Bibles, we overlook the fact that while we get to the end of a story or chapter quickly, it was not so in the life of the biblical characters.

“Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream …”
(Genesis 41:1, NASB)

By this point in his story, Joseph had experienced plenty of hardship. Sold into slavery by his brothers, through some twists and turns, he finds himself in a prison cell for doing the right thing.

In prison, he interprets the dreams of two men in exchange for them promising to remember and help him. However, the two men go on with their lives forgetting all about Joseph.

They forgot about him until Pharaoh has his dream. It is at this point that one man, Pharaoh’s cupbearer, remembers Joseph.

At the end of two full years.

We can so miss this important detail. Joseph waited for two years not knowing if he was ever going to be remembered or helped.

Life can often seem unfair. Circumstances can often be different than we had hoped. Time seems to stretch out before us. We can be assured God is with us and at work even in this very span of time.

May those words – “at the end of two full years” – breathe hope into your soul.

There is an end.
God, the Author of each of our stories, knows how
He will bring each circumstance to an end.

 

“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine, but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.”
(Abraham Joshua Heschel)

 

Reflection:
How does Joseph’s story, and wait, speak to your life where you are today?

 

Image by David from Pixabay

 

 

Ask for What You Want

By: Lauren Thomas

In my work as a counselor, one thing I do is help people improve their relationships. And while there are many ways to improve relationships, communication is usually a key element. To communicate well, we have to examine what we are not communicating. Many problems occur within relationships because one person fails to communicate their needs, wants, or expectations. This is a problem that can arise in any type of relationship, be it parent-child, boss-employee, or peer friendship.

 

It occurs to me that this communication problem can be present even in our relationship with God.

In Luke 11:1-13 Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and used a parable to illustrate his point. In that parable, a friend’s boldness in asking resulted in his request being fulfilled. The word in Greek used to describe this friend’s asking could be interpreted impudence or persistence, shamelessness. Jesus’ point was that God wants us to be this way in our prayer.

 

⁹ And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Luke 11:9-10 ESV

 

Does impudence, shameless boldness, and persistence describe your prayer life? Christians might stop praying this way due to repeated disappointment. Perhaps pride is in their lives expressed through entitlement or unvoiced expectations (example: God will give me xyz because I deserve it). Maybe they just don’t believe that God will respond the way the Bible says He will.

 

Whatever the reason, there is more at stake than just getting what we need or want. There is secondary benefit to praying with impudence, shamelessness, and persistence.

 

In relationships where needs and wants are clearly communicated, the other party has freedom to respond to those requests. As they respond to direct requests, trust is built. As the cycle of need-expressed, need-met continues, the trust becomes stronger and deeper.

 

Improving communication in our prayer life will undoubtedly improve our relationship with God. Let this be your sign to pray with impudence, shameless boldness, and persistence.

 

Reflection:

Read Luke 11:1-13 and Luke 18:1-8. Does impudence, shameless boldness, and persistence describe your prayer life? What is one thing you could ask God for today? Ask for that thing in prayer today with impudence, shamelessness, and persistence. Watch your trust in God grow as He meet needs in your life!

Find a Buddy

By: Jenifer Metzger

Do you remember being on a school field trip and the teacher saying, "Find a buddy!"? I remember anytime we went on field trips we always had to buddy up. I still have this mindset of not going at things alone. My daughter likes to walk trails and even though she is an adult, we always encourage her to find someone to walk with. As the old saying goes, there is strength in numbers.

Whether we are going on a walk, going to a concert, heading to work out at the gym, or grabbing coffee at a coffee shop, it is always better with a buddy.

Two are better than one because they
have a good reward for their efforts.
For if either falls, his companion can
lift him up; but pity the one who
falls without another to lift him up.
Ephesians 4:9-10 CSB

The same is true when it comes to our Christian journey. We aren't meant to go at it alone. God doesn't save us then simply walk away for us to figure it out on our own. In fact, He offers two ways for us to find help.

First, God gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity -God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is described in the Bible as our helper, our comforter, and our advocate-to name a few. He walks with us and helps us on our faith journey.

Second, God gives us other believers. Christians we can lean on and learn from. Christians who have been saved longer than us -though may not necessarily be older than us- who can help guide us and teach us. Christians who can join us in prayer, encourage us to keep going when it gets hard, and who can dive into Scripture with us. God never intended for us to do life alone and He never intended for us to walk our faith journey alone.

Here at Woman to Woman Ministries, we desire to create a community for women. One we we do this is with the Woman to Woman Ministries Daily Reflections of Hope group. Daily Reflections of Hope is a sisterhood of likeminded women seeking to stay in the Word of God through accountability. Daily Reflections for Hope is a private group on Facebook where women can go to share their daily Bible and prayer reflections, read the reflections of other women for encouragement, share prayer requests and praise reports, and pray for others. 

We want the Woman to Woman Daily Reflections of Hope group to be about accountability, encouragement, prayer partners, and building relationships. We want for you ladies to make lasting friendships in this group as you are encouraged in your walk with God.

So whether you find an accountability partner on your own or join us at Daily Reflections of Hope, we encourage you to find a buddy.

To learn more about Woman to Woman's Daily Reflections of Hope, Click HERE.

To get the printable 2025 Bible reading plan, click HERE.

Discussion:
1. Do you have an accountability partner?
2. We aren't meant to do life or our faith walk alone, yet sometimes it can be hard to share something so important and intimate. How do you feel about talking with an accountability partner or group about your Bible reading and prayer life? 

Trust in the Lord in 2025

 By: Rebekah Hargraves

Photo Courtesy of: Miriam G

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not rely on your own understanding;

in all your ways know him,

and he will make your paths straight."

~Proverbs 3:5-6

I don't know about you, but for the last several years I have found myself approaching each new year with a myriad of feelings. I am certainly excited and anticipatory. But I also have found myself battling fear and trepidation and thoughts such as, "Is this the year that I will lose someone? Is this the year that something terrible will happen?"

If you can relate, may we both have our hearts encouraged with our time in the Word today. 

As we walk into a new year, I find that Proverbs 3:5-6 serves as the perfect passage to take to heart and meditate on in each new day ahead. 

We are told in this passage to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. What does this imply? It implies that we can - that the Lord is, in fact, truly trustworthy. 

At times when I have found myself battling fear and doubt and wondering if He actually is as trustworthy as He claims to be in His Word, I am comforted, encouraged, and inspired by these words from Charles Spurgeon:

Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there. You are placed by God in the most suitable circumstances, and if you had the choosing of your lot, you would soon cry, 'Lord, choose my inheritance for me, for by my self-will I am pierced through with many sorrows.'"

Even though we oftentimes can think that we know better or believe that if only we could be in control that the best of circumstances are what would come to pass, nothing could actually be further from the truth. Charles Spurgeon's words encourage and inspire us because they are true - God has a big-picture perspective we simply do not have and can see the end from the beginning. He knows what is best, while we can only guess at it. 

So, friend, I do not know what 2025 will hold for you or for me. But I do know the One Who holds us and all of 2025 in His hands. And I can tell you this: He is trustworthy.

Reflection Questions:

1)  What area of your life do you most need to trust the Lord for in this season?

2) Have you gone to Him and discussed that area with Him?

3) How has He spoken to you in regards to that concern? 

God is For Us

 By: Joanne Viola

 

We just came through the season of Advent. The time of waiting. The time of silence.

We need to remember in the time of waiting, God was silent. Four hundred years of silence to be exact.

While the days passed for God’s people, life continued as always except the voice of God was not heard. The prophets had no words to deliver to the people.

During these years of silence, the people had to hold onto what they already knew. Their faith in the Word and promises of God had to sustain them.

It is when God seems silent that the enemy comes prowling.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour.”
(1 Peter 5:8, NASB)

The enemy was prowling, and casting doubt, from the very beginning.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman,
“Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
(Genesis 3:1, NASB)

In truth, God had only said Adam and Eve could not eat from one tree, but from every other tree in the garden they could freely eat.

“The Lord God commanded the man, saying,
“From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
(Genesis 2:16-17, NASB)

The enemy wanted to plant doubt as to the goodness of God. He wanted them to believe God was withholding from them, not giving them the best.

It was the placement of the one word, “any”, which began all the doubt.

God was not prohibiting them from anything good, He was protecting Adam and Eve from death. He had their best at heart.

So what took place with that one question posed by the enemy?

Once Eve heard the words hissed by the serpent, she took her eyes off the many trees provided by God for their enjoyment. Instead of seeing God’s abundant provision, she now focused on the one they could not eat of its fruit.

With that one question from the enemy, Eve’s focus shifted. She could only see the one tree. The one tree filled her thoughts each time she saw or walked past it.

Temptation will do the same to any of us. It causes us to focus on what we can’t have, shouldn’t have, and will not be for our good.

May we keep our eyes focused on God in the year ahead.
God provides that which is good and beneficial.
God is always for us.

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
(Matthew 7:11, NASB)

 

Reflection:
Is there something that seeks to tempt you to doubt God’s goodness and provision? 
What will you do to keep focused on God’s faithfulness?

 

Image by Agata from Pixabay