Daily Reminders

Last Wednesday I wrote about how God had used a friend of mine to show me how much he loves me and to remind me to have fun despite my circumstances. I mentioned in that blog that at the beginning of the year I’d posted about how I want to be more aware – watchful if you will – of the ways God shows his love and care for me. It occurred to me that there are really LOTS of ways I see him at work in my life so I’ve decided to make this a regular feature each week. I think I’ll call it “Watchful Wednesdays.”

This week I want to tell you about my friend, Leslie, who has faithfully sent me an encouraging Bible verse every day since she heard about my husband, John’s cancer diagnosis last fall. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY for the past 292 days I’ve gotten a Bible verse from her via e-mail. I can’t even begin to explain how much that has encouraged me. In fact, it has encouraged me so much that when a couple of my friends shared with me that they had cancer I started copying the verses to send to them.

When Leslie went to Israel this spring she chose not to bring along her computer. I knew that in advance so I wasn’t anticipating getting verses from her during that time. And yet, every day a new one would show up in my inbox. I just figured that she’d changed her mind about leaving her computer at home. She told me later, however, that she’d left a list of verses with her husband and instructed him to pray over it each morning and then send me whichever one he felt was the right one to send. And HE faithfully did that!

Just once there was a short lapse in the arrival of a daily verse. I figured Leslie had just run out of verses but a couple of days later she explained that they’d been at a cabin up north that didn’t have any internet connections so she couldn’t send me one. The next time Leslie went to the cabin she “pre-sent” me a verse for each day – in separate emails – not to be opened in advance!

The faithfulness of my friend reminds me every day of the faithfulness of God. He shows up EVERY. SINGLE. DAY to remind us of his boundless love and care for us. And like I said last week, sometimes he even uses our friends to make that happen.

While I can’t post all 200 plus verses that Leslie has sent me I thought I’d end by including a few that arrived in those first few challenging days. (And yes, I’ve saved them all.)

• Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:4
• May the God of hope fill you with ALL joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (I have this one posted on my bathroom mirror.)
• O Lord, you are my God; I WILL exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1
• Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Psalm 42:5
• O Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Psalm 143:1
• But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
• The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may life, and have it to the full!! John 10:10
• For in this hope we are saved. But, hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Romans 8:24-27
• Know the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when you call to him. Psalm 4:3
• Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2
• Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

Today I am linking up to another blog written by an encouraging woman of faith, Holley Gerth. Holley is also the designer of the awesome graphic at the top of this post which she so graciously allows others to use.