Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

I’ve been reading the Lord of the Rings (now I am on the third book – The return of the king), so there is this part when Pippin looked far to the land from a high place in Gondor and he has this glooming feeling where “hope seemed to wither”. And for a quick moment I wonder how many times we feel that way even when we look from a high place and see no good; everything around seems dark, and a war is about to break, and for a second all of our hope vanishes. And if we don’t pay attention, we tend to freeze right in this moment of despair.   But the story didn’t end there, that happened in the very first chapter of the 3rd book. So much is about to happen. And how many times in our lives we forget that too; that our life is just beginning, that was just a chapter. We don’t know what is to come. Sometimes we, I included, just assume that is the end. It might be the end of a chapter or just a full stop.   “Then, suddenly Pippin looked...

  Is it possible to be sad and happy at the same time? Is it possible to be angry and yet at peace at the same time? You know, these emotions do not depend on the absence of one to the other exist. They are totally able to co-exist. However, you are the one who chooses which one is controlling you. You can be sad for something that didn’t happen or did happen; however, you can choose not to let that happening take over your thoughts and emotions. After all, we are humans and we are allowed to have feelings hurts and mood swings once in a while. Although we can choose how to react, there is something harder to achieve that comes first in our mind before making a decision. Our thoughts. Our thoughts, actually, are the ones who lead us to choose what reaction and emotion we are going to get. So, before feeling any joy or peace, it is needed to control the thoughts. Maybe believing that controlling the thoughts is something impossible to ac...

  It’s been a while. I know. I would like to redefine me. I would like to be softer, more lovely. I would like to reach people’s hearts with a word, a smile, a hug. Sometimes, these are the simplest things that we cannot do. I want to, but when the opportunity finally comes, something goes wrong in my head, and … the opportunity was wasted with my poor choice of words, I mix up all the problems and say things to the wrong person, or with the wrong emotion. And the real intention had never come up. One more time we feel like **** I think that we are useless, we are unable to do anything right. There are so many reasons that what I want is not what I do. So, what can I do about it? Actually, I don’t see anything else but keep on trying. One day, who knows… my brain just gets it. Or, I can respond to such reactions differently. Imagine that a simple conversation goes wrong. How?? Who knows? I just know that right in the middle of it, out of nowh...

  I  was going to write about something completely different. Something more current inspired by the Bible.   Since last week, I have been noticing this book that we have here at home. A book that we haven’t read yet. We didn’t buy this book. This book came as a gift from an organization that we support (or used to, not quite sure now). Because we didn’t buy it, so it didn’t raise any interest in it.   Last week, I looked at this book and told to myself “I am gonna read it”. Days went by and I didn’t even move the book from the shelf. This morning I decided to pick it up and take a look inside. At first, nothing happened. I was working out, so I left the book on the floor, out of place, to unconsciously force myself to pick it up again. Well, what is it about this book? The name of the book is “Hearts of Fire”, it tells the story of the faith of eight women. After lunch, I watched a tv show episode, I wasn’t feeling very well, so I ...

  Lord, Thank you for hearing me. Help me with my weaknesses. Let love showed by me be genuine; teach me to abhor evil and hold fast to what is good. Help me to love others with brotherly love affection and outdo one another in showing honor. Lord, I don’t want to be slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit, to serve the Lord. I also want to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and constant in prayer. Give me, O Lord, a generous heart to contribute to the needs of the saints and seek hospitality. Jesus put in my mouth only blessings, especially for those who persecute me, and for those to who I have difficulty relating. Give me a sympathetic heart to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Lord, I confess that I haven’t been putting enough effort to live in harmony with one another, please, help me with that. I don’t want to be haughty but associate with the lowly. Help me to see that I am not that wise, only You know what is...

  Sometimes we get disappointed in God, right? Just because He doesn’t do what we expected. Or like Jonah from the Bible. Jonah knew that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster (Jonah 4:2). So, having that in mind, he knew that if he obeyed God going to Nineveh to prophecy their doom, and if the people repented afraid of the destruction, God wouldn’t destroy them. It made Jonah very angry. In Jonah's sense of Justice, those people deserved to be destroyed because they were violent people. So Jonah did disobeyed God and run away from God’s word and ended up inside a fish’s belly. He repented and God gave him a second chance to make things right. He went to Nineveh and prophesied against the people, the people repented and God withheld the destruction. So Jonah was so angry that he wanted to die. He was very disappointed in God. But God showed him how unfair Jonah’s thoughts were. God made a t...

  This is one of the times of the year that some people go to church. Like Christmas, some people only go to church on some occasions. I wonder, ‘why bother?’ But who am I to judge what people do or not?   This is a pretty interesting season. This season we mourn and celebrate just two days apart. We mourn when we think about how Jesus was crucified, but we celebrate because he didn’t stay dead like everybody else. He has risen!   Some people may not believe in this. Some people don’t even know why they don’t believe or why they believe in this. Let me shock even more. This can change your life forever. If only you believe that is true, so that truth can change your life.   If you believe that God, the invisible one, the Creator of the Universe, decided to put on a face of a human being so we can relate with him; his coming was part of the plan since the beginning. Being God Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and all Soverei...