Our team is excited to launch this monthly devotion space for our community. We have seen that God’s Word is active and alive and can transform any life. Our goal is to break the stigma that God’s Word is irrelevant in today’s culture and deliver a message that is true to God’s character and within the Biblical context. We invite you to discover life’s promises with us. Hebrews 13:8 is a promise that reminds us that; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. May you know that God loves you; he sees and desires a relationship with you. We are glad you are here!
Devotions
June 2024
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy, and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. James 3:17
Next to my computer on my desk is a frame that reads, Have you prayed about it as much as you have talked about it? It reminds me daily that God desires us to speak to him.
So often, I seek validation or wisdom from a friend versus getting quiet with the Lord. These last few weeks, I have read and studied much about Solomon. When the Lord told Solomon he could have anything, Solomon replied that he desired wisdom. Solomon's response to the Lord's question challenged my heart. Do I desire God's wisdom above everything else?
Do I want it more than being right? Do I desire it more than being understood? Do I seek it over being validated? The Lord is so gracious to remind me in His Word that His ways are pure, peace-filled, gentle, and merciful (paraphrased James 3:17).
So daily, I read the sign on my desk, and it serves as a reminder that the Lord is waiting to listen. Have you gotten quiet with the Lord today? Prayer is powerful, but sometimes it can be my last resort rather than my first response.Liz Andersen
December 2023
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him, and he with Me. -Revelation 3:20
My week was turning ever so frustrating.
It was already a busy week with family coming to town soon, and I had a pile on my desk that was not getting smaller but getting bigger every day we did not have our truck back.
Our coffee truck was in the shop; Paul and I anticipated the truck would be done by the end of the week. My patience was growing thin, as every day of waiting was one day we were not doing.
We have anticipated this truck to be complete as it serves the ministry in two ways; the first way is the funding entity to run programs giving high-risk adults a second chance at employment and mentorship. The second is to serve the community with good coffee and build awareness of the ministry.
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I had a timeline I was trying to meet, which put a damper on everything we wanted to accomplish before the year's end. When we did get the call to come pick up the truck, the truck made it about 1000 feet, where it died in the middle of the road with gas pouring from the fuel line. My attitude turned sour, and again, I dug down in my strength to realize I could do nothing; the control of this situation was out of my hands.
As I finally sat down to pray and bring my cast-down face to God, believing I had disappointed Him, he began downloading these truths on my heart with grace and mercy. First, prayer should always be our first response and never our last resort. The first part of this story held a lot of "I" reactions to the problem. I never stopped and prayed initially; I just ran with my agenda. Oh, how quickly we can miss the Lord's perfect provision and protection when we begin to work in our strength. The feeling of defeat could have been negated if I had started in the posture of prayer.
I am so thankful that the New Testament gives an account of 12 men who are following Jesus. The fact that the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) share relational interactions between the Savior of this World and his followers helps us better understand the heart of Jesus to teach us his ways. Luke 9:33 shares about a father seeking healing for his son, yet when he comes to Jesus, it's on the account that Jesus disciples could not heal him. Yet every other time the disciples set out to heal, they had been successful. I can't add words to the story, and it's not completely clear why they did not heal successfully, but I often wonder if the disciples tried in their strength with their agenda in mind. Was their heart's posture focused on their strength versus the Holy Spirit's power? Did they act out of pride, believing they had the power to move something that was not theirs to move? Maybe it was a lack of their faith. I find similarities between these men and me so often. I seek my understanding before even bending a knee to understand. The Lord once spoke to my heart in a different situation, "Liz, if I have closed a door, there is nothing you can do in your power that will open a closed door. My frustrations of this week were because the Lord closed the door to this truck being ready and He was operating out of His timeline and not my own. My humanness tried in all my strength to move this along because it fit my agenda. I never started by bending a knee to seek the Lord's motive within my frustrations.
Jesus was so patient with his disciples, teaching them over and over again their dependence on Him. Our God is that patient with us. Do you want to know what the Lord laid on my heart when I got quiet with Him? My child, you almost missed my gift. You were in such a hurry to try and complete something I never intended to complete yet. You ran by me so many times so quickly that this unwrapped gift sat here waiting for you to open. How many gifts have gone unwrapped? How often have you and I missed it because we tried to accomplish something in our strength, but pride got in the way, or we lacked faith? God laid on my heart this Christmas, "The gift is an uninterrupted Christmas with your family." I could give you this truck during this season or provide you with rest. Will you trust what I am doing behind the scenes in my power? Just because you can't see me move physically does not mean I am not moving in the supernatural, accomplishing things only I can do. Take advantage of the most important gift this Christmas: the gift of Jesus. Jesus came to this broken world fully human, to die a sinner's death (entirely sinless, taking mine and your sin upon that cross) so that we may live in the righteousness and fullness of Christ for eternity. Take it. The greatest gift given for us to unwrap.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him, and he with Me. -Revelation 3:20
Devotion written by founder Liz Andersen (12/6/2023) to be used for Love Remained Ministries material only unless given permission by Love Remained Ministries.
September 2023
Desiring the Caller more than the call
Acts 18:3, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
Today, we are fascinated with the word "calling". What is my calling? Do I have a calling? We ask God, what is the calling you have for me? Some of us wait patiently for God to reveal our calling, but in the waiting we are discouraged because we don't see a bright sign with flashing lights that spell out exactly our purpose. The New Testament says Paul was a tentmaker, yet believed to have one of the most influential callings in Biblical history. So how does a tent maker make it into God's Word and still leave behind such a legacy that we are still speaking of today?
We have become so hyper-sensitive to the calling that we neglect the caller. It feels hypocritical writing this from the platform of a non-profit organization/ministry, and many are shaking their heads because you just agreed with me. What do I know? It's not what I know but what the Lord revealed in scripture in my quiet times: our calling is to the caller! Let me repeat for those just waking up: our calling is to the caller himself. If we are not careful, ministry can quickly become our focus, again seeking the calling more than the caller. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. I don't speak to you from a soapbox; I speak from the thick of it all. I fall into the trap of "doing" more than "being." The very thought is counter-cultural to the world's philosophy of doing. How can it make any sense that the God of this universe desires just me?
The Bible in Genesis says that God created us to dwell with Him in perfect union, lacking nothing. From the beginning, the plan was never for man to dwell within the brokenness of this world. Praise God for His mercy and grace that since the beginning of creation, He had a plan to come after His creation to make way for us to spend eternity with Him through the Blood of Jesus. For the Glory of God to take on flesh, bend down out of Heaven to stand in my place, exchanging my stained record for His perfect one. Within the first few chapters of scripture, man went from ruling over the land to the land ruling over man. From that moment, I would argue that man went from the comfortability of desiring God to feeling like they had to do for God. I often wonder if Adam believed if he could work hard enough, his creator would allow him back into the garden. The last sentence is merely speculation but seems like a human thought process regarding our fascination with having to do.
Genesis 3:17, "...cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return."
I know the initial scripture context spoke about Adam and was meant for men for future generations. Still, I can't help but believe that through the chaos and confusion of sin, the perversion and lies of the enemy, man began to think we must work for God's approval, leading us to desire to do for God and less be with God.
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When I look at scripture, I see so many contradictions in the above thought and more truth to this thought: man has never sought God, but God seeks after us first. Scripture tells us that God walked in the garden, making himself available to Adam and Eve after they sinned and hid from God. Then there's the story of Noah, where Genesis 6:8 says that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, and verse 9 says that Noah walked faithfully with God. Noah was already walking faithfully with God before he got the calling from God. Then, we jump over to the New Testament, where Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. It was Jesus who came to Saul. Saul never began working for God first; it was the mere opposite. Saul had an encounter with Christ, and from the encounter came the calling. Love Remained Ministries is a calling for sure, but the calling came after almost 18 months of sitting with the Lord.
God's call was not to do. It was to sit.
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Some of you are looking for me to say that from sitting with God came some elaborate plan gifted to me. Nope, the opposite. My original goals and dreams changed. The calling was not as fancy; God revealed through my time spent with Him that it was less about me and more about Him. God invited me to partner with Him in His elaborate plan and surrender my own. I stopped chasing the glorious idea of the calling and just met with the caller, and from there, the rest was better and sweeter than I ever imagined.
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I hope this devotion has encouraged you and taken some of the heaviness of waiting off you. I hope that it has freed you to not look so much into the "doing" for God and more of an excitement of "being" with God. Also, if you don't know what "being" with God looks like, I challenge you to commit to 30 days of whispering; God, show me your character and personality and reveal your truths to my heart. Then, find 15 minutes daily to sit and open His Word. Yes! Get your dusty Bible off the shelf as God desires you to know Him; he already knows you. From that, all else flows.
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Maybe you don't have a Bible; we would be honored to send you one. Just reach out to us at info@loveremained.org. Someone from our team will ensure you have a copy of God's Word. Maybe you have never opened the Bible and don't know where to start, we encourage you to spend time in John. It's the chapter that introduces you to the character and personality of your Savior and His heart from the very beginning.
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- Devotion Written By: Liz Andersen
August 2023
Genesis Chapters 37-47
Genesis 39:2
The Lord was with Joseph.
I am not sure what you know about the life of Joseph, but from the time Joseph was 17 until he was 30, it was pure chaos. Joseph had two dreams in which his authority in these dreams would stand higher than his brothers. That would have been fine if Joesph was the oldest. But Joseph was the youngest, and his vision went against Israelite culture and tradition. Joseph’s brothers, who were about to kill him, decided on the lighter and sold him as a slave to travelers headed for Egypt. While in Egypt, he becomes a respected attendant in Potiphar’s house but is reduced to prison because of a lie told against him due to the burning lust of Potiphar’s wife. In prison, Joseph received the respect of the prison guard and Pharaoh's attendants by interpreting a dream. However, just as quickly as he was helpful, Joseph was even quicker to be forgotten. It would be 13 years of highs and lows in Joseph’s life before he stepped into his purpose or calling.
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I keep meditating on… “and the Lord was with Joseph this week. How often do we stop, no matter our circumstances, chaos, or the season of life, and focus on; “The Lord was with Liz.” (insert your name where I placed mine) Every part of Joseph’s life was used; the good, the hard, the neglect, the not fair, and the dreams. I love that our circumstances do not limit God, yet God uses our circumstances. Nothing is wasted. Let me encourage you today, the details of your life are not wasted. You may feel like you’re in a figurative speaking prison, or maybe you are in a physical one. Let me share two truths: God desires you to know him intimately, and it’s never too late to call upon God. You are never too far gone to turn around. The second truth is this God works in all the details. (If you enjoyed this, please check out our blog section to connect with our community)
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- Devotion Written By: Liz Andersen
If this encouraged you today, will you bless someone else by sharing it with them?
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