NorMel House Devotions

The Bible tells us that this life will not be easy. Christians, especially, can count on going through hurdles, trials and tribulation. Even Jesus had to endure through sorrow, rejection, pain and temptation. Jesus wept upon seeing Mary's grief after Lazarus died. He was rejected three times by someone who claimed to love Him. He was beaten and mocked by the authorities and had to deal with Satan actively trying to get Him to turn from God. How did Jesus deal with all this? How did He persevere when life got difficult? If we turn to John 11 we can see how He dealt with His grief, "And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, 'Father I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that You sent Me.'' (John 11:41b-42). So we see that prayer is where we start. In Matthew 4 we can read about how Satan actively pursued Jesus and tried to tempt Jesus to turn from God. Jesus quash...

  Read Romans 5:1-5 Our passage today is a beautiful piece about rejoicing in our suffering, with a theme of faith, hope, and love. Paul tells us we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is what allows us to go through hardship and suffering and still rejoice. We can rejoice, regardless of our circumstances, because we know that God's plan is being fulfilled. We don't rejoice because of our suffering, but in our suffering because we know our suffering isn't meaningless. Our suffering here is meant to build character and produces hope in God, "and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2). We are being built up in faith, hope, and love. God has poured out His love, and because of that, we can have faith in His gifts of grace and hope in the future He has planned for us. "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith, without hope, is dead. We must have faith in...

  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:1‭-‬2 ESV Running a race isn't easy and requires training. A runner has to stretch and prepare themselves. They need self-discipline so they can pace themselves and not overdo it too quickly. They look at the long-term goal, the prize at the end of the race. With determination, they work through the various hurtles and pain, knowing it's only temporary. Another thing to take note of is that a race is never run alone; there has to be more than one runner for it to be a race. By this analogy, our text tells us so much about how we are to live this life. Just as a racer ...

  Read 1 Peter 4 (see bottom) Peter wrote the letter, 1 Peter, to a group of Christians scattered throughout the northern areas of Asia Minor. He speaks a lot about persecution, which the Christians there would endure in the end of Nero's reign. The whole letter is full of encouragement for those who are being persecuted for righteousness and the Name of Christ. Peter starts our chapter asking the believers  to emulate the suffering of Christ. "Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking" (1 Peter 4:1 ESV). He reminds them not to live as the Gentiles do, in sin and lawless idolatry, but in the Spirit. He points out that they may suffer for it now, but all sinners will have to give an account before the judge of the living and the dead. (See verses 3-7). Peter encourages Christians to repay evil with good and to love one another.  "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins." (...

 Have you ever gone through something and felt alone?  Maybe you lost a loved one, or had a serious illness. Maybe you live with chronic pain, or had a battle with cancer. Whatever it is that you have gone through, you may have felt that no one could possibly understand how hard it was or how broken you felt. I know I have. I've felt the crushing weight of grief, I've been misunderstood and felt the judgements of others, I've sat alone pouring my soul out to our Saviour. I felt alone. I didn't think anyone could possibly understand how it felt, but I was wrong. We only have to open our Bible to see how we are never alone! Our Saviour's love is so great and our God is so powerful that He is with us at all times! But that's not all! All throughout scripture we are told that God is not only with us, but He hears us, He heals us and He understands our pain. Zephaniah 3:17 He is in our midst! Psalm 56:8 He cares so much He even counts our tears! Psalm 18:6 He hears o...

  What do we do when everything seems to fall apart? Where do we turn when the world around us seems to be crumbling and we feel like we just can't take anymore? We often wonder how all these bad things can happen; why do they happen? There is a reason for all things, and the bible tells us that as Christians there is a definite purpose. As a result of our sin the world is no longer perfect, and bad things happen. But is that all? Is that the only purpose??? I don't believe so. One of the things the bible talks about is being refined. We are being refined by our trials, being molded into something better! Zechariah 13:9 "...and refine them as one refines silver and test them as gold is tested..." Isaiah 48:10 "Behold I have refined you, but not as silver' I have tried you in the furnace of affliction" Psalm 66: 10-12 "For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden up...

 What does God’s word teach about Dealing with Problems? 5.       “Go to Other Believers and Pray with Them”  James 5: 13-16 "Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."             Sickness and sin are an obvious part of the world we live in. In Christ we bring them all before God’s throne. In Christ we are victorious over death, that is eternal death. Yet God in His wisdom does not leave us as lonely individuals. He gives us other believers to aid, help, and assist and espec...

  What does God’s word teach about Dealing with Problems?  4.       “Trust in God’s Answer even if it challenges you”  Joshua 6:1-6, 20: "Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.             Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and it’s fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.             When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud...

What does God’s word teach about Dealing with Problems? 3. “God Centered Prayer” : 1 Kings 8: 56-60 1 Kings 8: 56-60 “Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised, Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commands, decrees and regulations he gave our fathers. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other." When Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple he put God in the center of all his requests. He praised the Lord and prayed for the people. He asked for God’s presenc...

  2. “Seek the Lord First” : Judges 4: 1-7, 23 Judges 4: 1-7, 14a    After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.  Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his troops to the Kishon River and ...

  I'd like to share a series of devotionals my mother wrote for a Quilting Retreat she ran with some friends. I've taken the liberty of using them as a basis for inspiration and further study for myself. I found myself digging a bit deeper into scripture and my own contemplations and thought I should share. I hope you are inspired to open your Bible and add your own notes and thoughts as well. What does God’s word teach about Dealing with Problems? 1.       “Believe”: Genesis 18: 13-14             Genesis 18: 13-14             Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”             All of life has problems since the fall into sin by Adam and Eve in paradise. We all will encounter problems, some ...

  "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Matt. 6:25 - 26 (ESV)  When we consider our lives, do we truly understand that all things are in God's Hands? So often we struggle with situations or difficulties and try to fix them. Sometimes there are actions we can take, but then we worry about whether it was the right action or choice. We need to lay it all before Him in prayer and then trust that He is in control of all things! Seek God's help, and then trust that He will lead you on the right path.  We also need to remember to leave it with Him. There have been times in my life where I've prayed about things and I say I'm leaving it in His Hands ...

Emotions betray us. I know, I know, there’s a purpose for them, but the way I see it, it comes down to Faith versus Feeling.  I am a person who lives with overwhelming emotions. Not just moody, or fluctuating, but OVERWHELMING. Have you ever felt overwhelmed by something? Have you ever been so submerged in something, so surrounded by it, so overtaken by it, that it literally feels like it’s the only thing in your world at that moment? I have. I do. Constantly. I am not an expert, or a doctor, or a scientist, nor do I have any qualifications but one; life. When it comes down to making decisions most people will go with what they feel is right; I don’t. I go with what I know is right. God has given us everything we need in order to know what is right and wrong. Plain and simple (well, not really, our emotions can make things very complicated and sometimes there’s no black and white line, or writing on the wall, but you’ll get my drift eventually). I should start by saying that I don’...