Written by Juliet Constantine, these devotionals share thoughts and blessings from on high to give you encouragement, wisdom, and strength to face life's many challenges. Juliet has authored two sets of devotionals: "At His Feet" and "Finding Jesus In The Scriptures". Select from all the devotionals below or choose a topic from the menus.
Queen Esther could’ve kept quite and save herself (maybe); but that would do no good. She was placed in a position of trust, influence and power. She had to do something, even if it cost her life! Praise be to God, who giveth us the victory. Victory was hers. She took the risk and victory was hers and her people!
Humility is not one of my strong qualities. So, it is quite humbling when the Holy Spirit tempers my desire to exalt myself. I had an experience where I was in the right and I just wanted to defend myself and expose the offending party. With anger in my heart and fire raging in my eyes, I was prepared to step forward and beat my chest like the Pharisee, defending my right! But then, the Holy Spirit spoke and said, “Hold your peace and do not let your attitude or your voice betray how you feel”.
The School of Life brings continuous testing, one after another – well that’s how it seems to me. We are bombarded with one challenge after another with very little time, if any, to ‘party’ in between. Amazingly, the experiences are quite similar for those on the ‘narrow path’. God permits trials. You are not alone. Praise God in your trials.
The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines.
The trials and testing of God’s children can be termed as gold tried in the fire. Persecution and trials are prerequisites on our journey to the Kingdom. We cannot get around it; we cannot pass over or under it. We must face it. Trials are not negative. They are means of drawing us closer to the King and His Kingdom. They serve to deepen our dependence, faith and trust in God as we rely on Him for everything. They serve to strip away the unpleasant and unnecessary baggage that would only hinder us on our journey. Trials are positive markers that He’s still working on us, to make us what we ought to be!
The Holy Spirit quickens us to live for Christ. Abiding in Christ is allowing His words to be our sword, and faith our shield. As our consciences are activated, and we now see sin as it really is; in faith, we can reach out to Jesus to rescue us from the evil of sin, its power and its woe. There comes a time in one’s life when enough is enough, whatever it may be, the limit has been reached. You’ve had enough. It’s the same with sinning.
He had been so steeped in sin; well, that’s what he thought of himself and his friends concur. He could never change. The worldly lifestyle was his thrill and giving it up was unimaginable. The girls, the drinks, parties and more; that was his life. After all, he was young and it was his life to live. But God had other plans! God choose a new direction for his life-a direction that led to a total change of both the inner and outer man.
Not only did they choose death, but their decision robbed them of their power of choice. But God stepped in and provided a way out that gave them an option to choose again – to choose life. Through the ages, every human is making a decision, moment by moment, to accept God’s contingency or to forever remain with the choice of eternal death.
