Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Spirit Speaks in Our Daily Routines

She came into my life unexpectedly, definitely a God-thing. Before meeting her (I was home nursing a hip fracture), I heard about Kimberly, who had visited LifeWay to meet the people who produce Open Windows, a daily devotional magazine which I edit. Open Windows, it seems, had been used by God to give her a new lease on life.

In and of itself, this testimony is not unique. Repeated throughout the nation many times each year, I hear through snail mail, email, and telephone calls how specific devotions bless people's lives (700,000 readers). But Kimberly was facing terminal cancer and had been told she had only one chance: an experimental program being conducted at the Sarah Cannon (remember Minnie Pearl?) Treatment Center in Nashville, TN. The regular trips to Nashville would be expensive and grueling in her condition. Would the treatments even work, or worse, have terrible side effects.

Kimberly's ten year old son Samuel had been born with a severe cleft palate. Six surgeries later, and with another surgery anticipated in Spring, 2012, just thinking about the insurance claims seemed daunting. Her husband, Michael, prayed with her about their decision. One day he found an Open Windows devotion which seemed to speak to him. The Spirit encouraged Michael to believe Nashville might be their answer. Later, Kimberly walked past the magazine, which was turned over on its back. An advertisement caught her eye. Although it announced an event she wouldn't attend, the bold print title exclaimed, "Come to Nashville." The Spirit spoke to Kimberly. Together, she and Michael would give this new treatment a try!

I'll tell you more about Kimberly in my next post, but for now let's stop and contemplate the wonder of it all. Believers faced an immovable object (terminal cancer), they sought the counsel of God, and the Spirit spoke through what was a for Michael and Kimberly, a daily routine: reading a devotion with Scripture and prayer.

As you begin a new year, and as you think about affirming life goals, make it a resolution to spend time each day in Scripture and prayer. Want an answer to perplexing problems? Look to God, through His Word and prayer; sometimes the Spirit speaks in dramatic ways, but often He uses our daily routines.