Bitterness gets me nowhere.
I wander until I remember that God hears my prayers and guides me home.
I am not bitter or uncertain now. I am a royal child of the Most High destined for unlimited possibilities.
Even when it seems laughable to believe things will work out for me, I have faith that God’s plans for me are good. There is joy in my heart!
No one owns me. I am neither angry, bitter, exhausted, lost, or scared.
I am not timid or sad. I am energetic, fearless, and confident. I intend to survive.
I persist. I never give up. I only let go and let God, for my heart is the handmaid of the LORD.
Responsive Reading for Sunday, October 29
Abram’s name means “father.” Abram’s “wife Sarai [“bitterness”] had born him no children. Now she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar” [meaning “wanderer”]. Sarah . . . gave her to her husband to be his wife” [Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, whose name means “whom God hears”]. Hagar ran away from Sarai, but “The LORD’S angel told her: . . . Go back . . . . I will make your descendants so numerous . . . that they will be too many to count” (Gen. 16:1-10.).
Bitterness gets me nowhere. I wander until I remember that God hears my prayers and guides me home.
God “said to Abraham: as for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah [“princess”]. I will bless you, and I will give you a son by her. Her [Hagar] also will I bless; she will give rise to nations and rulers of peoples” (Gen. 17:15-16).
I am not bitter or uncertain now. I am a royal child of the Most High destined for unlimited possibilities.
“Abraham fell face down and laughed as he said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at ninety?’ . . . . Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac [meaning “laughter”] was born to him. Sarah then said, ‘God has given me cause to laugh, and all who hear of it will laugh with me” (Gen. 17:16; 21:6).
Even when it seems laughable to believe things will work out for me, I have faith that God’s plans for me are good. There is joy in my heart!
Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, had two wives: Leah (meaning “weary”) and Rachel (meaning “journeying”). Leah bore him six sons (and a daughter). Before Rachel bore him two sons, she was worried she wouldn’t have children, “So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah” (meaning “timid”) who bore him two sons. When Leah thought she couldn’t have more children, she gave her maidservant Zilpah (meaning “tears”) “to Jacob as a wife,” who bore him two sons. Jacob had twelve strong sons – an amazing story of the soul’s unfoldment. Oy!
No one owns me. I am neither angry, bitter, exhausted, lost, or scared. I am not timid or sad. I am energetic, fearless, and confident. I intend to survive. I persist. I never give up. I only let go and let God, for my heart is the handmaid of the LORD.