DEVOTIONS
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Have you missed Girlfriends in God devotions arriving daily in your inbox?
We sure have missed you.
As you recall, after much prayer, the team decided to end this 17 year season of Girlfriends in God. We ran our last devotion June 30, 2023. However, Sharon, Mary, and Gwen are still sending out weekly devotions from their individual sites. While it may look different, the encouraging biblical content will be the same.
Many of you have already signed up to receive our weekly devotions, but if you haven’t, the encouragement is just a click away.
Click here to continue receiving devotions from SHARON JAYNES on Tuesdays.
Click here to continue receiving devotions from MARY SOUTHERLAND on Wednesdays.
Click here to continue receiving devotions from GWEN SMITH
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Today’s Truth
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3 NIV)
Friend to Friend
My mom wore a two-carat diamond necklace that hung from a gold chain around her neck. My dad had given it to her for an anniversary. Before you say, “Good for her,” keep reading.
One day, when she was shopping in my little hometown, she walked through an alley separating two buildings. This spunky seventy-something-year-old held several packages and her purse looped over her wrist.
About midway through the alley, three teenage boys on bicycles circled her like buzzards over roadkill. One hopped off his bike and grabbed at her necklace. The others continued circling and keeping watch.
But rather than give the would-be-robber what he wanted, Mom dropped her packages and began hitting the boy over the head with her
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Today’s Truth
My purpose is to give life in all its fullness (John 10:10 TLB).
Friend to Friend
I have discovered some wonderful advantages of growing older. Honestly, I can get away with so much more than I could when I was younger – and I love it!
Like many of you, I have paid some heavy life dues. I am enjoying a refreshing freedom in what I say and do – as long as I say and do it in love and with integrity before God.
I am flat-out amazed by the fact that people value my advice. They actually think I know what I am doing. Hilarious! I know!
But I am thrilled to share some of the God-truths I have learned along the way. I’m also
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Today’s Truth
Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me (Psalm 66:16 NLT).
Friend to Friend
I was 16 years old and about 100 pounds soaking wet.
My friend’s dad, Mr. Evans, gathered up a few of us teenagers and drove us to a church just outside my hometown. We were going to give our testimonies at a Saturday night gathering of strangers. I’d never stood behind a podium, spoken into a mic, or stared at a sea of faces thinking I had something to say.
When my name was called, I walked up the stage steps, took a deep breath, and told all those staring eyes about how Jesus plucked me out of a home filled with alcohol abuse and violence, and about parents who fought all the time, and about hiding in the closet.
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Today’s Truth
Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31 NIV)
Friend to Friend
A friend of ours has struggled with heart problems for years. He’s gone through seasons of wellness and seasons of strain. Recently, his health challenges moved from the back burner to the front when his doctors recognized the need to operate.
He didn’t just need a simple procedure. He needed open heart surgery to the max. I mean we’re talking valve replacements, ablations, hole repairs, and more.
In the wee hours of the morning before his surgery, my friend’s heart decided to cause problems that led them to the Emergency Room instead of the Operating Room. Thankfully, his surgeon rushed to the scene and took him right into surgery.
Hours later his heart was repaired. In the days that followed, scary
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Today’s Truth
Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever (Psalm 136:26 NIV).
Friend to Friend
The doorbell rang, but I had absolutely no desire to answer it. I was desperately trying to withdraw from my world. It was too dark and too painful. I just wanted to be left alone.
Clinical depression was sucking the life out of me. I was seeing a counselor. I was also under the care of a psychiatrist who discovered I had a chemical imbalance that required medication. But it would be a long, hard road.
The doorbell rang again. I pulled the covers over my head, determined to outlast whoever was trying to work their way into my pain. It was easier to just surrender to the darkness than it was to struggle my way to the light.
The doorbell
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Today’s Truth
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze (Isaiah 43:2 NIV).
Friend to Friend
Thunder cracked the sky when a lightning bolt ripped through the roof of our home, igniting a fire that redefined our normal that night in 2017. The house snapped dark and shook. It was as if a bomb had gone off.
“I think we got hit!” Hunter screamed from the family room. We hurried outside to see if it was true.
The next few minutes were a blurry race against the clock. Get the dogs out! Get the cars out! I’ll grab the computers! And that’s pretty much all we had time for. The flames and smoke kicked us out of our home and were far from warmth or comfort.
Sirens roared. Red lights flashed.
Fear and helplessness stood in the rain beside me
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Today’s Truth
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).
Friend to Friend
I walked to the mailbox and then to the recycler. Don’t need this one, or this one, or this one I whispered as I dropped the shiny flyers in the red box.
I don’t know about you, but I get tired of slick ads for things I don’t need and junk mail from services I don’t want. I especially dislike the credit card applications that say I’ve been “pre-approved” for a line of credit.
But here’s something I’ll never get tired of doing: going to the Word of God and reading His love letter to me. I’ll never stop being amazed that I’ve been pre-approved to be His child. I wonder if that’s how Jesus felt, too.
Just before He began His earthly
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Today’s Truth
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV)
Friend to Friend
Three ministers were talking about prayer and the most effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman worked silently in the background.
One minister shared that he felt the key to powerful prayer was all in the hands. “I always hold my hands together and point them upward as a sign of worship,” he explained.
The second minister suggested that real prayer should always be conducted on the knees.
The third minister shook his head and said, “I’m afraid you both have it wrong. The only position worth its salt is to pray while stretched out flat on your face.”
As the three ministers solemnly contemplated the wisdom they had shared, the phone man put down his tools, approached
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Today’s Truth
Enoch walked faithfully with God (Genesis 5:24a NIV)
Friend to Friend
When our kids were itty-bitty my husband Brad and I used to hold little hands a lot.
Sometimes it was to protect them from danger, like if we were crossing a street.
Sometimes it was to calm fears or to help them to feel secure.
Sometimes it was because we were on a mission to get through or to a place quickly.
Other times it was for the simple pleasure of strolling, skipping, and smiling together.
Now that they’re young adults, my kids aren’t so keen on holding hands with Mom and Dad anymore. Sigh. There’s still the occasional watching-a-movie-on-the-couch-at-home handhold when they are in town, but it’s a rarity. And I miss it.
I love locking fingers with my people. There’s beauty and
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