A friend of mine offered to go back through past Dawg's "Daily Bible Reflections". Here are a few of the selections she commented on in 2003:
5/8/2003: In Heaven our pain and suffering will have been worth while once we are with our Father who wants us all to be with Him.
5/21/2003: In our beauty we need pruning in our struggles. If we refuse to be ‘pruned’ we will remain unfruitful, but attached to the vine we remain beautiful and in our sufferings we see how much more beautiful we can become.
6/13/2003: God does not set us up to fail. We must share the treasure God has given us, trusting in God’s providence. It is our choice to choose arrogance or humility.
6/23/2003: We are called to serve in God’s strength, not our weakness. Surrender comes not when we know everything will be better but when we are faced with a chance to trust that God is with us as He calls us forth to serve.
7/2/2003: The cure for discontent: Bless the Lord; allow Him to magnify Himself with in us, and look to God that we may be radiant with joy. We begin, by remembering God’s goodness, then accept how good He is, and know that God will not let us fall. The reason the discontent grows within us is that we do not trust He has a greater plan than the situations in which He has not blessed us with what we want. God has a greater plan than the suffering we go through. Bless Him at all times, beginning now.
7/7/2003: Those who point to the greatness of the Lord are those who have been given great faith in the darkness of their suffering. The desire to avoid suffering is natural but we should not allow that desire to turn into sin but instead lead us to an increase in faith that heals. We must allow this to happen within us. Only through our ‘yes’ can God be glorified and only through our faith can we be healed.
7/21/2003: In times we cry out to God feeling distrust He tells us to go forward trusting and knowing that He is the Lord, calling us to a greater sense of obedience and also a greater way to love. By trusting the Lord without any "qualifiers" it makes love easier even though we don’t know how it will turn out knowing in the long run things will work out God’s way which is love.
8/8/2003: Denial of self is seeing ourselves as very good but being content with who we are and what God has given us, always desiring to do God's will and knowing that He will provide. Denial of self is freedom from useless anxiety ... Leaving the past to God's mercy, the future to God's providence and the present to God's love. Pick up our cross and follow Jesus.
