Have you been set free or are you weighed down with the burdens of life?

There are some days, weeks, even months when living a life guided by God seems so easy. There is a flow that happens. Joy fills one’s heart. You wake up in the morning and feel a sense of gratitude for everything.

But then doubt and fear can set in. This has certainly been the case with trying to grow a business from the ground up. You’re putting your heart, soul and energy into it, but at the end of the day or week or month, there is no consistent revenue for the effort. It can seem overwhelming. It’s easy to want to give up and go find a “job” and work for someone else.

When we face challenges like this, it is particularly important to lean on your family. In this case, I mean our family of faith. Brothers and sisters in Christ.

That also means having a solid place of worship to attend to be lifted up in the presence of God with like-minded believers. If ever there was a time I needed church, it, was last Sunday. I had hit a valley again.

The sermon was called, “The Power of the Spoken Word.”

The story was taken from Luke, chapter 10. Jesus was preaching: “Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.”

Our pastor went on to say that the woman wasn’t suffering necessarily from a physical ailment but was oppressed, beaten down with the demands of work and life.

We have two services, one at 8:15 AM and one at 11:00 AM. Robert and I attended the early service to have more of our day left. We normally don’t attend that service.

I did an earlier post where I shared a little book that I love, God Calling. This is the third year that I’ve read this daily devotional book. I included a link to Amazon so that my readers could see the book and could purchase it if they so desired. When I was online to Amazon I saw another book, Jesus Calling that caught my attention. But I was focused on getting my post written so I didn’t look into the book. I did notice both books did not have the same author.

Unbeknownst to me, Christy Salmon attended the 11:00 AM service. Christy’s husband John lost his job too, several months ago. Christy has been trying to get her Pilates business going and was in need of a new website. Her current website was a disaster and she didn’t have a clue what to do. I met Christy and John through our church’s Stephen Ministry program and got together with Christy to help her with creating a new website for her.

At the end of the sermon, our pastor commissioned us to help other women to set them free by speaking encouragement and helping them (and men too by the way!).

Later that day a package arrived at the house (The picture is of that package). Christy had gone out and purchased the Jesus Calling book for me. There was a lovely note inside thanking me for my help and that she wanted me to have this book to receive love and encouragement every day.

I called her immediately and thanked her. She was so moved by the sermon that God spoke to her to take action. She wanted to stand up for me and help set me free from worry.

So, who can you set free today by what you say or do?

Both God Calling and Jesus Calling resonated with me. Since 1977 I had wanted to write a daily devotional with a word for the day. When I discovered meditation and created this site because of its transformative effect in all areas of my life, especially deepening my relationship with God, I knew people would resist spending 10-20 minutes a day to meditate (I did for years!). But I thought, truly they have time for ONE word!

God gifted me with the words He put on my heart, much like the writers of God Calling and Jesus Calling. The book didn’t happen in 1977 but 40 years later – in God’s time. It’s called God Notes – Daily Doses of Divine Encouragement. May the words God put on my heart touch your heart too and that you will know how much you are loved by God.