I Choose Today...

I Choose Today to Receive God’s Comfort in the Valley

There are seasons in life where it seems like everyone around you is walking through some kind of valley. Fear. Grief. Uncertainty. Loss. The kind of situations that remind us how fragile life really is. Lately, I’ve found myself sitting with a lot of hurting people. Not fixing. Not rescuing. Just sitting with them in hard places. And it has reminded me of something I learned in one of the deepest valleys of my own life after losing my son Bobby. God comforts people in valleys. Not always by immediately removing the valley… but by being present in it. I think many of us expect comfort to feel dramatic. We expect some overwhelming emotional moment where suddenly everything feels peaceful again. And sometimes God absolutely does bring supernatural peace in that way. But often, His comfort comes through people. A phone call. A meal. A text message. Someone sitting beside you. Someone praying for you when you don’t have the strength to pray for yourself. That’s still the comfort of God. After Bobby died, people began showing up at our house within hours. Some cleaned. Some mowed the lawn. Some brought food. Some simply sat with me. And I’ll never

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I Choose Today to Be a Remnant: When Faithfulness Matters More Than Following the Crowd

I’ve been sitting with a word for a while now: remnant. It’s not a trendy word. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t shout for attention. But it’s faithful. Quietly, courageously faithful. This isn’t just a word, it’s an invitation. In Scripture, a remnant is the group of people who remain loyal to God when everyone else walks away. Not because they’re stronger, but because they’re willing to stay. They’re the ones who still say yes when compromise is easier. They’re not perfect, but they’re willing. They’re not many, but they’re deeply known by God. From the earliest pages of the Bible to the final chapters of Revelation, God has always preserved a remnant. When the world was drenched in wickedness, Noah found favor. When Elijah thought he was the only one left, God reminded him of the 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal. When Israel was exiled, a remnant returned and rebuilt. Even Isaiah spoke of this kind of faithfulness when he wrote, “In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return…

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I Choose Today to Obey, Even When It’s Uncomfortable

As I was reading Acts 10 during a devotional, something caught my attention. It wasn’t just the vision Peter had, it was what came next. Because what God asked Peter to do wasn’t just unusual. It was uncomfortable. Eat With Sinners “The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.…Then a voice said to him, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’ ‘No, Lord,’ Peter declared. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.’ But the voice spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’” Acts 10:9–15, NLT In the Old Testament, God gave His people specific instructions to remain set apart. Dietary laws and boundaries around marriage with surrounding nations were meant to protect them from idolatry and preserve the lineage through which the Messiah would come. It wasn’t about superiority, it was about protection and purpose. But something radical shifts in Acts 10. Until this point, the gospel had reached Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, just as Jesus

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I Choose Today to Let God Heal Every Part of Me

Have you ever been in pain or in a painful situation that just felt inescapable? You prayed for God to take the pain away or to take you out of the situation, but it didn’t seem to happen quickly…or maybe at all? If that’s you, I want to give you this reminder: God is always at work, even in the healing. A couple of years ago, I injured my knee from overuse. At first, it was manageable, so I ignored it. But over time, the pain grew worse. Then one day, my knee gave out completely—I could barely stand. I finally went to the doctor, tried physical therapy, did everything I was supposed to do, but nothing seemed to help. One night I woke up in intense pain—not just in my knee, but in my other knee, my hip, and my foot. Lying there, I cried out to the Lord: “What am I doing wrong? I’m doing all the right things, but the pain just keeps spreading!” And in that quiet moment, I sensed the Spirit whisper: “Sometimes coming out of a painful situation means healing all that was affected, not just the knee.” That truth hit me deeply. While

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I Choose Today to Believe God Brings Order from Chaos

Chaos… it seems to come from every direction of life: culture, economy, weather, evil. It collides with our day-to-day too—our workplaces, highways, schools, even our homes. And if we’re honest, it presses in on our thoughts: questions about purpose, worries about the future, doubts that spiral into anxiety. Chaos feels pervasive everywhere we look. When will it stop? As I was reading Genesis 1, I noticed something right away: “The earth was completely chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep…” (NRSVUE). That phrase grabbed me. But as I studied further, hope began to surface. Because while chaos was present, it wasn’t permanent. It wasn’t menacing. It simply meant God’s creative work hadn’t begun yet. And there, right in the middle of the chaos, ruakh—God’s breath, His Spirit—was hovering. Not passively, but like an electric charge, full of expectant energy. One commentary describes it as fluttering, vibrating, actively moving over the waters, ready to bring order out of chaos. The same word appears in Deuteronomy 32:10–11, where Moses describes God watching over “the apple of His eye.” That’s you. That’s me. Just as an eagle hovers and flutters over its young to guard and protect, God hovers over His

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