November 2024 Women's Devotional Blog

November 27th, 2024
by Mel Lucas

Maintaining God's Perspective

Our women's ministry blog is up and running again for the 2024-2025 ministry year! If you are interested in being a contributing author, we would love to talk with you about that. Please reach out at women@gracecomm.org.

Be careful that you vigorously maintain God’s perspective,
and remember that it must be done every day, little by little.
- Oswald Chambers

Oof, this is definitely a daily need and a daily battle.

But how?

when there is a mouse in the pantry and plenty of work waiting and this country is so so noisy and my heart aches at struggles my loved ones are facing and my perspectives feel all over the place?

I carry this question into my day, asking God to show me how to maintain His perspective and how to develop a habit of returning to His perspective when I move away from it.

In my daily scripture reading, these verses cause me to pause and note them down:

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
Who is sufficient for these things?

.....Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us,
but our sufficiency is from God,"....

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
-2 Corinthians 2:14-16, 3:4-6, 12:9

I see a repeated word and pause to ponder what it means that our “sufficiency is from God” and that “His grace is sufficient.” A few days later I stumble upon this “fun fact” about the composer Bach:

Johann Sebastian Bach,
at the top of his manuscripts wrote,
"Jesu Juva,"
which is Latin for "Jesus, help!"
At the bottom of his manuscripts, he wrote,
"S.D.G."
Soli Deo Gloria,
"glory to God alone."

As I note this down in my notebook, I glance up to the 2 Corinthians verses and also my note about keeping God’s perspective. The Holy Spirit reveals to me a picture painted in answer to my question of; “but how?” While my natural abilities are not sufficient for keeping God’s perspective – His empowering is.

And His grace is sufficient to cover me again and again when I need to return to Him for help to remember His perspective, His faithfulness, and His steadfastness.
And also, that there is a way for me to practice:

Whether it's composing
Toccata and Fugue in D minor
or washing a sinkfull of dishes.

whatever tasks each day holds,
beginning with "Jesu Juva"
and ending with "Soli Deo Gloria"
is always available to me.

that. is. pretty. amazing.

I pray that the sweetness of Christ's presence and the sufficiency of His power would be our strength and our joy as we go about this day. He is faithful and He hears our cries for help and for perspective and for hope. To Him be all glory!

This devotional was written by Mel Lucas. Mel's life is filled full with love from her husband Jeremy and their (now adult) children Daniel, Zeke, Hannah, and son-in-law Jonathan. She's been Surprised by Joy in the noise of the city and quiet of the mountains and spends her days continually chasing after it amidst the stuff of life. Mel has been on staff at Grace since 2017, currently as the Media & Education Coordinator.

Posted in Womens Ministry