Author: Barbara

My passion is to encourage women wherever they are on their life journey. In everything I write and in every opportunity to speak, my goal is to offer hope. May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NIV

Generous Compassion

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

God’s compassion overwhelms me. His gentleness, kindness, and humility make me uncomfortable. He is too generous for my proud heart. As much as I treasure the following verses they are difficult to accept. Ponder with me the depth of God’s compassion.

The Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore He will rise up to show you compassion.
Isaiah 30:18

God longs to be gracious to me! He is not the harsh judge I imagined in my childhood. He looks at me with compassion and longs—yearns, wants, desires—to show me grace. He rises up to bless me! He sees my need and stands from His throne to pour His grace into my life.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left,
your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying,
“This is the way; walk in it.”
Isaiah 30:21

The Lord is conscious of the direction I’m going and the confusion I feel. Rather than leaving me to figure things out, He comes beside me and whispers to my heart. when I veer to the right or the left my God speaks wisdom to me and corrects my course. “This is the way, Barbara. Walk in it.”

You give me your shield of victory,
and Your right hand sustains me;
    You stoop down to make me great.
Psalm 18:35

God’s shield and right hand protect and support me, which are awe-inspiring blessings. It would be enough for God to give me victory and nourish me, but He does more, and the next phrase is hard to receive. He stoops down to make me great!

Selah—pause and calmly think about these verses.

Oh, my Lord, You care so deeply for Your children! How woefully unaware we are of the intensity of Your compassion. How generous is Your grace, how humble Your heart! Our best praise is inadequate to express the depth of our gratitude.

Even Now

~ Barbara ~ 6 Comments

Even now, Lord? Even when my years are many and my body aches? Even when my vision is no longer sharp and I don’t hear as clearly? Even when I can’t process thoughts as quickly or forget a word or name?

Yes, even now!

God doesn’t need our energy or youthful vigor to fulfill His purposes. He will display His glory and tell His story through a well-worn vessel that remains stubbornly available. His plans for us don’t end when we reach a particular age or when our mobility becomes a challenge. We are as capable of being used today as we were in our younger years because He sustains us. It is still His strength that carries the day, not ours. It never was.   

Do not despair, my gray-haired friends! He made us and therefore He will carry us through to a victorious end. And until that day, He will rescue, uphold, and support us. Let us be as grateful for our life today as we were in our youth.

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

God’s Palms

~ Barbara ~ 4 Comments

“I will not forget you!” God.
Isaiah 49:15.

Stop for a moment and look at your palms. The lines you see are called palmar flexion creases. The three deep, prominent creases should look familiar to you since you were born with them—they were formed at around the 12th week of gestation. The creases allow the skin to adapt when our hands are active—stretching, folding, or fisting. Without them, our skin would sag.

What would we see if we looked at God’s hands? Figuratively, according to a song we’ve sung since the 1920s, we would see the whole world.

Literally, would we see creases like ours? We may, since we are made in His image.

When we meet Him, I expect we will see the nail holes that make it possible for us to stand in His presence.

But if God extended His hand to us today, palm up, we would see something for our eyes alone—our name. Right there, “Barbara Higby” is prominently engraved on God’s palms. My name, and yours, is inside His grasp, present during every God activity. Read it for yourself in Isaiah 49:16:

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.

Our names are etched on His palms—permanently, no ball point pen or felt-tip marker. He sees our parameters, our beginning and our end, our restrictions and freedoms, what lies before us and the experiences of our past.

When God opens His hands, He sees us, our name and the life He created.

God Eavesdrops

~ Barbara ~ 1 Comment

Conversations with friends are certainly more intimate than those with neighbors or casual acquaintances. In times of weakness we would be embarrassed if our words were overheard but, hopefully more often, we share honest, intimate thoughts—feelings, hopes, disappointments.

Since we speak from the fullness of our hearts, words between Christians may include personal insights, fresh understanding, and Bible verses. Our conversations include encouragement, counsel, and opportunity to pray together. I can trace areas of personal growth back to conversations with friends who lovingly listened to my heart.

But they weren’t the only ones listening.

Malachi 3:16 tells me someone else heard our words and was equally impressed. I am warmed by the intimacy of Malachi’s revelation:  

Then those who feared [honored] the Lord spoke to one another,
and the Lord listened and heard them;
so a book of remembrance was written before Him
for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.

God eavesdrops on our conversations! Not to find fault, but because He is blessed to hear us voicing our love and respect for Him. Think about a time you overheard someone say something complimentary about you. It’s even more precious because it wasn’t said directly to you but spoken in honor of you. Read the verse again in the MSG Bible:

Then those whose lives honored God got together and talked it over.
God saw what they were doing and listened in.
A book was opened in God’s presence and minutes were taken of the meeting,
with the names of the God-fearers written down,
all the names of those who honored God’s name.

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them,” Jesus (Matt. 18:20).