I believed in Jesus Christ as my Savior as a young child, growing up in a loving Christian home. We were at church so often, sometimes I wondered if I were born there; well, not actually but almost.

I learned many Bible verses as a child and teenager and once wondered about being a missionary but didn’t pursue that path when I was actually old enough to do something about it. Considering what people would think of me instead of God’s will caused me to choose another direction. Now I  know that the place of surrender, where I’m willing to do whatever my Lord asks, brings peace and contentment. You will find that true also.

For many years, I only thought of what I wanted to do or what my husband and I wanted to do, even though I always attended church. Still keeping my faith in Jesus as my Savior, I simply wanted to live my life for myself. Once when everything was going really well in my family’s life, I became depressed and couldn’t figure out why.

Finally my church had a revival and during that time, I quit fighting God. I said, “You be the Lord of my life and not just my Savior. Whatever You want, I’m willing to do.” I’d had an idea about writing a book and knew it would take lots of time as well as money if I tried to publish it. I really needed wisdom and wanted it before I approached my husband about this idea. God used that decision to draw me closer to Him as my Lord. That book never got written, but many years later another one did. WORDS OF WORTH: Meditations to Enhance Your Faith came into being.

For years before this revival the TV or the radio stayed on because I didn’t like the quiet of the house, and especially once our four children were in school. After that experience of asking Jesus to be Lord of my life,  joy filled me. Now I sang around the house and didn’t care about having white noise.

I also stopped watching soap operas, which I’d gotten hooked on when we moved a lot because I didn’t have close friends. About the time I’d make a good friend, we moved again. Somewhat shy, that made it more difficult making friends. I could hardly believe the change in the way I felt; my husband noticed it also. It was so great that a few months later when I went in to wake up our daughters for school, the older one asked me, “Mother, how can you be so happy so early in the morning.” I replied, “I’ve just finished spending an hour with Jesus. I can’t not be happy.”

That was 40 years ago and sometimes I’ve drifted from the intimacy I had then, but I always remember that as the best place and yearn to return. You see, that desire gets so great until it drives me back to the deep relationship with my Lord Jesus I’ve known in the past. I confess my waywardness and He forgives me, but I regret that time away from Him.

We all know how life can simply get in the way to keep us from spending quality time with God. But we always lose when we let it happen. And regret isn’t a good place to live. Joy doesn’t live there either; certainly circumstances can make us happy, but real joy only hangs out with submission to Christ. Once I wrote a poem about this which I will add to this blog.

Joy and submission naturally go together because Jesus says in John 15:11 “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Not too long after Jesus became my Lord and not just my Savior, I started writing Christian poems and a little later meditations and articles. I kept writing through the years and had a daily devotional on a dedicated phone line for my church some time in the past. 

God gives me ideas for all the different types of meditations I’ve written; I can’t take the credit because I’d be lost to think of that many topics. And some of them are so different! Who would ever think a dirt dauber coming in a window would cause a devotional? But it did; as well as three types of pecan trees in our back yard. Some meditations spring entirely from a Scripture or a personality in the Bible; others are about different experiences in my family or those I know well.

I pray this blog will be an encouragement to you as you live out the Christian life. You are welcome to pass it on to others. May our God bless you richly as you follow the calling He has for you. Yes, God calls all of us, no matter what we do, whether we’re highly intelligent or simply normal, whether we make big bucks or those that aren’t, whether or not we’re married, have children, and no matter our age. Our God defines “equal-opportunity employer.”

Ps 139:13-16 states: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

“The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).

3 John 2: Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.    (All Scriptures are from the NIV Bible.)

Sandra Meyer