Happy New Year’s!
Todd and I had a great time bringing in the new year with our friends Steve and Brenda Rice, along with two of their new friends Nat and Elain. Steve and Brenda are two of the most amazing friends you could ask for. We have great talks about God, we pray for each other, we pray for each other’s kids and then we have lots of laughs together too. It’s a balanced friendship! Last night we introduced Elain to Sequence, one of our favorite board games. We had a blast, did I mention that the two girls’ teams won 2 games each and the guys not even one??? Oh ya, I said it! 🙂
While we were playing Sequence we heard fireworks going off outside as people celebrated New Year’s. That one little incident caused me to change my blog schedule. I had this devotion SOUND THE ALARM in my ideas folder for later this year, but felt that nudge from Holy Spirit that it needed to be sent out today. I pray that this devotion gets you ready for all that God has for you in 2017.
I believe it’s greatly by your choices; how you act and react in this new year that will decide the course for your life. May you choose the life God has destined for you and walk in His blessings this year!
Much love,
~Sherry Stahl
xoxo
Now, here’s the first #SoulH2O Devotion of 2017…
Sound The Alarm
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.”
Joel 2:1 NIV
The week before Christmas I had a really important meeting. While preparing documents, my computer ran out of paper an hour and a half before I had to leave. I jumped in the car and drove to Staples.
Next, I bolted out of the car and was rushing into the store when I was stopped dead in my tracks. As soon as I opened the double doors I could hear the security alarm going off. Sirens were blaring. My heart sank as I thought I would have to go to another store and didn’t have time but I looked in and saw people in line at check out. I walked forward and the automatic doors opened. I saw the manager walking by and she didn’t say anything. The clerk was running people’s purchases through the register so I just kept on walking to the paper aisle.
The sound was almost deafening, yet no one was making any reaction to the alarm. They were all carrying on like normal, like they didn’t even hear it. As I walked towards the register to pay, the alarms turned off. Still, no one in line with me reacted so I didn’t say anything. It was so weird.
I felt like I was in an episode of The Twilight Zone!
As I was walking around the store this verse in Joel kept ‘sounding off’ in my head. Sadly, too often God is trying to get the world’s attention and they don’t even hear it. They keep on living, oblivious to the signs of the times, the messengers, or the messages He sends.
Joel wrote these words after God gave him a prophetic vision to share with the people. I didn’t have a vision, but I know God had me walk in the store at just that time to sound the alarm through my writing.
I believe at the beginning of 2017 God is blowing a trumpet and we need to be alert to His message.
The end of Joel 2:1 says “Let all who live in the land tremble for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand”.
This isn’t a doomsday post heralding the end, but it is an alarm for us to listen up. Joel warned the people of God’s coming judgement for their sin but, like God so often offers in His Word, there was a caveat to the judgment.
“Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:13).
God isn’t some angry deity waiting to throw fireballs on the earth. His desire is to show us grace, love and compassion. Joel 2:26 tells how God will restore what the enemy has stolen away, if we turn our hearts to Him.
Your choices; how you act and react in this new year, will decide the course for your life. May you choose the life God has destined for you and walk in His blessings this year!
Prayer
Father…I thank You for Your warnings, they show You care for me. Let my ears be open to hear them. This year, I choose to turn my heart and my life over to You so I will see Your restoration in areas where the enemy has stolen away! May I walk in Your grace, love and compassion; showing it to the world. In Jesus Name…Amen
[tweetthis]I believe at the beginning of 2017 God is blowing a trumpet …be alert to His message. [/tweetthis]
#Dare2Share
Post in the Comment Section below and bolster the faith of someone else!
YOU CAN OFTEN FIND ME LINKING UP WITH:
MONDAY Monday Meditations – Laura J. Davis,
TUESDAY Cheerleaders of Faith #RARaLinkup – Kelly Balarie,
WEDNESDAY Coffee For Your Heart – Holley Gerth,
THURSDAY Heart Encouragement Thursday – Crystal Storms,
FRIDAY Dance With Jesus Linkup – Susan B. Mead, Grace and Truth Linkup – Arabah Joy, Counting My Blessings – Deb Wolf, Fresh Market Friday – Crystal Twaddell

What a strange thing to happen to you, but clearly it was all in God’s timing. If you hadn’t run out of paper, you wouldn’t have gone to Staples and heard the alarm and then you wouldn’t have had these verses come to your mind. And they are so timely and encouraging! Thank you Sherry for reminding us to be alert to God’s messages for us. Something we need to be attentive to in this New Year and always! God Bless! Laura
Laura,
God was speaking so clearly in that Staples. I believe He’s always talking to us. Keeping my ears attentive to Him is the goal 🙂
~Sherry
xoxo
Sherry, don’t you love it when a random thing triggers God’s voice and informs our words? Great message for the new year. May my heart be ever-attuned to His warnings. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for linking up at the #ChasingCommunity launch! So glad to have you along for the ride. 🙂 ((hug)) Happy New Year!
Brenda,
Real life is the most common way God speaks to me. After I started reading “Seeing The Voice Of God” I see/hear Him even more in the regular of my day. So glad to join your community.
Hugs Back Atacha 🙂
~Sherry Stahl
xoxo
I think this is a perfect new year post! Thanks for alerting me to the alarm! Blessings!
Thanks Liz! May your spiritual eyes and ears be as alert as your physical eyes and ears were on the battle field.
~Sherry
xoxo
Thanks for sounding the alarm! May we all hear it and do something about it!
Would you please pray for me to be more courageous about getting my writing more out in the public? I am praying for God’s guidance and timing. Maybe this should be the year.
Ruth,
Ok, clearly the Lord has been speaking to you about using your writing for Him. Don’t wait for Fireworks to make it clear. Remember, God spoke to Elijah in the whisper. He’s a gentleman, not loud and pushy.
Dear Lord, I ask that you would answer Ruth’s prayer. May she live courageously for You and not hold back. Where you have given her a platform may she steward that gift well and give You the glory. Let this be THE YEAR! In Jesus Name, Amen!
Now, Go For It 🙂
Much love,
~Sherry Stahl
xoxo
That verse in Joel is a favorite of mine — and so often when I thank God that He is gracious, merciful,slow to anger and of great kindness, I have to admit . . . that I am not!
I’m going to check out that game. We’re due for a new family game!
Michele,
You’ll LOVE Sequence. I think I’m going to do a post on games. My friends just came out with their second one and I can’t wait to play it. Their first is called NUMARO and it’s another family fave. Their new game is called Honeycombs. Here’s a link to check them out:
https://www.amazon.ca/Trivia-Party-Game-Numaro-Answer/dp/B00C3N34M8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483712163&sr=8-1&keywords=numaro+game
https://www.honeycombsgame.com/?lightbox=dataItem-irrx7wcv
Hours of Fun!
~Sherry Stahl
xoxo
Yes, we need to stay alert to God, that’s the only way to true happiness here on earth and beyond. Thanks, neighbor. Blessings upon blessings to you and yours in 20017!
Mari-Anna, Blessings to you and yours in 2017 too 🙂
~Sherry Stahl
xoxo
Sherry, I love when God makes connections in the ordinary parts of our days! Those almost seem to be the very lessons which root the most deeply in my heart. May we be alert to the Lord in greater measure in 2017 for He is always looking to speak to us. Blessings!
Joanne,
I couldn’t agree more with you. It’s the ordninary that seems to speak the loudest to me. Praying you have open ears and eyes this 2017!
Blessings,
~Sherry Stahl
xoxo
Great analogy, Sherry. I’ve found myself in that same situation before and wondered … what if this were a real emergency? Sadly, there are times that the Holy Spirit was prompting me and I wondered … is that really you? And then didn’t follow through. I regret those moments. We must be sensitive to His leading in our lives! This is a beautiful call to action for 2017!
Diane,
Praying you see and hear the voice of God in powerful ways this year, following through with action.
?Sherry Stahl
Sherry,
I was reading in 2 Chronicles 31 this morning about the reforms Hezekiah appointed for Israel. I had to back track and read the 2 chapters before this to get context as I studied His Word. Chapter 29 talks about the cleansing necessary to bring the people to this place of repentance the place of return after the consecration and sanctification that provided the place of their pilgrimage of remembering. 2 Chronicles 30:9 admonishes us to return to the Lord, because He is gracious and merciful. Which led me to the same scripture you shared in Joel. The rending of our hearts, not our outer garments, leads us to return to the Lord… it reminds us to turn back and turn our faces, our hearts, our whole selves because the blessing is the demolishing of the idols and ideals that keep our hearts from pursuing Him fully. Your words were a timely reminder for me today.
Many thanks!
Blessings,
Dawn
Dawn,
I love how you study ? I get lost in His Word too. It’s just that good of a book! I think you might like my post called “I’ve become a Nerd” It’s the one after this one. Have a blessed day!
? Sherry