Found Adrift: 40 Days of Recovering Grace

By Pauline Creeden

Life is hard. It pulls us in all directions, and most of them lead us away from God. Jobs, kids, spouses—we find the demand exhausting and never ending. Each demand on our life pulls us further and further from the shoreline, so it feels that it will be too much work to get back to where we’re supposed to be spiritually. 

But no matter how many steps away from God we take, it only takes one to come back. 

Make this your first step. You can pull through this, with grace. 

Found Adrift is a series of short devotionals that help you get back in tune with God. If you’ve found yourself drifting from where you know you should be in your walk with God, you might be a drifter, like me. This devotional is the paddle you need to get back on track. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: AltWit Press
• Release date: Apr 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533712844

Pauline Creeden

In simple language, Pauline Creeden breaks down Biblical stories and applies them to real life in new ways. Her methods of teaching have brought new light to old scriptures. In her fiction, she creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long.Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.She is the Admin for Spirit Filled Kindle and an administrator for Readers’ Realm. Her articles, reviews, and devotionals have been featured in RUBY FOR WOMEN Magazine,Devotionals for Bloggers, Faith Filled Family Magazine, and Christian Fiction Book Reviews.One of Pauline’s short stories has won the CCW Short Story contest. Other short stories have been published in Fear & Trembling Magazine, Obsidian River and Avenir Eclectia. An urban fantasy short will appear in The Book of Sylvari: An Anthology of Elves from Port Yonder Press, and a vampire short will appear in Monsters! from Diminished Media Group. She is currently editing and drafting several novels at various stages.

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Day One

And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more. (John 8:11 NKJV)

But how? How do we sin no more? Can we just kick the habit like quitting smoking? Smoking is an awfully hard thing to quit - but sinning is more like quitting heroine. 

Without the strength of God's spirit - we can do nothing. We cannot stop sinning, we cannot be obedient to Him, we cannot love Him, we cannot draw closer to Him. So where do we start? 

Prayer. 

Pray - Pray - Pray some more! And don't just pray O God you are great, thank you for what you've done for me, forgive me for my sin and please bless me today, and bless everyone around me. 

There's nothing wrong with this prayer - it's not too short, it's not too long winded, it follows the formula of prayer:  thanks, repentance, supplication and intercession. But what is it missing? Am I speaking from my heart? Am I asking God to show me what I look like in HIS mirror? Am I drawing closer to Him, listening to Him, communing with Him, giving Him time to speak to me? Or am I getting this conversation over with so that I can continue with my day? 

How does the prayer affect me when I am done? Do I feel broken, changed, or energized? Will there be times when I might FEEL nothing? But then, how often do you come from a heartfelt conversation with anyone without feeling or thinking about SOMETHING? How can I change my drifting ways unless God SHOWS me HOW to change? 

Go and sin no more - What about sins I've committed in the past - even the recent past. What do I do about them? There are sins I've committed that I would like to make restitution for, but it is impossible to do so.

What do I do with the guilt about them? 

I remember David, who stole a man's wife and then killed him to keep her. How could he possibly make restitution for this act? He couldn't, so what did he do? He said to God "Forgive me - for it is against YOU AND

YOU ALONE I have sinned." When I first read this I said - What?!? You didn't just sin against God, you sinned against Uriah. But now I understand. He meant that there was no way to make restitution, that the only one who could offer David forgiveness was God, and God alone. 

Go and sin no more - How is it that David, who sinned against Uriah could have sinned against God? God wanted David, and wants us, to bring EVERY decision we make to Him. Not so that we can become His slaves - but so that we can finally understand what freedom is. 

Aren't you tired of making bad choices? Don't you feel like a fool when you make a decision that goes wrong? Isn't that just what David did? If he had said to God Look, that is one beautiful woman, God. Could you please help me with this situation? What should I do? God may have answered, Wait, I have something better in store for you. And God may have given Bathsheba to David as a wife without sin - considering that Jesus came from the line of David through Bathsheba. 

Wouldn't you love the freedom of knowing that you do not make mistakes? If you take every decision to God and He answers how each decision is to be made - you can be at peace and know that you didn't make a mistake, because all is in HIS hands. 

Prayer Thought: As we start this journey, remember that we are in God’s hands, and that we have all made mistakes and will continue to make them.  Think about where things went wrong and what distracted you, causing you to take your eyes off the ultimate goal. Did you make a mistake? Do you need forgiveness? Do you need to forgive someone? Pray on it.

Day Two

Let us never be impatient or anxious to gain. This is not the way our Lord is, nor how He wants us to be - we are to be patient, long-suffering, supportive and comforting to others (1Thessalonians 5:14 NKJV)

Today is the day of salvation. God has given us the grace and the strength to live for today. Obedience to Him is our mission for TODAY. How will we succeed at this mission?

On the days I feel like I've failed you The days I feel I've been failed...

I need to praise you for I am yours, I'm yours.

This is the chorus to a song by Kristy Starling. 

And it really speaks to the issues of forgiving oneself, and feeling like a failure because you can't seem to be perfect, and you can't seem to be obedient 100% of the time. 

God is amazing! His grace covers all our transgressions. There is nothing that you are going to do that isn't already covered by His grace. Does this mean that we have license to sin rampantly? Absolutely not! Do we want to crucify Jesus all over again so that we can keep on sinning? 

Seven times a righteous man will fall, and seven times he'll get back up and keep going. (Proverbs 24:16 - my paraphrase). This has been extended to seventy times seven by Jesus in Matthew 18. No matter how many times we fall, we've got to pick ourselves back up out of the pigpen and keep going. This is what we are called to do - to pick up our cross and follow Jesus - for His burden is easy and His yoke is light - because HE carries it with us.

And though it feels at times we are crawling, and it feels like we have so much farther to go that we can't make it, someday we'll look back and see the distance we've already covered and realize that we are making tremendous progress! 

Let us always praise His name - in times of joy, in times of tribulation, in times of sorrow, in times of victory, and in times of defeat. When we feel the most depressed, the furthest from God - let us praise His name, even when we don't FEEL like it - because the sounds of God's people praising God makes the powers of darkness tremble, and gives us victory even when we feel defeated.

Prayer Thought: God is with us every step of the way. Are you trying to carry your weight on your own or are you thanking God for his help and praising Him? Ask God to help you to remember that this job of yours is not to be endured alone. 

Day Three

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. (Ephesians 6:10-11 NKJV)

I have carpal tunnel syndrome.  My wrists ache when I’m tired and will become sore and numb in my sleep if I don’t wear wrist braces to bed.  This is fairly manageable compared to some stories that I’ve heard, but there are times when I’m tired of taking on my nightly routine and just want to go to sleep without those braces for support.

Then I always wake up in the middle of