Footprints: Scripture with Reflections Inspired by the Best-Loved Poem - Hardcover

Powers, Margaret Fishback

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0310813727 ISBN 13: 9780310813729

Publisher: Zondervan, 2006

Synopsis

Based on the well-known Footprints poem, this book includes NIV Scripture verses, reflections, and soft images to encourage you to renew your walk with God.

About this title

About the Author

Margaret Fishback Powers is the author of the world-famous "Footprints" poem. When she wrote the poem in 1964, she was a young woman searching for direction at a crossroads in her life. She has traveled the world as an evangelist with her husband, Paul, for more than twenty-five years.

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Introduction
Every now and then during our devotional time my husband Paul and I reread the poem I wrote for him back in 1964. During these times of renewal and prayer, we talk over the events of our lives and share burdens we have for ourselves and others. Very often, we realize that the Great Shepherd has once again reached out and carried us through the day as we spend these introspective moments together.

If the pleasure of sharing these thoughts anew has taught us anything, it is this: that God’s Word is true. Our Heavenly Father is faithful and will never leave us or forsake us. As we come to Him daily, willing to be shaped and directed, His Word gives guideposts of clear direction. Almost everything we read, see, and experience shows us in some way that, although we do not visibly see God, He is with us. Over centuries of time others have looked back to understand that God’s Spirit and presence were there, even when they felt alone.

In our quiet moments of reflection, in the fellowship of others, and even in dreams, God opens the doors to our hearts. This is what happened when I originally wrote the poem, "Footprints". After hours of wrestling with the darkness of doubt and despair, I finally surrendered to Him and, in the early morning light of peace, wrote the poem as result of that spiritual experience.

Listen for the gentle stirring of God’s grace in your own mind and soul as you read these verses of encouragement. Each of us is different in our spiritual need, just as each of our days is different. God wants to place His signature on your life in a unique way. As you spend time, even just a few moments each day, reflecting on His Word, it will help you to know Him better.
Spiritual growth is not so much what we have done, but the feeling of love for Him we put into everything we do. It is not so much in knowing about God that we grow, but in getting to know Him in a personal, relational way. It is in becoming "a friend of God" as Abraham did that we grow in His grace, talking with Him as our companion along the way. Letting God sift our thoughts and plans through the standards of His Word. May these verses encourage you anew each day as you walk with Him.
God Is With Us ... In Our Dreams
One night I dreamed a dream.
Some of our dreams can have a powerful effect on us. All of us have, at one time or another, awakened laughing or fretful—and all because of a dream. The Bible tells us about many people who had dreams and visions that were given to them by God ...

[Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. —Genesis 28:12

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. —Genesis 37:5

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." —1 Kings 3:5

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." —Matthew 2:13

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead." —Matthew 2:19–20

One day at about three in the afternoon [Cornelius] had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" —Acts 10:3

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." —Acts 16:9
Some of our dreams are disappointing, but these are "wishful thinking" dreams, things we come up with in our own minds, circumstances or situations that we wish would happen. Only a small portion of these kind of dreams ever come true. In fact, these dreams can be harmful if we allow them to fill us with false hope ...

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. —Jeremiah 23:16
Yet we should not ignore our dreams. God will sometimes use our dreams to assure us of his promises or to tell us something about himself. And when God does speak to us in dreams, he will also help us understand them ...

[God] said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams." —Numbers 12:6

I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. —Joel 2:28
Jesus left his disciples with a great promise that is true for us today: "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

God’s presence with us is a reality. Acts 2:17 also tells us that God will pour his "Spirit on all people." As we dream our dreams with the knowledge that God is with us, we will begin to see things as Christ does and dream dreams inspired by the Holy Spirit that are worth re-telling and following.

About this edition

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0310813727
• ISBN 13: 9780310813729
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128