DEVOTIONS: All for Him

By Leila Halawe | @LHalawe

'For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.' Colossians 1:16(ESV)

As I read this scripture the other day, I was struck by the last part of that verse, 'all things were created through him and for him.'

ALL THINGS.

THROUGH HIM.

FOR HIM.

It was a good reminder that it's about Him, not me. And to be honest, it was a timely and necessary reminder for me. With Christmas and New Year just past, it is easy for us to forget that it is not about us. Life can so easily take over and we get caught up everything that comes along with it; relationships, work, social expectations and pressures, health and wealth all strive for top spot in our lives and we start to lose sight of Him.

I don't know about you but for me, I found that in the madness of Christmas and New Year (and my birthday) I put myself first. It was all about me. I put Him second to the pressures and expectations of this life when really, He should be front and centre at all times. Because all things were created through Him and for Him.

All things, including us. Especially us.

This verse is a reminder that we were created by Him and for Him. God created us and we are His Masterpiece, here to use our story for His glory. It's not about us, or our relationships or ministries or careers. Not that any of these are bad things in and of themselves because they are not, they are wonderful things, but they are not the end goal. Being more like Jesus and pointing as many people to Jesus as possible is the end goal. Helping people encounter their Creator and Saviour is the end goal. For us to do that, we need to keep Him in the centre of everything. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Him and offer ourselves to Him to use for His glory.

When we keep Him as the focus and remember that it's not about us, we can experience a new type of freedom. One that allows us to step out from under the expectations that society puts on us. When we live for Him and make everything about Him, everything shifts; our hearts and minds and emotions all shift and start to move in unison towards Him. We fix our vision on Him, not others, and we start to walk in the direction He has set out for us.  Our actions shift and we start to walk more intentionally in HIS Ways and in His LOVE. We start walking in freedom knowing that we are loved and held close by our Father.

A life walking in the ways of Jesus can be difficult at times. At times, it's downright crushing but it's worth it. It's worth it because being loved by the Father is better than anything this world could offer. Knowing that we are loved with an everlasting love is worth the sacrifice. When we make it about Him, we can rest knowing that we are securely in our Father's arms being made more like Jesus. And there is no better place to be in than that.

Lays Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In . You can connect with her online at: 

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DEVOTIONAL: Remembering Jesus

Leila Halawe | @LHalawe

And just like that, November is almost over and December is fast descending upon us. Blink and Christmas will be here, with all its tinsel and Christmas carols and fruit cake. I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm ready for Christmas because it feels like just yesterday that I was handing out Easter eggs. Surely it hasn't been eight months already?


Like it or, Christmas is coming. And so are all the crowds vying for the latest toys and hams. The gatherings will start up, which for some means stress and anxiety, while for others it will bring joy and community. For some, this season will bring unprecedented loneliness and heartache. So much happens during December in the lead up to Christmas and then before we know it, Christmas Day has come and gone and we start getting ready for the next social event.

Yet in the midst of all the crazy that December silly season brings, let's not forget to remember that there is a reason for the season, and it's far from silly. For in December, as we stop to observe Christmas, we stop to remember that Salvation came to earth in the form of a baby in a manger.

In this season, let's not forget to remember to give thanks for the birth of the Saviour.

In this season, let's not forget to remember Jesus, the One that left His rightful place in Heaven to come down and walk among those He created.

Let's not forget to remember that Jesus knew that coming down and taking on flesh would be the beginning of a journey that would end in Him dying on a cross while people cast lots over His clothing.

Let's not forget that Jesus was born for us, so that we could be reconciled with our Father in Heaven and spent eternity with Him.

In the midst of all that is happening around us, let's not forget to stop and seek His face; to fix our gaze on the One who loved us so much that He willingly came down knowing that He would end up dying for us.

As you prepare for Christmas and whatever that brings with it, I pray that you would have some moments of sweet fellowship with Jesus, knowing that His birth on earth was with you in mind.

This post was cross-posted at ACW.

Leila (Lays) Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In . You can connect with her via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author  and via Twitter at Leila Halawe.

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DEVOTIONAL: Some Things Never Change

By Leila Halawe | @LHalawe

Life is constantly changing. Every day something changes; the news, the Prime Minister (is Scott Morrison still leading Australia??), people, the weather. All around us, nature is changing and day by day we see subtle changes reminding us that a new season is coming whether we like it or not. Every day, people are dying, and babies are being born. Life is a constant cycle of change and it’s going to happen with or without our participation.

Our lives can be very much like that, too. I’m sure if we all looked back on the year so far, we can identity a few, if not a lot of things that have changed. I can tell you that a lot has changed for me this last year. Some good, some bad. I’ve made some new friends, I had a friend pass away, I’ve completed some study while also moving tackling my Masters. I’ve had some health issues and watched friends have health issues. I have seen prayers answered and have desperately cried new prayers. It’s just life.

But one thing that never changes is God. Ever.

Numbers 23:19 tells us,

 'God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?' 

I don’t know about you, but this is one of the most comforting scriptures in the bible for me. It is a clear promise that God hasn’t changed, isn’t changing and will never change. And this is great news for us because it means that what He promised, He will fulfil.

When He promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6), He won’t leave us or forsake us. 

When He promises that He will walk through the darkest valley with us (Psalm 23:4), He will remain by our side. 

When He promises that He forgives our sins and they are forgotten (psalm 103:12), He will forgive and not hold our sins against us. 

When God tells us not to fear because He has redeemed us and knows us by name (Isaiah 433:1), He will call us by name and redeem us. 


God is not a human that He would change His mind and so when read one of His promises or declarations for us, we can be confident that He is unchanging and faithful to fulfil not just what He has promised, but far more than we can ever imagine or deserve. And that is so very comforting.

This post was cross posted at ACW

Leila (Lays) Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In . You can connect with her via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author  and via Twitter at Leila Halawe.

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DEVOTION: Wrestling with God

By Leila Halawe | @LHalawe

When I became a Christian, the hardest thing for me was surrender – surrendering my life, my heart, my dreams, everything. God has a sense of humour because He has made me fiercely independent and put a control streak in me, yet He regularly asks me to hand over control to Him, and that has been hard for me. Very hard. So when God started asking me to completely depend on Him, it was foreign ground and I found myself wrestling with God instead of being still before Him. I found myself handing things over, only to try and wrestle them back from God. I hand it over, then try to wrestle it back. Hand it over, wrestle it back. I have spent many a night wrestling with God over things and to be honest, I felt bad about it for a while and felt like I wasn’t being a proper Christian, but then I stumbled across Jacob in the Old Testament and found myself feeling a little better.

In Genesis 32:22-31 we read about Jacob wrestling with God:

“That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “what is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with god and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “please tell me your name.” But he replied, “why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “it is because I saw god face to face, and yet my life was spared.”. The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.”

When I read about Jacob, I found myself identifying with his situation. As I said, I’ve wrestled with God often and at times have kept wrestling when I should have thrown in the towel long ago (that would be that stubbornness that I mentioned earlier.) But there were a couple of things that really stood out for me when reading Jacob’s encounter. Firstly, Jacob was stubborn. As in, really stubborn. As in, even an out of joint hip didn’t stop him from wrestling with God. I have been, on many on occasion, called a stubborn mule, and with good reason; I can be exceptionally stubborn and when I dig my heels in on something, it takes a lot to shift me. Which can be good and bad. Good in some instances, bad in others, especially when it comes to being stubborn with God because as much as I like to think I know better, to date, God’s ways and plans have always better than mine. But it’s God’s response to Jacob’s stubbornness that really intrigues me.

When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. (Gen 32:25)

While this may look like Jacob was too powerful for God so God had to poke his hip to stop him, it is the complete opposite. God poked Jacob’s hip to protect Him; He knew that Jacob would keep going and going and it would eventually end badly for him, so to protect him, God pokes his hip to slow him down and prevent him getting hurt even more. He needed to slow him down. He needed to get him to a place where he could see him face to face. Where Jacob could focus on God’s face and hear God’s voice because the thing is, it’s only when we stop and look at God face to face, when we slow down and come face to face with Jesus, that our lives are changed.

God wants us to sit face to face with our Saviour.

God will slow us down, and occasionally stop us completely, to protect us from ourselves. He wants us to be with Him face to face, without distraction, so that we can properly hear His voice. So that we can walk in the ways He wants us to, not the ways we want to, because we can be stubborn and cause ourselves harm without realising it. And it’s only after we are face to face with Jesus that we are changed.

‘the sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.’ (Gen 32:31) 

Jacob called the place he wrestled with God Peniel and Peniel means face of God. Amid his wrestling, when God slowed him down, Jacob saw the face of God. Jacob walked away with a limp that stayed with him because he had been touched by God. And when God touches our lives, we are forever changed. We are never the same. It is in those moments of intimacy with God, when we are before Him, when our heart is stilled on Him and our eyes are fixed on Him, when we are looking Him face on, that He will touch us and change us forever.

What are we wrestling with God about today? What do we still need to surrender? Maybe today, we will allow God to slow us down, to stop us so that we can look Him in the eye. Maybe today, as we surrender over whatever it is we’re wrestling, God will touch ‘our hip’ and change us. Maybe today, we will see His face and be ever changed into the likeness of Jesus. Whatever it is you may be wrestling God for, I pray that you will see His face and be forever changed.

This post is cross posted at ACW and Looking In

Leila (Lays) Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In . You can connect with her via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author  and via Twitter at Leila Halawe.

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DEVOTIONAL: Up close and personal

By Leila Halawe @LHalawe

This post is cross posted on ACW

Recently I was driving through the South Island of New Zealand on my way to some work events. I had never been to the South Island before so it was a new experience for me with new scenery to observe and gush over. And there is lots to gush over in the South Island. Beautiful mountains, long winding river beds and lush green pastures are just some of the delightful landscape you will see as you drive around.

We needed to get from Christchurch to Nelson, which meant we got to travel some long winding roads; roads that were hugged by mountains on either side. Some of the mountain peaks were covered in snow, while others were covered by the long white clouds that New Zealand is often known for. But one of the most beautiful sites was the lush green on the mountains. Many of the mountain sides were covered in lush green leaves. From a distance, all you could see was a beautiful green covering the entire mountain face.

However it wasn't until we got closer that we were able to see the detail. We didn't the interconnectedness of the forest until we were up close and we could see the branches and the leaves and the roots. When we got closer, the detail became clearer and it was apparent that what looked like a blanket of lush green leaves was really a beautiful forest of old trees with deep roots. Of rocks and boulders covered with dirt and moss. Up close, we saw the intricate details and realised that from a distance, not everything is as it seems.

Our view of God can be like that. 

When we are a little removed from God, we can have an image of Him and of His heart. We can have perception of His nature. When we are looking at Him from a distance, we can still see Him, but we won't see the details; we won't see the intricacies of His heart and character. We won't feel His heart beat. When we are looking at God from a distance, we won't hear the tones of His voice because we are too far. In the book of 1 Kings 19, we read about Elijah having an encounter with God after being on the run:

"and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice." (I Kings 19:12 NKJV).

Elijah wanted to hear from God and he was looking for God in the wind and rain and trees, but the bible tells us that Elijah didn't encounter God in the fire, it was in the still small voice. God doesn't yell or scream at us, He whispers.

And the only way to hear a whisper is to lean in close; to get up close and personal and focused.

And when we do that, we can hear God tenderly and gently speaking to our hearts. Looking at God from a distance doesn't allow us to really truly know Him. It doesn't allow us to hear His heart beat for us. To know His plans for us. To follow His guidance.

Jesus himself tells us that we need to abide in Him:

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me - John 15:4 (ESV)

He wants us to rest in Him, to sit at His feet and abide in His presence and listen to His gentle whisper. He wants us to walk close. When life is hard and when the pain is heartbreaking, we need to get up close to God, not stand back and look at Him from a distance. We need to run towards Him and really lean in and look at Him; press in and tune our ears to listen. And when we do that, we won't only hear Him, but we'll be able to see Him and see clearly His majesty and beauty and grace.

This post has been cross published on ACW and Looking In

Leila (Lays) Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In . You can connect with her via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author  and via Twitter at Leila Halawe.

DEVOTION: Consider Him

By Leila Halawe | @Lhalawe

I was reading a devotional the other day and I came across this verse: 

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls - Hebrews 12:3 (NKJV)

As I sat and pondered the verse, my eyes kept going back to the first few words: For consider Him. 

Consider Him. 

As I sat there staring at the words, I asked myself how often I consider Him. Really consider Him, not just say some quick thanks for the day and for my food and for safety. But really stop and consider Jesus.

How often do I stop and consider Him who created me? That question led me to stop and really take stock of all the things I know about God. Like the fact that He created the heavens and the earth. And the fact that it is Him who makes the sun go up each day. Or the fact that He was the one who placed every star in the sky and calls each one by name.

How often do I stop and consider that He knew me before I was born? When I stop and think about how often I consider Him who left heaven and came down to earth to walk among us and show us the way to heaven, I realise that I don’t stop to consider Him as often as I should. I don’t stop often enough and consider Him who took my burdens and shame on His shoulders; who went to the Cross as an atonement for my sins, and was tortured so that I would not have to deal with the consequences of our actions. I realised that I don’t spend enough time considering Him who lay in darkness for 3 days before He was raised to life again; He that defeated death so that it would lose its sting over my life. Him, who sits on the right hand of our Father in Heave advocating for me so that I can draw closer to God and have eternity with Him in Heaven. I don’t know about you, but I realised that I spend far too much time considering other things, and nowhere near enough time considering the One who loved me so much that He sent His Son for me.

In the coming days, most of us will start to stop and think about Easter. We will think about that needs to be done; the gatherings and meals and services. We will stop and celebrate the victory we have in His resurrection. But let’s also stop to really consider Him and all that He has done. Not just His place on the Cross in exchange for us, which still baffles my mind, but let’s sit at His feet and consider all He has done for us; the miracles we have seen. The provision He has provided. The kindness He has shown us over and over and over again. The favour He has poured out over us. Let’s stop and consider the blessing it is to know Jesus; to intimately know the One that was there before the foundations of time. The blessing and joy it is to be known by the Creator of Heaven and earth and know that He knows us by name. And as we consider Him, let’s lift up our eyes and our hearts and sing praises to the One who deserves all the honour and praise and worship. May your Easter season be one of love and peace and sweet communion with God.

*This post was cross posted at Looking In

Leila (Lays) Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In . You can connect with her via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author  and via Twitter at Leila Halawe.

DEVOTION: The Quiet Truth ~ by Leila Halawe

I have a very short attention span. Very short. My mind is occasionally like that of a little puppy, easily distracted by a ball or a butterfly or flower. At times it is a good thing, and other times, not so good. It’s something I have struggled with since I was a child, the constant jumping from thought to thought, idea to idea.

As a child, this affected my school grades. As an adult, it affects my emotions and beliefs about myself and my life, so I need to be very intentional and focused with my thoughts as they can get away from me and take my mind to places they shouldn’t be.

In John 10:10, Jesus tells us that ‘the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;’ and one of the ways he does that is through our thoughts. He is subtle in his attack, planting little doubts and fears in our mind. And he is relentless. We’ve all been there. We have all at some point found ourselves thinking negative thoughts and living in fear and doubt, believing the lie that we are alone in our struggles. But if we still our thoughts for just a moment, if we stop and focus, amidst all the lies we will hear a gentle voice saying, ‘I am with you, beloved. Just keep your eyes and ears on Me.’

When we still our thoughts, we can hear the truth; that Jesus is with us and for us and where He is, hope is there also.

Jesus’ warning about the enemy was two-fold. He wanted to prepare people for the attacks that would come, but He also wanted to tell them where they could find refuge—in Him. When our thoughts wage war and fear creeps in, the One who stilled the waves can still our thoughts. When darkness starts to close in, Jesus lights the way and guides us to Himself, into His open arms of grace and love. He is our compass towards peace. When we focus our attention on Jesus, we can dispute the lies of the enemy and take our hope back. When we focus our thoughts on Jesus, we see the love of the Father who sent His Son to bring peace and hope to a turbulent world, and we can cast aside all fear and doubt and continue to walk in the light.

Jesus came so that we may have life, and have it to the full, so let us keep our mind and our hearts on Him and experience the fullness of life that He so wants for us.

John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (NIV)


Leila Halawe is a Sydney-based coffee-loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a mini devotional and shares her life via Looking In (www.misslays.com), a blog about her experiences as a carer for parents with cancer, as well as random events that happen in cafes. 

You can connect with Leila via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author (https://www.facebook.com/misslays/) and via Twitter at Leila Halawe (@LHalawe).