Gratitude

Have you ever just been grateful for where you are at?

Stop.

Take a quiet moment.

Breathe.

Quit worrying about all the things you should be doing and allow yourself to feel the love of the Lord surrounding you.

What has God done in your life?

No matter what chaos swirls around me, I always have a ground zero - a foundation from which the rest of my life flows. My one hope, my solid ground, my anchor, is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His covering blood, His constant intercession fro me guaranteeing my entrance into His eternal Kingdom.

How sure is my hope? It is guaranteed by two things in which it is impossible for God to lie: the word of God, and (just to make sure we know He meant it) His oath. He swore by Himself as the highest power He could swear by. We find this promise in Hebrews 6:17-20

Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

If there is nothing else in my life for which I can be grateful, I can begin there.

But there is more.

From my basic salvation, I can meditate on the character of the God who sent me that salvation - His love, His justice, His faithfulness...

I love the way His love and faithfulness come together in Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)

I have loved you with an everlasting love;    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

He is faithful because He loves. His love never ends because He is faithful.

Reminded of God's love and faithfulness, my heart turns toward the people He has placed around me. I am not making this journey alone. God has surrounded me with people who love Him and who love me. People who walk with me, cry with me, laugh with me, and pray with me.

Every time my journey takes a turn and I am at a loss over what to do next, my Lord sends one of His servants into my life to take my hand and help to guide me through the next phase of my journey.

There was a time when I was cut off from other believers. A time when God isolated me because my heart was closed and I had to become desperate before I would open it. But even then, I was not truly alone. My Jesus was right beside me every step making sure my tears and despair worked for His purposes and not my destruction.

For that time, too, I am grateful.

Had the Lord not led me through those dark times, I would never have discovered the precious gifts that enrich my life today: gifts of His people, gifts of truths found in His Word, gifts of truths about Who He is and, the most beautiful gift of all - His gift of grace.

For by grace are ye saved through faith. And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. 
Ephesians 2:8

So this morning, I sit in a quiet moment - warm, comfortable, looking out on a beautiful day, and feeling a deep contentment rooted in the perfect love of my dear Savior, my Lord, my King, my friend, and my God.

Jesus, indeed, paid it all.

How could I possibly respond with anything less than

All to Him I owe.

May your day be rich in His blessings, 

Jules

Morning Prayer

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.   Psalm 5:3

This Psalm has echoed in my heart since the first day I read it. Morning has always been my time for devotions.  If I did not take that time first thing in the morning, it did not happen. Then I started having babies. Lack of sleep and general morning chaos wrecked havoc with my devotions. Add in the confusion and despair that followed my church break-up, and my devotions became almost nonexistent. There were seasons when I would begin them again, but I could not seem to keep them going.

Then, last summer, the doctor put me on a medication that gave me lots of energy. Bouncing off the walls energy. I couldn't sit still for more than a few minutes, and I began waking up early in the morning - early meaning 5:30 AM or earlier. This is not normal for me. Since I was up that early anyway, I thought this would be a good prayer time. The only problem was that every time I tried to pray, someone else would get up and want attention. (My children tend to be early risers.) Frustrated, I began walking in the morning, just to have some quiet time.

This habit has become a treasured time for me. I handle the frustrations of the day much better if I have my morning time with the Lord. I was only on the medication for a brief time, but the energy and habit of waking early has stayed with me. I have been surprised by this, but thought maybe it was simply a lingering aftereffect.

Then came daylight savings.  I thought, This is it. There is no way I will be able to get up an hour earlier. I did not get up an hour earlier. I got up two hours earlier. It was completely bizarre.  Not only was I getting up earlier than normal, but I was also more wide awake than normal!

As I was walking on the second morning of this, an unbelievable thought popped into my head.

Maybe, just maybe, the Lord wants to talk to me in the morning as much as I want to talk to Him!

What an incredible thought! It's even in the Scriptures.

Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Psalm 62:8

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord:  Lamentations 2:19

I am completely blown away. The God of Heaven actually wants me to talk to Him. Somehow, I thought that prayer was only for my benefit - something I was supposed to do to show my faith.

But prayer is so much more than that. Prayer is how we build our relationship with God. The same God who sent His Son to redeem His fallen creation wants to have an ongoing relationship with us. That's what love is. Love is doing whatever you can to spend time with the ones you love. Whether that means taking time out of your schedule, sacrificing your resources, mending bridges...these are things we do when we love someone. God is not an absent parent - making sure we have what we need physically while He goes off and does something else. Instead, He wants to be fully integrated into every part of our lives. My mind has difficulty grasping this kind of love from the Creator of the universe.

I have learned more about prayer during these morning walks than I ever thought possible. As the wonder of Christ's saving work becomes more clear in my life, I have completely changed the way I pray. In my group at Bible Study Fellowship, we are handed a list of prayer requests, or A.S.K.'s, each week. Do not call them Asks. They are A.S.K.'s, and any leader in BSF will correct you immediately if you forget. Why?

A.S.K. comes from Matthew 7:7-8

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Okay, I get that. Why the big deal? Ask, A.S.K. - it's still just a prayer request, right? Not exactly. There is sooo much more to it than that, as I discovered a few months ago.

Sometime in February, I came to a crossroads in my life. I needed some answers to something that was critically important. I knew if I sought for counsel among those I loved, I would get diametrically opposed answers. I needed to know the truth for myself. I needed the Lord to make the answer clear to me from His Word. Without realizing it, I applied the A.S.K. principle.

I started asking questions, and seeking for their answers in the Word of God. At first, I did not find much except more questions. I needed to seek some more. I would tweak my questions, seek for more answers in the Word of God, and once again, knock at the door of heaven. I repeated this process over and over. One amazing day, the door of heaven opened, and the light nearly blinded me. I had my answer, and it seemed so clear and simple I could not understand why I had not seen it before. With the answer to my question, came also an understanding of what it meant to A.S.K.

Ask:

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  Philippians 4:6

I think most of us have this part down, although the thanksgiving part sometimes eludes me.


Seek:

This is the step I tend to forget. Oh, I remember the obvious application:

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Isaiah 55:6

but there is another application that I have often neglected:

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

In my quest for answers, this part was critical.


Knock:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: Matthew 7:7

This principal has completely changed the way I pray. I begin with thanking the Lord - for the opportunity to meet with Him one more time, for the day, for the beauty around me, for the sacrifice of Jesus, and for anything else I can think of. Then, as I bring people and situations before the Lord, I try also to seek the Kingdom of God - to ask that God will bring His glory into the situation. I bring all to the Lord with a humble heart, instead of pounding, begging, or demanding, as I used to do. I recognize that He is in control. I knock gently as I lay these requests at His door.

The results have been incredible. Most of the circumstances I've prayed for have not changed, but the hearts of the people involved have changed dramatically - even mine. Perhaps especially mine. I am beginning to understand what it means to have a peace that passes understanding, and a joy that the world does not give and cannot take away. Peace and joy that are not dependent on circumstances but are instead dependent on my relationship with the Savior of my soul, and with an absolute trust that He loves me more than I love me. A trust that His love is far greater than mine, and whatever the circumstances, He is only interested in the absolute best for me and for those I love.

When I can remember these things, my heart dances, and I rejoice.

May the Lord wrap you in His arms and may you also rejoice in His love.

Jules

Why Are We Here?

Okay...so, God spent an enormous amount of thought and energy creating the earth and everything around us. His crowning achievement being the creation of man, whom he then put in the garden to "dress it and keep it" (take care of it). Jump down to today...when the prevailing Christian thought is that God went through all that effort just to take man off the planet and go somewhere else with him.


Think about it: Christians spend their entire lives talking about when they can leave earth and "go to heaven and live with Jesus forever".


But that's not why the Bible says man was created. Read it!


Genesis 1:26


26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.


And Genesis 2:15


15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.


God created this beautiful planet, with its marvelous diversity of creatures, put man in charge of it all...because he wants man somewhere else. I'm just saying...


Here's another one... in Malachi, God is remonstrating with the children of Israel, and He actually tells them why He wants not just men and women - but also why He wants them to become one...


Malachi 2:15


15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.


A godly seed, children that will serve Him. God not only wants mankind to take care of the place and its creatures, but He also wants him to produce seed. Seed. Now that's an interesting word. What do you do with seed? You plant it.
After which it must be watered, fed, and protected, at which point it produces fruit and, hopefully, more seed... which is again planted. Each planting bringing yet a bigger harvest. Oh, I almost forgot, God's first commandment:


Genesis 1:28


28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.


Everything I find out about God's will for humanity shows man being a part of the life on this world that God created. Filling it, controlling the creatures, taking care of the environment. I don't find anything about God's will being to get man off the planet as quickly as possible so that man can "live with God".


And yet...


Numbers 14:21


21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Not all the heaven...all the earth.


Could it be that God actually loves this earth He created?


I looked it up. I could not find those actual words, but I found many scriptures stating again and again that "the earth is the Lord's". Not, as some people imply, the devil's.


I also found a very interesting verse that I had not seen before:


Isaiah 45:18


18 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.




WOW! God not only created man to take care of the earth, but He created the earth to be inhabited. With people. "Not in vain"... that means He did it for a reason. Somehow I cannot believe it was just to find people good enough to take off of it.


Here's a thought: Instead of treating our tenure on this planet as something we have to "endure", why not go to live with Jesus, forever, just like we planned.


Right here.


Right now.


On earth... in our homes, on our jobs, with our children, our friends, our neighbors, and, of course, our spouses.


How much faster could "all the earth be filled with the glory of the Lord" if we started spreading it - instead of sitting on our hands waiting for it?


Just a thought....


Julie