This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
“Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is.”
― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year
Forgive me, Lord, for wanting to know your plans, for not being willing to place the future in your more-than-capable hands. Instead, reveal yourself to me, that I may trust you and honor you.
This verse makes me think. Do I eat and drink for the glory of God? What about ordinary, everyday activities like cooking dinner, doing laundry, or driving to the grocery store? How do I do these things to glorify God? I know when I used to iron clothes, I would spend that time in prayer. When I drove a special ed. bus, I’d pray and sing praise songs when the bus was empty. What about you? In what ways do you glorify God in the ordinary activities of life?
Father, teach me the ways you’d like me to glorify You in my every day, ordinary activities.
I love springtime! Overnight the world changes from dull, dry, and dead to colorful, vibrant, and alive. The trees, which stretched their bare arms heavenward all winter, are blessed with a pale green blush. The Bradford pear tree in the front yard nods its white, blooming head gently in the spring breezes.
Yesterday, the grass was brittle and brown. Today it is soft and green. Even the dandelions (which Scott so diligently tried to exterminate last summer) look beautiful nestled in their greenery.
How exciting it is to examine new growth in the gardens! The phlox, low to the ground, carpets the yard with purple. The huge forsythia bushes glow a vivid yellow beside our gray house. Everywhere signs of new life abound. The greenery of snapdragons, daisies, hostas, bee balm, and yarrow all promise future blooms.
The clematis vines, recently just dead sticks, sprout new growth at every intersection; some are already three feet long, loaded with buds. Dozens of purple cone flower plants already climb several inches high, assuring a future of beautiful flowers for us and nectar for bees and butterflies to enjoy.
Spring is such an exciting time as the perennials burst forth with new life and a promise for beautiful, fragrant summertime blooms.
Do you feel that sense of new growth and springtime revival in your heart? In your church?
Deep within our hearts we recognize a spirit of growth, its green tendrils growing ever closer to God, seeking His face. The palest green blush of revival is evident in us as we stretch our arms heavenward. While we work, pray, and seek God’s guidance, we can almost feel the buds of future flowers forming on the green plants of our spirits. We eagerly anticipate the new blooms, filling our lives with God’s beautiful purpose and the fragrance of His sweet spirit.
Oh God, our master gardener, nurture the garden of our souls. Eradicate the weeds of doubt, dissention, and fatigue. Enable our garden to bring forth lovely blooms infused with heavenly fragrance. May you receive all the praise and glory for the sweet beauty of the heavenly garden of our souls.
“We are surrounded by relationships, but driven by accomplishment. God is the opposite. Though surrounded by His accomplishments, He has given Himself in relationship. Though not in need of interaction, He has chosen to pursue it. For God, relationship is the goal.”
—Victoria Brooks
Father, help me to see beyond checking off the boxes and following the rules. Show me how to have a relationship with you. I long to know you better and to appreciate all you do for me, and to love you with all my heart.
Thank you, Lord, for providing a shield from the evil one. Thank you for providing your word. Keep my heart and mind focused on you and your word so that I may follow your will.
“When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendship – when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.”
― Oswald Chambers
God who teaches, when I’m feeling down and hurting, both emotionally and physically, open my eyes and ears. Allow me to be receptive to your holy teaching. Let me learn your ways and truly be your disciple.
I’m so thankful, Lord, that you provide peace, even in the midst of darkness and chaos. You, Lord, are stronger than the one who causes darkness and chaos. Thank you for holding your children close and giving us peace.
In my mind’s eye I see the car rolling up the highway. I hear the whine of the tires as they eat up the road. From the outside, all is calm. Inside, turmoil. Inside, parents clinging to their Jesus, seeking His wisdom. Desperately seeking His wisdom. They drive on, heading to the institution far away, a place they pray will keep their daughter alive.
How will she respond? Only God knows. Only God can provide the healing for a tortured young soul. Only God can bring peace to a family in crisis. Only God can bring the help she so desperately desires.
I weep for my friends. And for so many others who quietly, desperately deal with crisis. May they all seek God’s goodness, seek God’s wisdom, seek God’s grace.
Needing a break from my thoughts and prayers, I step outside. Opening the front door and walking onto the front porch, I run right into it. Spring. Hope. It blooms in my front yard, right outside my living room window. Quickly, I capture the Spring on film, allowing the beauty to erase the fear. Smiling now, I feel peace. Peace in my own heart, peace in the car rapidly eating up the miles.
Back in the house, I open the drapes and let Spring inside. Peace enters with it, for I’m now confident that Hope exists in the car as it eats up the miles. Hope exists in the distant city. Hope exists right in my front yard. Hope exists in my heart. I only need to open the windows of my faith to experience its blooms.
Isaiah 61:1b-3a “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”
Thank you, Lord, for spreading hope in our lives, even in the darkest and most frightening times.
“I believe that appreciation is a holy thing–that when we look for what’s best in a person we happen to be with at the moment–we’re doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbors, we’re participating in something sacred.” Fred Rogers
Lord, open my eyes to see the beauty all around me: the wonders in nature, the amazing qualities in each person I encounter, the holiness of You.
Lord, bless those who persecute me, who gossip about me, who give me dirty looks, who lie about me. They are your creations. Help me to love them the way you love them. Meet their needs and allow them to know your great love.
Growing Our Faith Together 