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.
“The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.”
— Francis Chan
Ow! This quote hurts, doesn’t it? To be totally honest, there are many times I’d rather be doing something fun, creative, or inspiring–before, or instead of, time with God. Even though I know I need Him, I often choose to walk my own path and live my own life.
Lord, keep me longing to be in your presence, to spend time knowing you and worshipping you.
When I first spent some time with this verse I was astounded. I had already recognized that I was created by God, but the rest of it seemed new. I was created TO DO GOOD WORKS? And God had already prepared for me to do these? Wow! What a concept.
Lord, make me aware of the good works that you have prepared for me to do. Make me willing to use my God-given gifts to finish these works.
“The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mould.”
“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts” ― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
“So that….” Sometimes I forget about the second half of this verse. Yes, He comforts us in all our troubles, but then there is the “so that.” That’s the catch. Because we receive His comfort, we should also comfort others. And it doesn’t read like a suggestion. It reads more like a command. Because He comforts us, we are to comfort others.
All is still. Cars scurry by on nearby 13th street, rushing off to their various destinations. Sitting here at the park I hear the distant laughter of children playing A basketball bounces off the cement court; the clang as it hits the backboard echoes across the grass to where I walk A Cessna drones, far overhead. An occasional jogger puffs by, the slap of his running shoes spanking the pavement.
Activity surrounds me, but my world stands still, as if I’m dreaming or sleepwalking. I observe everyone else’s activities, yet I sit, only my writing hand and pen moving across the page. The stillness provides blessed relief.
I sit on a large, cold, gray rock six feet above a man-made pond; more rocks rim this small pond’s perimeter. The lowest twelve inches of the rocks surrounding the pond are blackened, evidence that the water has receded. The remaining water, brown and stagnant, is filled with yellow-green algae. Its surface is littered with yellow and brown leaves. Small branches broken from the tree overreaching this pond lie lifelessly on its murky surface. Human trash adds to the dismal scene: a red cup, a white plastic fork, a Styrofoam plate, and a half-submerged Coke can.
Lord, today my body and soul feel dried up and wasted like this little pond. I come here for a time of rest, reflection, and renewal. I seek rest. Wanting Your strength to re-invigorate my body, I seek peace and quiet to allow Your peace to wash over my mind. I seek Your spirit here in Your beautiful creation, so that Your living water will fill my soul, allowing it to bubble over. Make me a sparkling spiritual pond, not stagnant, not filled with trash, but alive with living water, so clean and beautiful that anyone who thirsts for Your living spirit will drink her fill.
John 4:13-14 “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
Thank You, Lord, for the promise of living water to quench our spiritual thirst.
Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.
L. R. Knost
Lord, help me to yield to your light in me. Teach me not to be upset by the brokenness, but instead, to let your love shine through so you can mend and heal, both me and others around me.
Growing Our Faith Together 