O Lord, do not delay (Psalm 70:5b)
And bring forth fruit with patience (Luke 8:15)...to long impatiently only hinders and depresses, whereas, in patience is continued fruitfulness. (Amy Carmichael - Edges of His Ways)
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God , my strength, in whom I will trust. (Psalm 18:2)
For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the convenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. (Isaiah 54:10)
There hath not failed one word of His good promise. (1 Kings 8:56)...He takes away our mountains and hills on whose strength we relied, so that He may the more become the Rock of our heart and our Fortress forever. (Amy Carmichael - Whispers of His Power)
The eye of faith looks through and past that which the human eye focuses on . Faith looks at the facts - even the ugly ones - but does not stop there. When the eye of fthe heart is fixed on the world and the self, everything eternal and invisible is blurred and obscure. (Elisabeth Elliot)
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26)
O little heart of mine! Shall pain
Or sorrow make thee moan
When all this God is all for thee,
A Father and thine own? (Fruerick W. Faber)
And bring forth fruit with patience (Luke 8:15)...to long impatiently only hinders and depresses, whereas, in patience is continued fruitfulness. (Amy Carmichael - Edges of His Ways)
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God , my strength, in whom I will trust. (Psalm 18:2)
For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the convenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. (Isaiah 54:10)
There hath not failed one word of His good promise. (1 Kings 8:56)...He takes away our mountains and hills on whose strength we relied, so that He may the more become the Rock of our heart and our Fortress forever. (Amy Carmichael - Whispers of His Power)
The eye of faith looks through and past that which the human eye focuses on . Faith looks at the facts - even the ugly ones - but does not stop there. When the eye of fthe heart is fixed on the world and the self, everything eternal and invisible is blurred and obscure. (Elisabeth Elliot)
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26)
O little heart of mine! Shall pain
Or sorrow make thee moan
When all this God is all for thee,
A Father and thine own? (Fruerick W. Faber)
I sometimes wonder, when I look over my journal entries if they will make sense to me or anyone else as time goes by. Will I or anyone else remember what made these snippets so significant. Will I remember the feeling of spiritually seeing the tapestry weaved together by the Lord to say, resay, confirm, reinforce and encourage one thing to my heart and speak to me so specifically no matter where I find myself reading, how many devotional books or passages of scripture I go through, He makes it sound like one voice shouting one message. Will I hear that when I read over this next week or next year or when I am 64?
I hope so.
The above are the snippets I jotted down this morning. To me they reinforced the Jericho lesson from the day before. God alone knocks down walls. God alone accomplishes His good purposes in this world. God alone is my hope and portion. In God alone I must trust...for all these reasons and because "all this God is all for [me]."
As I read that this morning, tears formed in my eyes. Those words sparked my prayer time and were peppered throughout and have risen to the surface of my heart several times today. All this God...this rock, this deliverer, this fortress, this refuge, this savior, this father, this merciful and holy and sovereign and good God is for me. How dare I doubt or fear or become anxious about today or tomorrow or the next hour or the next 10 years when all this God is all for me? In truth, the only way it is even possible for me to doubt or fear or become anxious is to take God out of the equation...
I'll just led the ridiculousness of that thought hang in the air a while.
Excellent thoughts today!
ReplyDeleteLast night in my prayer time with my family the same thoughts about fear and anxiousness came to surface. The idea that when I fear it must be because I am trusting(for that moment)in something other than the Eternal and All Powerful Sufficent God. It seemed to me to clearly relate to myself trusting in material things or tangible things like a checking account, or my ability to go to work each day, actually having to run to the store to buy a gallon of milk and the deceptive idea that somehow it all depends on me getting it done. Things that can and will fail. I have been seeing this more and more clearly in my own life and even expectations I place on myself and others.
Thanks for this post today. It reinforces so much that has surfaced in my mediations the past few days.
I hope the tapestry of your thoughts, devotions and days journaled on your blog will be looked at as precious landmarks of growth, and encouragement, and also viewed by yourself and others as the mighty imprints of the hands of our creator shaping His clay.
It is still so amazing to me how the Lord can not only thread all of the "random" things I choose to read together to say one thing...but also how He can say the same thing to people throughout the body of Christ. I shared a bit of what the Lord spoke this morning with two friends via e-mail and they both responded similarly. Each has different circumstances and are very different people, but the Lord had been speaking to them similarly regarding fear and faith and sorta reinforced/zinged/konked them on the head with my e-mail. It was so cool to see His hand that way...and this way, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and for your encouragement.