Worry

Blessings to my spouse who left this morning and said these words to me..."Have a great day free from worry in the shadow of the Lord." Ahhhh. How I need those words because, well, I worry. Especially now, in these times, I worry.
Jesus devotes time to worry in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. I think it funny that the Son of God would devote time to such a trivial thing. He is Lord above all and yet He knew that we, as humans would spend time worrying. Turning our brows together and wringing our hands over tomorrow.

Matthew 6:27 - "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

Indeed. The hours we have now are so precious in watching children grow, flowers bloom, deadlines loom, accomplishments come and gone. And also so tedious. Another day, another hour of the same old thing. But with things today as they are, isn't it tempting to worry? To fret about what tomorrow will bring? What kind of security do we have in this world when we can't even be sure of what the future holds? Much less, our place and significance in it?
He answers that, too, in the verse before adding an hour to your life.

Matthew 6:25- "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

It is more than I can grasp to think that I am much more valuable to an Almighty God than a bird. When I look outside and see the hundreds of birds He created, and an almost infinite array of colors and shapes and sizes of them, I wonder how He can have time for me. In my normalcy, in my ordinary-ness, why would the God of the Universe spend time for me? Care for me more than the birds of the field?

The Bible has an answer for that, too!!!

Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets, talks in his book about the final day of Judgement of the Lord. Good to know that he knew what we all know also. The good guys win.

On that day, the day of Judgment, the day He comes again in Glory...

Zephaniah 3:16- "On that day they will say to Jerusalem, "Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

How like a mother or Father, singing over their child. Wow. The God of the Universe will delight in ME, when I am worried - as I seem to be a lot lately- He will quiet me with his love...He will put his hand upon my brow that is furrowed with worry, take in his hands mine that are busy with nervousness, and he will quiet me. My breaths that came quick and shallow will still, my heart that is racing will slow, and the God of all creation will rejoice over me with singing.....

Truly that can only happen By His Grace.

Good for me...

I read a verse today from I Corinthians 6:14..."You say, I can do anything, but not everything is good for you."
I am sure that Paul wrote that in a perfect time and place for the people of Corinth. I sometimes long for the chance to be back in that time and place. To have seen Jesus face to face, or Paul, or Peter, or Simon, or Timothy. I can't imagine being there with the Messiah as he walked and talked. Hearing him preach and teach in riddles. How does it compare to what we hear now in our daily language? Our words are so different from what we read in the Old English, for example, that I truly wonder how it would sound to have been there at that time. I wonder if the people who had traveled for a time and were tired and dusty, anxious and fearful, hoping only to see the One who heals and teaches, were still leaving the meeting or lesson just as tired and perhaps more frustrated? Did they come with high hopes only to have them dashed as this Great One talked about seeds and sheep? From the other side, I am certain that Jesus must have felt frustration along the way with his disciples. They asked some silly questions, and did some sillier things while in His company.
To have the patience of God, to Trust implicitly in His name and His plan is NOT something that is frustrating. Instead I think that what is frustrating is to trust partly. To think that I can do things on my own is silly, just like the disciples. To argue about who gets to sit next to the right hand of God in the honored spot is something I would do. I would feel deserving because I think I have done a few good things....I would think this is good for me. I would want it only once, and then perhaps be content to give it to someone else.
The people who traveled to see Him, the Israelites in the desert waiting for Moses to come down from Mt. Sinai, they thought they could do anything, I pray for the wisdom and the discipline to know that I cannot, but that He can!...I am so glad, so very blessed that God sent His son to gently bring me back, to be there with open arms waiting for me when I get it into my stubborn head to return to His embrace. I often think I can do anything, I am so glad that God is there when I realize, often painfully, that not everything is good for me.

Some days I don't feel like He is there. But I suppose that is part of being a Christian, that, just like so many actions in your day, you have to get up and CHOOSE, actively, to do or be something or someone. Each day, God surrounds us with His love and has a plan for us. Each day, without question, without fail. But we, because of the Fall, have to make an active choice to follow Him today. This minute. This time. For the better.

“[Praise to the LORD] O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.”- Isaiah 25:1

As I said in the first post, of course He knew that one day I would sit down at a computer and write about Him. So it should not come as a surprise that when I checked the verse for today, it is appropriate. In perfect faithfulness, He is there, He planned for today and He plans for tomorrow....always. So that we never have to plan, He has done it for us, and all we need to do is to Trust in Him....

Truly you are Good.
Thank you.

As I exhale frustration at my young child I wonder how my God exhales in frustration with me when I don't do as He asks. I wonder if either one of us will ever grow up...my child or my self....

Thank you for keeping me.

Again, another day By His Grace, and for His Glory.

By His Grace...

This is an attempt to do something my heart has been nagging me about. Perhaps not even my heart, if the title of the blog is anything to think about. I desire to learn more about God. To make my faith more real. To make my relationship with Him, our Holy Creator more real, and more of a relationship, not just an on again, off again fling. To walk with Him daily, talk with Him daily, and really get to know the Most Holy Creator of the Universe. It blows me away that before the world began, before it was created and proclaimed "good", He knew that I would not only be in existence one day, but that I would sit at a laptop computer and talk about the feelings of my heart toward Him. I cannot wrap my mind around that! Then again, if I could, I am not sure that He would be a God that I would want to worship in tears with my face hidden. Or with joy so complete that I am full to overflowing. Or that I would, in my ignorance, sometimes wonder if I really should fear Him, and worry about the day of Judgement and how I will be judged. Truly a God of wonder.
I think about things that happen, and wonder why. I know I am not alone in my wonderings, and know also that I am not asking a deep question. Some of the things in my life have brought me really low, to having nothing. But when I look back now, and even in the middle of my personal ground zero, I was so thankful to have all I did. Out of the ashes of our burned home, 6 months later came a baby. He was, still is, healthy, amazing, incredible, intelligent, and really, really wonderful. God allowed this to happen. Sometime last year, a friend of mine delivered a baby. He was full term, he was healthy. Mom and Dad brought him home, and discovered the joy of being parents for a week. They awoke one week to the day after he was born, and discovered that their little boy had gone home for good. That his stay on earth was so short was, and continues to be, heartbreaking. God allowed this to happen also. I don't understand. Rising from the ashes and car accidents and disease came a baby boy who lives today, yet from a typical pregnancy came a baby boy whose stay was short, almost to the blink of an eye.
I realize that we all have our stories. That to look at someone and judge, or to scoff and scorn at an attitude or an action is so superficial. I am guilty of this daily, and wonder at what my God would say....perhaps that is part of why I am writing this. To write makes something more real, and because I wonder at what my God would say, I am trying to find out. In my story there have certainly been ups and downs, valleys and exalted mountains, the view from either is breath-taking. I am truly fortunate. I am loved, accepted, cherished. I am held accountable and will be judged. I know also, I am forgiven.

I John 2:12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
Thanks be to God, for Paul who wrote inspired by Your words.
Here is to another day By His Grace.