A Summer's Day Prayer

Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds. Big love!

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

your judgments are like the great deep;  beyond what we can comprehend

man and beast you save, O LORD.

How precious is your steadfast love, O GOD!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.  Such a sweet place of rest.

They feast on the abundance of your house,  

you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life, 

in your light do we see light.

Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,

and your righteousness to the upright of heart!  Ps 36:5-10

True Love

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,

and at night his song is with me.

Psalm 42:8

This verse is a love letter that I have read over and over. I never tire of reading its words.

It is a promise from the One who loves my heart deeper than any human ever could.

He sees me for who I am....knows my thoughts....my weaknesses...my imperfections...and loves me still.

How could anyone not want a love like that?

Some of you reading this today have known who Jesus is for a long, long time...but you have forgotten what it feels like to be in love with Him. You serve Him faithfully. You are committed to Him....but you need a little romance.

Ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you as the deep Love of your heart. Surrender yourself to Him and tell Him you want to fall in love with Him again. Ask yourself how you can reciprocate that love back to Him....not as an act of 'service' but as an expression of deep love.

Repeat his promise and meditate on his words.

By Day the Lord commands his steadfast love,

and at night his song is with me.

(This is a recycled post)

To Joyfully Abide

I've had two words bumping around in my head for a while now.
ABIDE
and
JOY.
John 15:9-11 says,
"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.  Abide in my love."
(And I think to myself...how do I abide in the love of Jesus?)


"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love."


"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."


I think of the 10 Commandments...written in stone for the life of the people...can you imagine the world we'd live in if everyone just obeyed the 10 Commandments.  But this recipe for joy and abiding in love seems deeper than that...more than just "Thou shall not steal....".

According to Blueletter Bible, the word commandment here is found in Strong's Concordance in the Greek as the word "ἐντολή entolē", which translates as 

1) an order, command, charge, precept, injunction

a) that which is prescribed to one by reason of his office

The Lord tells us to keep everything that he has given us as truth, that he has charged us 

with....and I am reminded of truth upon truth that has given me direction from his Word and I remember who I am and who He is in me...and then I also remember something else, written in Matthew 22 verse 36 and 37.

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."


Hmmm...so

Love=Obedience=Abiding=Love=Joy

The Woman

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, "Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." Luke 21:1-3

I've known this story for many years, but as I read this story this time, I feel like I am finally getting the point.I have been stuck on the fact that she gave more because she gave out of poverty, so it's been the same story for me time and time again. This time reading it, however, I asked why she gave those coins when that is all she had to live on and wondered how she could do that? 

In my mind's eye, I saw her give because... she loved. She was so overwhelmed with love for God wanted to give Him something to express her love and appreciation. She was simply so happy that she at least had something to give Him! Do you think this could have been her motivation? 

If she was motivated by love because she knew God's love for her - then how she could do it makes sense.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4:18a

She wasn't afraid and might not even have had one thought about her personal welfare. Jesus is the one who points out that these small copper coins were "all she had to live on." Isn't it interesting that Jesus is the one who sees her and brings her to the attention of the disciples - and to our attention? Jesus saw her act of love. 

The story ends there, but do you think that Jesus walked away then and that was that? If we recall what God says about himself in His Word, what do you think He did for her? Did He provide for her? Did He bless her?

I like this woman. I want to meet her one day. But for now, I want to be like her. She was a widow. That means her husband had died, and she knew pain and sorrow. She was poor. And yet, she LOVED God and had a grateful heart. I want to be like that.

"Father God, I want to love you like this precious woman. I know that I won't be able to though, unless You continue to reveal who you really are so that I will love you more fully. Grow that love so that I don't have fear or reservations. Grow that love so that I trust you like she did. Thank you for sharing that story with us so that we know that you are totally aware of who we are, you're aware of our situations, and you know our hearts.  And you even honour us. That's hard to comprehend. You are amazing and are so worthy of our praise."

Our Calling

"And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed."

- Titus 2:12-13 (NLT)

Enough said.