Amazing Mercy!

My heart, at times, seems so far from wanting the refreshment that God graciously desires to give me. I struggle to hunger and thirst for the Bread of Life and Living Water. The air is parched, yet I look to stale, putrid liquid that will never satisfy.

Am I deep in some immoral sin? No. Am I seeking worldliness? No. From all outside sources, people could look at my life and be encouraged. Yet, my heart is so prone to wander. (Facebook, internet, social networking; insert pretty much anything that takes up my time and effort and leaves me feeling empty) I feel in the mundane and drinking mud. I know that my Savior's mercy extends far beyond anything I can hope or dream.

I look at the life of the Israelites in the Old Testament and bow my head at how God forgives and woos and forgives and woos. They sin. They grumble. They complain. They FORGET God.

I sin. I grumble. I complain. I FORGET God.

O Living Water, quench this thirst. Better yet, bring the thirst on. Help me to be so thirsty that I can't get enough of your Word and Truth. Help me to live in light of Your return and love this world around me. Help me to have a heavenly and eternal perspective that far outweighs my earthly frustrations.

John 6:32-35

32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Are You Hanging On?

Too many mornings are like this:

Get up-check

Take shower-check

Prepare coffee-check

Hair, makeup-check

Bible study-check

Prayer-check

Wake kiddos-check

etc.

So as I was checking off my mental list this morning, doing the Bible Study part, I was knocked over the head by two by four.

Luke 19: 47-48 "Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

As I read this, I mentally pictured a person holding on to the end of a rope dangling over a deep canyon.

Do I hang on to every word of my Savior as if it is the only source of life?

Do I crave the Word as the Bread that is life and nourishment?

Do I "do devotions" with an attitude of obligation?

Life is the canyon. The Word made flesh is the rope. Me...well, that's me. And I aim to beg the Spirit for the strength to keep hanging on.

God's Promises Endure Forever!

Psalm 119:107 tells us the deep down feelings of the psalmist.

"I am exceedingly afflicted;
Revive me, O LORD, according to Your word."

The psalmist feels weighed down and lifeless, and yet his response is begging the Lord for new life. But not just any ordinary life. Life according to God's Word.


James 1:12 promises blessedness to "the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

The perspective we need when feeling so afflicted is that God is his graciousness has loved me so much to send me affliction that we might cry out to Him and see our dependence on Him. Jesus gives us the Bread of Life. Tender, life-giving words, that give nourishment for the starving soul.

Paul reminds us in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing can separate us from our Heavenly Father. So why do we worry and not trust? Why do we not cast our cares on Him? Why do we fear?

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So often we look to other things to revive us. Oh, friend may that not be. May we run to the Father who will never leave us. May we run to the Son who gave His very life for us that we may acquire eternal life. May we run to the Spirit who brings all comfort and guidance.



The Words of Life are our only hope.

Facing the Stress with Meekness

According to Kay Arthur, in her book, As Silver Refined, the key to facing stress is meekness.

"Meekness is the key to acting versus reacting when disappointments come. Since meekness is the key to a right response in trials, God is at work to build meekness into our innermost beings. And the way He works meekness into our characters is through disappointments and trials. Meekness is born in stress, in trials, in affliction, in conflict....in difficulties. Meekness is born in situations that humble you. This meekness that God so highly values in your life will show itself -prove itself- in oppression and pressure and disappointment. See this in what God allowed His chosen and beloved people to go through---and why:"

Deuteronomy 8:2,3

"And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbles you and lets you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that HE might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD."

Bread of Life, make me hunger for nothing but you. I know I can fill this body with many things that I think will sustain me, and yet I always come back to nothing but You, God. I always am confident of this in the dark valleys. Make me content there...