Friday, September 30, 2011

His Love Endures ~

For the past couple of weeks, this song of God's love for me has been playing over and over in my heart and has given me great comfort. 
{"His love endures... FOREVER His love endures,... forever His love endures,... forever and ever!"}

So many sad things have happened this week to friends of mine or friends of friends. My heart has been so heavy, and broken for so many; praying for God's comfort, His mercy, His power in miracles and His love to surround. I don't understand His ways, but I know even in the darkest night - His love endures forever.
When I've gotten frustrated at His way, when I've questioned Him and His decisions, even in the midst of my pain .... He still loves me. Forever.

{"We have found our hope, we have found our peace, we have found our rest, in the One who loves"}

We have learned this fundamental truth in Sunday School- Jesus Loves Us. Why then, are we at times in such deficit?  Why do we question His love when life hurts and does not make sense?
"Don't be afraid. Dear Zion, don't despair. Your God is present among you, a strong Warrior there to save you... He'll calm you with His love and delight you with His songs." Zephaniah 3:16

Let's remind ourselves today to live in that pure child-like faith.
I pray this often over myself, and today I pray this for you as well.

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."  Ephesians 3:17-20

Friday, September 9, 2011

Building My Altar

Every step along this journey of hope, every lesson I've learned, I have had to stop to build my altar and lay down -again and again- those things that I let become greater than my trust in the Lord. ie: my fear (over and over), my pride, my control, my lack of patience, and the greatest: my dreams.
Where did I build my altar? Here. This blog.

I do not write this blog because I have such great depth of knowledge and wisdom and feel I should share it with everyone out there in cyberspace. I write this blog because I need a place of remembrance.  That is what an altar is: a place of remembrance. It may not be made of bricks and stone, but it is a marked spot that I can go back to and remember all that I have learned. David many times would write "a psalm to bring to remembrance" (Ps.38and 70)

Before I began blogging, I was learning hard lessons each month as I faced each new challenge to my faith. However, in the next month or so, I would be struggling with something and realizing "this is the same thing I learned LAST month, just from a different angle!" I was learning and then forgetting. So I began to write down little titles for myself to help me remember what I've learned. You may remember some of them, as some have become blog posts. "Prisoner of Hope", "Use Your Fighting Words" etc.
Hopefully my altar has been an encouragement to you too along the way!!

In the Old Testament, there are many examples of people to whom the Lord had spoken; to mark this moment and REMEMBER all that the Lord had said, they would build an altar.

"Then the LORD said to him, 'Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.' So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace." Judges 6:23,24

 I have built my altar and have called it PRISONER OF HOPE!