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Showing posts with the label Scripture for today

How Long?

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I went on a biblical spelunking expotition ( think Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin ) this morning. I was looking for David’s plea of “how long”. I knew he’d raised it, because I know David throughout the Psalms is oh so much like me. In my quest for the verse pictured, I scampered among these other gems: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” Psalm 2:1 “You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” Psalm 4:1b “Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.” Psalm 5:1 “My soul also is greatly troubled. But You, O LORD—how long? Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of Your steadfast love . . .” Psalm 6:3   “Why, O LORD, do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” Psalm 10:1  More confirmation of what the Spirit has been impressing on my heart all week. I am not alone in my  anxiety, in my pleas for answers, in my groanings, in my questions, in my confusion, or my wondering where God is in

Breaking in Our Armor

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Part Two: What is "customized" armor anyway? I mentioned the last time that our armor is customized. A friend of mine challenged me . . . four years ago now, to draw what I thought my armor might look like if God was designing it specifically for me. While this is a four-year-old pencil sketch I unearthed three years ago and colored -- rudimentary at best and with a need to tweak, maybe even paint on a canvas at some point -- the basic concept is still intact. The concept is this: God knows us. He knows exactly what we need and when we need it, right up to how He chooses to clothe us for battle every single day. He knows what we need to wear and what we need to "take up." I was reading a Priscilla Shirer devotional via @youversion on the armor of God. In it she says this (and so much more you can find in the full study), "In Ephesians 6, Paul conveys the belt, the breastplate, and shoes as a spiritual uniform that should be worn by believers at

Strong Looks Like . . .

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I do NOT look strong. I am barely 5' tall even on my fluffiest hair day anymore. My image definitely ascribes to and lives out the following verse: "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is  wasting   away , our inner self is being renewed day by day." 2 Corinthian 4:16 ESV However, the pictured verse is where I will choose to camp for a moment today: "I ask the Father in His great glory to give you the power to be strong INWARDLY through His Spirit." Ephesians 3:16 NCV  Though my outward appearance and my own perspective of myself may indicate I have no strength or power on my own, I can ask the Father for that power through His Spirit. I can ASK for it. Inward strength. I firmly believe our Father is delighted when we recognize we can't do it. We have no strength on our own. We finally lie down at His feet and seek Him and His power. We admit we can't do it. I know I can't. I am a veritable weakling in my own strengt

Faith Or Fear

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Some days are just like that, aren't they? You know the ones. You wake up simultaneously whispering "Jesus" and "what in the world am I going to do?" in the same ragged breath. You long to spout faithful treatises and flowery expressions of God's sovereignty. Yet all that comes out is a puff of empty air. You don't know what to pray. You don't know what else to say. Your neck hurts from hunkering down and pushing on through. Your sleep is sporadic, because though you said you'd leave it in the capable hands of the Lord; you've conjured up a thousand ways you could try to fix it all by yourself in the inky blackness of the night. You balance the desire for the darkness to stay like a comfortable invisibility cloak and an eagerness for the dawn to break and relieve you from all those night time tangle of thoughts that send the morning racing ahead without rest for your soul. "What comes with this new day?" you hesitantl

A "Sound" Mind

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"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) I would describe myself of "sound mind". Most days. Yet, when I wake up with thoughts scattered, ideas banging around in my head and my heart, and trying to capture them is akin to corralling a swarm of dragonflies -- I certainly wonder. Am I of "sound mind" as Paul would have described in sharing this with his beloved son, Timothy? I spend my time flitting back and forth between spiritual pursuits, training to be a profitable writer, painting my heart out, looking for sustainable employment, keeping my home from crawling up around me in clutter, . . . and untold hours scrolling social media to see what others are doing that is better, wiser, and more profitable than what I find myself doing. My mind is as cluttered as my news feed, and I tear myself away to hover over the next thing for a moment, only to find the beckoning loud enoug

Angels Among Us

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I've been painting angels lately. My mind and my paintbrush have been consumed with them. I'm not sure if the increase in my thoughts about angels has been in tandem with the recent loneliness I've felt, but I have certainly stepped up my study of them in Scripture. Angels are among us. Scripture confirms this over and over. Sometimes they are named. Sometimes they are part of a "heavenly host." God sent His messages through an angel multiple times throughout both the Old and New Testaments. My paintings and my studies are certainly not the end-all, be-all representation of what a biblical angel might be, but they are what I have been inspired to scrawl out on canvas. When it came time for God to make His most important announcement ever, to begin the story of redemption for all of us, He chose to send the angel, Gabriel, to Mary. Let's take a moment and step back into that scene: " And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored o

He Lights Up the Sky for You

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Good morning, friends! Let's talk about God's visible presence today. Does anyone like storms? I adore lightning. The last thing I saw before bed last night was what I know as "heat" lightning. No actual rain or thunder accompanying the lights in the sky, but fascinating to watch, nonetheless. I am ceaselessly enraptured by the displays God puts on for me. Now my Heavenly Father works in my life all the time without visible results. His hand is moving without my provocation and He needn't consult me to enact His perfect will in my life.  Yet, oh, isn't it lovely and glorious when He gives us visible signs of His majesty, His power, and His creative work? I am stopped in my tracks at lightning in the sky.  This works better for all involved if I'm not behind the wheel of a car, but I do try to keep my eyes on the road if a light show is in progress.  The same goes for my rainbow chaser nature. I'm sure I regularly st

God Holds Both Light and Darkness

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Light and darkness. My favorite time of day on both ends of the spectrum is when those first slight streaks of daylight begin to break through the darkness, and the converse of it found in the very last moments of light left before the entire landscape is engulfed in velvety blackness. I love the hope found in light splitting through the darkness and awakening a new day. I admire all creation staying hushed until daybreak as well, instinctively knowing the signal comes along with that rhythmic rising of the sun. The end of the day has its charm in my heart, too. I find it endlessly satisfying to watch the sunset and see the stars emerge twinkling amidst the growing inkiness of the nighttime sky. Unique as the number of days in existence, the colors and display are ever-changing. Yet the cyclical nature of it brings comfort and peace. Both the light and the darkness find their home with God. He spoke and they did His bidding. Until He called light into existence, darkness cov

Don't Give Up!

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Whatever it is, whatever you have planned or are afraid to plan. That dream? You know the one. Yes, that one. The one you whisper in hushed tones to yourself or when you think no one is paying attention. God hears you. He’s the One who planted that dream in your heart. He’s the Master Gardener, and He is tending that dream for you--especially when you feel like you’ve run out of everything it takes to make that dream happen on your own. See, it was NEVER meant to be that way. Take your hands off your dreams. Yes, you CAN have more than one! Take your hands and open them. Loosen your grip and lay the pen down. You are NOT writing your own story or fulfilling your own dreams! Back to our verse for today, I need not grow weary in doing good. In due season, I will reap if I don’t give up. Friend, are you at all like me? Do you get tired of doing the “good” thing? Do you find some days you just want to make bad choices and throw caution to the wind because it just doesn’t matter anyway? Th

Shaking My Fist or Trusting

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"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him." Job 13:15 (NKJV) I only put the first half of this verse on my image. Isn't that how we all want to remember it? We want to remember and BE remembered for trusting. We want to survive the slaying an come out on the other side as the one who faithfully trusted, who soared above her circumstances and saw it through to the other side. Job said more in this verse, and I follow his lead as well. Here it is in the ESV: "Yet, I will argue my ways to His face." vs. 15b He goes on to say in verse 18: "Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right." Does God shirk away from our arguments? Is He afraid of our shaking fists or well-crafted "case"? Does He stifle our voices and tell us we can't come before Him with questions? In each case, I believe the unwavering answer is "NO". Unfortunately, I don&#

Silence: A Lesson In Repetition

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God gets my attention through repetition. How about you? What I am continuing to discover in my almost four-decade "expotition" with my friend Jesus is He knows I don't usually get His lessons for me the first go-round. He repeats. He puts out virtual road signs.  Sometimes He puts out literal road signs to garner my attention and my gaze. He has specific Scripture rise to the surface again and again. He puts a word in my path and writes it in all capital letters EVERYWHERE so I can't possibly miss it. Silence has been the most recent. Jesus gave me almost a month of an empty nest to foster an atmosphere of solitude and silence. He has brought any number of lessons across my path to reinforce His message for this season.  My life has been filled with noise outside my head for decades and self-imposed noise for far longer. How do I avoid silence? How do you? Music Television Internet surfing Reaching out to others rather

Rejoice: A Choice

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I wake up most mornings with a song in my head. This morning it was this one . I struggle with starting out on the positive side of things. I have to intentionally make a choice. As I turn to Philippians I find Paul makes a repetitive command throughout. As a matter of fact, Paul used "joy" or some form of it 16 times in this letter. Choosing to rejoice is an act of the will. I can wallow in my circumstances, my shortcomings, the things I can't control right now . . . or I can choose to rejoice. Today I rejoice in: God's provision for me. I am not going hungry, and I have a roof over my head. The vibrant, colorful creation all around me. He is the consummate artist, and His color palette astonishes and delights me every day. I paint, because He inspires it. The assurance that He knows what's next for me. The God winks in each day. He surprises me, and when I am attuned to what's going on around me I find I am always on His mind. His W

Pushing on Past the Past

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Do you ever wake up and do a double take? Your subconscious was so crystal clear and so real you have to shake it off in favor of what your eyes take in as the fuzziness of sleep drifts away. Disoriented. You may have slept and lived a complete movie's worth of activities somewhere else, awakening with those events plastered on your now conscious thoughts as if what you dreamt is what you're currently living. The beauty of dreaming is we get to wake up. We get to toss off that cloak of darkness with the bed covers and embrace the dawn of a new day with all the freshness and newness that awaits. One of my favorite books and movies of all time is Anne of Green Gables . If you are around me for more than a hot minute, you most likely will be regaled with some sort of quote or reference to the kindred spirits who come alive in those pages. Wisdom. It's liberally woven into the story of an orphan girl who desperately wanted to belong -- just like we all do. Yet Anne is

Grace upon Grace

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"For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." John 1:16 (ESV) From His fullness. God gives out of His abundance. We receive grace upon grace. Unmerited favor. I don't deserve it and neither do you. I can't do anything for it. I can't be enough, do enough, give enough, or offer Him anything, because He doesn't need anything. God is not losing anything to give to me out of His abundance. He has no lack. As He gives, there is no less of Him to offer. He is pleased to give to me, His beloved. My job? To receive. To accept the "grace upon grace" He so freely offers from the very fullness of what He always is. My Jesus is always the same. Scripture affirms this: "Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 That sounds easy in theory. He offers freely. Freely I receive it. In other areas of my life a free thing is as uncomplicated as finding cash lying on the sidewalk. Would I ever just pass by

Surrender, Sunrise, and Solitude

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Any morning people out there? You know the type. They bounce out of bed with eager anticipation of what lies ahead, a smile already on their lips, words quick to follow. Coherent phrases, goals assembled, an agenda to be conquered. Or maybe you're more like this: you set the alarms on your phone . . . for 6:00, 6:05, 6:15, 6:20, 6:30, 7:00, then you hit the snooze on that last one until you absolutely have to stumble out of the bed, drag yourself to the coffee pot, and hope today you remembered to put the coffee beans in the grinder before dropping them directly into your favorite coffee mug. I fall somewhere in the middle of that second shot. I inherently am NOT a morning person. I admit I've missed all too many sunrises in favor of few more minutes communing with my pillow. I have made the mistake of putting unground coffee beans in the coffee maker, only to realize my morning brew has far less appeal if I'm expected to chew it. However, all joking aside, I am fi

Be Silent So He Can Speak

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So yesterday's verse was about calling on the Lord. (Psalm 145:18) I mentioned at the end of my short post that it's a conversation. A little fact I routinely forget when it comes to my relationship with Jesus.  Let's trek back a few years to my initial call out to Him. I was drawn to the Lord listening to a guest speaker at youth group retreat a couple of weeks after my 14th birthday. I managed to hear God's tender whisper in the midst of playing goofy games like "Sardines", singing the likes of  "Pass It On" and an early Amy Grant favorite  "My Father's Eyes" , and stuffing ourselves with the first of many batches of  peanut butter "retreat" fudge my mom made for more than ten years of such events. If I'm really honest, I don't think I fully got the picture of what I had done until much later. I took some tiny baby steps. I started reading my Bible. I went to youth group, church, choir, bell choir, and e