Refuge

Psalm 46

To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.

46 God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
⁵  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
    God will help her when morning dawns.
⁶  The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
⁷  The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

⁸  Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
⁹  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
     he burns the chariots with fire.
¹⁰  “Be still, and know that I am God.
     I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
¹¹  The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Waiting

Waiting.  Expecting.  Longing.

Everyone does it every day.  For most people, certain seasons of life are spent waiting.  Waiting to grow up.  Waiting to find that special 'someone.' Waiting for children. Waiting for the children to become adults themselves. Whatever the object of the waiting looks like, it is important to recognize that God has so directed the seasons of our lives to bring honor to Himself and to lead us on to maturity and grace. It is for our own good that we wait. Waiting can, and should be, active rather than passive.  Even though the Lord has not given us a look at what lies ahead of each of us, it is essential to recognize that the tasks He gives us to do are the very training we need for the future.  Through the determined act of waiting we are taught patience, trust, and hope in our sovereign God.  


"The simple thought of a life which is to be the unfolding of a Divine plan is too beautiful, too captivating, to suffer on indifferent of heedless moment.  Living in this manner, every turn of your experience will be a discovery to you of God, every change a token of His fatherly counsel.  Whatever obscurity, darkness, trial, suffering, falls upon you; your defeats, losses, injuries; your outward state, employment, relations; what seems hard, unaccountable, severe, or, as nature might say, vexatious - all these you will see are parts or constitutive elements in God's beautiful and good plan for you, and, as such, are to be accepted with a smile.  Take your burdens, and troubles, and losses, and wrongs, if come they must and will, as your opportunities, knowing that God has girded you for greater things than these."
~Horace Bushnell

Isaiah 40:27-31

Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
     and my right is disregarded by my God”? 
 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
     his understanding is unsearchable. 
 He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength. 
 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted; 
 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Psalm 84:11

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
    the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
    from those who walk uprightly.

Matthew 6:7-8

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Psalm 71:14

But I will hope continually
    and will praise you yet more and more.

The Lord we serve is aware of our needs and desires.  Many times He allows us to become aware of how much we need Him to fill them before answering our prayers.  He does this in order to grow us and teach us of our continual need of Him.

Praise the Lord.

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Growing in Faith and Grace

Lamentations 3:22
  It is of Jehovah's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

Romans 6:17-18

¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Ephesians 2:10

¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Galatians 2:20

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Romans 6:1-11

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Union with Christ is the only way we can grow and conquer sin in our lives.  He gives us the desire to struggle and fight against the natural tendencies, and He is faithful to keep on sanctifying us in our walk with Him. 

Blessings!
~Alana