Everything and anything

Verse for the morning: "Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." Phil. 4:13(Message) The awesome promise from this verse is that it's not about what I do....it's who I AM in Him!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

How can I keep from singing your song? How can I ever say enough? How amazing is your love?!

The unexpected has happened--today God provided for our needs--cash enough to pay off our credit cards, our extra taxes and complete what we needed for our mortgage on the 2nd house! Praise His name! never a moment too late!


O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds
Thy hands have made
I see the stars
I hear the rollin' thunder
Thy power throughout
The universe displayed.

Then sings my soul
My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art
How great Thou art

Then sings my soul
My Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come
With shouts of acclamation
And take me home
What joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim,
"My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul
My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art
How great Thou art
Then sings my soul
My Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art
How great Thou art!...

Resting

What a blessing we have as Christians....no matter what the circumstance, trial or pain we go through....to rest in His hand. This morning as I prayed and reflected this old song came to my mind as an awesome reminder.

I don't know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from it's sunshine,
For it's skies may turn to gray.
I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said,
And today I'll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.

Refrain
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand.

Ev'ry step is getting brighter,
As the golden stairs I climb;
Ev'ry burden's getting lighter;
Ev'ry cloud is silver lined.
There the sun is always shining,
There no tear will dim the eyes,
At the ending of the rainbow,
Where the mountains touch the sky.


I don't know about tomorrow,
It may bring me poverty;
But the One Who feeds the sparrow,
Is the One Who stands by me.
And the path that be my portion,
May be through the flame or flood,
But His presence goes before me,
And I'm covered with His blood.

True surrender isn't expecting God to fix your problem or figuring out a solution. True surrender and ultimate peace is resting, resting in His arms like a newborn baby.

I know who holds tomorrow! Praise His name!

Worship or Worry

I received an e-mail Sunday afternoon with this challenge: My friend said that the message that morning was a challenge to worship instead of worry---she passed it on to us and said she was praying for our family for healing. It was an encouragement--yet a challenge--I stopped to ponder--would I be able to worship the next time something happened? The way our summer had gone I was sure it wouldn't be long until the next test happened :-) I began to worship and praise God as I rushed around my Monday chores and errands.....worship that is until I saw the lights in the mirror--you all know what that means :-)

I sat in the car waiting for the officer to review my license and hand me the fine...my stomach churned as I thought of the bills that needed paid and the money we didn't have....the choice was clear: worship or worry. I feebly reached out to God and said, Ok I'm willing to worship but I need help here! To my utter shock and amazement the officer handed me a written WARNING! without any pleas or begging on my part and I drove away with no fine! I felt a peace and confirmation in my heart--God's response to my desperate cry. Yet somehow I felt this was a mini-test, a practice run before the final exam....

Sure enough! It's Tuesday and we just got a call from our realtor--our appeal to the loan board was totally rejected and the appraisal stands as given--$9000 less than the contracted price. Faced with the choice again: do I worship or worry? Worry that I don't have enough or worship that He is enough?

It's easy to struggle with discouragement and wonder how we will ever get out of this mess....yet I also know that we won't have the chance to see God work if we don't stop and wait................and worship.

I will worship, with all of my heart
I will praise you, with all of my strength
I will seek you, all of my days
I will follow, all of your ways

I will give you, all my worship
I will give you, all my praise
You alone, I long to worship
You alone, are worthy of my praise
You are worthy of my praise

I will bow down, and I'll hail you as king
I will serve you, I will give you everything
I will lift up my eyes to your throne
I will trust you, I will trust you alone

Commune with me

Another rough week....what started as a cough for Ruth and Stephen turned into a full-blown asthma attack and pneumonia for Ruth....as her condition worsened Friday I cried out to God and begged Him to keep her out of the hospital....begged Him for healing....my stomach churned as I watched her struggling to breathe and trying to cough up the mucous in her lungs....where was God? why wasn't He answering me? Ruth's July 13th check-up in Philly had re-triggered her asthma and neither of us have slept through the night consistently since then as she struggled with nightmares and fear....I could only imagine what another admission would do to her....

We gave Ruth treatment after treatment but couldn't get her little lungs to stop the attack....I went into a numb sort of denial as I packed for the hospital AGAIN...we knelt and prayed for God's healing but my heart wasn't there....I can't take anymore I shouted at God...why? why? why?

It is with humility and sorrow that I write this story....how could I forget God's presence and love again? How could I forget that God loving me didn't mean bad things wouldn't happen but that He would walk beside us the whole time?

The ER visit went smoothly--we didn't wait more than 10min and soon Ruth was getting the meds and treatment she needed....I held Ruth, too tired and worn out to even pray...her sats finally came back up around 1:30 and the dr was ready to send her home. We felt uneasy taking her home with her history so asked the dr to keep her overnight for observation. By 3am we were 'settled' in a room upstairs and slept fitfully throughout the night with treatments and alarms going off...at least I didn't--Ruth was so tired she slept through most of it :-)

As I paced the next day waiting to be discharged I couldn't even allow myself to pray or thank God she was better and her sats were almost 100%....I was hiding under the 'tree' whining, why me, why us? why again? We brought Ruth home and finally got her to sleep at 8:00pm--her poor little heart couldn't stop racing from all the meds she had been given....

As I reflected on the experience I asked Dave, Why isn't God speaking to us? What did we do? and then I realized.....all I had done was whine and complain and beg God for what we wanted....I hadn't given Him the opportunity to talk to us...I hadn't opened His word for encouragement or direction. But when I did today, His blessings and love once again flowed over me--how often do we avoid the blessing and peace because we're too busy worrying about our agenda instead of just basking in His presence and communing with Him......

So now that I can look at our experience with a 'God-view' what do I see? A smooth admission to the ER without a 2hr wait, a gentle dr who cared and an excellent nurse who got her IV on the first try. A pediatric resident who was honest and thorough and willing to listen to our concerns, confident parents that were able to advocate for what their daughter needed--extra rest and monitoring, family that stepped in with help, food and love and told us to go sleep.....

So maybe this wasn't a punishment or a mistake--maybe it was God's gentle call, "feel my Love, rest in My peace, commune with Me"