God Is Faithful

Hello my dear and gracious followers!

My daughter has informed me that she

hears crickets when she comes by to visit here.

Yes ~ things have been pretty still around

my little corner of this BIG blogging world.

I know the crickets have been gently calling me back though.

"The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

to the soul who seeks Him."

(Lamentations 3:25)

I have been waiting on the Lord, and seeking His face.

Thank you, dear and gracious friends for waiting with me.

Thank you, for allowing me this down time

since the passing of my dad.

I've needed some time to be still and quiet,
to "withdraw to a desolate place and pray." (Luke 5:16)
Through time spent with the Lord,
in prayer, meditating on the Scriptures
and just worshiping the Lord in my heart,

I have been refreshed with God's 

abundant supply of goodness.

Our God is Faithful!

 He loves to meet us right where we are and bless us.

He stands waiting with the dawn of each

and every new day, ready with a fresh supply

of goodness and gladness and grace

for the hours that will come.

"Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed,

because his compassion's fail not,

they are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness."

(Lamentations 3:22-23)

Our Lord's well of mercy is overflowing,

His supply of blessings, inexhaustible.

From sunrise to sunrise, season to season,

time after time, God's love

is unending and boundless.

Great is His faithfulness!

"My flesh and my heart fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

(Psalm 73:26)

God strengthens our hearts in difficult times,

great is His faithfulness!

God is faithful ~ what strength that gives

what peace it lends to know

that whatever this day may hold

His promises stand ~ for they are ~

 unchanging unfailing constant and everlasting.

Oh... our God is faithful!

~~~**~~~
  
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.
We will sing praise to thy name,
O thou most High. 
You are truly the most high God,
how can we not rejoice in You, dear Heavenly Father? 

Cause us to structure our day around You,
and draw us to that "quiet place"
found in Your Word and through prayer,
so as to sustain us and strengthen us
to Your honor and glory.
Amen

Glory to God!
~ Debbie ~ 

I'm joining the party at
Roses of Inspiration 

My All - Sufficient Shepherd

Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I do not lack anything.

He satisfies my needs. That is the place to which God wants to bring us.

He wants us to be independently dependent upon Him,

to need Him alone. There are really only two options in life.

If the Lord is my Shepherd, then I shall not want;

but if I am in want, then it is obvious that the Lord is not my Shepherd.

~ David H. Roper ~

(Psalm 23:1)

"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."

~ I have all that I need ~

~~~***~~~

I'm naturally an early riser

but there are times when the Lord awakens

me during the wee early hours of the morning.

How about you?

Does He wake you and then softly and gently

lead you to a quiet place so he can show you

great things that He has for you in the Scriptures?

Those times do not happen every day,

but when they happen I know it will be a special

time with my Lord.

It is as if He is verbally ~ in a gentle voice ~ saying to me,

come... I have something wonderful for you.

Without fail, He does.

I walk away from those times feeling as if I had been on holy ground.

~~~***~~~

I love my quiet time with the Lord in the mornings,

but these special times seem to happen

when there is something going on in my life

and God knows I need that little extra care and time with  Him.

What I would like to share with you is one of those times.

~

A few days after I returned home from my time away

my father was hospitalized with internal bleeding

and some heart issues.

Why couldn't this have happened when I was with them

just a few days earlier was my question to God?

Being a care-giver comes natural for me

and I longed to be with my parents.

Not that I could do anything, 

but my presence would be there with them.

 I struggled as to whether I should get right
back on a plane and go to them,

but God in His infinite wisdom and goodness

showed me through His Word that

 HE IS ALL-SUFFICIENT

 for every need in this situation.

The needs of my dad the needs of  my mother and my needs as well.

~~~***~~~

When the Lord is our Shepherd, 

He takes responsibility for our lives.

He becomes personally involved with His sheep,

and He cares and provides as needed

for each individually.

He is wholly committed to the welfare

of His flock and to meeting all their needs. 

This was what the Lord wanted me to see

through His Scriptures early that morning.

"Fret not thyself, Debbie, I'm in total control

of this whole situation"

were the tender words of my Shepherd.

I was concerned for my dad while he was in the hospital.

You see, my dad was struck with polio when he was 2 years old

and his one good hip doesn't do well on those hospital beds.

With his pacemaker and heart problems he does not take pain meds

therefore causing him great discomfort.

Two days had gone by and the Dr. still had not

done the test to see why he was bleeding.

Why, I questioned God?

According to my dad he hardly ever saw a nurse.

Why, was another question I asked?

By this time they had given my dad 4 units of blood

and still no answers.

Dad was weak tired and down in spirit.

 And then my mother ~ all alone.

For me to just hop on a plane and fly out

was not possible for a few days,

now my spirit was down.

~~~***~~~

 Can you see why my Shepherd woke me early?
I was in need of a quiet place
so I could be all alone with my Shepherd. 
He woke me at the right time
and drew me to Himself

so He could lift my spirit by showing Himself

to me through His Word
and drawing me ever so close to His side.

Psalm 23 brought comfort and peace to my heart.

It  assured me that my Shepherd will meet

my needs as well as my parents needs.

 He will cause us to lie down in green pastures.

There we will find complete peacefulness and rest.

He will lead us beside still waters.

A place of sustenance rest and refreshment.

He will restore our souls and lead us in the paths of righteousness.
God knows what He is doing with us.

His rod and staff will comfort us.
Your Spirit, O Christ, is my consolation.
He will prepare a table for us.
We can partake of the communion service
which is a feast of thanksgiving
for His love and care for us.

Goodness and mercy will follow us

all the days of our lives, and we will dwell

in the house of the Lord forever.
We live surrounded by God's presence
and He attends to us with care and concern
because we belong to Him.
We shall dwell in the presence (in the care of)
the Lord forever.
What an assurance!

~~~***~~~

I knew that the hand of God had gathered His lambs ~ my parents

and would carry them in His bosom. (Isaiah 40:11)

I didn't need to rush to the airport

for our Shepherd had everything under control.

~

Jesus our Good Shepherd sacrificed His life

for His sheep. His sacrificial death on the cross

is proof of  His love and commitment to us.

He sees and provides for our real needs

as only He can see them.

Our Precious Heavenly Father.
We love You ~ because You first loved us.

Draw us close to Thy side

causing us to depend upon You

for our every need.

May we not depend upon ourselves

but on You, and You alone.
In Christ's name
Amen.

God bless you

~ Debbie ~ 

As of today my dad is still in the hospital with issues that the doctors are looking
at very carefully. Until he is stabilized a couple of procedures will have to wait.
Many of you sweet and dear friends have gone before the Lord
in prayer for our family and I want to express
my heart felt gratitude.
Thank you!

Rest in the Lord

"Rest in the Lord,

and wait patiently for him;

fret not thyself."

(Psalm 37:7a)

~

This is a well known Bible verse to me,

and I find great comfort in this promise from my Lord.
as I ponder and quote it often in my heart and mind.

We are told in God's Word to

"Hide His Word in our hearts"
 (Psalm 119:11)
 and
"Delight in the law of the Lord,
and meditate on it day and night."
(Psalm 1:2)

  ~

For the past few weeks I have been dealing with a situation

where I have found myself quoting this very verse,

but, not necessarily claiming the promise.

As I was asking God for His direction in the matter

and waiting for Him to hear me,

this is the verse He placed upon my heart:

"Therefore I will look unto the Lord;

I will wait for the God of my salvation:

my God will hear me."

(Micah 7:7) 

Yet,

I found myself not trusting completely even when He had clearly shown me the way,

 to the point of giving me peace within my heart,

that peace that passes all understanding,

you know that wonderful peace?  

As I bowed my heart and knee to God in prayer

asking for answers, trusting in the fact that He knows best,

 in His goodness to me, He placed this promise upon my heart:

"Trust in him at all times; ye people,

pour out your heart before him:

God is a refuge for us. Selah." (think on that)

(Psalm 62:8)

~

God in His goodness and grace hears my cry,

comforts my soul,

answers my prayer,

gives me His peace...

Yet still...

In my human frailties I choose to fret and worry,

become irritated and troubled

when it is not necessary.

~

Choices ~  throughout our lives we will have choices that we have to make.

God gives us free wills, but we must learn to make wise choices.

Thankfully, we have His Word to guide us,

to help us and to show us the way in which we should go.

Life is so much sweeter when we just trust and obey!

Many times we bring upon ourselves undue worry,

and in my particular situation,

I was doing just that, and what a waste of energy!

~

As I was meditating on Psalm 37:7

taking it piece by  piece and desiring to apply it to my life situation,

I decided to look up every important word in the Webster's Dictionary,

WOW! It sure made a difference in how I then,

meditated and applied the verse.

~

I just have to share this with you!
Dictionary work has always been one of my favorite's. :)
~
Definition of
 "Rest"
Peace of mind or spirit.
To be fixed or be fixed in trust or confidence.
<she rested her hopes in his promise>
So, if we are to "rest" in the Lord,
all we need to do is place our confidence, our hope in trusting God.
That crosses worry out, doesn't it?
~
"Wait Patiently"
A state or attitude of watchfulness and expectancy,
not hasty or impetuous.
Steadfast despite opposition, difficulty or adversity.
So, if we are to "wait patiently for Him"
then all we need to do is have the attitude of
watching and expecting in the goodness of the Lord.
Also, we will not be hasty or impetuous in our decisions and choices that we make.
We will be steadfast no matter what is going on in our lives.
We will be firmly fixed and not subject to change.
We will be firm in our belief that God is True to His Word.
~
"Fret"
To suffer or cause to suffer emotional strain:
become irritated (not us ladies?)worry, vex.
<Fretted over petty problems>
To be troubled.
So, if we "fret" we bring upon ourselves suffering ~ undo suffering
and emotional strain ~ we become irritated
and worry over petty problems ~ small minor problems
that we create into BIG problems,
all through fretting,
which God's Word tells us NOT to do.
~
My situation was minor, "petty"actually.
I allowed myself to get worked up over something
that God already had in control.
Something He had already given me peace about.
Yet
So often we think our way would be better,
so we try and bulldoze our way right through God's ways,
and there we find no peace.
What joy to my heart when I threw in the towel
and "rested" in God's ways.
I was so ashamed before my God,
for my lack of trust and obedience.
But the wonderful grace of God... He restoreth my soul!
 ~
This was the promise I claimed;
"The Lord is my strength, and my shield,
my heart trusted in him, and I am helped;
therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth;
and with my song will I praise him."
(Psalm 28:7) 
~
Everything worked out perfectly in my situation,
because God is a Perfect, Holy and Righteous God,
who wants nothing but our best!
Are you claiming God's promises in every area of your life?
For when we do, our hearts will greatly rejoice,
with peace, singing praises to our God!
~
Our Precious Heavenly Father.
Cause us to seek Your promises for every area of our lives.
Help us to rest in You, as Your Word encourages us to do.
May we not become anxious or hasty,
but trust in the confidence and hope
that we have in You.
Forgive us for our lack of trust at times
and with hearts full of joy we will greatly rejoice
and sing praises to Your Holy name.
Amen.

~ Be Lovely ~
Debbie