When busy crowds the calendar and routines go all awash,
then we need more than ever to earmark moments, hours,
and those whole days,
resolvedly reserve them for sacred rest—
drawing strength from quietness…
•••••
Linked to
Thanking God this morning,
in this fragrant fragment of time,
for the floral rainbow around me…
.
rosy pink and red of peony
~
orange of remaining poppies
~
yellow of buttercup drifts in fields
~
green blooms hiding in snow-on-the-mountains
~
indigo-blue of lobelia
~
lavender of blossomed chives
(a favorite to sprinkle on spring and summer salads and tiny tea sandwiches)
~
and red-violet of iris…
~and for eyes that still can see them all and discern the different shades.
*****
Part of a repost, edited,
and linked to…
He calms the storm, So that its waves are still.
Psalm 107:29
*****
Linked to
There is a rhythm to the spirit’s life in Him, I know there is. A gentle breathing, prayer in, work out, work of faith, labor of love. And left to God and our surrendered selves, I think we’d find this rhythm, once we found our Christ.
But the world has a beat that is strong. And loud. Insistent, persistent. Always accelerating. Interrupting any heavenly rhythm our souls might have. And that makes it a fight. And the fight makes gentleness cease. And I am left with the unsettled fragments of frustration, scattered on the timeclock and the scribbled calendar. Longing for the rhythm.
It’s worth “fighting” for.
Lord and Father of my soul, fill me with Your Spirit as I seek to sink into sync with it. Make its fruit prevail over World’s noisy harassing beat—its fruit including gentleness, subduing the frenetic and spreading the oil of peace over the troubled waters, to turn their frantic roiling into softly lapping waves.
*****
Free-written on the prompt word “Rhythm”
and linked to
and
~
Look up “trust” (and maybe also “confidence” and “hope”) in a concordance, and some disturbing truths emerge from scripture, where we try to keep them buried…
Like…
Don’t put your trust in mortals, even princes (Ps 146:3).
Don’t trust in a friend, or companion (Mic 7:5).
Don’t rely on the strength of armies, horses, weapons, wealth, or even religious institutions or leaders (Ps 44:6; 62:10; Is 30:12-13; 31:1; Jer 7:4,14; 9:4; Amo 6:1; Hab 2:18; Mk 10:24; 1 Ti 6:17).
Don’t even entrust every confidential thing to your spouse (Mic 7:5)!
Don’t even trust in… yourself (2 Cor 1:9)!
Phew! That’s a lot of distrust!
Surely, we think, this don’t-trust instruction is only for special cases, special treacherous times. Surely other scriptures show “the other side of” this issue.
I do anyhow. So I look. And here’s what I find:
Other scriptures do show the value of friend, partner, spouse—such as…
“Two are better than one,” for several reasons (Eccl 4:9-12).
There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother (Pro18:24). So if you’ve got trouble, go to a friend nearby rather than to a brother far away (Pro 27:10).
Family is a blessing, and children are an inheritance from the LORD, (Ps 127:3).
He who finds a wife finds a good thing (Pro 18:22).
Consulting many counselors helps determine a wise course (Pro 11:14; 15:22).
And the members of the body of Christ are designed to carry one another’s burdens, build one another up in truth, and grow together into the fullness of the Lord (references later).
But…
The sad truth is, my concordance search fails to show me a single scripture that says to put my trust in any human… being, agency, possession, gift, or power!
The warning rings clear: Don’t put your trust in any of them (if we don’t muffle it).
Jesus himself warned that “a person’s enemies are the members of his own household” (Mt 10:36) even the closest family members can be set against us (Mt 10:35), and Himself put no trust in any humans, seeing how the enemy misleads through even such close friends as Peter was to Him (Mt 16:23).
Humans, alas, are stumblers all, and all in many ways (James 3:2 ESV).
So anyone you lean on might (no, will) stumble—in more ways than one—and when they do, down you’ll crash! Even those who love you most can let you down…
…as we ourselves will also stumble, in many ways—no matter how much we try not to—and “let down” those who lean on us.
This failing need not be sin. People get sick, incapacitated, lose mental function, suffer paralyzing traumas, carry secret painful interior baggage…
So then, is there anyone you can always trust?
Do that biblical “trust” search again (you can start here), and see how much scripture says we can trust in God, and God alone.
Also consider the testimony of those who trusted in Him and found Him true, reliable, faithful (like the sampling that follows, below, of David’s testimonies).
So how shall we do? I think of a resolution I made long ago and recorded at the front of journal after journal:
“To look only to Him for my needs: physical, spiritual, and emotional; then seeing what He provides through man and/or circumstances as just that: Him providing.”
God uses people as well as circumstances, as conduits of supply and means to shape and bless. Greatly grateful I should be for each person He uses this way in my life. But I do err when I turn my focus from the Giver to the Means, and begin to think my good depends upon that person, whom He used to bless me.
~
[Again, two posts in one, but presented this way so the following will follow the above.]
(From 2 Samuel 22)
{Also good scriptural reasons “for my heart to find” for praising Him,
to add to the count toward ten thousand… }
David, who knew Him well and had experienced His power and deliverance, declared he could trust Him (2 Sa 22:3), for these reasons:
God, he testifies, proved to be all these things for him…
He declared
He testified that when he called upon God in his distress
He goes on to say,
This is what He found His Lord God to be like:
He called Him
Summing it all up, David says,
Sounds like a Friend I really can—and should—trust!
*****
Linked to
