The Sylvr Pen

“To form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must first apply to Him with some diligence…”

-Brother Lawrence, in The Practice of the Presence of God

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CLOSER: The “One Word” I chose as my year’s goal, to draw and stay closer to God my Savior, Christ my Lord.

C-L-O-S-E-R: The letters as an acronym, or acrostic, each letter standing for a guide word, a help to drawing near.

Call: Good guide word for C to stand for.

And lately glimpsing C-L-O-S-E-R without its first letter, I saw what comes of leaving out the “call.” 

C-L-O-S-E-R without the C is… LOSER. And that’s what I will be! Losing so much blessing.

Call.

Call to Him.

Call out to Him.

Or quietly call on Him in gentle, trusting approach.

But call. on. Him.

We all need to.

Because we all need His power to work in us.

We are weak. And we need to know we’re weak, need to admit it humbly before Him.

Blessed are the poverty-stricken in spirit.

Blessed are the destitute of soul, the beggars of God’s grace.

We do not know how to draw near.

We do not even know how to pray.

Sometimes we don’t even know how to begin by calling.

But His Spirit helps us in this weakness, too. His word helps us voice our heart, gives us His words to put in our mouths. So we can pray a call totally according to His word, His will, His Spirit — thus, a confidant call!

How to call upon the LORD?

Look at all the calls He gives us! (Below: Not an exhaustive list!) We can use any of these scriptures as openings to prayer, or interspersed within it, as we feel need, even as we feel our souls recede and start to stray. We need His power to help us keep clinging close as well as initially to draw near.

Notice how different some of the cries are and what they call for, how they express such varied needs, at various times of the day, or night.

(Hover your cursor and the scripture passage will appear in the NKJV. To read it in a different version, click on the reference and it will appear in its context at BlueLetterBible.org. Scroll to the top of the page there and click “Change version,” and then your choice. Or use your favorite Bible, opened to Psalms.)

Psalm 4:1

Ps 5:1-3

Ps 6:1-4

Ps 12:1

Ps 16:1-2

Ps 17:1,6

Ps 25:1-2,4-5

Ps 26:1-2

Ps 28:1-2

Ps 31:1-3

Ps 38:1,4,15,21-22

Ps 39:4,7,12

Ps 43:1,3

Ps 51:1-2

Ps 54:1-2

Ps 55:1-2

Ps 57:1-2

Ps 61:1-2

Ps 62:1 (A silent, waiting call)

Ps  63:1-2

Ps  64:1

Ps  69:1-3,16-18

Ps 70:1

Ps 71:1-5

Ps 80:1,17-19

Ps 86:1,6-7

Ps 88:1-2

Ps 102:1-2 (See Ps 102:17-20)

Ps 116:1-2

Psalm 119 is loaded with calls, scattered throughout.

Ps 120:1-2

Ps 121:1-2

Ps 123:1-3

Ps 130:1-2

Ps 141:1-4

Ps 142:1-2

Ps 143:1

(Feel free to copy the list for your own use.)

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They rise in early hours. Sound of water rushing in the upstairs shower, of drip outside from present falling mist and wet of midnight’s teeming. Packed last night, they load the car and leave in whitening gray, eating little, stomachs tight like knitted brows. Heading into day-long, maybe night-long, driving, anxious, then into the blood-orange smoke-choked air.

I linger in the silence that falls whenever family leaves but that holds an altered quality today, draw out the time of pensiveness with Him. Just grateful, so grateful…

~For news reports and phone calls that reassure, for now…

~For soaking rain that fell in nighttime, and raindrops pearl-like left on windows

~For time to “waste” on being still

~For prayer that needs and has no words

~For all this living green…

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Late in posting today, but family members visiting here are from Colorado Springs, where more family remains, and we’ve been using the computer to keep updated on the fires. (Prayers appreciated for all concerned.)

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Photos and scriptures, today using these Scavenger Hunt Sunday prompts:

Warped, Concentric Circles, Gear, Glazed, and Marble…

Warped — not!

It’s been sitting there naked and folded up for so long now, I forget what pattern I was going to weave. But the warp‘s all ready, measured out and waiting (draped atop the loom). Time flies by. And I won’t do all I’d like to. Earth life’s too short! Job said it: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6) — a weaver’s shuttle goes like a shot. If I finally grab a piece of one of those days for the purpose, the loom will finally be warped for some cotton-linen towels.

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Concentric circles

“He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecc 3:11).

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Gear

“Could I call this a gear?” I asked Husband.

“Well… I suppose so,” he answered doubtfully.

If not, maybe I could just show this, the lawn tractor it’s part of. Because that has gears.

(Colorful, isn’t it?)

Thing is, that throttle labeling above lies. Like you know who. “Choke” is stop, and “Fast” is slow. “Slow” is fast, and “Stop” is really fast (for this little vehicle, anyhow)!

Thank God, His word is truth:

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal (Psa 119:160 NIV).

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Glazed

These two proud pitchers only look metallic. It’s their glaze that gives them that shine. Just a cover-up.

Metal is strong. But look at this  broken spout. You can see the plain old pottery beneath.

Reminds me of Pro 26:23 —

“Fervent lips with a wicked heart [Are like] earthenware covered with silver dross.”

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Marble

Marble. Now that seems lasting. Hard. Substantial. And, in the counter installer’s words, “Like a rock!” Well, yeah. It is a rock. But I know an even better, more enduring one:

“No one is holy like the LORD, For [there is] none besides You, Nor [is there] any rock like our God” ( 1Sa 2:2).

Someday all the elements will melt, including this marble (2 Pet 3:12-13). But my Lord is the Everlasting Father (Is 9:6), and…

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold (Psa 18:2).

Even in trying times.

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“We may speak to our God

either with or without the use of the voice;

for the substance of prayer

consists in the lifting up of the soul to God, and

pouring out the sentiments of the heart before him;

…The use of the voice greatly aids us in

fixing our thoughts

and giving distinctness to the feelings of devotion…

when we seek to draw near to God, 

though

he needs not any verbal utterances from us,

to understand

the desires and the affections of our hearts.”

– Matthew Henry, in Daily Communion with God, on the Plan recommended for Beginning, Spending, and Concluding each day with God.

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(All photos above are copyrighted. Please ask permission before using. Thank you.)

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Free writing today on the Gypsy Mama’s Five Minute Friday prompt “Risk.”

GO

The word risk has my mind going all over the place this morning.

Risk just for risk’s sake is… well, silly. Risking all for one’s personal dreams of “success” and fame might be ill advised.. The Bible tells us the wise person counts the cost before proceeding to build a tower or go forth to fight a battle, and that’s got to apply figuratively as well as literally.

I guess the question is what would I be risking… for what? Some things are too precious to risk. Like the truth of God that I might risk compromising. The risk of family well-being for my own personal pleasure… etc. (Such strong drive after my own desires could get like a steam roller mashing down everyone in its path!)

What is worth risking even my personal dream(s)? Or my dearest earthly relationships? Or my job? Or my home? Or my money? Or my reputation? Or, yes, even my personal happiness?

Isn’t it Christ?

When you risk something, you’ve got to figure maybe you will actually lose it. Sometimes doing the right thing, or refusing to do the wrong thing, will cost you: friends, reputation, opportunities, even family relations, even marriage! (I do know people who came to faith in Christ whose spouses gave them the choice of renouncing their new faith or divorce!)

The bottom line: Considered risk. What would I be risking… for what? All the world for the pearl of great price? Or God’s best gifts for… even all the world?

STOP

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