For I know that plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Hello friends.
I wanted to share this verse today because I am thankful for it. After reflecting on the Christ's sufficiency, I've come to the conclusion that I am the most thankful for the way he orchestrates each step in life's journey. We all experience different "seasons" of life and these seasons pose unique trials and joys that are all our own. We must cherish the trials and joys equally because Christ can use them to fill our hearts with his strength.
When I combine the ideas of "thankfulness" and "Christ sufficiency and plans" I am reminded daily....no hourly of my Bella. I realize I speak of her often when referencing God's will for me....I do this because without this knowledge, I am as strong as a house built on the ocean's sand... shifting and unstable. It's hard some days to look at her and realize that my hopes and dreams for her may not be in God's plans. I dream that she is healed from autism and will one day sit down with me over a cup of coffee to discuss her own hopes and dreams. The reality is, she may not. I cannot dwell on this realization... it burdens my soul deeply. Thankfully, I don't have to dwell on anything... I can take my souls burdens and lay them at the foot of the cross. The place where Christ became Bella's Savior, her King. So, with the move bringing changes in home-life, school, therapy... my Bella is doing her best to cope. Thankfully God already put these puzzle pieces together...so I can just trust him that they fit:)
God is my rock, my strong fortress. Someone to lean on that never stops loving me or my Bella. With Josh's upcoming deployment this spring, I am going to have to come back to this verse to be reminded of God's ultimate purpose in our lives. To share Christ.
Oh, I found this today... written by CH Spurgeon. I've not ever thought of winter in this way...
"Thou hast made summer and winter."—Psalm 74:17.
Y soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind thee that He keeps His covenant with day and night, and tend to assure thee that He will also keep that glorious covenant which He has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy: He casteth forth His ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten the soul. O that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and go forth to labours which befit the season, for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall beg in summer and have nothing.PS. We are loving it here in CA! Family and friends of old are such a blessing to us... we are on the hunt for a new house right now... exciting!
