Sunflower Faith

A dear friend shared this during a discussion we were having and I couldn’t take my mind off of this verse. 

It was just a reminder to me, how much our dear Abba, our Father in Heaven, loves us so much that in times when we, any of us, are in pain, in sorrow, in grief, He is there. 

Our tears collected and brushed from our eyes and Him, yearning, calling, pulling us close, telling us there is hope, there is love, there is a promise that He does and will deliver. 

There were times when I thought the tears would never end and there are times when I see Him, seeing me through, and through it all…a reminder…we’re never alone through anything. 

“You have collected my tears…….” a vivid reminder.  The full scripture is: 

 ⁸ You number my wanderings;
         Put my tears into Your bottle;
         Are they not in Your book? (Psalm 56:8, New King James Version) 

Matthew Henry Commentary shares: 

The heavy and continued trials through which many of the Lord’s people have passed, should teach us to be silent and patient under lighter crosses. Yet we are often tempted to repine and despond under small sorrows.

For this we should check ourselves. David comforts himself, in his distress and fear, that God noticed all his grievances and all his griefs.

 God has a bottle and a book for his people’s tears, both the tears for their sins, and those for their afflictions. He observes them with tender concern.

 Every true believer may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and then I will not fear what man shall do unto me; for man has no power but what is given him from above. Thy vows are upon me, O Lord; not as a burden, but as that by which I am known to be thy servant; as a bridle that restrains me from what would be hurtful, and directs me in the way of my duty. And vows of thankfulness properly accompany prayers for mercy.

 If God deliver us from sin, either from doing it,or by his pardoning mercy, he has delivered our souls from death, which is the wages of sin. Where the Lord has begun a good work he will carry it on and perfect it.

David hopes that God would keep him even from the appearance of sin.

We should aim in all our desires and expectations of deliverance, both from sin and trouble, that we may do the better service to the Lord; that we may serve him without fear. If his grace has delivered our souls from the death of sin, he will bring us to heaven,to walk before him for ever in light.

Sounds like what we all seek in our lives.

We have good days and we have bad days. No one is perfect but it also doesnt’ mean that we have license to continue to sin or to be bound in sin. Instead we should place our hope, not in anyone else but our Heavenly Father and not put the world or it’s petty wants before Him.

He holds us close. He seeks to free us from the bondage of sin. It can’t get any better than that.

I invite you to join and participate in Word Filled Wednesday. Right now it’s being hosted at Penny @  pennyraine.com/blog/

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How easy in the busyness of life we forget to just….be still.

Not many of us can go away on a retreat but during “A Women Inspired”, I was inspired to create a personal retreat in my own home using inspiration from “5 Minute Retreats” shared on “Marsha Musings“.

I have a small wicker basket that I keep my bible, life journal a candle and “My Upmost for His Highest” in while looking for a hymn book to add to it, but the biggest thing is just embracing the importance to take time for ourselves and really learning to slow down.

More than anything, just learning to take time when time is needed.

Be it away from blogging, facebook, twitter, and just learning to establish boundaries and  manage commitments so it doesn’t overwhelm but rather balance.

Peace.

Still.

Funny how the simplest thing is always the hardest thing for us.

Feeling a bit tired?

 Overwhelm?

Constantly on the go?

 Maybe it’s time to take a breather…find and carve a little personal retreat at your home, even if it’s just at the kitchen table, pour a cup of coffee or hot tea, and re-energize yourself by having some quiet time with our Heavenly Father and His word.

Peace.

Be Still.

Listen.

Instead of being on the go, use this time instead to stop and listen to what our Heavenly Father. Five minutes. Hour. Sometimes, part of simplifying life is simply….being still.

So find a scripture that touches your heart and drop by this week’s hostess to leave a link to your blog.

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Matthew 13:31-32 (New International Version)

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

What a reminder of Spring.

The promise of new life and not far from now, we will be reminded of our Heavenly Father’s Son’s Ressurrection.

I did a little look into the signficance of why a mustard seed? After all…it is beautiful, it captures the heart, but it’s not roses.

I mean, when we are brought flowers from our loved one, it’s usually roses or something more ornate, but the mustard seed? When it blossoms…it is everywhere, it’s so ordinary and sometimes easy to miss, but for the birds, it is attractive and gives them a place to rest and it stands out from everything else.

Why?

From,”Parables of Jesus”, the writer shared,” …the message in the parable was hidden to many. Human nature looks for great things. It looks for self-importance, esteem of fellow men, pride and grandeur. Not so the kingdom of heaven. Even the disciples were not entirely free of this human trait, as they debated among themselves who should be the greatest. Jesus reproved them and made clear that the greatest were those who served. [Luke 9.46-48]

Our Father does not say, build me a tower and I will love you. Our Father does not say, if you’re not missing any teeth, I will love you. Our Father does not care what degree we do or do not have, or how well, or not so well we can speak.

Our Father loves us for us. All of us. Our imperfections. Our gifts (and we all have gifts, we just have to see them from His eyes and not from side to side eyes).He just loves us.

Just like we just love our kids for who they are, but His love, really. His love is just bigger, grander but simple.

What is humbling about what our Father’ Son did for us is as the writer shares,”Jesus, without whom the kingdom of God could never be established, was despised and rejected and finally crucified by his generation. They looked for glorious things and he offered them a mustard seed!”

It’s kinda like, waiting for a celebrity to pull up in a stretch limosiune, but instead He shows up in a beat up truck and saying, “Here I am”.

Wouldn’t you get that all too human,”Oh, not really what I expected”.

Yet…this is what He shares with us how simple and yet grand His kingdom would be. I was humble by a conversation I was privy to. Everyone was talking about the mansion they were getting when they got to Heaven and what type of crown they might get and one person said,”I’m just happy if I go to Heaven and clean the toilet. It doesn’t matter what I get because at least I’m going to be in Heaven”.

Oooo.

Talk about missing the point.

What if we go to Heaven and the mansion we have there, doesn’t match up to what we thought either.  What if we don’t even get a mansion, but maybe just a humble home. Are we going to go. “Oh”.

Or are we going to just be thankful to just be in Heaven, with Him, our Father.

Have faith like a mustard seed and see what blossoms.

It’s not roses but that’s okay.

The thing is…it’s not about what we are going to get or have that is the whole point. It’s about Him. Our Father.

When you think about it…a mustard seed. When it grows….it’s a wildflower. A humble, lost among many simple wildflower, but to the bird…it’s everything.

So should be our Father’s kingdom, so should, just be our journey and passion to with Him.

It’s not about what are going to gain in the long run, but, really just about being there with Him. That should be enough.

Nothing can really compare to the glory and joy of our Heavenly Father.

‘To see a world in a grain of sand
                  And a heaven in a wild flower;
                  Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
                  And eternity in an hour.’-William Blake

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Last week was one of those weeks where it seemed the world was turned upside down. Ever had one of those days?

It seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong and the hardest part was just not being able to turn to anyone.

It’s time like those moments, that it’s easy to feel like we’re isolated and no one seemed to really care, to really understand or really was there and its those times that our Father wants us to come closer to Him and let us know that He does understand and in and through Him we can find hope and relief.

During that time, last week, I felt vulnerable. I felt raw. I felt like there was no one I could turn to, but there is. Our Father.

Funny how we can sometimes dance around the subject and the thing is that when we are at our most rawest and our most hurt, that is when He yearns and wants to give us relief and comfort from our stress.

Truth is. Fellow people fail whether they may mean it or not. People get busy and forget.

Truth is that in our time of distress, as much as we may hurt, sometimes its hard for others to be able to understand and be there, but the truth is too, our Father, knows it all. He knows our fears, our hurts, our pains and our vulnerabilities whether we admit it or not.

Come join us at  Penny’ @  pennyraine.com/blog for this week’s Word Filled Wednesday

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This was first shared for Word Filled Wednesday on March 26, 2008, just about two years ago (wow, has it been that long).

I don’t believe there are such a thing as accidents. Coincidences…mmmm…maybe, kinda…but no accidents.

When God created us…He already knew us. He knew who we were going to be and who we are and what our life would be.

We were each created as individuals, with special purposes that made us unique. He could have made us exact copies but instead, He went..no. Each one of us. Notice, each one of us, are unique and special.

I look at my children and marvel how similiar yet unique they are with their own strengths and weaknesses yet they teach me each day, a little bit about myself, about what I think and feel and gives me a teeny tiny peek into who they are, who they might be and what God may or maynot have planned for them; I look in the mirror and marvel at how unique and different God makes you, me, everyone and I praise God for having the foresight to give EACH and everyone a special place in His world. Not our world, but HIS world.

Father’s Love Letter Devotional Series #8

When Jeremiah was called to be a prophet to Israel, God declared that even before he was conceived, he was known by God and set apart for His divine purposes.

The road that Jeremiah would walk in his ministry life would not be an easy one, for he suffered much abuse at the hands of his fellow Israelites.

I wonder if he ever reflected on these words when he was going through his darkest times? When he was alone in that cold, damp prison cell, did he ever go back to the beginning of his ministry and meditate on God?s words to him?

I believe the revelation that he was known by God, and set apart for His purposes, gave Jeremiah the strength to continue to walk out his destiny, even in the darkest of times.

Knowing that it was God who knew us, and formed us, and called us into life, is the bedrock of our existence.

When everything else around us is not making sense, this truth can give us the grounding that we desperately need to go on. We are all looking for a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives.

Many people have not received this affirmation from their parents, but it was not their parents who knew them before they were conceived, but God.

It was God who formed each one of us in our mother?s womb and called us to life. It was God who set us apart for His divine purposes and plans.

Before an architect constructs a building, he meticulously puts every detail on paper, every component needed to make his dream into a reality.

The idea is first conceived in his mind, then is transferred on paper, and then when everything is just perfect, he starts the process of building his creation. In my own limited understanding of God?s creation process, this is how I imagine it to be.

He first conceived us in His mind, and with great thoughts of love, He began to chart every detail of our DNA in preparation for the time when he would form us in our mother?s womb.

What a wonderful thought, to know that the God of the universe knew us intimately and set us apart for His purposes even before we were conceived!

If you would like to join us for “Word Filled Wednesday” drop by Christy @ Critty Joy  or drop by “The 160 Acre Woods” to find out more about how to participate in “Word Filled Wednesday”

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I’m writing this in the midst of a cold due to this excessive global warming we are having right now, so hoping my “Word Filled Wednesday” doesn’t sound any more strange then me trying to sing “Twinkle Little Star” while wondering if I suddenly went from having high notes to low notes all of a sudden.

There is a feeling of peace when we just give it all to Him; I mean really  lay it at the cross and leave it there and not take it with us. It’s like checking out of the hospital but then making home in the lobby, and not really leaving despite accepting that we are healed and forgiven in and through our Heavenly Father.

All the while, He is offering us hope and redemption and we are insisting that we love what He has to offer, but we are going to just stay sick at the same time.

It’s all or nothing with our Father.

Our dogs freely go in and out to the backyard like it’s nothing and run and leap, but you let the gate open and they are gone in a “New York second” and I can personally tell you that chasing a dachshund is not as easy as it may sound. They.Can.Run.

The same came be said about opening the doors and letting the floodgates wide open to having that open and full relationship with our Heavenly Father, but trouble is that sometimes, we open the door just wide enough that He can barely get in and not letting go so the door can swing wide open.

Yes, we have a relationship, but not as fully as He would like for us to have and a lot of those often comes from our own reluctance versus His desire.

I would be the first to say fully that it’s not easy just letting that relationship with our Heavenly Father happen, but it does get to the point when we have to be honest with ourselves and with Him and that includes knowing He already knows it all-We believe He is all knowing and all seeing right? So why treat Him like we can hide from Him?

Remember, what’s their name? Oh yeah! Adam and Eve. Hiding in the bushes didn’t go that well.

Shame is a powerful weapon by the enemy and often, we let the enemy keep us from having that full relationship with our Heavenly Father. Eventually we’ve just got to get over that hurdle so we can give Him all of us and not what we try to selectively choose to give to Him.

I have to be honest, I’m with my dogs. Why be that happy with a backyard, when they could run free without fences. Unfortunately we have things like Animal Control and I really don’t like giving them baths if they discovered any half-filled areas with muddy water, but if I was them, and there was an open field, I would be off running with them, no holds bar and that’s what our Heavenly Father desires to give to us.

Trouble is, we set the boundaries that He wants to lift so we could just open up our wings and grow in and through Him.

So kick off those shoes….open up your bible TODAY, and discovered what our Heavenly Father wants to offer!

This week’s “Word Filled Wednesday” is being hosted by Lori  @  allyouhavetogive.com; If you haven’t join us for “Word Filled Wednesday” before, we would love to have you!

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Image by sveres; Modify by Sunflower Faith

I have to admit that isn’t a pretty picture.

 I enjoy drinking coffee, but what I don’t enjoy either is cleaning out the coffee filter by noon, after the grounds have had a chance to really be soaked and packed into the smallest parts of the coffee filter.

However as the hot water slowly filters through the grinded up coffee beans and release the flavor of the coffee, notice that it leaves behind the “garbage”-the grinds that if it goes into our coffee and into our bodies, can ruin the test and quite possibly make us sick in the process.

Just imagine what our “spiritual bodies” must look like when we don’t use His word to provide us with discernment of what we read, think, say or do.

I have that very scripture hanging in the most obvious and busiest place in the house-our kitchen-to remind us each day, that what we put into our minds, into our hearts, should be of the nature that would glorify and lift our Father’s name up in praise.

The scripture is a deep reminder that we, you, I, by free will choice, make that decision everyday in what we choose to read, to watch, to listen to and it’s by those choices that make a difference, good or bad in our spiritual maturity.

When I gave my life to Christ, the first thing I did was go through my purse, my home, my life and cut off, threw away, stopped anything that did not edify or lift up our Heavenly Father’s name up.

My love for Him and what He did for me was so great, that I knew that I could not serve Him, follow Him, lift His name up in Glory, if I still allow the very things that would instead of allow me to see Him, block Him from me again.

That’s what a coffee filter does.

It is a barrier between the cup and the coffee beans.

As the hot water (our lives) pour through the coffee beans (the world), the filter (the Bible), filters out all the yucky stuff and keeps the grinded up beans (t.v., books, music, culture, magazines, everyday life) from mixing up with the now coffee that was pouring into the cup (us).

Without the filter, can you imagine what the coffee might taste like?

Yes, a waste of coffee.

I shudder to think that as a coffee lover.

So when I gave my life to Christ, I threw away books, music, movies, stop visiting sites, stop watching shows and movies, anything that I knew would not make it through the filter (Bible) and was not edifying (the water), of our Heavenly Father (the best coffee in the world).

I knew to live for Him, to follow Him, I had to show more discernment in my life and what I listen and read and watch and I admit, I’m not perfect, and I fall and sometimes there are pieces of coffee grounds in my coffee that leaves me just smacking my lips and making an ugly face and wondering what was I thinking when I tried to make the coffee that way.

Other times, I get pure coffee (His word), cleaned of the coffee grounds and, wow, does it taste good.

The truth I knew was that, I couldn’t have Him and the world. I had to choose and the thing is that our Father did a LOT in my life that I knew I would only let Him down and not get the full experience if I didn’t use that coffee filter in my life.

Even now, anything I do, say, read, watch or listen to, I filter it through His word first and you’ll be surprised and not so happy with a lot of what it catches, but it also reminds us of the old phrase of “Garbage In, Garbage out” that has been used to death.

 I love reading His word each day for no other reason but to constantly be like the Bereans and searching His Word  the hymnals and the worship music, the fellowship, doing the bible studies, reading the spiritual encouragement and just pushing myself, and challenging myself and sometimes (which is a lot), getting that much needed humbling and conviction from the great Barista (person who makes coffee), our Heavenly Father himself.

We live in a challenging and complex world, but it shouldn’t be a world where we compromise our Heavenly Father and His Word to live in an earthly world that is only temporary.

The best coffee-is the coffee that has been filter correctly. Shouldn’t our lives be covered with His Word as our filter?

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