Consider the Lilies

Matthew 6:28 (Amplified Bible)

²⁸ And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and ^[a]learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.

During my devotions on Saturday, I was reading from Streams in the Desert which included the above Bible verse, as well as a story and poem about taking our needs to God in prayer. The poem by an anonymous author reads as follows:

Yes, leave it with Him,
The lilies all do,
And they grow–
They grow in the rain,
And they grow in the, dew–
Yes, they grow:
They grow in the darkness, all hid in the night–
They grow in the sunshine, revealed by the light–

Still they grow.
Yes, leave it with Him
‘Tis more dear to His heart,
You will know,
Than the lilies that bloom,
Or the flowers that start
‘Neath the snow:
Whatever you need, if you seek it in prayer,
You can leave it with Him–for you are His care.
You, you know.

I feel like perhaps I have written before about this subject before. I know it is a subject that I am reminded of often as I do my devotions, listen to or read teachings of others. The reminders come from so many sources, that I know He is still working on me in this issue.  Whatever we need, we can just leave it with the Lord, seek what we need in prayer.   Note that the key word is “NEED”.

I have prayed for things I WANT or think I NEED and wondered why my requests seem to be ignored or why I hear a resounding No when a door is closed to me.  Is God ignoring my requests?  Does He not care about the things I want and think I need in my life to make it better? Yes He does care about what I want and is not ignoring me; however, my wants and desires may not be what He feels I need at this time.  He has something much better in His plan for me.

I find that to be a very difficult concept to grasp onto at times.  Logically, it is a simple concept–He wants what is best for me .BUT……I am human of course.  What about the wants I have? Are they bad things? Probably not.  Are they things I need I really need in order to live a fuller life, to be happier in my life? Again, probably not.  Perhaps some of those “want or desires” are in God’s plan for me, but at a different time, or perhaps not. Only the future will answer that question.

In the meantime, God has other lessons for me to learn, other plans in the present to bring me into a closer relationship with Him; to fulfill other things that He sees as being true necessities to bring me to a richer, fuller life.  For that, I am very grateful and I praise Him.  As it is so clearly stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

As I do that I must also learn patience–lovely word, lovely value, but so difficult to have so many times!  God will reveal His plans for me in His good and perfect timing and I know it will be infinitely better than anything I could ever imagine or hope for. As the lilies grow so beautifully under God’s care, so will I and so will all of us.

Thanks for listening dear friends.  I hope your day is filled with many wonderful blessings!

Asking for a Re-Blog

REblogging as a favor for a friend. Good luck Jason!

“Did Christ Finish His Work For Us”???

Simple words. Huge truth.

Vets Rally to Curb Military Suicides

Our veterans deserve so much more than they are given. They sacrifice so much for all of us.

Sheri Lawrence de Grom

Check out this great MSN video – Vets Rally to Curb Military Suicides .

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Spring–a time of new beginnings, a time of healing

Well here it is just two weeks following my knee replacement surgery and the beginning of the spring season.  What a change in two weeks time!  The weather perhaps not so much but by the end of the week it promises to be in the high 50’s and the bitter cold has departed. So far as my surgery–great  changes!   The first week was the most difficult, though not quite as bad as I expected.  A lot of that I believe is because God allowed all of my children and grandchildren to be with me through the first week home. What a blessing they all are!   This week several friends have been by for visits as well as family and a wonderful church family has been providing meals for me so I do not have to cook at all.  I am so appreciative of everyone’s kindness. 

Through the 2 weeks, my mobility has improved on a daily basis and the pain has subsided quite a lot.  Today, I had my first followup visit with the doctor, and he was pleased with my progress.  As I titled this piece–it’s a time of new beginnings and a time of healing,  The surgery is healing quickly and I am already walking better than I have in a long time!  What a great feeling to be able to completely straighten out my leg.  Within days I will be graduating from my walker to my cane and within a very few short weeks, no walking aids whatsoever!  

A new beginning with the new season!  It won’t be long before I will be able to get out and walk around the local park and get much more exercise than I have gotten in a long time!   Praise the Lord for the things He is doing in my life!  

To everyone who has been keeping me in their prayers and thoughts, I thank you so much.  You are all a blessing to me.  It’s amazing that there have been blogging friends on several continents who have been praying for me, as well as family and personal friends, church family.  I can’t even begin to express how fortunate I feel to be surrounded with such love and caring. 

Life is truly good!   Thank you Lord Jesus.  

Wordless Wednesday: None of my words on…..Flowers (Desperately Seeking Spring)

Wonderful promise of spring in these beautiful photos and words. 🙂

And so the knee goes on…. and the step goes on and on and on!

Hello everyone!!  Tried to post something here the other night to let ya’ll know I am alive and well and home from the hospital however it decided to delete itself.  Sorry about that folks!   Will  try this again

It’s now been six days since surgery and I have been home since Monday recovering.  Having pain definitely, sometimes worse than others.  Sometimes not so bad!   Trying to get settled into physical therapy, resting, and healing moment to moment.

Progression is  taking place but it will be slow at first. I need to be patient while still working hard.  Concentrating on prayer and working hard!  Keep praying Friends!

 

 

• 

QUOTE (John Newton) – Mar. 10

This is a wonderful quote from John Newton, author of one of my very favorite hymns, Amazing Grace. I just learned that he came to Christ on March 10th. That salvation caused a huge change in his life from slave trader to Pastor. He never forgot that day, March 10,1747, and in fact, in his words, “That 10th of March is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never allowed it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748. For on that day the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.”

A DEVOTED LIFE

“If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth’s grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God’s will, and with equal joy they would lift a Lazarus in his rags to Abraham’s bosom, or be a chariot of fire to carry an Elijah home.”
~ John Newton

In honor of John Newton, former slave trader, Pastor, and author of the classic “Amazing Grace”, who came to Christ on this day in 1747 during a violent storm at sea.  He stated “That 10th of March is a day much to be remembered by me…

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Apprehension and Anticipation or just plain scared and nervous?

 

Well I would just have to say I am feeling each one of those emotions and probably more right now as the day is coming fast (Thursday March 13) when I have knee replacement surgery.   Fear of the pain after surgery as I heal and go through the rehab at the same time.  Am I strong enough to handle it all?   What will it be like as I recover? Will everything go well?  Will I really be able to walk with less pain again?

Thankfully I can lean on the word of my heavenly Father!  As he says in the following verse, He will be with me, help me through it and strengthen me as I face this trial and any others in my life.   He IS the Great Physician.  He will be there in the surgical suite, guiding the hands of the doctors and giving them the wisdom to make the right decisions in surgery.  He will be with me through my entire recovery, nudging me along to do my best and push past the pain to have successful rehabilitation. He will guide me through it all. This verse from Isaiah was posted this morning as a verse of the day on another blog  http://togodbetheglorybettysverseoftheday.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/meditationbettys-verse-of-the-day3-10-14/ and as I reads it the words finally began to take hold of what I wanted to write in this post and the verses I wanted to share with you.  The timing of her post this morning was perfectly orchestrated by God!

Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)

¹⁰ Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

All of my thoughts and anticipations are not fearful at all, but, in fact, they cause me to rejoice in the fact that finally I am going to be able to do things like take long walks, exercise more, and do many activities that I have had to curtail because the pain I have now will not be there.  I will have a knee-joint that will work properly rather than bone rubbing on bone!  Hooray!  For that reason I am excited to be having this surgery done quickly so I can be on the road to recovery.

There are two other verses, among so many, that I also found that give me comfort and give me confidence that all will be well.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”   

and Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

These are promises from God that we can all count on!   He will not forsake us, He will rejoice and sing when we get through our trial successfully.  We just need to ask Him and keep looking to Him for our comfort.

Friends, I will be in the hospital for a few days and doubtful I will be writing any blogs but I will try to post updates when I can.  Can’t send a blogger to the hospital without a computer after all!   So glad hospitals understand these things and offer WiFi for patient use!   LOL

I ask you to keep me in your thoughts and prayers and will talk to you soon!   Have a wonderful week, filled with the Lord’s blessings!