New every morning

In Door County for ten days. Ten. Days. A generous friend allowed our family to use their home last week end, and for my husband and I this next week end. So I stayed for the week between. A couple of the kids stayed through Monday, and a friend visited Tuesday overnight to Wednesday, which makes today the first (and only) full day alone. Solitude. Today’s plan is quiet time with God and Baxter. Read, listen, write, nap, walk, knit, repeat.  That’s the plan.

My first read is Lamentations 3:19-26. Meditating on it. Chewing. Listening.

 Jeremiah remembers his own painful story, and reminds God of it too.  It’s so comforting to have a Friend who knows my complete and total backstory: all the details that have brought me to who I am today. (the good, the bad and the ugly) Jeremiah acknowledges that his soul is heavy, BUT THEN... he preaches to himself.  I love this!  Jeremiah reminds himself who God is, and immediately recognizes his reason for hope. Our reason for hope. He writes out the attributes of God which speak to his downcast soul.  Such an example!

In my Bible I use an orange gel highlighter to mark “promises to plead.” (my term) When my soul is “...bowed down within me,...” I can flip though to an orange-streaked passage and “recall to my mind...and have hope.”

THAT my friend is our reason for being... to know Him better, and to share the hope. “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.”  

Verse 23 speaks of “every morning.” The dailyness of it reminds me of the manna provided to the Israelites in Exodus 16. God provided nourishment day by day, and required a daily harvest. In Lamentations Jeremiah again shows how God’s mercy is a daily sustenance. In John 6:35 Jesus refers to Himself as “the bread of life”- the One who satiates hunger and thirst. Again, bread or food is a daily need. Perhaps the manna was a reminder of our daily dependence on Him... we can’t store enough to sustain us for tomorrow.

“The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning.  Great is Your faithfulness.” (Note the change from ‘His’ to ‘Your’...Jeremiah is taken from reciting about God to personal acknowledgement and prayer...)

He is our sustenance.  Have you fed upon His Word today?

Don’t waste His wounds.

Each morning I receive an email from Kenboa.org from which I take the photo verse for my digital journal.  My journal is on my iPad with an app called Goodnotes.  (❤️ digital journaling!). The daily email is mostly a series of Bible verses:  jump off places for my morning conversation with God.  Chewing points.  Today the photo verse is  
  What hit me is that my peace and my healing were paid for with a high, painful price...Jesus’ punishment.  Am I wasting them, falling back into worry and stress because I forget about my healing Savior?  What a waste of His sacrifice.  I remember hearing that elephants that have been chained to a pole for years, going in circles, continue to go in circles even after their chains are cut off. That’s a powerful image.  I need to stop behaving as if I’m still chained to sinful thoughts and behavior. I’m free! He has cut my chains. 

Lord, help me to rely on that truth moment by moment and not waste your beautiful gift.  🎁❤️🙏🏻

Blooming!

After a rather miserable spring, we managed to venture into the yard all three days of Memorial Day week end as we annually tend to do.  Here’s what’s in bloom as of today:

  

This is wild geranium.  Barely blooming, but has begun.  A lovely perennial ground cover.

Isn’t that the sweetest lamb?  My SAMBS ( Saturday A.M. Bible Study) ladies bought it for my birthday, as I tend to refer to us as “dumb sheep” a lot.  

Planted this “Jack Frost” last summer for it’s pretty leaf variegation... the early spring blooms are a surprise. 

Lily of the Valley transplanted from our neighbor last year.  It hasn’t exactly spread, but, hey!  A bloom!

Not sure of the name of this bush... love its purple leaves all season. (I trim it into a tree shape... these are a few low stragglers which will be trimmed soon)

Creeping phlox is a perennial favorite which is featured in many flower beds around our yard.  As a bonus it spreads, and is dug up easily for transplanting.  The bleeding heart is a delicate reminder of the promise of spring each year.  💗

This is arch angel, another vigorous creeper which is easily transplanted.  Love its sunny yellow blooms. ☀️ The rooster peeking out has a body made of a rock... a souvenir from a trip to Maine a few years back.

Planted some annuals (the goal is less each year), dug in compost from our local dump (***love that we can haul our yard waste in and then haul home buckets of compost resulting from last year’s yard waste), dug in some garden soil, weeded, trimmed, etc.  Good to be at it again, especially following hand surgery in January. Spring has sprung! #grateful

Psalms 4:4-5

Tremble, and do not sin;

Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.

Selah.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,

And trust in the Lord.

Awoke with a heaviness of heart this morning, seeming mountains to traverse in very direction.  So I climbed back into bed and opened my Bible to Psalms.  It’s what I would advise a downhearted friend to do... so...time to take my own medicine.

Began at Psam 1 but was stopped by Psalm 4:4 and 5.  Seven little instructions popped out as a prescription for the Psalmist’s troubled spirit.  Perhaps for mine too.

a.  “Tremble.”   I guess that means I need to take the serious seriously.  Now is not the time to blow it off or put my head in the sand.  Tremble at the trouble.  Or tremble in His presence.  Or both.  Likely both.

b.  “Do not sin.”  Simple enough.  That is if I just stay in bed with the Bible on my lap.  Once I get out, sin is crouching everywhere.  It’s especially easy to sin when I feel down or stressed... my thoughts and/or words could erupt in sin.  My stress relief elixir could be sin. (food, beverage, distraction...). My gloomy disposition would be sin.  Angry responses, withdrawal, denial, distraction,  ruminating ... so many sinful choices when I’m trembling...

c.  “Mediate upon your bed.”  ✅

d.  “Be still.”  I’m wriggling even as I type it.  Be still.  Meditate in stillness.  This meditation business is the stuff of marinating, not microwaving.  What might be different in my life if instead of forging into action, instead of distracting myself with media or friends or materialism, instead of trying to outrun trouble,  I would simply... be still.  Sit with the heaviness.  Process it with God.

e.  “Selah”.  This is a unique Hebrew word used often in the Psalms.  May mean “to pause”.  May mean “to cast upwards”.  As in to God?  (Now humming... “I cast all my cares upon You... 🎶...”)

f.  “Offer the sacrifices of righteousness.”  Doing the right thing can be so hard.  The word “sacrifice” infers hard, doesn’t it?  Ugh.  The wrong response is so much easier, so much less... sacrificial.  The sacrifice of righteousness...  I think I need to stay in meditation for a bit...

g.  “And trust in the Lord.”  We like that part.  Yet it’s important to note that it doesn’t stand alone here.  Not a glib answer, but rather one of many imperatives... a list of commands.  I do my part: tremble, not sin, meditate, be still, do the hard thing, and then... let it go.  Trust in the Lord.

These two verses in one of 150 Psalms have laid out a roadmap today.  The Psalms are emotional journal entries recording real life moments by real live humans who turn to their only Hope.  As always... God met me there.

It’s a tough prescription to fill, but at least I know the next thing to do...

Restoration

Psalms 19:7-13 NASB

“The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;

In keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.

Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;

Let them not rule over me;

Then I will be blameless,

And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.”

Some days arrive heavier than others.  Thankfully the Word of God is the balm for all.

We discussed this passage on Saturday night at small group as we were discussing how the word “blameless” seems unattainable.  This Psalm connects blamelessness to willful sin.  Presumptuous sin.  Much more of a goal... seems more realistic, no?

And now here it is again, presented to me in a devotional email I receive each morning.  An email that simply consists of verses to ponder.  Me n my coffee n my Baxter and God’s Word.  The Rx for the heaviest of mornings. ❤️