WHO DOES GOD TRUST?

At a retreat this past weekend, in one of the prayers, the person thanked God for trusting Himself to the care of a teenage girl when He came to earth. That's a pretty incredible thought. That God would trust humanity to take care of Him. That the Creator would trust Himself to the created. Then it dawned on me that God not only trusted Mary, He trusted many other people in the Bible. He also trusted many others throughout history. He trusts each of us who know Him. And most incredibly (to me anyway), He trusts me.

This is something I'll need to think more about - that God's character is trusting.

[Love] always trusts.
~1 Corinthians 13:7~

REMARKABLE!

Yesterday, a friend and I had lunch on the 12th floor of a hotel by the beach. Looking out over the rhythmic waves as they washed up along the shore, we prayed for each other. She thanked God for His love and that His thoughts about me outnumbered the grains of sand. After we finished praying, we both looked at each other and wondered, "What could God possibly be thinking about us that He would have THAT many thoughts about each one of us?!"

Could it really be that Someone out there loves me THAT much?

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
~Psalm 139:17-18a~

MIRACLE

I think I'm finally starting to believe that I really am loved.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
~Ezekiel 36:26~

BROKEN

Today,
The water isn’t running,
Our apartment smells like sewage,
The internet is temperamental,
I was fortunate to have a seat on the bus one-way,
It’s taken me almost 2 hours to make a simple soup,
And all I want to do since I woke up is go back to sleep.

This soldier is broken.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
~Psalm 40:1-2~

FRUIT-LESS

This post has been rattling around in my brain for a while now and I thought it was about time to set it free...

In my devos one day, I read about a gardener who was asked about his abundant and lush grape harvest. He explained that when he first acquired the vineyard, he pruned all the plants and for two whole years he had no harvest. I saw a parallel in my own life. I've been feeling fruitless lately but it was as if the Lord spoke and affirmed to me that it is actually quite unnatural and impossible for a plant who is in the pruning process to bear fruit. A pruned branch cannot bear fruit! Nor is it expected to. A pruned plant has only one task: to drink in the sunshine and take in the nutrients from the earth through the vine. And one day, when God deems it time, flowers will bloom and fruit will come forth. Even more fruit than was ever possible before.

Christ's yoke is much lighter than my own. Hallelujah!

...Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
~John 15:2~