i will not.

for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!

So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me?

hebrews 13:5-6

i will sing of your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.

(have i said that i have the wof cds on repeat especially the rejoice one? well i do! most songs don’t have youtube videos but go spotify them…they’re good…)

relevant

friday! 5 minutes of writing, no editing, just write.

and write on….relevant

relevant. a conference i’m not at though i would have loved to be at with the ladies who are soaking it up.

relevant. found in the dictionary meaning: having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand. affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion.

relevant. sometimes things are relevant in the forefront of my mind that i don’t want to be. the hurt and the missing that i’d rather shove under the bed to deal with another day. that’s relevant because of the way it’s interacting with the issues at hand. what matters to you, matters, even if you don’t want it to matter. if you’re thirsty, you are thirsty. it just is.  get up. deal with it. lay it at the cross. pour out your heart to Him. and see what He’ll do.

we’re longing for significance and recognition. being seen and heard and valued is so powerful in this life. so relevant no matter the day or time.

seeing God as faithful. that’s relevant. that’s significant. that’s perspective changing. that’s adding a twist on all those things you’re waiting on…

time’s up.

guess taking time to look up a dictionary definition in a post takes up a few minutes 🙂

your turn!

5 days

5 days left of this posting on Faithfulness every day.  I feel as though my words have run dry yet I see the word everywhere.literally.everywhere.  The ways the word leads back unto understanding that He is everything follows in line with all the words I seem to pick.  When I chose Joy, I ended the year realizing that true, honest, deep joy comes from Him alone.  The rest fades away.  With trust, while we still have a few months left, I find that He’s the only fully trustworthy one.  I’ll find my “monkeys” as Henry Cloud so cleverly reminded me and oh how I am ever so thankful for them, but we’re all still people.  And so, with faithfulness, I shouldn’t be all that surprised that He is ever faithful.  He is working all things out for good for the purpose that I should become more like Him.  I sit and think of the stories of faithfulness working in my life and I call them to mind when everything around me seems confusion and chaos.  Throwing a stone, making a place to remember brings me back to the ever constant faithfulness filling me up.  I rattle off the list and think see girl, you can rest easy.  You’ve seen Him be faithful before so just give it that pesky little word time.  

everything.

I should have some more witty words, but today…all I hear is what Angie Smith ended Women of Faith with:

He’s everything.

 

lead me

Psalm 61 (NKJV)

To the Chief Musician. On a stringed instrument.^[a]A Psalm of David.

¹ Hear my cry, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
² From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

³ For You have been a shelter for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.
⁴ I will abide in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.  Selah

⁵ For You, O God, have heard my vows;
You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.
⁶ You will prolong the king’s life,
His years as many generations.
⁷ He shall abide before God forever.
Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him!

⁸ So I will sing praise to Your name forever,
That I may daily perform my vows.

scripture to put music is beautiful. god’s faithfulness is everywhere. 

 

Beyond…

5 minutes on beyond…
All day I have been at Women of Faith: Imagine and heard over and over the verse that reminds us that god can do immeasurably BEYOND all that we can ask or imagine. Now this verse has always rocked my head and heart because I ask for some BIG things, some things that seem so incredibly impossible to me. I look at my circumstances and say yeahhhh right. But the thing about god is that I need to remember He is not on my time table and that His beyond may come about differently. I see David and Joseph and Abraham and Ruth and Esther and I think yeah I bet they didn’t think god would show His faithfulness in that way or in that timing and yet…yet even when all those in Hebrews 11 hadnt seen the fulfillment they still counted and judged god as faithful…just have to give it God’s time.

feel better banana bread

—taking a little detour from talking about being a daughter because a fun little post went up over at Peas in a Blog today about feel better banana bread (and it talks about Ally who is oh so lovely in modeling the banana bread below). Plus, it includes a vlog!!

And to tie it into faithfulness for this 31 days-jazz….I like to think that faithful friends are the ones who eat lots of food with you, just sit and cry with you without having to say anything, listen to you, encourage you, spend time with you, check in just to see how you are, stick with you through the hard (even those pmsy crazy days), and well there’s so much more to being loyal and faithful, to being for someone, but that’s a start for now…maybe more later =)

what does being a faithful friend look like to you?

daughter

daughter,

there’s a real enemy

who is out to steal, kill, and destroy

he’s going to try to destroy…

your hope

your love

your home

your trust

but hold on, little girl

i came that you could have life

and have life to the full

even if all the casualties and all the hurt

cause you to hide away and cry your eyes out

know that i catch every tear you cry, sweet one

there will be trouble in this world

there will be heartache

there will be suffering

but i have overcome the world

the victory’s already won

you’re mine

no one

no not one

can snatch you from my hands

so stay there in my embrace

run to me instead of run away

because I AM

I am trustworthy

I never leave

I never forsake

No.matter.what.

I love you.

-Abba

 

walking along

baby girl,

you’re not so little anymore

you don’t always need someone

you start exploring and going off on your own

you start trying to do things that you see the bigger people do

making bricks, digging holes, getting water, but you still love to play

you love to sit quiet and have someone hold you close and make you giggle

you love to sing and dance and jump into a big hole over and over and over

did you know, baby girl, you’re beautiful. absolutely stunning. gorgeous.

did you know, love, that you light up the room with joy.

did you know, child, that you know how to love well

you loved me well and showed me His love

and how He wants us to run to Him

 He wants us to hold His hand

to step out on the water

to dream BIG

to love BIG

to wait

and

see

His

Faithfulness

is like a tree planted by deep waters

and there by the waters we can run to Him to burst into our stories

and even more He longs for us to take Him along on all of our adventures

 

baby girl

baby girl,

when you’re little

you rely on someone bigger

all.the.time.

now sometimes these big people don’t get it right

and that hurts

and is heartbreaking

but sometimes there are glimpses of love this side of heaven

glimpses of how God loves us

and baby girl,

He hangs around just to see you smile

He holds you close when you cry

He swoops you up into His arms when you try to run into the busy street

He watches over you all.the.time.

He sings over you while you sleep

He feeds you

He loves you no.matter.what.

*this is the kind of daughter that is hardest for me to get…the daughter that doesn’t have to do anything to be part of the family, the daughter who gets to just BE, the daughter who is delighted in and loved for who she is, the daughter He wants to hang out with not out of obligation or love but because He *likes* her, the daughter who can share secrets, the daughter who is seen, a daughter who is fully taken care of and who gets to walk with Father.

**Check back tomorrow for another post about “Daughters” and God’s faithfulness. But first…tell me…how do you see God as Father?