I Love God

I love God with every thread in the fabric of my being.

With each breath I breathe, His trueness becomes more alive to me.

With each breath I leave behind, my heart lets go a sigh of relief, knowing I am one step closer to my heavenly home.

With each rising sun, I see His faithfulness; with each flaming sky, I see His glory (1 Corinthians 15:41, Psalms 89:37).

The gentle silver moon reminds me of His mystery; I revel in the beauty of His stars. (Psalms 8:3, Job 31:26)

In the warmth of loving companionship, I am reminded of His divine friendship with me.

With each pain I suffer, I feel the indescribable of my high priest that sympathizes (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Each time I am knocked down in this barren land of a world, I rise again with faith for the greater country, In hope, because He has promised it to me. (Hebrews 11:11, 13-16)

In my mind I know each truth and argument for the verification of God’s existence; but my heart knows a truth that speaks better than my logic.  For He has loved me with an everlasting love. He has drawn me in with His lovingkindness (Jeremiah 31:3). He has set His name as a seal upon my heart, a seal I can never remove (Song of Solomon 8:6).

His love speaks His reality to me. Greater than any speaker, or perfect argument. He is the truest thing I know.

And so…

I love God with every thread in the fabric of my being. I love Him because He first loved me.

A Monday Prayer

Here’s a poem…

It’s not very good…

It was composed in my English class…

Enjoy it’s silliness

 

Life is so entirely mad!

You wouldn’t believe the times that I’ve had.

In a day my adventures spread broad and spread far,

From meeting with hobos, to killing my car.

Each morning when mother awakes me from snoring,

I pray that my day shall please not be boring,

But when I find myself plopped in class all a-panting,

I recall my dumb prayer, and proceed to some ranting.

“Dear Lord, please forget what what I prayed for this morning!

I’ll be perfectly fine, indeed happy, with boring.”

Have a lovely Monday.

 

 

God wrote a song… And I wanted you to hear it too.

We walked down pathways carpeted with the golden leaves of aspens. It was so beautiful we could almost imagine we were walking on the very streets of the new Jerusalem. The wind rushed through in a glorious song, making the brown grass dance to the beauty of it all. Cold crept into our faces and made our noses red. We trudged up and up through bright pathways until we reached the summit.

The valley lay before us, a symphony of colors, singing it’s song for the whole world to hear… But no one was there to see it but us. The mountain stood mighty and tall. I like to think of the many years it’s stood there. Through storms, and wars, and lifetimes. But still it stands. It reminds me of the constance of God. My soul is comforted.

Just like it says in Isaiah, the trees clapped there hands. Every single golden one of them.

Oh…. It was beautiful. And it is beautiful!

My momma took me up to see this aspens today because she had seen them a couple of days ago, and said I simply couldn’t miss them.

“God wrote a song, Joy! And I wanted you to hear it too!”, she told me, while chomping on apples and potato chips on a rock at the summit. And as we hiked through the mountains, I knew what she meant. I simply couldn’t take in all the beauty. It was like God had painted this masterpeice, composed this symphony… And at the top of the mountain, my mom and I got to hear it. It seems sometimes like we just simply don’t notice. We drive around in our little cars, listen to our music, think our thoughts… and we never notice that there is a tangible real holy God who created the starts in the heavens, the mighty mountains, the falling leaves…

If I could encourage you in anything today.. I would say this… LISTEN! God’s speaking!

If you ever doubt God’s existence, go out into His wild and wait. There, in the quiet and stillness and wildness you will know He is real. As it says in Romans 1:20…

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

Creation cries out that he is real and true.

I pray that today, you may know his true beauty. That in his magnificent creation… you will feel His divine breath against you. To truly know His reality. His Glory.

This is my… ahem…. windblown look

My and my cutest of all mommas…. all bundled up. 🙂

Blessings.

love.

Joyness

Jonah Day

“I woke up on the wrong side of the bed…”

Hello, World!

It has been far too long since I posted on this blog of mine! But, I’ve decided it’s time to make use of it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings. And if no one reads this.. I enjoyed the process of rambling.

Here’s my thought for the day…

Today has been a Jonah day. The car battery died.

I was 3o minutes late for class, and found myself flusteradly flipping through notes trying to remember where I was and which paper it was I was supposed to give my teacher.

I forgot to put on makeup.

I forgot to bring lunch, which was deeply upsetting because I love food.

The ability to speak seemed to avade me today. I would try to say “Hey there! It’s so good to see you!”, and it kept coming out “awhiey,issogudtosiyou”. I must have been (perhaps I still am) tired. I got a lower grade than I would like to on my math test, due to my own silliness. The misery dragged on and on…

By the end of my first college class I plopped on a harder-than-it-should-be chair with a furrow in my brow and a sigh in my heart.

Then I thought of this…

^“5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant^[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah 3:5-8

Here is Jonah. Ever provided for by the Lord. He has one bad day and he looks up at the sky and says “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WILTED MY TREE, GOD! I’m SOOOOO ticked, God. I’m so mad I want to DIE!”

God has chosen Jonah, drawn Jonah, loved Jonah, spoken through Jonah. Just because the tree that was shading him began to wilt, he wants to die? Real mature, Jonah. Real mature.

This was the moment when I had my revelation. My life is beautiful! I have friends, a home, memories. I am saved and loved.  Just like Jonah, I am loved, chosen, drawn by God. My life has purpose and direction. Sure, my proverbial tree had wilted this morning, but life is so much bigger and better than feeling a little bit of sunstroke. It may be a Jonah day, but I will be no Jonah.

Jonah days are awful. But in the end, they’re just days.

SO….

With that in mind, I decided to smile. Since I didn’t bring lunch, I got to go have an adventure at a side-of-the-road tikki with my friend Rachel. We got shrimp, frenchfries and a discount. It was lovely. I never did regain my proper speaking abilities… but that’s okay. It made everything funnier. My math test score is irrevocably irritating… but there will be other tests! And, in the words of… someone… “The sun will go on rising and setting…” I reveled in the fun of my math class buddies. Played my music as loud as possible, and sang along. I had a lovely time talking with one of my funnest, dearest friends in the world, and we laughed copious amounts. My Jonah day turned out to be lovely. God has blessed me, and I am grateful!

In closing I would like to share this little prayer/song. It sort of my life prayer. And it helps with Jonah Days.

Teach me to love in a world full of sorrow

Teach me to live like my lifetime is borrowed.

Help me to stand in my faith in your plan, and to see through the storm

Teach me to love, the helpless the strange

Teach me the way that you changed the unchanged

Help me stand on this cold fallow ground and to see it turn into spring

My trust is in You, all my dreams I have given.

My joy is in You, and my hope is in heaven.

Alleluia! Amen! Aufweidersein and remember the Alamo.

Love,

Joyness