What does it mean to always rejoice?  As I meditated on this during my morning devotions, God pointed me to other Scriptures that opened my eyes to His great goodness, grace and mercy for me…but mostly to His great love.

Every day that I wake up is a new gift from God.  His love has never failed me; He has always been there for me, just as He will be for you.  He provides for me physically, in that there is always food to eat and water to drink.  But, more importantly, He provides for me spiritually with the life-giving water and food from His Word.  Being satisfied with the good things that He has provided is a cause for rejoicing!  God desires to fill all of us with His Word that gives everlasting life. 

Yesterday, I shared how fearful I have been of dying.  This Scripture is God’s answer to me today.  I am flourishing now, here on earth and one day I will flourish in the courts of God.  I am well past the age at which I could have children, but I can still produce fruit for God’s kingdom by sharing His message wherever I go and with whatever means I have.  I am vital…I am necessary right now.  I have a purpose to live, because God says that I do.  I am living and able to share His Word and His great love for the world.  It just so happens that green is and has always been my favorite color, so I like that God says that I will remain green.  That represents LIFE!  I am living my days for the Lord and I want to bring as many others along with me as I can.  That is my purpose and will ultimately lead to my fruitfulness.

Photo courtesy of Laurie Conklin, an online friend and THE BIBLE LENS APP

So, as I go forth to fulfill my purpose each day, this is God’s promise to me.  He is always watching over me and will be with me forever.  Do you need that promise in your life?  God is no respecter of persons and all the promises that He has given to me are for you, too.  Just ask Him into your heart and expect Him to come in because you invited Him in.  It’s your choice…and it leads to a vital life on earth and an eternity with Him.  

As I am aging rapidly, it is natural that I would be thinking about death.  I must admit that at times, a deep fear has entered my heart and each time, God has spoken clearly to me that I do not need to fear.  I have even started reciting the prayer from my childhood each night, “Now I lay me down to sleep…and if I die before I awake, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.”  Then I sleep peacefully.  Today, the Lord spoke clearly to my heart that I need not fear and He gave me these words to shelter in.

I am daily putting more of God’s Word into my heart.  It touched me deeply at last week’s funeral when the chaplain proclaimed that although my deceased friend suffered from dementia, he could still recite Scriptures.  He had the Word hidden in his heart so that it was a part of him that even a brain tumor could not take away.

Psalm 91 was my meditation this morning.  I needed to be reminded that God is my shelter, always.  I can rest in His shadow.  Thinking about that, I realized that no one can see me if I am under His wings or in His shadow.  There, I need not fear anything, even my final enemy, which is death.  God is right there with me, putting His everlasting and loving arms around me.  No matter what happens next, He is my shield and refuge.  He is my place of safety.  When I was a small child and being verbally and sometimes even physically attacked by my mom, I remember hiding in what was called the “little bathroom.”  It was really a powder room.  But there, I remember singing to myself, “Jesus Loves Me.”  I was a child and I trusted God to take care of me…as an adult, can I do any less?

God’s faithful promises are my protection.  His Word is true.  I love Him and as a child of the King, I know that He will answer me when I call on Him.  Just as He comforted me as a child, He comforts me today.  In the past, He rescued me from all of my fears.  He will rescue me from all of my fears in the future. He is rescuing me from all of my fears now.  He is the Omniscient, Omnipresent and gracious God.  Now I have reminded myself of these truths.  I hope that those you read these words will be blessed by the presence of God and know that there is NO FEAR for those who  rest in the Lord.  

I missed writing my blog yesterday, but I was traveling to and attending the funeral of a friend from church, a funeral service with full military honors.  As the wife of a retired military member, you would think that I would have attended many such services in the past.  Well, I hadn’t and this experience was so heart-wrenching for me.  You see, my father was a military veteran.  He passed away in a VA hospice last July; my brother got the flag that is presented to survivors and he also has my father’s ashes.  There has never been a memorial service for my father.  The plan was for all of us to get together this past spring, go to sea and bury him, per his final wishes.  That plan quickly fell apart when one sibling moved, another refuses to go any where more distant that an hour away from her home; finally, there is the issue of siblings just not speaking to each other.  For whatever reason, I never got to say a final good-bye to my father, at least not at a memorial service honoring him.  Needless to say, yesterday was hard for me.  As I saw the flag presented to the grieving widow, I pictured in my mind a flag being given to my brother.  As I heard taps, I pictured my father’s face and began to sob.  I was crying for Bobby, but also for my daddy who did not get such a service but deserved one.  Yesterday represented the kind of closure that I needed.  I even got to share with one of Bobby’s sons how and why the ceremony was so moving to me.  So, today, I am sharing “Taps” with you and a Scripture to give hope of seeing loved ones again.  God is always merciful; He is always loving and He always knows just what we need.  I needed yesterday.

May Bobby and daddy Rest In Peace.  I know that they are with the Father and Death has no hold on them.

God doesn’t change.  He is eternal.  He made the whole world and He thought the world needed one of me in it.  Humbling thought, isn’t it?  So, why do we walk though life afraid of what may be around the next corner?  Who is the author of this fear?  Well, for sure, it isn’t God! He wants us to live in total surrender to Him, knowing that He can take care of whatever obstacles we face.  That kind of faith is easier said than done.  It means taking steps daily to believe and know that God is our greatest defender.  He is on our side; He is our anchor and our strength.  His love for us never fails, no matter how many times we turn away and seek help from other sources.  He is our gentle Father, calling us to remember what He has done for us and what He can do for us.  God is eternal:  He has always been and He will always be, long after I cease to walk on the earth.  I can trust Him.

We sometimes need to be reminded that God is absolutely eternal and He is not going anywhere.  He lives inside us through His Holy Spirit, so His presence is as close to us as our next breath.  Our God is an awesome God who loves us so much that He had a plan for our salvation; His Son bled and died for us so that we can have God with us daily, in spite of our sinful nature.  Likewise, God has a solution for all of our problems and all of the enemies we may face in this life.

We may be surrounded by enemies…fear, financial problems, failure, whatever is coming our way.  Stop what you are doing.  Pray to God just as David did and ask Him what He wants you to do about the problem.  God has already conquered all of our enemies.  We just need to hear His voice telling us to go forward, that He is with us.  So many times, we are waiting in the valley of despair for God to speak to us, and He already has.  He has already told us to move into the light of His love and to see our victory that He has already won for us.  We get so busy making our own plans to get out of our problems that we don’t seek God and His solution.  I am encouraging you today, just as I encourage myself, to take the problem to God and ask Him to point you in the way you should go, the road to victory.  God is eternal, and He is our Father and our Lord who gives us the victory!  Hallelujah!  Let His Name be praised!

I am sad to say that I am like many others who give the Lord their burdens and then snatch them back again and continue to travel down life’s road, too heavily burdened to travel the path that God wants for me.  I am trying very hard to purposefully lay my burdens down and then leave them with the Lord, trusting that He is well able to take care of me.

The waiting patiently is what gets me every time, because I have a timetable in my mind.  But my timetable is not God’s and I know that He sees things through the hour glass of eternity.  I am praying to get more of His perspective on my life so that I am not so impatient for His answer. Many times, I have gotten ahead of Him, or like Sarah when she told Abraham just to use the maid to get a son, trying to help Him with the answer and ending up messing up the plans He had for me.  I want to stay right here until He sends the answer, and I must admit, that right here is not a comfortable place for me to be right now.  But here I stay, because that is God’s answer for now.

Thus, I am declaring a freedom from my burdens that others who do not know the Lord cannot understand and a joy and peace that can only come from Him as I trust Him daily to lift the burdens and walk life’s road beside me.  I hope that you know the Lord Jesus so that He can help carry your load, too.

 

This is a Christian fiction book, with enough romance and suspense to satisfy the readers of all these genres.  I enjoyed getting to know Kate Weller, AKA Jill Wyatt.  Since she is running from danger in her past, Kate changes her name to Jill early in the book.  Escaping her past may not be easy but Kate easily falls into her new job as an investigator with Price Investigagtions.  Her first task with them is to find a lost sibling of Charlotte Sugarman, a pathetic individual who is quickly dying of liver failure and needs her sibling to donate to her.  I did not find the Sugarmans very well portrayed: it was like an instant camera picture that is not fully developed.  I did enjoy the interaction between Eric Manfredi, Kate’s landlord, who quickly becomes interested in her romantically.  Kate’s involvement with Eric pulls her into a murder mystery that is very satisfying for mystery buffs.  I certainly enjoyed the setting in Charleston, South Carolina since I was fortunate enough to live there for almost a decade and recognized many of the landmarks referred to in the book.  I was a little disappointed that the ending leaves several things hanging, but knowing that this is a series, my expectation is that these things will be addressed in future books.  I would read the next books in the series and may even go back and read the series from the beginning.  The author is talented in drawing the reader into the story and holding you there with the suspense and romantic elements.

Disclaimer:

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

This is not really a book that I would sit down and read for pleasure.  It is more, a book to be used for encouragement in certain situations, and I think that the author has done an outstanding job of covering all the possible life stresses.  I was particularly impressed by how well organized the book is and how the author seems to have taken the time to meditate on all of the applicable scriptures, compiled them and presented them in a way that is helpful to her readers.  Although I don’t consider this a book to be read in a sitting or two, it is definitely one to keep alongside your Bible, to refer to when you are encountering challenges in life that require that you hold on to God’s promises for things like His provision, His faithfulness and His strength.  God is able is the theme of this beautifully well-written book.  This book should be considered your little helper and encourager to get through the trials of daily life.  I like how the author presented that you yourself could pray the Scriptures, no matter what verse of the Bible you are using.  This book is a primer in how to do so, as each Scripture that is presented is done with a following explanation of applying it to yourself.  

Disclaimer

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, Revell.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions that I have expressed are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”