Deciding in my Heart

I have become so dry. 

So closed in and holding tight to the little I have. 

I have felt a distance between me and God, 

all the while knowing that it was not Him that had moved. 

He never leaves, never forsakes. 

He gave me these verses this morning 

as I came to Him and 

simply confessed the distance in my heart.

 I asked Him to show me,

 to search me and show me 

what had come between us.

 

Repent, all of you who forget me, 

or I will tear you apart,

and no one will help you. 

But giving thanks is a sacrifice 

that truly honors me. 

If you keep to my path, 

I will reveal to you the salvation of God.” 

Psalm 50:22, 23 

I had stopped being purposelly thankful 

and offering Him praise willingly and often. 

I had been focused on all that I have to do 

instead of Who He is. 

But thanksgiving throws open the doors to God. 

We are to enter His courts with praise. 

Enter His gates with thanksgiving 

and His courts with praise; 

give thanks to Him and praise His name. 

Psalm 100:4 

As I read 2 Corinthians 9 this morning 

after God showed me my need 

to return to giving Him thanks, 

verse 7 jumped off the page at me. 

God doesn't want me to give because I have to, 

He wants me to be joyful 

as I come to Him with my thanks. 

And, I have determined to do just that.... 

To regularly give Him thanks, with a joyful heart. 

"You must each decide in your heart how much to give. 

And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. '

For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.'"

2 Corinthians 9:7

As I was typing this out, 

this next verse just popped in my head. 

So, I share it now as I close. 

What, then, shall we say in response to this? 

If God is for us, who can be against us? 

Romans 8:31

Brand New

I have been made for a purpose!

"...to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 

so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 

Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose 

and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, 

guaranteeing what is to come."

2 Corinthians 5:4-5 niv

Sometimes this mortal tent 

can seem so heavy, 

so constant,

never ending.

But there is more to come!

This is not the extent of it all.

Therefore, I can have joy 

as I cling to the promise of what is to come.

We live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7 niv

So we make it our goal to please him, 

whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 

For we must all appear 

before the judgment seat of Christ, 

that each one may receive what is due him 

for the things done while in the body, 

whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 niv

Because of what is to come,

I have a goal. 

Pleasing the Lord

should be the goal of my life. 

I am His

and one day I will stand before Him.

What will He say?

And he died for all, 

that those who live 

should no longer live for themselves 

but for him who died for them 

and was raised again.

2 Corinthians 5:15 niv

To live for Him, 

Who died for me,

is the least that I can do. 

He paid the price

and gave His all 

for you and me.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, 

he is a new creation; 

the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Corinthians 5:17 niv

I am a new creation!

Through Jesus 

the old has gone

the new is here to stay. 

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: 

Be reconciled to God. 

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, 

so that in him 

we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:20b-21 niv

"Jesus paid it all,

all to Him I owe!

Sin had left its crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow!"

Filling my Vessel of Earth with Light

For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, 

has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] 

the Light for the illumination of the knowledge 

of the majesty and glory of God 

[as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] 

in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah). 

However, we possess this precious treasure 

[the divine Light of the Gospel] 

in [frail, human] vessels of earth, 

that the grandeur and exceeding greatness 

of the power may be shown to be from God 

and not from ourselves.

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 amp

•

It comes so slowly,

the realization that dullness has come.

How dry life has become,

void of the crackle of life,

so heavy, and hard.

Looking down,

focusing on the vessel of earth,

dims the Light.

All I can see is the cracks,

the powdery residue drifting all around.

Where is hope?

I'm just a clay pot.

And a broken one at that.

And all around me are broken jars,

bumping into me,

bruising and jostling.

The hunger for Light is there.

I know where the Source is. 

I just have to lift my eyes. 

•

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? 

Why are you crying the blues? 

Fix my eyes on God— 

soon I'll be praising again. 

He puts a smile on my face. 

He's my God.

Psalm 42:5 msg

•

I may be a broken jar,

a vessel of earth.

But I am filled with the fullness of Life and Light.

Looking up, He floods my face 

with the Light of His Glory and Grace. 

Filled.

Life abundant.

•

For our light, momentary affliction 

(this slight distress of the passing hour)

 is ever more and more abundantly 

preparing and producing and achieving 

for us an everlasting weight of glory 

[beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all 

comparisons and all calculations, 

a vast and transcendent glory 

and blessedness never to cease!],

Since we consider and look 

not to the things that are seen 

but to the things that are unseen; 

for the things that are visible are temporal 

(brief and fleeting), 

but the things that are invisible 

are deathless and everlasting.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 amp

•

My brokenness is temporal.

He is Eternal, Deathless and Everlasting.

Oh downcast soul, 

look up!

He will fill with Light.

He lifts us up. 

Fix your eyes on Him.