May Your Word to Me Be Fulfilled

 I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe.
    You have approached even the smallest details with excellence;
    Your works are wonderful;
I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.
    You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You
As I took shape in secret,
    carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb.

You see all things;
    You saw me growing, changing in my mother’s womb;
Every detail of my life was already written in Your book;
    You established the length of my life before I ever tasted the sweetness of it.
Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them!
    How grand in scope! How many in number! 

(Psalm 139:14-17, The Voice)

 

 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

 

Then the word of the Lord came to me:“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 

 (Jeremiah 18:3-6, ESV)

Annunciation to Mary – Gabriel and Mary Watercolor, Minimalist Christian Art 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FaithArtCreation?listing_id=4360390701&from_page=listing 

 

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

 

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, 

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 

So the holy one to be born 

will be called the Son of God. . . 

For no word from God will ever fail.” 

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. 

 “May your word to me be fulfilled.” 

Then the angel left her.

(Luke 2:34-35, 37-38, NIV)

 

'I am his project' - those were the words on Mary Alice's bookmark, but they were the belief of her heart, too, and however great the problems in her life, He would continue to work on that project and bring the work to completion. 

AI generated

 

Paul, the Apostle, had a similar understanding and so he knew that though he was in Nero's prison he was not Nero's prisoner, but the prisoner of Christ Jesus. Any other arrest or imprisonment was irrelevant. A light shown in the cell.

 

In the late evening a believer looked over the day and was discouraged, but his Father spoke to comfort him. 

 

'In the early morning did you not bear your beloved ones on your heart? Did you not offer to Me every hour of the day, every touch on other lives, every letter to be written, everything to be done? As the hours passed over you, perhaps you did forget, but is it My custom to forget?  

Amy Carmichael  

 

Lord you never forget me, even though I often forget: I am your project. (Northumbria Aiden readings, Dec.10)

God Sees Potential More than Fault

Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them!
    How grand in scope! How many in number!
If I could count each one of them, they would be more than all the grains of sand on earth. Their number is inconceivable!

 (Psalm 139:17-18a, The Voice)

  Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.

 

 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

(Genesis 17:3-6,15-17, NIV) 

 

made from "The Running Shepherds"

https://www.pinterest.com/MadeSeenArt/ 

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. (Philippians 3:12-14, The Message)

 

The thoughts of the son ran thus: 'My hopes painted beautiful pictures, but they are fading one by one.'

 

His Father said: 'Destroy all those pictures. To watch them slowly fading is weakening to the soul. Dare then to destroy them. You can if you will. I will give you other pictures instead of those your hopes painted.'

 Amy Carmichael 

 

The Torn Face

 https://www.pinterest.com/sahilrathore06/ 

God doesn't see the way I do either; I look all the time into a distorted mirror that exaggerate some features and makes others disappear. God sees a true picture of me with all my faults and limitations, but more than this he sees a picture of all the possibilities and potential I hold. 

 

'Just let me get my hands on this one,' He thinks, 'and then just wait and see what the finished picture will be.' 

 

Sometimes God gives us glimpses of that picture to encourage us and spur us on. For me it is a long process, but in the end it is all about becoming God's picture of me. (Northumbrian Aiden readings, Dec.10)

Let Your Heart Glance Up to Me

 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
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—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

(Psalm 139:13-18, NIV)

 

You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
    you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
    with one jewel of your necklace.

(Song of Songs 4:9, NIV) 

 

“And this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother and is united with his wife; the two come together as one flesh.”  There is a great mystery reflected in this Scripture, and I say that it has to do with the marriage of the Anointed One and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32, The Voice)

 

The pilgrim worried that sometimes he would not have much time to care for his love-relationship with God. Then the Lord spoke to him and answered his unspoken question: 

"Do you have only one minute? Hem it in with quietness. Do not spend it in thinking how little time you have. I can give you much in one minute." 

The pilgrim sat by the water, and his dear Lord said to him: 

As the ripples of the river glance up to the light, let your heart glance up to me in little looks of love very often through the day. 

 

Amy Carmichael 

 

The old couple sat with each other in peaceable silence, and no signal was needed for the kettle to go on, or the tea to be poured, the fire tended to. 

 

'What do you find to do all the time, after all these years? ' someone asked the old lady, 'Don't you ever tire of each other's company?'

 

'Oh no,' she replied, 'You see, it's like this: I looks at him, and he looks at me, and we're happy together.'

 

(Northumbria, Aiden readings, Dec.7) 

 

Into the Desert with Jesus

 You have surrounded me on every side, behind me and before me,

    and You have placed Your hand gently on my shoulder.

(Psalm 139:5, The Voice)

Who is this coming up from the wilderness

    leaning on her beloved?

(Song of Songs 8:5a, NIV)

Garden of Gethsemane

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Very early in the morning, 

while it was still dark, 

Jesus got up, 

left the house 

and went off to a solitary place, 

where he prayed.

(Mark 1:35, NIV)

We are asked to follow the footsteps of our Lord when they are not clear on the road, and even when the road runs through desert. 

Going into the desert we are never quite sure what to expect. Being alone can be peaceful, or frightening, or just don't nothing. But coming out of the desert we find that we are leaning on him in a new way. 

The Russian word poustinia only means desert, but is the name given to the wooden hut where someone is shut away for time alone with God. 

It is a typical experience for the person undergoing poustinia to feel nothing is happening at all, but as they emerge they find others waiting, pressing them to share what God has given them in the poustinia. 

And they will not be disappointed.

(Northumbria, Aidan readings, Dec. 5)

Meet God in His Stillness

 If I ride on the wings of morning,

    if I make my home

     in the most isolated 

     part of the ocean,

Even then You will be there to guide me;

    Your right hand will embrace me,

      for You are always there.

(Psalm 139:9-10, The Voice)

A word was secretly brought to me,

    my ears caught a whisper of it.

Amid disquieting dreams in the night,

    when deep sleep falls on people.

(Job 4:12-13, NIV)

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you. 

(1 Thessalonians 4:11, NIV)

The face of all kinds of pain we find that often there is nothing to say, but it's impossible to be still. 

A woman whose child had been killed in an accident talked about her reactions. No one could say anything that would help, she said, and God was silent too - as if he knew better than to try to say anything. 

The Scripture says to be still and know that He is God, but she couldn't be still, not at all. 

But even when you don't talk to God or have any stillness of your own to bring him, you can still be met by God in His stillness. 

That's why she discovered, that eventually

 'the stillness becomes part of you.'

(Photo by <a href="https://stockcake.com/i/cozy-morning-view_190710_33604">Stockcake</a>)