Established!

"Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." Prov. 16:3

We live in a depressed world. If you're a Christian, dear friend, I hope and pray that you can rise above it with the Lord. Imagine if we wallowed in our sin and past failures, that we just wouldn't let the Lord carry us on to do great exploits for Him. I've had periods of wallowing this way. It's a reproach to my Lord though.

I'm glad you stopped by the Hill today and leave you with a thought that God's Spirit helped me see this morning. I read from Matthew 26, where Jesus told his disciples to sit in the garden while He went to the Father in prayer. He told them to "watch with me". Jesus approached them three times and told them to watch. They kept failing Him, falling asleep on the job. Finally He came, finding them asleep again. They had failed in this instance. He then told them to "rise, let us be going"... on to the next work that was ahead. Imagine if those disciples wallowed in their failure; if Peter wallowed in his utter failure of actually denying with a curse, his Lord and Savior? When God gives forgiveness, He gives it FULLY. A Christian today who has failed Him, but comes in honest confession to God, can be carried on to be bountifully used of Him! Some live as though we have "the curse of God" on our life and just cannot be used of Him anymore.

If you're like me, your thoughts can get you into trouble. Depression can set into anyone's life as we let past failure pull us down. Our thoughts CAN be "established" rightly. It will happen as we commit our works unto the Lord daily, momentarily. These were encouraging verses and thoughts to my heart today. I hope, to yours also.

Faithful, for the Day Ahead?

Often, when washing my morning dishes, I will tune into our favorite radio station, WMUU out of Greenville, SC. I love listening to Beneth Jones share her Sunshine on the Soapsuds. Though each excerpt is only 5 minutes long, the lessons bless my heart. This week a dear evangelist, Chuck Crabtree, has been on my heart. I 'googled' his name and there was a site which offered downloads of sermons preached by him. Praise God for this treat! The one I listened to this morning was, Being Humble to be Used By God. The Scripture was IITim. 2:1,2. One could just listen to a blessed sermon like this while washing dishes, but in a chair with open Bible was the setting of choice this morning.

"Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."

Though there are many things that I hate about it, the world-wide web, if used correctly, can bring wonderful tools to our fingertips. This message was just what I needed this morning, else the Lord would not have directed me to it.

The zero temperatures and high winds are making their way in around the cracks of the windows this morning. I am praising the Lord for out little furnace on the wall that is working hard to keep us toasty warm (if you can stay out of the breeze). Our little drove of redpolls are feeding in a frenzy at the feeder on the back porch. They seem to make their rounds between all the neighbors on Darling Hill, as they will be gone for over an hour at a time, then back they come! I can see the sun has come up at Mom's house and is making its way along the mountains across the valley. This time of year is nice, being able to see through the leafless woods. Soon enough the trees will bud and the view be obstructed for a time; a time, long-awaited, here in the north.

The dishes are done now and it's time to move into the day. Old, brown bananas on the counter are waiting to be turned into bread. Dust bunnies lay in the corners and wait to be sucked up by the vacuum and many more projects are 'waiting in the wings'. The challenge in God's mesage today was: Do I need it? Did I get it? Will I live it? and Will I give it? As I read the Scripture passage over again, these fit in perfectly. They also fit into my order of the day. Every new morning we could ask these question when we come to the Word of God and then to the tasks ahead; ultimately to the task of daily walking by faith with the Lord Jesus Christ. Humble, faithful men (and women) are surely what God wants. These are what He uses to carry on the Word and His work.

I hope you enjoy the day. Thanks for coming up on the Hill this morning.