life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “strength”

timing is all about patience

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Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Ephesians 6:13

Can you wait for the mud to settle?
Challenging words from Lao Tzu
Can you wait?
Having done all you can,
can you simply stand?
Waiting for the timing that is not your own.
Waiting for THE way,
not just A way,
not just my way.
Patience is a virtue.
Virtues are HARD!
All I can do is
keep letting go
over and over
with shaky hands and heart
into the bigger mystery
into the arms of love and intimacy
into the uncertainty of faith
into the rest of sure promise
Having done all I can by grace alone
now I stand,
and ask for the grace
to wait for You.
Not my will,
Thine be done.

AL 3/26/13

even on days like yesterday!

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my biggest challenge always…not my will

1b

blessings of friendship

a blessing for u this night: Let nothing disturb thee, nothing affright thee; God never changeth! Patient endurance attaineth to all things; who God possesseth in nothing is wanting; alone God sufficeth.” I love u and God loves u most. ox.

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I am so very, very blessed to have amazing God-given friends! They give me strength. So grateful ❤

just breathe & trust

Trust is key. Trust you are where you are meant to be. Be trust filled; trust fully in your source, Divine Love. Know intuitively that this is the way, the only way. – Margaret Rahn

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I took a long hike in the desert, following a faint trail. Sometimes the path was not marked, not clear, little more than a six inch wide smudge of a different texture of sand between the rocks. I could not look across the landscape and see where it would take me. It was one step at a time. I had to trust the walking on it of those who had gone before. I really had to pay attention.

The other night I walked in the dark woods, the snow dark gray, the black trees only slightly darker. I couldn’t see the path; only the faint blur of footprints in the snow directly before me. I was not alone.

Sometimes the closest we come to the Word of God is not a voice, but faint footprints before us. Sometimes the closest we come to faith is not knowing or believing, but walking in those footsteps, hearing nothing, following.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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When you move, the Universe moves. When you reach, it reaches. When you stretch, it stretches. But always, you must go first. – Mike Dooley

Just as millions of snowflakes pile up to
create a blanket of snow,
the “thank you’s” we say pile up and
fall gently upon one another until,
in our hearts and minds,
we are adrift in gratitude.
Daphne Rose Kingma

We give thanks to God and the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ,
praying always for you.
Colossians 1:3

Maritta Terrell

Thoughts are also posted at:
http://thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/

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Therefore, those who know themselves can be themselves. – Boyd Bailey

1BE YOURSELF
“Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.” 1 Samuel 17:38-39

Those who are comfortable in their own skin are content in how the Lord has made them. However, those who strive to be someone they’re not end up frustrated, failing to enjoy authentic living. Saul desired to honor David by giving him his armor that worked well in past battles, but what Saul found effective was not the best plan for David. Yes, wise followers of Christ focus on what aligns with the unique. Therefore, those who know themselves can be themselves.

Are you at peace in how the Lord has prepared you for the challenges you face? Do your words and mannerisms represent the true you, or are you a masquerade of another man or woman? It is ok to learn from others with a track record of integrity, but ask the Spirit to filter their ideas and actions through the grid of how God has made you. The Lord has placed you in this time and place, so be proud of who you are and where you’re from. Be who God made you.

“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:26-27

Be yourself at home and your family will feel free to be themselves. Parents and children who laugh and cry together grow closer together. Be yourself at work and pretense will feel uncomfortable in your workplace. Office politics are precluded where people are at peace in their roles and responsibilities. It is in an environment of authenticity that we feel free to be how God has made us. So you can be content in a career that is the best fit for you.

Most of all be yourself in the company of Christ. He will not love you any more than He already does, regardless of what you accomplish or don’t accomplish. You don’t have to prove yourself to God who has already thoroughly accepted you in His son Jesus. Be yourself with your Creator and He will give you insight to be creative for His causes. Clothe yourself in the unique apparel of grace that Almighty God has just for you. He is conforming you into the image of His Son.

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Romans 8:29

Prayer: Heavenly Father, give me the faith and courage to be who You want me to be.

Related Readings: Genesis 1:27; Psalm 106:20; 1 Corinthians 15:29; 1 John 3:2

© 2012 by Boyd Bailey. All rights reserved.
Wisdom Hunters Resources / A registered 501 c3 ministry
info@mail.wisdomhuntersdevotional.com / http://www.wisdomhunters.com

The Ascent

1Grab hold,
and take this hand that
reaches out to you.

Look up
into my eye;
my spirit
cries out to you:

Friendship is my thought.

Let us climb the jagged cliff of life
and fight the ascent of Opposition together,

if I can lift you today,
you will look back
and grab the hands of a thousand more.

– Howard Rainer,

with open arms

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The world today needs people who have been shaken by ultimate calamities and emerged from them with the knowledge and awareness that those who look to the Lord will still be preserved by him, even if they are hounded from the earth.
– Father Alfred Delp (condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler, Delp, a Jesuit priest, wrote these words from a Nazi prison shortly before being hanged in 1945)

light of the world

Now burn, new born to the world,
Double-natured name,
The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden-furled
Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,
Mid-numbered He in three of the thunder-throne!
Not a dooms-day dazzle in his coming nor dark as he came;
Kind, but royally reclaiming his own;
A released shower, let flash to the shire, not a lightning of fire hard-hurled.
– Gerald Manley Hopkins

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