Conquering Worry's 'What-if'

The dark of night is borne away

and swallowed in the light of day

The dark of life is like this too

If we trust God to see us through

Worry’s ‘what if’ robs us of peace

It crushes us with constant care

And fuels the futile increase

Of anxiety and despair

Worry’ s ’what if’, by God’s kind grace

Through faith’s unfeigned humility

Will help us find our rightful place

Leaning on God on bended knee

Worry’s ‘what if’ is mercy-blind

To He who knows and sees our need

Only a heart fully resigned

Can find the courage to proceed

Worry’s ‘what if’ is hard to bear

It robs us of strength for today

Until we place its burden where

God helps us to trust and obey

Worry’s ‘what if’ is like a noose

That snuffs life’s light with dread’s dark rope

Until we cut agendas loose

And humbly cling to Living Hope

© Janet Martin

And we know that in all things God works for the good 

of those who love him,

who[i] have been called according to his purpose.

Rom.8:28

This verse is not a blanket statement to all humanity; 

but it is a promise to all who love God

and are called according to his purpose!

Pray then, that we confess our sin/pride 

to He who is faithful and just

 to forgive our sins and cleanse us 

from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Pray our whole Soul-goal is the first and greatest command

and the second like it...

“’Love the Lord your God 

with all your heart 

and with all your soul 

and with all your strength 

and with all your mind’ 

and,

 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Mysterious Mosaic

Not all beauty is as easily recognizable as that of a flower...

or morning sky...

or precious, innocent child...

We all have our own version of Unspoken Broken, don't we?!

True Beauty in us is impossible until we entrust the pieces into

the loving Hands of the Healer of heart-hurts!

I can do all things through [a]Christ who strengthens me.

Phil.4:13

True Beauty is not always how we picture it should be

Where brokenness can blind us to beauty’s reality

For what is pleasing to the eye can trick the mind and heart

Into thinking that beauty is a perfect work of art

But beauty is a radiant reflection of ‘Release’

When, with our broken pieces, God begins His masterpiece

Beauty starts with the holy heart-work of humility

When at last yielded ‘yes’ replies ‘not I, but Christ in Me’

Then often, tis midst brokenness while shards still pierce and sting

That God can work His best for our good, in everything

For the capstone of beauty is begotten with great price

Not on a bed of roses, but a cross of sacrifice

While disappointment crushes and good intention seems cursed

We learn true beauty’s brushstrokes are not beautiful at first

But, just as God the Father saw beyond The Crucified

Beyond the painful hour to many souls justified

We learn to look beyond the broken to the Hand that heals

We learn that beauty is far more than how one looks or feels

True beauty is in what we know in spite of what we see

The grace whereby our weakness cries ‘not I, but Christ in Me’

As we admit our need; submit, commit our way to His

And undergo a slow and sacred metamorphosis

As glory of The Artist starts to shine through crack and crease

We begin to glimpse designs of Love's Divine Masterpiece

Mysterious mosaic, as God gathers doubts and fears

He melds/mends the broken spirit with confession's tender tears

And fashions from the fragments of our utter selves denied

A Beauty we were blind to while we wallowed in our pride

Mysterious mosaic, as our brokenness is healed

In the light of God's mercy, there, true beauty is revealed

 

© Janet Martin

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, 

but Christ lives in me. 

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 

who loved me and gave himself for me.

Gal.2:20

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,

 in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 

holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

Lent to Lose (in order to find)

On Sunday our message was from Matthew 16

 including the challenge in verse 25;

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,

but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

Oh, how easy it is to forget

Life is a gift, lent!

...a gift with sacred reckoning

on how it is spent

Only Trust Him-Alan Jackson

This poem is inspired in part,

by a family tragedy...

On Sunday night my nephew's 19 mo. old son went missing on their farm.

His body was recovered on Monday in a manure pump.

Please pray for strength and comfort

for my brother Stuart and their family and

esp. for my nephew and his wife, Charles and Andrea!

Sometimes the certainty of sorrow tries to steal the glow

And make us worry ‘bout tomorrow and what none can know

Sometimes senses of satisfaction lose approval’s nod

As love suffers the hard attraction that points man to God

Sometimes the trouble we are born to tests want’s willful way

Tempting man with doubt’s first question ‘did God really say?’

For we see only the pieces; the picture as a whole

Must wait until God’s will releases body from the soul

Sometimes people are prone to ponder Mercy’s Upper Hand

But we were born to trust and wonder, not to understand

Born to find strength in surrender, not in a fist we raise

Born to be a humble spender of numbered, gifted days

Sometimes our own idea of what should or should not be

Makes us rebel against replies of ‘be it unto me’

Sometimes sudden loss reminds us not to take for granted

What we soon will leave behind us, back to He who lent it

© Janet Martin

 

 

 

Divine Design (updated)

.(here is the update mentioned this morning)

Last night my nephew's 19 mo. old son went missing

on their farm.

His body was recovered today in a manure pump.

Please pray for strength and comfort

for my brother Stuart and their family and

esp. for my nephew and his wife, Charles and Andrea!

I will say of the LORD, 

“He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust.”

Psalm 91:2

Psalm 18:2

The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. 

My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield,

 and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 94:22

But the LORD has been my stronghold,

and my God is my rock of refuge.

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

No matter what designs the must of trials we pass through

In Thee oh, Lord we place our trust; our refuge is in You

With gaping wounds of heart and soul, beneath the blows of loss

We plead for faith to make us whole by looking at the cross

For when life’s cup of joy is marred by sorrow’s agony

You reach with Hands redemption-scarred; our refuge is in Thee

The places that once brimmed with love and laughter’s harmony

Are full of tears, our visage dimmed with groaning sympathy

To Thee oh, Lord we pour our prayer; when understanding fails

Help us to place our burden where Your faithfulness prevails

To lean upon your promises for they are kind and true

No matter what designs the test, our refuge is in You

© Janet Martin

 

Defying Depths of Despair

Psalm 37:7-8

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,

Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

8Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;

Do not fret—it only causes harm.

Often when I am tempted to despair 

(and there seem to be SO many reasons these days )

 I think of Marilla Cuthbert's words to Anne,

"To despair is to turn your back on God"

Marilla Cuthbert, Anne of Green Gables

(at the 3:)) minute point in this clip)

The depths of dark despair are always there, where we might stray 

If we mistrust the care of He to whom we ought to pray 

If we beg for deliverance but do not change our ways 

If we gratify ignorance with flattery’s vain praise 

If we do not obey the law that perfect love decreed 

If we, not overcome with awe, do not find what we need 

If we while knowing better still continue thus to err 

And do not make an effort to be wiser than we were 

If we, severely stubborn in our human-natured bent 

Do not let goodness govern our intimate intent 

We will be monsters, no matter how ‘normal’ the façade 

If we do not acknowledge our lack and trust in God 

If we, so broken at our best do not rest and rely 

Without agendas, on the One who so loves you and I

 

If we do not yield heart and soul, to He who will provide 

Our joy will never be made whole; we must be rid of pride 

Or depths of dark despair will try to overtake the Light 

If we do not first trust the Care that fits us for the fight 

© Janet Martin

 

 

Lessons Easier Said than Done

 

This is nothing new; the uncertainty of the times we are in!

God bless you as we learn together

to trust and lean more completely on Him!

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

2 Cor.6:1-2

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

 For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,

and in the day of salvation I helped you.”[a]

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, 

now is the day of salvation.

Learning to lean longer, stronger through meeker relinquishment 

Learning to let weakness be the catalyst to Super-strength 

Learning to be less of me so that there can be more of You 

Are all lessons that are so much easier to say than do 

Learning to listen rather than pour out my heart’s misery 

Learning to be still and know that you are Graced Sufficiency 

Learning to let go while holding on to You, unfailing One 

Are lessons far easier said than wholly, holy, humbly done 

Learning to trust without knowing what lies near or far ahead 

Learning to rest in the promises You gave to us instead 

Learning to live each day like it could be life’s severing tie 

Are lessons far easier to say than do, but we should try 

© Janet Martin

Thy-Way or My-Way Highway

It's All About Him-Alan Jackson

How easy it is fall from Sunday morning's pew-secure 'Thy-Way, Lord

to Monday morning's My-way Highway😐

Yesterday's message 

and the past few devotions

...are part of the inspiration for this poem

Holy and wholly Thine 

Lord, teach us how to pray 

Thy kingdom come 

Thy will be done 

Thou Potter, I, the clay 

Except the kernel falls 

Into the ground and dies 

It cannot yield 

The goodly field 

That broken seed supplies 

The hardest death we die 

Is veiled in life's façade

As we resign 

The will of ‘mine’ 

To ‘Thine alone, Oh God’ 

Aha, tis not the gift 

That anchors and assures 

But mortal lives 

Through He who gives 

And only death/faith secures 

How easily we fall 

Not to the ground to die 

But to the taunts 

Of selfish wants 

And mistrust’s crafty lie 

Holy and wholly Thine 

No lesser pleas avail 

Thy kingdom come 

Thy will be done 

All else is but to fail 

© Janet Martin 

Thy kingdom come, 

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Matt 6:10

 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

Psalm 56:3

My Faith Looks Up To Thee

Gently, through life’s hurts and struggles 

Through each day’s Incumbent Must 

In a world so full of troubles 

God secures us when we trust 

It is not a small achievement 

To relinquish ev’ry plea 

To the One who bore bereavement 

On a cross at Calvary 

Then let our greatest endeavor 

That we seek to strive toward 

Be to place our trust forever 

In the mercy of our Lord 

© Janet Martin 

When We Pray...

It's summer-break time so this will be
the last post for a week or two!
God bless and keep.

Psalm 68:17
The chariots of God are tens of thousands--thousands of thousands are they; 

the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.

Psalm 104:4
He makes the winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants.

2 Kings 6:17
Then Elisha prayed, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” 

And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the hills 

were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

We have within a whisper’s reach, nay, closer yet than this

Access to a shelter beneath the roar of much amiss

The Unknown like the Red Sea rolls; faith’s enemies pursue

But we may still have confidence to fearlessly pass through

We have within surrender’s grip hope’s lifeline held secure

Because of He who left His throne our pardon to endure

Twixt folded fingers, bended knee and heart yielded and still

We may approach the throne of grace to Mercy’s perfect will

We have, no matter who or where we are, an equal claim

No one greater or lesser as we call upon His name

His eyes are on the righteous; his ears open to their cry

Where, when we pray God’s chariots of fire fill the sky

© Janet Martin

Psalm 34:15 (click link to read the whole glorious chapter!)

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
and His ears are inclined to their cry


Morning Meditation

As feet touch down on the Great Unknown
Is it not sweet to know
We have access to Mercy's throne
Wherever we may go

Where all that stand twixt Him and us
As we bow down to pray
Is our own unwillingness
To trust Him and obey

 © Janet Martin

Relinquishing Wishes...

 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns;

 yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not of more value than they?  

Matt.6:26

I kept rubbing the computer screen till I realized the smudge is on the window in the photo!😉...

 (the Baltimore orioles are offering non-stop entertainment these days!)

I'm so accustomed to kiddo-kisses on the windows I hardly notice them anymore

(until the sun shines!!)

Surrendering to Thee

How often Want conflicts

With the Higher Authority

Of love’s flawless edicts

The wishes we employ

Like farmers planting fields

Cannot produce the sweeter joy

That true surrender yields

Then Lord, help us resign

Our will without regret

Beneath Supremacy Divine

To trust Thee for the ‘Yet’

© Janet Martin

The Gain of Loss

 

The pain of loss grants gain because we start to realize

That all we have God’s goodness gave; the prelude to The Prize

When we shall see His majesty then we will understand

How loss was but love’s albatross before the Promised Land

When deathless soul flies to its goal like a bird from a cage

Then we will see faith’s Mystery unfold on Heaven’s stage

The pain of loss that shaped the cross that we are called to bear

Will melt like snow when warm winds blow as we shed ev’ry care

The pain of loss carries an awesome opportunity

To lean on He who calms the sea and keens humility

for mortal mold of have and hold is but the brief prelude

That shapes and hones the steppingstones to endless gratitude

The pain of loss may vex and toss the heart with want and woe

Until we cling, through suffering to He who loves us so

And thus begin to hate the sin of selfishness and pride

And look with awe at He who saw our need and did provide

© Janet Martin

 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  
 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth 
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. 
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish,
 in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him,
 not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, 
but that which comes through faith in Christ, 
the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 
^Eph.3:7-9