When We Find The Key To Favor

Yesterday's 'favor' was juicy and sweet!

Not all fruit for our labor seems quite as visible and flavorful as fresh strawberries

but is every bit as sweet if we find the key to God's favor...

Then, what an indescribable treat, to savor joy!

Not in vain is noble effort

Though no ovations resound

Not for nothing is the labor

Though no compliments abound

What a diadem of honor

Crowns what appears commonplace

What pure purpose bids us onward

Though no eager crowds give chase

Though the push and pull of duty

Seems a thankless exercise

What a boon of hidden beauty

Tunes the struggle to the Prize

...when we find the key to favor

When from the moment we wake

Our joy is but to labor

For the name of our Lord’s sake

...when to labor is the favor

When love is its own reward

When work is worship, we savor

Joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord

© Janet Martin

Psalm 5:11-12

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You [f]defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;

With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Prov.8:35

For whoever finds me finds life,

And obtains favor from the LORD;

Col.3:23

And whatever you do, do it heartily,

as to the Lord and not to men,

Luke 11:27-28

As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out

, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

God's Fingerprints

Now I see His (God's) fingerprints all over this experience. '

wrote my friend as she looks back on 3 years 

filled with tumultuous tests of searching for God's will 

and waiting on His timing...

It made me think of all of us in the middle of

a finished frame...

Some waiting/hoping to find their one true love

Some who have found and married their one true love

and are weathering the challenges/disappointments

that marriage is bound to bring

and some whose marriages are broken

Couples who would love to be parents but that dream is withheld,

Parents whose wisdom, energy and patience are stretched to the max

by 'dreams' not withheld...

Many of us find ourselves in some kind of 'frame' of waiting.

What good cheer to visualize God's fingerprints

putting what looks to us like broken or forgotten pieces, in perfect place

if we trust, seek and wait on Him...

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Sometimes in the middle

Of a broken heart

We can't grasp the goodness 

In God's works of art

In dark disappointment

Of dreams not come true

We can't see the glory

Waiting to shine through

Sometimes in the middle

Of 'Remember When?'

God is gently drawing

Wonder's awed 'amen'

Sometimes colors baffle

Sometimes pages crease

Living in the middle

Of the masterpiece

Sometimes God's kind whisper

Transfigures pied glints

Unveiling a picture

Of His fingerprints

Janet Martin

Waiting on God's Timing part 1

Waiting on God's Timing, Part 2

To Know Makes All the Difference (for the Unknown)

Who knows what Come-what-may waits to unfold today...

(well!! one unknown unfolded already;

 An unexpected day off due to two sick tots)

Here are a few fond frames of yesterday

Side note on photo below: while we 'swang' we sang every song we could think of...

including what might be the longest version of Old MacDonald's Farm ever known 😂

The Knowing keeps dark deeps of Come-What-May in tender check

Morning unmoors the bark of Day with renewed call and beck

Where none can see what waits to be, but He who spreads the skies

Where no sudden calamity His will can compromise

(or, where no sudden calamities can take Him by surprise)

His promises are like a bulwark where dread’s fathoms roll

To know God keeps his every Word comforts the fainting soul

Nothing can separate us from His love that will not fail

He will never forsake us though the glove of faith grows frail

To know He, Whom we have believed is faithful to the end

And though so often we have grieved Him, still, He is our Friend

To know when we confess our sin He forgives and forgets

To know His Spirit dwells within to help us face veiled ‘yets’

To know 'surely His goodness and His mercy follows me'

Grants courage when the darkness of Unknown rolls like a sea

To know His gentle Presence crowns the vale of death’s release

To know He cups both ups and downs bestows hope, joy and peace

© Janet Martin

Romans 15:13

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 

that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I Know Whom I Have Believed

  

Pondering Paupers (of Spiritual blessing)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

 who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”

(Eph. 1:3).

When we ignore His divine power, who gives us everything we need to

live a godly life it is no small wonder we stumble...

  3as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,

 through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

2 Peter 2:3

If we do not stand tall in times of peace

defending our faith,

how will we stand strong in times of persecution?!

For if they do these things in the green wood,
what will be done in the dry?”
Luke 23:31

If we, professing believers, do not with utter care weigh each action,

whether it is a stepping stone or a stumbling block to spiritual blessing

what is Godliness?

The new creation ought not resemble the old

in desires, in habits and in fruit.

When it does it, pray we take it before our holy, righteous, loving heavenly Father,

confess our sins and He is faithful and just to forgive us (1 John 1:9)

Pray we covet the spiritual blessing that only devotion to God's commands can bring.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

old things have passed away;

behold, all things have become new.

2 Cor. 5:17

Imagine if we coveted spiritual blessing like we do the material?

Everything We Need

To be robbed of spiritual blessing

Is life’s greatest loss of all

To cower and never be hated

For the sake of standing tall

...so, lest sin subtly entangles

And hinders us in the race

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus

And boldly defend His grace

Lest we forfeit sacred riches

Lest we hinder pleading prayers

Lest we trod the name of Jesus

Beneath our feet unawares

Lest we cause another to stumble

Lest we choose depravity

And then, robbed of spiritual blessing

Become a fruitless tree

 © Janet Martin  

Eph.1:18

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened

 in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, 

the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,

Phoenix of Redemption

Do you ever marvel, (considering our track-record)

at the mercy that draws Redemption's phoenix of morning

from the dust and ash of Yesterday...

I began this poem yesterday morning before the sweetest 

summer solstice drew me into its eager embrace

and even though it was the longest day of the year, poof!

even though we lingered, while Gaze clung to day's glorious, fading fringes,

 Night fell

Some summer-solstice 'Shadows'/inspirations for this poem...

(my daughter is tending some chickens this week while their owners are away💖)

After the night the shadow hall of dawn unfurls anew

A runway for the beck and call of love and work to do

Into the arc of thinning dark the songbird’s greeting trills

To cheer us on as we embark upon mercy’s refills

After the night the color-world of dawn-to-dusk unfolds

Like laughter, morning is unfurled in blues, blush, greens and golds

Tranquility of slumber sheds its plush cloak; duty hails

To draw a world of sleepyheads toward beckoning trails

After the night like bright-eyed tots, time smiles, fretting forgot

The loveliness of re-Beginning exiles morbid thought

The wing that lowered over half the earth, speckled with stars

Is lifted, Mercy clucks; birth’s brood runs rampant o’er death’s bars

After the night the lust for life rekindles wilted joy

Trust is a well-rested housewife, and hope a whistling boy

How darling is the duty that waits to employ the hand

How virginal the beauty as daybreak unveils the land

Before fallible feet dash into meads where passions plead

Let’s fold our hands and bow our heads and pray the Lord to lead

Let's marvel where the phoenix of Redemption beams so bright

Let's praise the God of grace and love for Day, after the night

© Janet Martin

Grand-daughter wearing a dress I sewed for her mommy many years ago😊

Phil.4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always. 

I will say it again: 

Rejoice! 

5Let your gentleness be evident to all. 

The Lord is near. 

6Do not be anxious about anything, 

but in every situation, by prayer and petition, 

with thanksgiving, 

present your requests to God. 

7And the peace of God, 

which transcends all understanding,

 will guard your hearts and your minds 

in Christ Jesus.

Spring Adieu and Summer Hello

Spring wanders from the beaten path

Feet follow, where its aftermath

Is snared in campion bouquets...

Of almost Eden’s verdant sheaf

Of breezes tumbling leaf to leaf...

Of early-morn and late-dusk clock

Of arbors flanked by hollyhock...

Spring wanders from the beaten path

Feet follow, where its aftermath

Is snared in campion bouquets

In daisy chains and rose sachets

Where mint and chamomile are caught

Like artwork in a glass tea-pot

Where buttercups and fleabane stroll

Along the lane, up grassy knoll

To play ‘mongst Canterbury bells

‘neath bottomless blue-sky inkwells

And time is like a poem-book

A rhyme in every nook and crook

Of almost Eden’s verdant sheaf

Of breezes tumbling leaf to leaf

Of early-morn and late-dusk clock

Of arbors flanked by hollyhock

While laughter, like a butterfly

Bobs bloom to bloom with lilt and sigh

While gardens and picnics beguile

While summer-lovers smile and smile

© Janet Martin

a bit of feather-color at the feeders today

(Not quite as clear because I take the pictures through a screen)

Anguish...

Dear Believer, does your heart too, break for the lost and the cost of unbelief?

Do you weep for those who sleep in the darkness of sin?

Do you mourn for those not yet born again?

Do you pray

And pray

And pray?!

Come To Jesus

  

What script of desolation spills like ink-demonic seas

When naught but human logic fills thought’s godless theories

What darkness over darkness rolls without the light of Truth

How doleful daybreak's bower tolls, how hopeless is youth’s youth

Without the faith that rends the veil

And trusts the love that cannot fail

What fathoms of futility soon lie in wanton waste

What claim to shame’s depravity tunes knowledge, mortal-based

What agonizing anguish rings beyond time’s transient bar

When fullness of rejection flings the gates of hell ajar

When, without faith that makes us whole

Denial faces Deathless Soul

What weight of sorrow sears the prayer that reaches Mercy’s ears

As groan on groan beyond compare beseeches, tears on tears

Because the love and truth of God, by some, is thought a sham

No reverence, no fear, no laud for salvation’s I AM

Where without He who justifies

Hell claims the soul that never dies

What Gethsemane-like appeal should bleed from prayer on prayer

What throes of love should bid us kneel, love’s pleading cross to bear

For what good is the best laid plan unfurled if its sad goal

Is but the wink-span of the world in exchange for the soul

Where nothing, when Last Breath is spent

Can comfort Unbelief’s Lament

© Janet Martin

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

Prov.14:26-27

He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence,

and his children shall have a place of refuge.

The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,

turning a man from the snares of death.

The Wonder of Enough (or Monday Morning Mantra)

Love's mandates are timeless

As we cry out in our hearts 'what can we do?!'

as we lift up brokenness after brokenness to God in prayer

His reply is now as it was then;

Love one another...

John 15:12

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, 

just as I have loved you.

John 14:15

“If you love me, keep my commands.

Galatians 5:13

For you were called to freedom, brethren;

only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh,

but through love serve one another.

Magnificent, Marvelous, Matchless Love

 

His love poured through us is Enough

Enough to equip us 

for the fight

Enough to convict, forgive, 

to be kind, to be Light

Enough to fulfill

His will, so we pray 

For His love to instill

until we obey

...and love one another

the way we ought

and love one another

the Way He taught

How Deep The Father's Love For Us

Lord, help love be sincere

And help us take to heart

The wonder of Thy love so dear

While the world falls apart

Because it does not know

The Truth that sets us free

The joy that sets the heart aglow

Amidst calamity

Where grace in rich supply

True repentance redeems

Where, morn to morn, mercy’s reply

With renewed favor/fervor streams

Where hope does not bring shame

But anchors blood-bought souls

In the salvation through Thy name

While time’s progression rolls

Toward eternity

When Time will be no more

Where faith will taste the victory

That now we hunger for

When the glass of the law

Dissolves, when face to face

We gaze, with undistracted awe

On Thee, Author of grace

Unhindered then, by cares

When prayerful pleadings cease

When love its final burden bears

When all is life and peace

When grief its dagger drops

When swords to plowshares beat

When from valleys and mountaintops

Worship’s anthems repeat

When everlasting Day

Earth’s shackles will undo

When former things are passed away

And all will be made new

…until then, Lord, through Thee

Let our love be sincere

Help us, with unfeigned fealty

Thy precepts to revere

And take to humble heart

Thy steadfast truth and love

And let Thy promises impart

The wonder of Enough

© Janet Martin

Love's To-do list...

Romans 12:9-21 

9 Love must be sincere. 

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 

10 Be devoted to one another in love. 

Honor one another above yourselves. 

11 Never be lacking in zeal, 

but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 

12 Be joyful in hope, 

patient in affliction, 

faithful in prayer. 

13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. 

Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; 

mourn with those who mourn. 

16 Live in harmony with one another. 

Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.

[a] Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, 

but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: 

“It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[b] says the Lord. 

20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[c]

21 Do not be overcome by evil, 

but overcome evil with good.