I was given a prayer request for strength. This person was in the midst of two part time jobs, raising teenagers, deeply concerned about the unrest in Minnesota and other cities, and having hot flashes. She was right up on the edge of burnout.
I was later reading Amy Carmichael’s Edges of His Grace and Amy quoted this:
Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. Psalm 68:28 Darby
I sent the quote along to her. So many of us are on the edge of burnout. We need the strength of God and renewal in the strength that only God can offer.
Looking into this further, one footnote said: Septuagint and Syriac and most Hebrew manuscripts say Your God has summoned power for you.
Yes, Lord, she and I both need more of that precious power You have summoned for us!
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused Isaiah 30:15 NRSVUE
Lord, you know we are hurried and worried and preoccupied with too many things.We need to be still. Return to you. Rest and trust in you. Help us to not refuse to do these things.
We more inflow and deliberately return to the Giver of Living Water
Send forth your strength O GOD; establish, O GOD, what you have wrought for us. Psalm 68:28 BCP
Above, the Book of Common Prayer quotes this Psalm slightly differently. And below the Names of God Bible says:
Your Elohim has decided you will be strong. Display your strength, O Elohim, as you have for us before. Names of God Bible Psalm 68:28
Your Elohim – Your Elohim, the Supreme One, the Mighty One – and this Mighty one if yours. Ponder that for a moment. Yours. Your God has summoned power for you.Your God send forth strength to you. God has worked things into shape for us. Will establish what God has wrought for us. God has summoned power for us.
I was uncertain how I would get through this past week. I had many pressing matters and needed strength for each of them. This verse helped me turn to the Lord and ask for the strength I needed for each situation. I remembered with longing that Sunday was coming and that I could rest on that afternoon. I was carried in heavenly strength through the week. Left to myself I would have crashed and burned early in the week.
It is an amazing verse and even more amazing gift that is given to us. Sit with this verse. Ponder the meaning in the particulars of your life. How can you apply this verse, this truth to your life? See how Elohim loves you!
Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard Thurman
This one made me think. Twice. Howard Thurman went to his rest in the Lord in 1981. He was “a nationally recognized theologian, distinguished religious leader, and prolific author of over twenty published books. His book Jesus and the Disinherited was considered his most indispensable work.” I read his Disinherited and was moved. He wrote, “It is a man’s reaction to things that determines their ability to exercise power over him.” So reminds me of Viktor Frankl.
There are a few things that make me come alive. Some have been sitting in a file folder for decades. When I was diagnosed with the heart aneurysm I got scared but I also got busy. There was poetry the world had never seen that I wanted to release to others. There was the urge to publish a book with some of these blog posts. The aneurysm is still there, but I have decided to let it be there. Was likely there for decades without my knowledge.
Now that a new year has begun, I am aware I will not live forever, with or without the aneurysm. My husband has a pacemaker and reminds me how many years are left on his battery. He assures me he has no intention to get the battery replaced when it stops working. That sort of knowledge keeps me on my toes. If and when he dies, (he thinks it will be before me), I am certain I will be knocked down for a couple months at least if not longer. Therefore, if I intend to get some of these things done, I better get them accomplished before that battery expires!
Last year a friend offered to take one of the praise choruses I heard and wrote down years ago and work with it. She put it on staff paper so people might have it to play and enjoy. Indeed, she did just that! This year I asked if she would be willing to take on the other 4 or 5. She again said yes! This afternoon I am going to her house to work on the timing on one of them. I hope to be able to post them on this blog for you to enjoy at home or in your local church. Truly an amazing and skill musical talent she possesses!
Dana and I are working at preparing my poetry for publication through Amazon Direct Publishing. This will include some of the newer works. I have a new appreciation for what an editor does. I have read every single one of my poems and found many errors that we printed previously. Yikes. There will be a few new photos in the new book, two by my musician friend mentioned above.
Stephen Ministry has been calling to me and I was commissioned last Sunday at church. I will eventually be assigned a care receiver to meet with. That person will need me about an hour a week. I will also be praying for that person and receiving supervision during their care. It is a ministry I feel compelled to give myself to. I, too, benefited from it when I recently felt overwhelmed.
The prayer team at church need leadership. That has been a call upon my life for decades. I did not say no. Please pray for me to hear just what the Lord desires as I try to arrange a meeting with them and provide leadership that will feed and encourage them.
What makes YOU come alive? Would you be willing to take that aliveness and let the world use it? None of us knows when the Lord will call us home. Please do not leave things left undone that you might be able to accomplish now, this month, this year!
I do well with object lessons in front of me to remind me of God and the path I am supposed to be following. Lately I have been studying to be a lay minister through Stephen Ministries. I wanted to draw on my textbooks a giant ear. Over and over in the lesson material we are taught the importance of being willing to listen without judgement or giving advice.
I wondered where I might find an ear as a reminder. Around October I can sometimes find plastic hands or other body parts. This search begin in January. And then, of course, Amazon was happy to supply my desire.
They sent two cellophane packs of soft ears. One side is bright red (reminiscent of blood). The other side is generally representative of a left human ear. The ear is extremely soft and not very pleasant to hold. Then I realized it would adhere to the window with no glue.
What am I going to do with all of those ears, you ask? In March I will attend my first St. Timothy’s Stephen Ministry Leader meeting. I will take them to share with the others who also serve in this ministry!
You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger James 1:19 NRSUE
Quick to listen. Are you? I am not very quick to listen, but I am trying to do it better.
Whether you look up the 331 references to the word listen or the 347 ones that say hear, the Bible makes it clear this is an imperative trait for humans. We are rarely quick to listen, yet all of us truly want to be heard.
Even more important is the lesson that we should listen to and hear the words of God. In Deuteronomy Moses presents the people with the commandments of the Lord.
Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Deuteronomy 6:4-6 NRSUE
This evolved into a Jewish prayer that you have likely become slightly familiar with, be it through television or New Testament study.
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 NRSVUE
I have read that the Jewish people are told to recite this at least twice a day. I think I should, also. Hear the truth about God. Listen to God and obey. Listen to our neighbor, always and intently. We have our work cut out for us! Will you modify your behavior accordingly?
I am still delighting in her devotional The Edges of His ways.
Luke 4:30: Jesus passing through the midst of them went His way
Our new month will bring us joys, for the Lord of joy is with us; it will also bring us sorrows, for sorrows are part of life. It may bring things which would “throw us down” if they could. But they need not ever do that, for it is possible for us to do just what our Master did when, passing through the midst of them, He went His way. As, by His grace, we go on in quietness, we shall find those words we know so well come true: “My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Exodus 33:14
His Presence is always with us. He gives us rest. We need to stay in quietness and that is a serious challenge in this increasingly raucous world! Stay in quietness, trust, participate in His Presence, go on your way.
A new challenge for February. We will, with God’s help.
At times I read devotional thoughts from both of the above authors. The first listed below in purple print is from Joan Chittister.
“Seek God, not where God lives,” write the Desert Monastics.
The search for God comes one day to the point where we know without a doubt that we are immersed in God. Bringing ourselves to finally recognize that is the essential task of life.
There is no such thing as “getting” God. The fact is that we already have God. God is not somewhere else. God is everywhere. God is here. With me. In me. Now. It is the awareness of that presence which life intends to teach us to cultivate.
Richard Rohr’s website Center for Action and Contemplation posted “What Do We Do with the Bible? Many Voices; One Text”
Carl McColman wrote “A mystical reading of the Bible sees it as a conversation with many voices chiming in. When we read the Bible to connect with those compassionate and just voices, it is not only the Bible that is saved, but we ourselves also become more whole.
“A mystical reading of Scripture can be a way for you to reconnect with the uncreated light that shines at the heart of those ancient words of wisdom and love.” Carl McColman, Read the Bible Like a Mystic: Contemplative Wisdom and the Word(Broadleaf Books, 2025)
I have been trying to read the New Testament with the ideas put forth in Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer. I have finished Mark and Matthew. To me this method is similar to mystical reading. Not trying to look up cross reference and words meanings as in Bible study, but absorb the Word, let it soak into me and do its work on God’s behalf. As Joan Chittister wrote, keep me aware Lord of that presence which life intends for me to cultivate.
Oh Lord, yes, make me more whole. Reconnect me with your uncreated light! Strengthen my awareness and open my eyes and ears to Your closeness, in me and with me. Amen.
I have read portions of his work compiled in a book by Coleman Banks entitled The Essential Rumi. I find his work and wisdom quoted in so many places! He lived 1207-1273.
Recently Gratefulness.org posted
“Thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.” Rumi
We could all benefit from more thankfulness and gratitude. It does our hears and minds good. Jesus gave thanks repeatedly in the Gospels. He took the five loaves and two fish and gave thanks. He thanked the Father for giving wisdom to the humble and lowly. And the Scriptures go on and on showing us how Jesus was thankful to the Father for the many blessings in life.
The Beloved, I read, as our Lord. God sent Jesus to redeem and save this world. Every person on earth needs the Beloved.
We are also called the Beloved of God. We are deeply loved, cherished and valued. Do you believe that about yourself? It is true. Utterly and amazingly true!
Sometimes I just quote online sources to save time!
The word beloved is also used repeatedly throughout the New Testament. A notable use of the word is at the baptism of Jesus. In this scene, all three Persons of the Trinity are revealed. God the Father speaks to the Son from heaven: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22). Then the “Holy Spirit descended like a dove and rested on Him” (Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32). God again calls Jesus “beloved” at the Mount of Transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). We can learn a little about the loving relationship shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by God’s use of the word beloved. Jesus echoes that truth in John 10:17 when He says, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.” https://www.gotquestions.org/beloved-in-the-Bible.html
He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:5-6 NRSVUE
Glorious grace bestowed freely upon us in Christ, the Beloved. That gives me cause to be thankful and reside where the Beloved lives!
Sufi Whirling, the prayerful dance such as Rumi participated in
How might you participate more in thankfulness? It’s not just for turkey anymore 🙂
I have been trying to apply myself to read through all of the Gospels, not as a study work, but just to absorb and pray the stories of Jesus afresh for 2026. Having finished Mark I am now in Matthew.
You have likely heard the Scripture story about the house built upon the sand?
24 “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” Matthew 7:24-27 NRSVUE
I think all too often I have heard it like a lesson in engineering. If you look for images about that passage you are given house upon house built upon rocks or sand. It hit me this morning that Jesus was teaching that the ones who HEAR the words and ACT on them are wise. He compares the wise to a good engineer, but the lesson is even for those who cannot build anything. Hear and act: the continuous call to obedience. Hear the words and act upon them. How do you personally accomplish that?
I have also decided to review music by some of my favorite artists. Recently Benjamin William Hastings has been my artist to listen to. He caught my attention about three years ago with his song “That’s the Thing about Praise.” This same chapter in Matthew has the verse he wrote about with Cody Carnes in “Take You At Your Word.” The YouTube video has the lyrics. The opening artwork caught my attention as an apt descriptor of the narrow gate.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. 14 For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14 NRSVUE
Hear and act. Choose the narrow gate, the hard road that leads to life. We are also promised life and that more abundantly! (John 10:10)
You are wisdom, uncreated and eternal, the supreme first cause, above all being, sovereign Godhead, sovereign goodness, watching unseen, the God-inspired wisdom of Christian people. Raise us we pray, that we may totally respond to the supreme, unknown, ultimate, and splendid height of your words, mysterious and inspired… You fill to the full with most beautiful splendour those souls who close their eyes that they may see.
St Denis prayer from The Cloud of Unknowing , written anonymously in the fourteenth century.
If you have never used this app, I highly recommend it. No, I do not use it every single day, but I find it worthwhile practically every time I do use it.
The above prayer has kept me praising for several weeks now. I know it is from the 14th century, but it still applies to the God I worship in 2026! Scroll back to the top, then pray it instead of just reading it. When might you be finished praying this one?
The legend of Saint Denis is surrounded by fictional tales and a few facts. All I can be certain of is that if he indeed prayed like the prayer quoted above, he knew my God and how to draw me into a closer relationship with the Trinity.
The prayer is said to come from The Cloud of Unknowing, a powerful tome. “The medieval spiritual guidebook called The Cloud of Unknowing was written by an anonymous English monk. At the core is a mystical approach to Christian prayer, in which God is found not through rote knowledge, but through ‘blind love.’ It has been described as Christianity with a Zen outlook.” J.B. Hare
Saint Denis in his prayer is no less powerful. Come, Lord, and make us more like those who loved you then. Help us to totally respond to You! “You fill to the full with most beautiful splendour those souls who close their eyes that they may see.“
I just realized I never posted this to let you know I was taking a week off. Oops. Well here is this blog entry very late!!
John Mark Comer has written a phenomenal book entitled Practicing the Way. I have been devouring it and trying to live into it. There is also a website that I found only recently https://www.practicingtheway.org/
Even if you have no intention of purchasing the book or borrowing it from your local library, I would encourage you to look a these materials. At the website practice materials are offered freely. Of course, there are also ways to contribute to the effort of getting the materials out.
There was a saying years ago that if you aim at nothing you are bound to hit it! That is especially true of our spiritual walk.
There are one or more areas where we might ignore the teachings of Jesus. The materials help guide us in contemporary ways to apply the teachings and grow in our own walk. I was familiar with the nine practices, but had never applied some of them to my walk consistently. In the New Year I hope to take this material and use it as my own. Hoping for a more fulfilling, God-honoring, lifestyle by bringing the practices into focus in my own life.
As we wind down 2025, I hope you will take some time to rest. We are truly a driven society and rarely allow our Shepherd to lead us into rest and solitude.
I will be taking the first week of January off from writing. I will also be studying materials for Stephen Ministry as I venture into again becoming a Stephen Minister. May your New Year celebration be blessed and warmly celebrated as we begin again to follow the Lord.
Start 2016 with a practice of resting in Christ. I did take that time off. Now I am back at writing, continuing to study Stephen Ministry materials and planning to work on two separate writing projects. All prayers appreciated!
I get a message from the Daily Liturgy Quote. This one was addressing grief, but I apply it to my overall life.
“Be nearer now, O Christ, than I have ever known.”
Don’t we all need this to pursue our walk with joy? I need God every hour. The hours I do not think of God are the ones in which I am most likely to wander.
I was given Amazing Grace Devotional by Stephanie Sample as a gift this Christmas. So far, I am enjoying the entries immensely! She wrote a morning and evening devotion using the same Scripture verse. The entry for January 3 especially caught my attention when she said, “Like a sponge in the ocean, at once saturated and contained by his vastness, our lives are forever connected.”
As a sponge, we can soak up everything around us. We as Christians can choose which source we absorb from.
Sponge harvester
Thinking about natural sponges that are harvested from the ocean, I found they are being grown and harvested even today across the world. Looking up on Sponge on Wikipedia they wrote, “The sponge is an aquatic invertebrate with a soft porous body. There are as many as 18 species of sponges, with the wool sponge being the most desired because it is soft, durable, and not susceptible to odors or mildew. The yellow sponge is less durable, lasting a year, while the wire sponge is abrasive and often used for manufacturing. The bay sponge is known as the flowerpot sponge and grows a plant or seed.”
Wool sponge
Remembering back to when I used a synthetic sponge in the kitchen for almost every cleaning job, but especially washing dishes, I would get so angry when it turned nasty with moldy odor and mildew. I never knew until now that this natural sponge is not prone to mold and mildew!
Am I willing to become like a wool sponge this year? Like the most desired of all the variety of sponges? Sponges are still harvested and sold at Tarpon Springs , Florida, and sold as well at many other places. There is a road trip that would be fun for shopping!
But more in keeping with the devotional thought, “Like a sponge in the ocean, at once saturated and contained by his vastness, OUR LIVES ARE FOREVER CONNECTED. We are influenced and changed by God in us. We are protected through residing in him.” Thank you Stephanie Sample for reminding me I am protected through residing in God.
“Be nearer now, O Christ, than I have ever known.” And make me more conscious of your indwelling and purpose for my life throughout 2026 I pray. Hold me close and help me reside in you always. Amen.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 