Release Me…

      Sometimes we have to be set free, to become…a servant. The cares of our lives and worries of the world have a tight grip. The not yet happened curls its tendrils around our thoughts. Attention and effort lost in the sea of the past and stranded on the shores of tomorrow. But what happened to today?

“My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my feet from the snare.” (Psalm 25:15 NIV) Whether a snare of our own making or another’s…

Oh how I wish we – you and me – could live today – and not yesterday and tomorrow. So much lovely puffy cloud time, dew drops of early morning, and buzzing dragonfly wings of dusk are missed in our regrets and what ifs…

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27 NIV) But we can take a single hour or sacred minute and make it meaningful to life. To breathe in all the glory of these moments fleeting…

What is remembered most is not the mistakes but the ‘on purposes’. Purposefully speaking life to another’s soul, purposefully lightening the burden, purposefully overlooking the imperfection…

On purpose I want to tell, no show, no show and tell someone how much they matter, how much I forgive them, how much God loves – loves them, knows them, has planned for them…

Living Braver I want to be on purpose – today. Not worrying that I let yesterday get away from me, not fretting that I may not be prepared for tomorrow, and, oh Father, not hanging on to what made a mess of things or forgetting what made a glory of things…

This is courage and this is fear…less — to be on purpose as I look out the window, pick up the phone, fold the laundry, stand in line, read the Word — the Word, that is His ‘on purpose’ to me… From creating all this marvel of a world, to dwelling among us and stretching wide His arms on a cross, to the written Word to impart life and truth and peace…

Release us Lord to Your purpose… “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2Corinthians 5:5 NIV italics mine)

If you stopped by because you read my devotion today over at Encouragement Cafe, WELCOME!   So glad you are here!​​

 

 

Future Tense…

     Remember grammar in grade school? You had to learn tenses of verbs – present, past… future?

Most of us live in present or past – what if we live in future tense…

A much loved verse: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” (Jerimiah 29:11 NIV italics mine) When someone has plans they are not for yesterday or this moment, they are for the future. And, oh the awesome plans our Father has for us…

Trials are no surprise to God, though they catch us off guard, He is always there knowing what we need to weather through – our part…trust…

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off. (Proverbs 23:18 NIV italics mine) Hope – for the future – what, or better Who, is it based on?

Our Savior Jesus Christ – a solid foundation of hope that never disappoints…

Instead of living in the yesterdays of my regrets, in the turmoils of today, I want to be living in the future – but how? Though it sounds contrary the future is here, now, and it is still to come – Jesus has died (past tense) that I can have His Holy Spirit in me now (present tense) and I already have the guarantee of eternity (future tense).

What would our living be like if we lived in the future now – there would be no need to fret, worry, doubt… My last breath here is followed by my first breath in eternity – just like that, no gaps, no questioning at some pearly gate. May I live each breath now that others can see the Hope and I can rest knowing the future hope is mine already…

“Whatever is not eternal is eternally out of date.” C.S. Lewis