a day to fill the cracks

I have been needing a day off. A day to fill up the cracks in my faith.
Off from work, from family stress, from financial pressure, from life in general.
Sometimes I get too entrenched in it all.

So today is that day. Actually, a combo of yesterday morning and today that I have managed to eek out. A day just to soak and read the Word and pray and worship and let the Holy Spirit heal my soul and minister to my spirit.

Chris Sligh on Pandoa provides the backdrop.
My old Living Bible as the Meat.
My laptop as an apply conduit of God's Grace.

I'm reading 1 Thessalonians and more.
Verses that speak to this weary heart...

1:5  "For when we brought you the Good News, it was not just meaningless chatter to you; no, you listened with great interest. What we told you produced a POWERFUL EFFECT upon you, for the Holy Spirit gave you great and full assurance that what we said was true. And you know that our very lives were further proof to you of the truth of our message."

1:10  "And they speak of how you are looking forward to the return of God's Son from heaven-Jesus, whom God brought back to life- and He is our only Savior from God's terrible anger against sin."

2:4  "For we speak as messengers from God, trusted by Him to tell the truth; we change His message not one bit to suit the taste of those who hear it; for we serve God alone, who examines our hearts' deepest thoughts."

2:7-8  "But we were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own dear children. We loved you dearly- so dearly that we gave you not only God's message, but our own lives too."

2:11-12  "We talked to you as a father to his own children...pleading with you, encouraging you and even demanding that your daily lives should not embarrass God, but bring joy to Him who invited you into His Kingdom to share His glory. And we will never stop thanking God for this: that when we preached to you, you didn't think of the words that we spoke as being just our own, but you accepted what we said as the very Word of God- which, of course, it was- and it changed your lives when you believed it."

2:18  "...but Satan stopped us."

2:19-20  "For what is it we live for, that gives us hope and joy and is our proud reward and crown? It is you! Yes, you will bring us much joy as we stand together before our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back again. For you are our trophy and joy."

3:2-3  "I decided...to send Timothy...to visit you to strengthen your faith  and encourage you, and to keep you from becoming fainthearted in all the troubles you were going through. (But of course you know that such troubles are a part of God's plan for us Christians..)."

3: 10  "For night and day we pray on and on for you, asking God to let us see you again, to fill up any little cracks there may yet be in your faith."

3:12  "And may the Lord make your love to grow and overflow to each other and to everyone else, just as our love does toward you. This will result in your hearts being made strong, sinless, and holy by God our Father, so that you may stand before Him guiltless on that day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns with all those who belong to Him."

God heals and speaks through His Word!

prayers for those suffering

Heavenly Father, for those I know who are suffering in mind, body, and spirit, 

or those whose children are suffering...

please strengthen them with your presence and the healing comfort of your Holy Spirit. 

May Your still, small voice bolster them in their fiery trial. 

As they lean on You when they reach the end of themselves, 

help those of us who are able and willing to lift them up
and support them in prayer and practicality, 

as Aaron and Hur did Abraham as he became weary during the battle. 

And as we ask why, help us to remember that Your ways and thoughts are above ours, 

but also that they cannot be recounted because they are innumerable. 

I make intercession, Risen Savior, for our dear ones, 

even as You do while sitting at the right hand of our Father.

Merciful God, You who know our limitations, may we know You in a deeper way.

Sustain us, that we may rejoice to partake of Christ's sufferings, 

"that when His glory is revealed, (we) may also be glad with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:13).

Right now, I know several sets of parents who are walking through a "dark night of the soul," the deep suffering of losing their young children into eternity by illness and birth defect. Several others who have already lost their grown children to the world and the devil. My heart hurts for the ones I know.

Eternity is made dearer by the suffering we experience here on Earth, even though sometimes it seems too much to bear. He is our great Shepherd.

Lord, Make Me...

One of my favorite prayers/songs speaks to me today:    

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon:

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

~St. Francis of Assisi