AUGUST 22, 2017

“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.” 
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

PSALM 119:49-104

89Your word, Lord, is eternal;

it stands firm in the heavens.

90Your faithfulness continues through all generations;

you established the earth, and it endures.

91Your laws endure to this day,

for all things serve you.

92If your law had not been my delight,

I would have perished in my affliction.

1 CORINTHIANS 4

 11To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

JOURNAL 

There are these certain moments when I feel God's presence so strong. As I think back it so often is in times when I need something extra...these last few weeks things have begun to mount in a way that have threatened to sour my heart and soul. I sit here with out definite answers to problems that seem daunting and yet on the way in to work I feel God speak to me through a song on the radio. The message is clear. "Don't fear, don't shrink back...I love you more than you can ever imagine. I am the God of the Universe and nothing escapes me. I have a plan for you and it is full of joy and triumph."

I don't know the details and when I look at the days before me it seems illogical yet something is alive within me that defies the odds. His presence is strong and it bolsters me to have courage and hope and faith.

When I look at the stories in the Bible I see the same thing...God showing up and defying the odds. I don't know the rest of my story or how today will work out, yet I know that I have a God that is not determined by the world's circumstances. Therefore I take hope and courage and believe that whatever comes he will give me the strength to conquer.

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^k neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

ROMANS 8:37-39