Here

 

Here is where I breathe You deep inside my heart,

Here is where You make me strong and make me more like You.

Here is where You pour Your love like a river over me,

Here is where my heart finds more of You.

 

Here is where I come to You, Lord,

With all that I am,

You come to me

With all You made me to be.

 

Where is Here?

The place…

The time…

Any place, any time of the day that I draw aside and spend time alone with the Lord, purposing to draw near to Him in close and intimate communion.

 

Here

Is where I am with Him and He is here with me. He made us for this! Let’s not miss out on the richness of drawing close to Him.

Oh, Father, I am glad I don’t have to look far or seek long to find You. I can look into a great big sky and always find You near. I can look into my heart and always know You’re here.

Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

 

Excerpt from Words to Refresh. Click title to go to Refresh's Amazon page.

Forever and Always

Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

Jeremiah 31:3

When my husband and I gathered with his family to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of an aunt and uncle that are dear to our hearts, a stone trivet was given to the attendees to commemorate this special anniversary.  They were inscribed with the words Forever and Always. When I held the inscribed stone trivet in my hand and read those words I immediately thought of the way God loves us.  

But sometimes, we find ourselves doubting God’s love. Sometimes we call out to Him, “Lord, are You still here? Do You really love me?” Do you ever have those days when you can’t seem to feel anything at all or maybe you would even describe feelings of unworthiness when it comes to God’s love for you?   

I think we all have days like that and we must remind ourselves these thoughts are not based on God’s truth. These are the kind of days when we find ourselves needing reassurance that He is here for us, still loving us, and we find ourselves asking Him…

Lord, please…

Wrap me tighter in Your love,

Stop the world from pressing in-

Stop the world from dimming my eyes

To see Your truth.

Let my eyes see only You,

Then my heart will always know-

There is a love that holds me

In Your loving, warm embrace.

The truth that I acknowledge in my own heart is this. I am loved with an everlasting love. I am loved with the greatest love there is in this whole world. The Bible tells me so. 

How grateful I am that on those days when I have doubts - I can still know I am worthy, and I am loved by a steadfast immeasurable everlasting love. He is still here. Loving me. Forever and always.

 

Excerpt from The Hope Collection: Portraying the Hope We Have in God

A fresh dose of encouragement for whatever you are facing today.

Available in paperback on Amazon for only $6.99 HERE.

Prayer in the Earthly Realm

I have been thinking about the importance of prayer and asking myself for the millionth time...how does prayer work??

I know most of the mysterious answer lies in the heavenly realm, the divine and supernatural that we will never understand. Except for those rare glimpses God chooses to give us. And He does.

But I also thought about the earthly realm. Also mysterious.

The earthly realm goes beyond my own prayers but includes asking others to join me and pray on my behalf when I have a great need. There is a rich value in being able to do this.

Knowing others are praying is a strong encouragement when we are struggling. Just being able to ask others is admitting we need their help, we can’t do this alone. When we ask others to pray we are pleading with them to have our back.

Yes, prayer is between God and me. But it is also between myself and those I ask to please intercede in prayer with me. We usually choose praying people to ask to pray. They are the people that will say, “Yes, I will pray, I’ve got your back!”

There is power in prayer in the heavenly realm which mostly remains a mystery to us. And there is also power in prayer in the earthly realm in the willingness and desire of others to pray for us when we ask.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

From Clay: Reflections on the Life God Is Shaping in Us 

To visit Clay's Amazon page, click HERE.