Take heart, waiting one...

Refreshment for the Weary Heart

Streams in the Desert - from May 27th

"Bring them hither to me." Matthew 14:18

Are you encompassed with needs at this very moment, and almost overwhelmed with difficulties, trials, and emergencies? These are all divinely provided vessels for the Holy Spirit to fill, and if you but rightly understood their meaning, they would become opportunities for receiving new blessings and deliverances which you can get in no other way.

Bring these vessels to God. Hold them steadily before Him in faith and prayer. Keep still, and stop your own restless working until He begins to work. Do nothing that He does not Himself command you to do. Give Him a chance to work, and He will surely do so; and the very trials that threatened to overcome you with discouragement and disaster, will become God's opportunity for the revelation of His grace and glory in your life, as you have never known Him before. "Bring them (all needs) to me."

"My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

What a source - "God!" What a supply - "His riches in glory!" What a channel - "Christ Jesus!" It is your sweet privilege to place all your need over against His riches, and lose sight of the former in the presence of the latter. His exhaustless treasury is thrown open to you, in all the love of His heart; go and draw upon it, in the artless simplicity of faith...

Nothing Pleases Him Like Praise!

Streams in the Desert - from May 26th

"Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it." Numbers 21:17

This was a strange song and a strange well. They had been traveling over the desert's barren sands, no water was in sight and they were famishing with thirst. Then God spake to Moses and said: "Gather the people together, and I will give them water," and this is how it came.

They gathered in circles on the sands. They took their staves and dug deep down into the burning earth and as they dug, they sang, "Spring up, O well, sing ye unto it," and lo, there came a gurgling sound, a rush of water and a flowing stream which filled the well and ran along the ground.

When they dug this well in the desert, they touched the stream that was running beneath, and reached the flowing tides that had long been out of sight.

How beautiful the picture given, telling us of the river of blessing that flows all through our lives, and we have only to reach by faith and praise to find our wants supplied in the most barren desert.

How did they reach the waters of this well? It was by praise. They sang upon the sand their song of faith, while with their staff of promise they dug the well.

Our praise will still open fountains in the desert, when murmuring will only bring us judgment, and even prayer may fail to reach the fountains of blessing.

There is nothing that pleases the Lord so much as praise. There is no test of faith so true as the grace of thanksgiving. Are you praising God enough? Are you thanking Him for your actual blessings that are more than can be numbered, and are you daring to praise Him even for those trials which are but blessings in disguise? Have you learned to praise Him in advance for the things that have not yet come?

The One Where I Met Colleen!

Colleen and I have gotten to know each other over the last 2 years through our blogs, (check hers out athttp://becomingchao.blogspot.com/ ) email. and FB, but today we finally got to meet in person! She is a kindred spirit whose story of singleness and marriage came at a time I so needed hope that incredible marriages can & do happen in the 30's. She's someone I felt immediate rapport with and was (and is) a safe place for my most honest thoughts and questions.

So, today it finally worked out for us to spend the day together! I've been as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve all week! It was like a spiritual spa day, as Colleen so perfectly put it. Overwhelmingly encouraging and just what I hoped it would be (and how often can you say that about much anticipated life moments??). I tried to keep my expectations low, because sometimes people really are very different in person than they come across through email. But Colleen and Eddie? They're the real deal - no pretense - & even more endearing in person!

Walking into the Chao home feels like getting the biggest and best bear hug. The brunch table was so classy & beautifully set. All the little details showed the thoughtful care of gracious hosts. I enjoyed the conversation so much it took me over 2 hours to finish my cup of coffee (very un-Jen like. I typically down my coffee in less than 10 minutes!). It's encouraging to meet people who are so spiritually authentic, easy to talk to, personable and hilarious. And their sweet little boy, Jeremy, completely melted my heart with his shy smiles and big brown eyes.

Something that really struck me was how incredibly affirming Colleen & Eddie are to each other - just naturally seeking ways to verbally bless each other and praise each other's strengths. Both of them are also gifted at encouraging others and seeking to draw attention to the strengths of others in conversation. It just really impressed me & set the tone for their home - you can't walk out of that house and not feel overwhelmingly uplifted!! Someone saw me afterwards and noted that I was "still glowing." Words of encouragement and heartfelt conversation does that for me!

Thanking the Lord for an incredible day of fellowship with this sweet family and some of their friends and family. What a gift to know people like this!

Far More Abundantly

http://kindredgrace.com/

far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think

by Elisabeth Allen on May 16, 2013

A woman stands praying and weeping in the presence of God.

Her name is Hannah. She has a husband, but no children.
Her husband’sother wife has children and mocks
Hannah for her childlessness, for her
barrenness. And Hannah, overwhelmed by longing for
her own child andgrief over her empty womb, seeks
 the presence of God.

She bargains and begs for her own child:

“O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your

maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant,

but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the

Lord all the days of his life …”  (1 Samuel 1:11 NASB)

And God says, “Yes.”

I’m amazed and awed by God’s generosity to Hannah.

God gave Hannah her own child. His name was Samuel. Hannah, as
she had promised, gave him to God.
And then God gave her another three boys and two girls.
Hannah asked for one baby. God could have answered her prayer
and given her what she asked for: one baby (like Sarah and Elisabeth).

God gave Hannah six babies.

And I’m reminded, whenever I read this story of her prayer and
His generosity, that her God is my God. He’s Mary’s God. And
Paul’s God. And it was Paul who wrote,

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond

all that we ask or think, according to the power that works

within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in

Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.  

(Ephesians 3:20-21 NASB)

I learn two things from these verses:

1. My God is able. He is able to give a biological child to a barren
woman like Hannah. He is able to part the Red Sea, to
make a shepherd boy a king, to raise His own Son to life. He is able
to give me the desires of my heart.

2. What my God does is not all about me and the desires of my 
heart. Paul wants the glory to go to God. Not just the glory in his
generation or my generation or even the generation of my hopefully–
someday–grandchildren, but all generations.

The story of Hannah reminds me (again and again) that I can seek
the presence of God with the desires of my heart and every fear and
pain of my current singleness and subsequent childlessness.

I can pray.

God will answer. (He promises.)

And I (really, really, really) want to say that He’ll give me what I
ask for and more. That, however, isn’t the truth. The truth is that He
might not give me what I ask for — He might not give me the desires
of my heart.

And so I don’t hope in what I ask Him for and I don’t hope in
my prayers.

I hope in God.

And I read Lamentations 3:21-24 (NASB):

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

His love, His compassion, His faithfulness are enduring and 
eternal and therefore I have hope.

I don’t know what you’re praying for, or if God will give you
what you’re asking for — if He’ll give you the desires of your heart.
I do know that He wants you to seek the presence of God when you’re
overwhelmed by longing and grief.

I know that He wants you to hope in Him.

And I know that, somehow, He will answer.

Because that’s Who He is and what He does.  He does  
far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.